BLAME IT ON US
By Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@yahoo.com,
Dear Nigerians:
This is a serious and painful matter to discuss here. It seems that many of us living in Diaspora are giving false impressions to folks back home that America is really the proverbial land flowing with milk and honey and that we live on streets paved with slabs of diamond and flanked by rivers of gold. And the Almighty Dollar grows on trees behind our houses. Then, we let in-laws and greedy relatives sow seeds of discord in our nuclear families and separate husbands and wives.
The impressions we give of our wealth are totally false and so endemic that our folks believe them and are apt to stop fending for themselves and depend entirely upon us for every silly want. This is wrong. Everyone in Nigeria wants to come here and “pack the wealth” home only to be disappointed and go into lives of crime. There are many of us, including this emailer, who are struggling to make ends meet. Yet, folks back home keep demanding from us and we keep rushing to Western Union to wire money that is at best wasted on things our people do not need to impress people they don’t like and who don’t like them.
Life is easier in Nigerian, and there is more money and greater opportunities for those who believe and are fearless. Folks back home should be helping us to resettle rather than pretend to be wretched and underprivileged. Don’t you work so hard to pay bills and save extra to send home? Aren’t we pitiful bleeding hearts?
I am 100% in favor of helping relatives who fall on hard times, but we should do this with wisdom and prudence. We are already spending over $20 billion per year on our folks back home. It appears that the more we send the less our folks are appreciative and the more they demand. How many of us live in mansions in Atlanta? How many of us men can afford to fly to Cancun or London with our spouses to buy a bottle of soda for ourselves or a scarf for our wives? How many do fly to Disney World five times a year to sit in the sun? Yet folks back home do this on daily basis and laugh at us as silly rich fools who do not know what to do with so much wealth, but I know how hard many of us work. Allowing these folks to exploit us is erroneous and wide of the mark. Aren’t we pitiful bleeding hearts?
Call me a scrooge if you like, but we must protect our families from being vandalized by greedy extraneous others who would prefer to destroy our homes in order to extract a penny to seeing sons and daughters live peaceful lives. I know dozens of us who have sent thousands of dollars home to relatives to purchase land and build us homes. What happened? You know the answer if you’ve been fleeced or you should’ve heard. This is my strong opinion. And yours?
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