This is My Country

When you hear the word Nigeria, what comes to mind?

Corruption? Chaos? Crime?
Maybe. But allow me to invite you beyond the headlines and into the heartbeat of a nation that bleeds colour, resilience, rhythm, and a thousand stories aching to be told.

Because this, this is my country.

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Nigeria: The Spirit That Never Breaks

Nigeria is not just a place; it is a people.
We are over 200 million strong, bound together by history, hope, and hustle.
We speak in hundreds of languages, yet somehow, in markets, weddings, and street corners, we understand each other through laughter, eye contact, and the dance of our hands.

From the hustling heartbeat of Lagos, to the quiet strength of the northern dunes, to the warm hospitality of the east, and the rich stories hidden in the soil of the southwest, Nigeria is not a line on a map. She is a living soul.

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🎭 Our Culture: A Tapestry Woven in Fire and Gold

Come closer. Listen to the talking drums. Smell the jollof rice from a neighbour’s pot. Watch as two strangers argue about football like brothers. Here, every festival is a riot of fabric, flavour, and faith.

We wear our roots on our sleeves,aso-oke, gele, ankara, Isi-agu, babban riga, each with a story, a heritage, a name.

Our weddings are operas. Our funerals are poetry. Our naming ceremonies, a spiritual dance between heaven and earth.

We celebrate not just to mark moments, but to survive them.

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🌾 Our Beauty: Rich in Soil, Richer in Soul

Nigeria is richly blessed. We have oil in the Delta, cocoa in the West, groundnuts in the North, coal in the East. But our real wealth? Our people.

We are the ones who fall seven times and rise eight.

Mothers who carry burdens on their heads and joy on their backs. Fathers who work multiple jobs to keep one dream alive. Children who laugh even when there’s no lunch. Graduates who become fashion designers, bakers, digital marketers, not because they were trained to, but because we never give up.

This spirit, this strength, cannot be colonised, stolen, or erased.

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💚 Why I Love Nigeria

Because nowhere else on earth do you find this kind of paradox, beauty in brokenness, humour in hardship, praise in pain.

We make jokes about our leaders, even as we pray for them. We dance in traffic. We sing in the rain. We hope, even when all odds are against us.

And we rise.

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Nigeria is not perfect. But she is mine.
And like a mother with stretch marks and scars, I love her deeply, not because she’s flawless, but because she birthed me.

So next time you hear the word Nigeria…
I hope you hear the music, not just the noise.
I hope you see the light, not just the shadow.

This is my country. This is my Nigeria.
A land of dreams, defiance, and destiny.

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I would like to invite @etoro @kwinberry, and @miariam to join this contest.