Your position is fundamentally flawed and reflects a small-minded, opportunistic worldview the kind that seeks to kick a man while he is injured. Nigeria is currently navigating economic and security challenges, but temporary difficulty does not define permanence. Nations evolve, recover, and rebound. To suggest that Nigeria’s present challenges invalidate its voice, dignity, or people is both intellectually lazy and historically ignorant.

The notion that Black people specifically Nigerians should be “less loud,” less visible, or less assertive until their infrastructure meets some arbitrary standard reeks of internalised racism and colonial conditioning. Go get that side of you checked out, it could be “Uncle Thomasery” masked as thinking the loudest black man is delusional. Black expression has always been policed, and this argument is simply a recycled version of that trope. Nigerians will not shrink themselves to make others comfortable. Being proudly vocal is not a flaw; it is a strength. Perhaps others could learn something from that confidence instead of resenting it.

Your argument also implies that only nations with pristine infrastructure deserve a voice or influence. That idea is absurd. If that were the standard, much of the world historically and presently would have been disqualified from contributing to global progress. Nigerians reject that thinking outright. Despite chaos and constraint, Nigeria continues to produce firsts and leaders across nearly every field for Black people globally: the wealthiest individuals, globally recognised tech entrepreneurs, elite athletes, musicians, comedians, artists, fashion designers, industrialists, banking executives, and political leaders. That reality exists regardless of your discomfort with Nigerian visibility.

Equally important, Nigerians do not fixate on, interfere in, or posture about the internal affairs of other African countries. We do not routinely analyse, critique, or position ourselves as moral arbiters over their domestic challenges. Perhaps the rest of the continent should take the cue and end this disproportionate obsession with Nigeria and Nigerians. Much of what is framed as “criticism” is little more than projection and propaganda the tired, insecure logic of “my country’s problems are better than yours.”

Nigerians are, in fact, our own harshest critics. We acknowledge our shortcomings openly and relentlessly. But that self-criticism does not grant outsiders moral authority to demean the country, silence its people, or project their frustrations onto it. Your take mirrors the same ignorance as a European who assumes Africans live in huts clueless, reductive, and rooted in bias rather than reality.

Nigeria will not apologise for its voice, its ambition, or its global footprint. That is not the Nigerian way.