This might come off as a cliche but factually speaking, Nigerians are not good people. The level of dishonesty and trickery on average Nigerian is alarming. Everyone is always looking for a way to rip the other person off or cheat the next person. Just bear in mind whenever you want to purchase an item that the seller might try to cheat you. They claim to be smart while the one they cheat is the dummy but such behaviour is far from being smart or wise, what they are exhibiting is just lies and dishonesty.
This level of dishonesty is the major reason why it will be very difficult for online trade or payment before delivery style of e-commerce to succeed and scale in Nigeria because we do not trust each other. I am scared to part with my money with a random online vendor hoping that he or she will not block me or stop picking up my calls immediately I make the payment while expecting my delivery; the semi-honest ones will deliver to you but will deliver a totally different thing from what you bargained for.
I defied my instincts and took the risk of making a payment for a product I found on Instagram to an online vendor, since last weekend when I made the payment till now the lady has not been picking up my calls and it is always like this with me whenever I engage in online transactions. So many folks have terrible experiences with online vendors, especially with the ones that insist on payment before delivery or the ones that place emphasis on “no refund after payment”.
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Due to the high level of dishonesty in Nigerian society, the news of someone returning some bunch of money mistakenly sent into his account or a bunch of money he finds will always make headline news because an average Nigerian will never return the money he or she found, they will rather claim that it is God’s blessings and keep it instead of returning it to the original owner.
I recently got retained as a counsel by a Chinese expatriate and he has been complaining bitterly about how every Nigerian he has met are always trying to cheat him or rip him off, even those he wants to do business with will rather try to cheat him or extort him of some money than to wait for the business to come to fruition. To them he is just a dummy “Chinko” and they are smarter than him. He told me how tired he is of engaging Nigerians and can’t wait to leave the country. This is always the impression foreigners who visit Nigeria for business or vacation always have about Nigerians and unfortunately, they are not far from the truth.
Sometimes we complain about how terrible the politicians, the police officers and the civil servants are but we tend to forget that those folks all come from and are nurtured by the Nigerian society; “na we we”. The corrupt politician is a reflection of an average Nigerian, the power-drunk police officer is a reflection of an average Nigerian, and the nonchalant civil servant is a reflection of an average Nigerian.
We really need to have a change of attitude; we need to start preaching honesty and integrity as core societal values before we can move forward, we can all say enough of the lies and cheating.
You are nothing but a complete fool to write such a blistering review of your OWN country for EVERYONE in the world to see. Do you know how many people are in this country? Have you met all 200 people? What an idiot, does this not apply to you? The typical Nigerian, always pointing fingers to others for the bad reputation
Unfortunately, the truth hurts sometimes.
Thank you for HONEST opinion. I read that Nigerians tend not to speak ill of themselves as they believe they are ethical nation and its all western media trying to paint this “bad” picture of Nigeria