We are indeed at a point of re-birth. Nigeria strayed for most of its past
\nyears since inception and was known for most things not too good. We had
\nvery little to be proud of and our national pledges and anthems were jokes
\nto us. Bearing a corruption brand, we were ashamed to say we were from
\nNigeria and reluctantly pulled out our green passports when we traveled.<\/p>\n
We achieved firsts in the worst scourges: world kidnapping capital, most
\ncorrupt nation, worst level of accountability, most oil-spill polluted
\nshore, 419 capital, worst governments in the world, most poor per
\npopulation, most looted nation, highest high sea piracy, most deadly
\nterror group, worst country to be born\u2026 you name it.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s in a name? Everything. The Bible says, \u201c1 A good name is more
\ndesirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
\n2 Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.\u201d
\nProverbs 22:1-2.<\/p>\n
In Islam they say, choose a name that bestows virtue, do not name your
\nchild something meaningless like Bumblebee, then your child will end up
\nso. The Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him) said, \u201cYou will
\nbe called on the Day of Resurrection by your names and the names of your
\nfathers, so have good names.\u201d (Reported by Abu Dawud)<\/p>\n
In fact, interestingly the (potential) child in Islam has fundamental
\nrights over the father, three of them are; 1. A right to a good mother,
\ni.e. a man violates his unborn child\u2019s right when he selects a worthless
\nwoman as his wife. 2. A right to a good name. And 3. A right to good
\neducation.<\/p>\n
Culturally our names all had meanings. They praised where we were coming
\nfrom, they recalled our past heroes, they characterized virtues and
\npredicted character for us. They also revered our creator. A son of a
\nKenyan man, Obama was christened, \u201cBarack,\u201d meaning blessing. It was no
\naccident he got blessed to become the president of the United States.<\/p>\n
Likewise it is by no accident that a man they chose to name \u201cGoodluck,\u201d
\nhad the luck of his master-governor being arrested and the luck of his
\nmaster-president dying, to ascend both steps to the number one position in
\nNigeria. Had he been named Clueliow, Lord knows, he may have remained the
\nlecturer at college of education and the best he would have achieved would
\nhave been completing that his suspended PhD. Well let\u2019s not deviate.<\/p>\n
It is not in our culture to adopt meaningless or perhaps even evil names.<\/p>\n
Nigeria: A Name That Promotes A Lie, A Theft Of Heritage<\/p>\n
Again, looking at the foundation of our name, the same name neighbor
\n\u201cNiger\u201d was christened but the English version; Nigeria I believe connotes
\nRiver Niger, the river that the colonialist falsely claimed to have
\ndiscovered. Hence our name continues to propagate the lie. In a past 2013
\narticle, \u201cMungo Park Did Not Discover River Niger…But Mansa Abubakari II
\nDiscovered America,\u201d I described the many other names and symbolisms we
\nattributed to river Egerew Nigerewen, or Isa Ber, or Orimili, or Kwara and
\nOya as were the many beautiful names by which we knew it. Perhaps
\npromoting this lie as our name is part of our crippling burden.<\/p>\n
Our fortune has perhaps been tied to us having a bad name and\/or\/in any
\ncase has become tied to it. Either way, at this point in our history; as
\nchange has at last come and we as a people have grown together, suffered
\ntogether and decided together to here-on-out, ensure our revolution and
\nquest for excellence is never waylaid; I believe it is time we shed our
\nperhaps bad name.<\/p>\n
Reading Buhari\u2019s opinion editorial on WashingtonPost today, it is clear
\nour President embarked on a full system overhaul. He delayed appointment
\nof Ministers to first create what a real Ministry should be, an
\nintegrity-based template, then employ true civil servants to fulfill the
\nestablished obligations due. He is decided on restarting Nigeria from the
\nscratch.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s!<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s really rebrand Nigeria. Let this change be complete. All that\u2019s left
\nthat is a drag to this country is that shameless N150 billion guzzling
\nlegislative covetous NASS sect, the 469 of them and the country\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
I suggest we all pick names\u2026perhaps we can use a hashtag,
\n#NigeriaNameChange and tweet our suggestions. The ones that are retweeted
\nmost would make the cut?<\/p>\n
Lord knows what the wicked colonialist was thinking when he chose Nigeria.
\nProbably something sinister. Probably some evil colonialists were making
\njest of us in a room, sitting on the backs of our ancestors on their fours
\n(being used as stools) and pulled out the name, \u201cNigeria\u201d from their back
\nparts. Do you trust them? I don\u2019t. So let\u2019s do away with that and usher in
\na new future on a clean slate.<\/p>\n
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; http:\/\/ENDS.ng <\/a>[Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: We are indeed at a point of re-birth. Nigeria strayed for most of its past years since inception and was known for most things not too good. We had very…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n
\ndrbrimah@ends.ng<\/a> Twitter: @EveryNigerian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"