Chimamanda Adichie warned us: when we hear only ONE story about a person or a place, we misunderstand them completely.
And Nigeria, we are living that danger right now.
If the only story you hear about the North is “Boko Haram,” you’ll never see the tech boys in Kaduna or the farmers in Kebbi feeding this country.
If the only story you hear about Nigerian youths is “yahoo yahoo,” you’ll miss the doctors, coders, and teachers grinding daily with no support.
If the only story you hear about “repentant terrorists” is “they deserve a second chance,” you’ll forget the widows and orphans in IDP camps who haven’t gotten their first chance at justice.
A single story is not always a lie. Sometimes it’s a fact. But one fact is NOT the whole truth.
And whoever controls the story, controls what we believe. Once they label a whole tribe “bandits,” or a whole region “backward,” or a whole generation “lazy” policies follow. Hate follows. Bad decisions follow.
“Public school students can’t compete.”
“Girls from that area don’t go far.”
Then our own children start to believe it. They stop raising their hands.
Don’t stop at the headline. Ask, “What else is true here?”
You’re not just your failure or your tribe or your IDP camp. You’re also your talent, your humor, your hustle. Own it all.
you’re helping write a single story that might destroy someone.
Nigeria is 220 million stories in one country. The day we reduce ourselves to one story is the day we start to fail.
Government, media, you and me ,we owe ourselves more than one story. Because the truth? The truth is always plural.
And Nigeria, we are living that danger right now.
If the only story you hear about the North is “Boko Haram,” you’ll never see the tech boys in Kaduna or the farmers in Kebbi feeding this country.
If the only story you hear about Nigerian youths is “yahoo yahoo,” you’ll miss the doctors, coders, and teachers grinding daily with no support.
If the only story you hear about “repentant terrorists” is “they deserve a second chance,” you’ll forget the widows and orphans in IDP camps who haven’t gotten their first chance at justice.
A single story is not always a lie. Sometimes it’s a fact. But one fact is NOT the whole truth.
And whoever controls the story, controls what we believe. Once they label a whole tribe “bandits,” or a whole region “backward,” or a whole generation “lazy” policies follow. Hate follows. Bad decisions follow.
“Public school students can’t compete.”
“Girls from that area don’t go far.”
Then our own children start to believe it. They stop raising their hands.
Don’t stop at the headline. Ask, “What else is true here?”
You’re not just your failure or your tribe or your IDP camp. You’re also your talent, your humor, your hustle. Own it all.
you’re helping write a single story that might destroy someone.
Nigeria is 220 million stories in one country. The day we reduce ourselves to one story is the day we start to fail.
Government, media, you and me ,we owe ourselves more than one story. Because the truth? The truth is always plural.