Across foreign cities and embassy gates, a painful scene continues to repeat itself—Nigerians, once known for pride and resilience, now seen begging for food, shelter, or assistance. From the viral images of migrants sleeping outside Nigerian embassies in Sudan to scholars in Russia holding placards demanding overdue stipends, we are fast becoming a people known more for pleas than for progress. This is no longer migration; it is surrender. And when a nation exports its brightest minds only to have them queuing for survival in foreign lands, something vital has collapsed at home.
We are a people with unimaginable talent, cultural wealth, and divine potential, yet we have allowed mediocrity in leadership and passivity in citizenship to reduce us to a begging generation. Our ancestors—traders, priests, warriors—did not leave us this legacy of dependence. They built with their hands, believed with their hearts, and fought for their dignity. As Apostle Ayo Babalola once warned, “When a nation forgets the altar, her glory becomes dust.” That dust now clouds the feet of our citizens abroad, stripped of honour and self-worth.
It is not shameful to seek opportunity; but it is shameful when our national identity becomes synonymous with distress. A Yoruba proverb cautions, “he who has no home begins to romanticize the forest”. Foreign lands may offer shelter, but not roots. They may offer platforms, but not purpose. We must revive the Nigerian dream—not one dependent on embassies, but one anchored in integrity, invention, and inner strength.
The real danger is not just economic; it is psychological. The more we stretch our hands to foreign governments, the more we shrink our national confidence. American and British politicians have already whispered their frustrations, questioning why Nigerians show more faith in foreign embassies than in their own democracy. Dr. Juanita Bynum put it plainly: “You cannot walk in kingship with a beggar’s mindset.” Until we see ourselves as capable, we will never be seen as credible.
This is a call to stop waiting and start working. We must reform leadership, yes—but also our thinking. Churches must teach productivity, mosques must preach self-reliance, and schools must birth innovators, not escape artists. God does not reward a people who abandon responsibility. A generation that begs cannot bless. A nation that pleads cannot lead. We must return to the altar, the soil, and the spirit that once made us great.
Dear Nigerians at home and abroad—rise. Stop the handouts, reclaim your hands. The world is not our refuge; it is our stage. Let us stop begging and start building.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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