NIGERIANS ARE POOR AND UNEDUCATED: A STEREOTYPICAL

VIEW
Nigeria has the most misunderstood people in Africa, both by other
Africans and the rest of the world. There are many stereotypes said about
Nigerians from fraudsters to having the highest illiteracy rates in Africa. The
stereotype that Nigerians are very poor and uneducated is an assumed statement
made to image the nation as helpless and in need of charity. I disprove this
oversimplified image of Nigeria as a nation with the following points.
First, Nigeria has some of the richest people in the world. Although it is
widely believed that Nigerians are impoverished and substandard in living, we
currently have enough well living people who have occupations and earn a living.
Nigeria is often most people’s default impression of human sorrow, starving
children, war-torn areas everywhere and other scenes of deprivation and scarcity
are conflated with the nation. Rather, the richest man in Africa; Aliko Dangote, is
from Nigeria and earns a net worth of $10.3 billion. Other Nigerians who are also
successful include Folorunsho Alakija, Abdul Ramad Rabiu, Femi Otedula, Tony
Elumelu, Jim Ovia and Mike Adenuga.
Furthermore, Nigeria is a nation with some of the smartest people in the
world. Nigerians are included amongst the most intelligent in the world, contrary
to the misconception that all Nigerians are criminals and indulge in advanced fee
fraud. A good percentage of Nigerians attend educational institutions and receive
a sound education as well as studying facilities and academic materials. One of
the smartest people in the world, Philip Emeagwali alleged with an IQ of 190 is a
Nigerian. He was also was one of two winners of the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize and
designed the world’s high-performance computing application in an oil reservoir
modelling calculation using a novel mathematical formulation and
implementation. Nigeria also has numerous amount of entrepreneurs who have
succeeded in making their various business due to their standard Nigerian
education.

Nigerians almost have as much smart people as uneducated people. A

recent report investigated the major movement of scientific research from six
chosen African countries showed that there has been a major increase in scientific
publications in Nigeria. For example, there was an increase in publications, from
2500 articles in 2008 to over 4000 in 2019, comprising more than half the total
volume of publications from West Africa. There were more publications from
Nigeria than any other West African country. This increase proved that Nigeria
has the highest number of higher education institutions such as universities,
polytechnics, monotechnics and research institutes in West Africa.

In conclusion, it is seen that Nigeria is a country with wide public misconception.

It is commonly shown if you do diligent research, you will 1arn that Nigeria is no
different from most other countries in the world. There are both good and bad
people in every country, race, and religion. It is important to know that
stereotypes are only from one assumption or story rather than the full picture.