419 Reasons to Like Nigeria - Get Involved!

Regaining our Nigerian Pride

Imagine the many times that our Nigerian pride has been punctured with having to defend ourselves against the stereotype of being known for email scams and related crimes that lead to the promulgation of the Article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code.

The fight back has begun; we as a people and individuals know why we are proud to be Nigerians or to be associated with Nigeria through all sorts of relationships and interaction. Here is the background to this initiative.

419 Reasons to Like Nigeria

For Independence Day 2011, the 1^st of October 2011 which is the 51^st anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland we are going to town with 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians.

We are already halfway there with contributions from interested bloggers and social media users but there is much more to be done and hence this appeal for submissions.

The 419 Reasons To Like Nigeria initiative is being run in partnership with the 419 Positive Project which provides a multimedia portal for your views and opinions, however, this is what we want done.

Please do

• Send an email with your reasons, we usually require 5 but you can write as many as you want, to 419reasonsnigeria@gmail.com and remember to CC: volunteer@419positive.org
• Keep your reasons short, simple and “punchy.” [Forgive my lapse into clichés.]
• With your submission, if you have a blog or a Facebook page, please also include that detail.

Unusual and interesting reasons

Nigerians are known for their confidence, doggedness, resourcefulness, ability, optimism, adventurousness, culture, clout and much more – try for unusual and interesting reasons, think of selling the best of Nigeria and Nigerians to the world and in the process let us convert the negative connotations of the 419 stereotype to a positive of Nigeria’s decision to be the incubator and mover for lasting change amongst ourselves and to the world at large.

There is no time to waste in putting forth your reasons, they need to be collated and processed for publication well before the 1^st of October – we only have maybe 8 days at most.

Circulate this to as many as you can get to read and respond – in the worst case scenario, post your reasons as comments to this blog and they will be forwarded with full acknowledgement – this means you should provide a name as part of the text of your comment.

There are surely more than 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians.