The search for the word 'Nigeria' jumped to about 146% (according to Google Trends) and all over Nigeria, international observers were collating their own data about Nigeria's elections.
Nigeria is often treated as something of a criminal nation among Europeans, and one can half-understand why. Last year, I interviewed a British woman for an MBA event, she had a funny (to me, that is) story to tell.
I had asked all the regular questions ('what distinguishes your institution from the hordes at this symposium?' 'Are there special privileges for foreign students?'), and I had found her singularly delightful to talk to, so when I was done I, in a spirit of camaraderie, enquired: 'so how has your stay in Nigeria been so far?'
She had hesitated at first, before whispering cautiously, 'is this off the record?'
I promised that it wouldn't go into the article I was writing at the time, at least not with her name in it, and this assurance eased her up.
She told me Nigeria was a horrible place - 'they took the light at my hotel!' - and that after she arrived the airport, her bag (with her laptop and mobile phone) was stolen within the hour. She blamed this on poverty and on Nigeria's incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan.
'It's a really sad place to live,' she had said. 'I just feel the president is so complacent and that the corruption here is really unprecedented, you know? I'm not sure this country can sustain itself for much longer. I've seen systems like this before. They never hold up for long.'
I had listened quite coolly to her answer, but inwardly I was regretting asking at all. I had expected a blanket answer ('my stay in Nigeria was fine, Justin!'), but confronted by this woman's 'brutal honesty,' I wasn't sure if it was patriotism or just irritation, but I was seething inwardly.
The thing is, she is not the only foreigner who has held that view of Nigeria. It will be recalled that Uncle Sam himself, the United States of America, 'prophesied' a few years ago that 2015 will be the year Nigeria would split up.
As Nigeria's elections swung into orbit, the Doomsday prophesies began to escalate, with the Boko Haram situation published, republished and re-titled with maniacal relish. The terrorism in the North-east, coupled with Nigeria's very ethnic and religious nepotism was the perfect recipe for teeth-jarring disaster in the Western cookbook.
Yesterday, CBN published a story titled 'Nigeria: Muslim Candidate Beats Christian President in Elections; Now What?'
The deluge from Nigerians was almost instantaneous. The above headline, while decidedly accurate, is one of the ways the international community has been priming the pump in Nigeria.
One of the most popular headlines during Nigeria's election was from BBC (or CNN; I forget): 'Violence Mars Nigeria's Election.'
In a country with a history of election violence, one might argue that this year's was relatively peaceful but for the Westerners reporting, nothing would have given them more satisfaction than a breakout of violence in epic proportions as predicted. In this wise, we can proudly say, the world has been immensely disappointed.
A foreign reporter, Bram Vermeulen, took to Twitter post-election and tweeted: 'Here is a confession: I was one of those journalists predicting chaos after these elections. I was wrong." The Nigerians who saw that tweet practically gave him a hug and thanked him for his 'honesty' and 'open-mindedness.'
A story from Washington Post caused me to smile victoriously, and it was titled: 'Nigeria's Historic Election Just Proved The World Wrong.'
That's right. We did.
Take a deep breath for a minute and imagine an alternative universe where Nigeria's election diddevolve into chaos. Imagine the media frenzy. Imagine the titles from Al Jazeera, from the BBC, CNN, Washington Post, NYPost, Time, Forbes and every single media house on God's green earth.
Speculation often meets speculation when the international community tries to predict the direction of Nigeria's future, using our complex ethnic and religious concatenation to project violence and doom upon the polity, but the fact remains that while Nigeria is a molten mass of otherwise standalone ethnic groups, we are learning from our painful, violent history, and where possible, Nigerians would choose peace over war.
In relation to the United States, Nigeria is a young nation, and while the West might be unable to keep the condescension out of its reporting from its vantage First-world position when talking about the country and Africa in general, it is quite heart-warming to see the West eat the humble pie.
We promise, as Nigerians, to continue to disappoint the West's craving for schadenfreude.
- Written by Justin Irabor.
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