Nigeria is the ninth most populous country in the World and it has a population of over 130 million. For a country with so many citizens we have been for too long underacheivers on the World stage. The few Countries with larger populations have all excelled in some way or the other, Brazil the worlds greatest footballing nation, India has one of the largest film industries with Bollywood and Indian restaurants can be found in all the worlds major cities, Russia has the A-bomb and was one of the worlds superpowers, so what happened to the perennial underacheiver Nigeria?
Fortunately recently Nigerians have started doing us proud in all industries on Screen Chiwetel Ejiofor fast becoming a Hollywood heavyweight, other Nigerian Hollywood players are Sophie Okonedo and Caroline Chikezie. On the small screen, stateside Americans have just been treated to the talent and beauty of Nnenna Agba in America's top Model, on UK TV Phina Oruche is in the Australian Jungle in the reality TV Show "I'm a celebrity get me out of here". The clip above is from the show "Little Miss Jocelyn", a sketch show featuring Jocelyn Jee Esien - one of less than 10 black people to have their own show on mainstream TV in the UK. In fact, in Japan (yes Japan), representing Nigerians in diaspora is Bobby Ologun a Japanese TV celebrity! In music we have Lemar, Keziah Jones and Tunde Baiyewu just to mention a few. We are representing our nation positively in literature, entertainment, sports and industry, now all we need is our politicians back home to step up to the plate.
