Delegate Wants Nigeria Renamed ‘Naijiria’
A delegate from the South-east, Prof
Chinedu Nwajiuba has made a proposal to the National Conference for the
change of the country’s name from Nigeria to ‘Naijiria’ as a means of
addressing embarrassing identity clash that often arise between the
people of Nigeria and Niger Republic.
Nwajiuba, who along with the initiator of the concept, Dr Agwu Ukiwe
Okali addressed a press conference at the venue of the National
Conference yesterday cited cases of Ghana, which was renamed from Gold
Coast, Upper Volta changing to Burkina Faso, Dahomy renamed Benin
Republic.
Nwajiuba decried the embarrassment Nigeria faces whenever its name was
associated with fraud perpetrated by Nigerien citizens abroad due to the
similarity in the two names.
He was of the opinion that since it has become difficult to make an outright change of the name it has become necessary to localise it to give it African coloration as obtained in the aforementioned countries.
He said since the Nigerian youths in their music and arts have already
keyed into the name Naija, it becomes imperative to recommend it to the
federal government.
Speaking on the concept, the initiator and former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Founder Okali Seminal Ideas Foundation for Africa (OSIFA), Dr. Okali, said the change of the name “Nigeria” to “Naijiria” has become necessary since the country had just marked 100 years of nationhood.
Speaking on the concept, the initiator and former United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Founder Okali Seminal Ideas Foundation for Africa (OSIFA), Dr. Okali, said the change of the name “Nigeria” to “Naijiria” has become necessary since the country had just marked 100 years of nationhood.
Okali said the name; ‘Nigeria’ lacks African content unlike many other
African names, wondering why the citizens have not focused their minds
to changing the name.
According to him, the word, Niger was taken from the Latin word Niger,
which has the same meaning as Nigger, saying it is probably the origin
of Nigeria.
“We feel as proud and enlightened Africans that after 100 years we
should be able to focus our attention intellectually on this kinds of
things as other people abroad might be wondering whether the citizens
are not intellectually minded as to realise this.”
Okali stated that the peak of the various embarrassments arising from
the name Nigeria was when the erroneous hosting of Niger Republic flag
in place of Nigeria’s at the last opening of the World Cup.
He said, “We think that the occasion of the centenary and the National
Conference going on affords us the opportunity, in fact imposes on us a
responsibility to use the occasion to tidy up some of the legacies of
our colonial past that are still hunting us. One of those is “Nigeria”
as it is written.
“During the opening ceremony of the ongoing World Cup, there was a very
embarrassing incident. This incident, simply put, is that the flag of
Niger, our neighbouring country was displayed as the Nigerian flag. Now
many people may say why? The reason is that the way those countries’
names were written makes it very easy to confuse and requires a high
level of concentration to differentiate.”
The former UN Assistant Secretary, who also stated that sometimes the
National Anthem of the country is not played in international events
because of the confusion, noted with disgust that the white people have
derogatorily applied the name ‘Nigeria’ with its undertone ‘nigger’ to
Nigerians in many instances.
“The second problem related to the word Nigeria is that the way it is
spelt, which is what the issue is here is pronounced and should be
pronounced as Ni-ge-ria. In any African language, including your own and
in many other languages that is the case.
“So what happened is that it now becomes associated with ‘Nigger-Area’ and as you know the word ‘nigger’ is the most derogatory term you can use on a black person as far as far racism is concerned. So our name suggests it and we are saying this is absurd. The greatest black African country is flirting with the worst word that you should be using for a black person, “ he said.
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