Made in Nigeria, Rejected by Nigerians

There is something that I have noticed about my country people over the years, and it's not something quiet but very disastrous, which is an inferiority complex. We hardly talk about this, though, but it is the truth. I have seen a lot of talented people. I have seen a lot of skilled craftsmen, beautiful and sophisticated designs, creative entrepreneurs, and manufacturers of quality products in this country. Not everything that is made in this country is poor. And to be honest, some of our products stand out when compared to some foreign products.
But just because they are made in Nigeria, a lot of people automatically assume that they are inferior products.

Even before testing a product, just because it has this foreign brand written on it, a lot of people have already attached so much importance to it. Meanwhile, even a product that is made here with the best of materials and is very affordable is put aside because, in our minds, we have that mentality that excellence only comes from outside our country.
And that is exactly the mentality that has been drawing us backwards today.

As a country, it will be very difficult for us to make progress if we do not believe in our product, because if we doubt ourselves, how will others believe in us? If we neglect what we build, if we do not support our own, then I'm sorry to say, we are also contributing to what is causing the economic weakness we see today.

Of course, I am not saying all products are good. We have substandard, so do other countries. And I am not saying that we should support blindly because quality matters. Accountability also is important. So does improvement. But we don't even give our own products a chance, and that is where the problem is.

We should not put everything on the government because they can't develop everything alone. Because, left to me, development is also built by the confidence we give to each other and the one we have in ourselves. Our true idea and what we create. And the day we start praising and giving respect to our own industries just like we have been doing for foreign products. That is the same day others will start respecting us, and our level of growth will go from zero to infinity.

Thank you for reading.

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