Nigeria Quotes

“Alexa and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness. They would not understand why people like him who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for for choice and certainty.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Violence was a slippery slope, lubricated by a lot of blood, if history had any lessons to teach.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“The spring breeze felt like the warm breath of a child on Kumiko’s face. It played delicately with her hair like tiny fingers, and made the trees whisper a breathless song.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“Even adults who were stiffened by the starch of their miserable lives, for whom breaking the stony discipline of austere and judgmental intolerance was usually off the table, melted in the magical luminescence and energetic charm of the pre-pubescent Ruka.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“The optimism was like the sun after a long spell of clouds and rain, a euphoric rush which produced both envy and awe in anyone who had become jaded, resigned, who had given up on their dreams.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“Hungry stomachs growl the same tune.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“It was the fundamental bifurcation of the masses of human meat into two starkly opposite classes: the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots had barely anything. The haves had it all. The haves had everything except concern and compassion for the have-nots, who they regarded as little more than cockroaches.”
― John Rachel, Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun

“People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.”
― Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

“It is the duty of youths to war against indiscipline and corruption because they are the leaders of tomorrow.”
― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

“Do the little things. In the future when you look back, they'd have made the greatest change.”
― Nike Thaddeus

“Working together as a team helps build a cohesive organization.”
― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

“A good businessman must have nose for business the same way a journalist has nose for news. In places where people see a lot of obstacles, I see a lot of opportunities. A good businessman sees where others don’t see.”
― Orji Uzor Kalu

“It would be better not to know so many things than to know so many things that are not so.”
― Felix Okoye

“Everybody looks at oil and almost entirely forget that the percentage of jobs the oil sector creates is relatively small compared to the population; the introduction of more sophisticated exploration methods makes it even worse. Oil companies now look for smarter, leaner and cheaper operations. Where will these leave the economy? Good disposable income to the government with no real value to the people of the Niger Delta.”
― Emi Iyalla

“The Yoruba terms obinrin and okunrin do express a distinction. Reproduction is, obviously, the basis of human existence, and given its import, and the primacy of anafemale [anatomical female] body-type, it is not surprising that the Yoruba language describes the two types of anatomy. The terms okunrin and obinrin, however, merely indicate the physiological differences between the two anatomies as they have to do with procreation and intercourse. They refer, then, to the physically marked and physiologically apparent differences between the two anatomies. They do not refer to gender categories that connote social privileges and disadvantages. Also, they do not express sexual dimorphism because the distinction they indicate is specific to issues of reproduction. To appreciate this point, it would be necessary to go back to the fundamental difference between the conception of the Yoruba social world and that of Western societies.”
“… I argued that the biological determinism in much of Western thought stems from the application of biological explanations in accounting for social hierarchies. This in turn has led to the construction of the social world with biological building blocks. Thus the social and the biological are thoroughly intertwined. This worldview is manifested in male-dominant gender discourses, discourses in which female biological differences are used to explain female sociopolitical disadvantages. The conception of biology as being ‘everywhere’ makes it possible to use it as an explanation in any realm, whether it is directly implicated or not. Whether the question is why women should not vote or why they breast-feed babies, the explanation is one and the same: they are biologically predisposed.”
“The upshot of this cultural logic is that men and women are perceived as essentially different creatures. Each category is defined by its own essence. Diane Fuss describes the notion that things have a ‘true essence … as a belief in the real, the invariable and fixed properties which define the whatness of an entity.’ Consequently, whether women are in the labor room or in the boardroom, their essence is said to determine their behavior. In both arenas, then, women’s behavior is by definition different from that of men. Essentialism makes it impossible to confine biology to one realm. The social world, therefore, cannot truly be socially constructed.”
― Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyèwùmí , The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses

“None of this is to deny that the Niger Delta has made mistakes. It has, and a good number at that. But then, mistakes are made to make wiser and therefore help in better decision making.”
― Emi Iyalla

“The Niger delta as a matter of urgency needs to re-think its development strategy by developing her non-oil sectors. There is no easy way out of this, and we will all see that at the end it is the only way out.”
― Emi Iyalla

“It cannot be denied that the principal cause of this misery in Nigeria lies in the actions of the leaders themselves, who, through their corruption, have ensured that wealth remains in the hands of a small elite, while the masses wallow in abject poverty”
― Barack Okaka Obama, A Modest Proposal For Preventing The Corrupt Leaders of Nigeria From Being a Burden on Their Citizens or Country, And For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

“The root of our nation's problems lies in the worst among us holding leadership positions captive - it is like a curse. Nigerians must rise to break this cycle and unlock true prosperity. Good leadership is the ultimate solution.”
― Olawale Daniel

“You must depend on the one that gave you identity to sustain that identity, no wonder Nigeria still depends on the West to survive”
― Chidi Ejeagba

“The absence of paramount kings ruling over large areas was encapsulated by the maxim 'Igbo amaghi eze' (the Igbo knows no king). In a culture without a paramount king, admission to a title society was a status symbol and evidence of achievement. Admission was remarkably democratic. Every male adult was eligible so long as they could demonstrate high achievements in their lifetime. Such titles were rarely hereditary and there were few or no qualifications for them other than achievement or money. A man could gain a title simply by raising funds and paying for it. These titles incentivised achievement and provided upward social mobility. Hence, having an honorific title in Igboland did not necessarily make the title-holder a political ruler”
― Max Siollun, What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule

“This season is a leveler. The 'shege' is right in your breast pocket. I know families in this country (Nigeria) who have no access to justice, simply because they cannot afford the bills. This is a grim form of inequality we have not had enough conversation about. The scarcity of money is threatening both law and society. The affluent wax stronger, but the rest of us…Jack London calls The People of the Abyss.”
― Peter-Cole C. Onele

“The problem with the naira (and most African currencies) is fundamental. Our currency(ies) rests on faulty economic substructure that no amount of reactionary policy can fix. The Nigerian economy is hollow and only dogged commitment to true economic principles of value creation and local production supported by export and diversification will lead us to the pathway of economic transformation.”
― Peter-Cole C. Onele

“The rulers in Nigeria know what they want. But the masses do not know what they want. That’s why Nigeria’s problems have lingered for too long.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“From 1960, the fate of Nigeria was determined by the rulers. From 2023, it was determined by the masses.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“The rulers in Nigeria know what they want — and that’s just looting! But the masses do not know what they want. That’s why Nigeria’s problems have lingered for too long.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“Majority of Nigerian women go to church just to show off their expensive clothes, shoes and jewellery to the poorer ones. If you make uniforms mandatory for church attendance, many would stop attending church services.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“The more the proliferation of churches in Nigeria, the more complex the social, political and economic problems of the beleaguered country. Nigeria has more church denominations than all the countries of the world put together. Anyone about to open a new church has a problem – naming the church. There are VERY identical names that may tempt you to breach the laws of copyrights.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“Malaria and bad leadership have so far proven to be two ineradicable diseases that have afflicted Nigerians for too long.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu