I am an optimist and I have an unwavering belief that Nigerians will one day be acknowledged as one of the best people - friendly, resilient and hardworking, achievers and above these, people with integrity. The latter will eventually happen when we have good governance.
This weekend, Nigerians can stand up with pride. The Nigeria's football team, Golden Eaglets, won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile; A Nigerian, Wellington Jighere won the English language World Scrabble competition defeating an Englishman 4 - 0 in the final in Australia. This competition was in English language! What uplifting news.
A Nigerian Student solved a 30-year old Mathematical Puzzle in Japan in 2015. Ufot Ekong, a Tokyo-based Nigerian student, achieved a great feat recently by not only breaking a 50-year-old record in Tokai University, Japan. He indeed solved a mathematical puzzle which had remained unsolved for 30 years. What’s more, he accomplished the last feat just in his first semester in the university.
Ekong, who studied at Tokai University in Tokyo, achieved a first class degree in electrical engineering and scored the best marks at the university since 1965, breaking a whopping 50-year jinx. The feat was deemed little surprise, as he was only in his first semester in the university when he solved a 30-year-old mathematics equation. He is also known to have designed a car. And has two patents for the design of electronic cars. Ekong is not only an engineering genius, he is also a polyglot as he speaks English, French, Japanese and Yoruba, and even won a Japanese language award for foreigners. He is a Nigerian.
One of the best Neurosurgeons in America, Dr Nelson Bola Oyesiku, graduated from the University of Ibadan. The list of Nigerian achievers is endless. The Nigerian spirit cannot be repressed and in the not too distant future, the name Nigeria or Nigerians will be associated with excellence and everything that is good. I am Nigerian and proud of this.