Controversial Yale Law School professor, and author of “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,”Amy Chua, has told the world about what most Nigerians already know -the sheer determination of the Nigerian spirit to succeed against all odds! In her latest book entitled, “The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America” Chua and her co-author and husband, Jed Rubenfeld, list eight cultural groups that appear to achieve a higher rate of success than other cultural groups in the United States of America.Along side Nigerians, the authors named Chinese, Cubans, Indians, Iranians, Jews, Lebanese and Mormons. According to Chua, “Nigerians earn doctorates at stunningly high rates.” Building on Chua’s own example, in education alone, Nigerian-Americans have been singled out in the past with echoing reports of outlier performance in the form of above-average test scores, unusually high Ivy League university admission rates as well as Nigerians being the most highly educated immigrants at the post-graduate level in the US today. In fact, I was living in Houston in with my family in 2008 working on my doctorate when the Houston Chronicle published a well-cited article crowning Nigerians as the most educated immigrants in the United States. Truth be told, there was nothing remarkable about me within the Nigerian community, perhaps except from the added prestige that I was studying at Stanford University, because it is more the norm than the exception in Nigerian professional circles in the US to be well educated, studying impressive courses at very good schools and holding down solid jobs (particularly among first generation Nigerian immigrants). Today, the laundry list of highly successful Nigerians in the US across diverse fields is frankly inexhaustible and, therefore, best left outside the purview of this piece. It is incontestable that, Nigerian immigrants in the US have made significant strides. For emphasis, just one systemic example – if every Nigerian working in the US healthcare system today – doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, technicians, clerks, cleaners, researchers and professors – were to resign en mass the impact would be significant.
It wouldbe interesting to read Chua’s entire perception about Nigerian Americans once the book is released next month, and distil why she believes Americans of Nigerian extraction qualify to belong in this elite group of cultures. The thesis of the soon-to-be-released book is that some cultural groups in America are simply inherently more likely to succeed than othersas a result of three factors: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. Not without controversy, the authors claim that these triple elements produce the rare and potent cultural constellation that drives these eight cultural groups toachieve disproportionately high success levels in the United States.The book is a fact-based investigation into why Nigerians and the other seven cultural groups are uniquely able to excel in the United States. Indeed, from my ownsubjective observations, Nigerians as a people are unusually confident. In fact, Nigerians are typically described across Africa and around the world as being loud, aggressive, opinionated, highly driven, fast, proud, ambitious, competitive, resilient, entrepreneurial, industrious, and above all extremely confident. Yet like most human beings, we can be driven by insecurities particularly around public “failure” (whatever we perceive failure to be) and shame. Coupled with the unquestionable determination and drive to succeed that many Nigerians possess, be it in US entertainment industry, discoveries in nano-physics or even 419 escapades, Chua and Rubenfeld’s theory as applicable to Nigerian Americans appears to hold some water. This conclusion immediately agitated my mind as to precisely why Nigerians have failed to develop Nigeria!
Considering the “triple package” formula, and how these three traits may not only account for the success of these cultural groups within the US, but, perhaps, shed light on how the groups, or at least the six geographical nationalities among them, perform in their own natural habitat,I asked myself whether this is the typical “nature vs. nurture” debate. Is our collective potential nurtured in certain condusive environments abroad but malnourished here at home?How many of these “cultures” have thriving home countries? Among the countries represented – China, Cuba, India, Iran, Lebanon and Nigeria – without bias,Nigeria, sadly,cannot be presented as a shining beacon of success. Why then does the purported theory deviate? Heterogeneous as we are, the average Nigerian,home or abroad, exudes a confidence that could be classified as a form of “superiority complex”.Certainly, many fellow Africans would agree that this is the case, and the same impression generally holds regardless of where Nigerians are found across the world. Furthermore, the “impulse control” trait speaks to that perseverance and patient long-suffering of Nigerians, again whether home or abroad. A dogged determination to succeed at all costs which Chua claims has now been lost by most Americans but still exist among her eight golden cultural groups. For Nigerians, whether with positive or negative connotations, this too is fair comment. In fact, to my mind, this trait contributes in no small measure to the continued existence of the country today.
Having made peace with two of the three traits, I am forced to contemplate whether the “missing link” between Nigerian culture in the diaspora and Nigerian culture at home could turn on the element of “insecurity” raised by the authors.Using myself as an example, my greatest insecurity while schooling in the US must surely have been the thought of having to return home without having successfully completed my doctorate degree. For many Nigerians, particularly those abroad, failure is simply not an option. Therefore, “success” (whatever we perceive success to be) by allmeans possible would be embraced. Nigerians in the West must live up to the perception of enjoying a “better life out there” held by their friends and family at home. Thus, could the very idea of being forced to return home to live and work in the Nigeria thatthey“left behind” propel Nigerians abroad to work harder and achieve greater heights? Could the very real fear of having to return “home” to a dysfunctional and corrupt society on terms not their own help compeltheirsuccess? Probably, yes. It would appear on the face of it that the combination of these three traits actually works!
What then is the lesson in all this? If Nigerians are exceptional when they go elsewhere, what exactly is the issue with Nigerians in Nigeria? It cannot be that all the exceptional Nigerians are in the diaspora because you and I live right here. But shouldn’t Nigerians living in Nigeria borrow a leaf from Chua and Rubenfeld’s theory and harness the all too real fears and insecurities too many to mention that we live with constantly about our country, and channel our nervous energy into positive action? Or are those of us at home now immune and numbed to the point of inaction by the overwhelming burden of problems that should have propelled us to build a prosperous nation?With brazen corruption, daily reports of billions of dollars stolen but no one jailed,our failed healthcare system killing millions of Nigerians while our leaders fly abroad for treatment on tax payers’ money for even the slightest ailment? Ofavoidable deaths in our transportation sector from repeated aviation disasters and thousands of deaths on our bad roads?
We could easily analyse several areas of our national life, but continuing with the authors’ own example of education, clearly, Nigerians home and abroad place a high premium on education and are well known for this world wide. Yet,this antecedent has not translated into a high quality education sector within the country. Rather than facilitatingradical change in our own education sector, affluent Nigerians have now been joined by amalnourished middle class in sending ourchildren to schools abroad fortertiary and even secondary education due tothe low standard of education within our country. Nigerians now spend over one trillion on foreign school fees, including other African countries such as South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, to get our kids properly educated. Ghana alone earns N1.6 billion from us annually in school fees. Even much smaller West African countries that lack the infrastructure and personnel to deliver high quality education have been able to woo thousands ofNigerian students across the border because of chronic and persistent problems withinthe Nigeria educational system.Who can blame such parents who just want a good education for their children?
Apart from the significant economic drain on the country’s resources, what percentage of these children leaving the country younger and youngernow, (on average between the ages of 11 -15 years), will return home after their masters degrees and doctorate degrees? With the exception of a few, most Nigerian parents, having invested so much in their children’s education, are quick to advise them to stay abroad and get a few years’ working experience before coming back to “this crazy country”. More often than not, a few years turns into a high-flying career at Goldman Sachs or McKenzie, and perhaps the nearly inevitable planting of new family roots abroad.Another brain drain of our brightest and best?Who then will change Nigeria?
In particular, the public service of any nation is of crucial importance because it impacts directly the on the lives of the people and must, therefore, be kept in the hands of the brightest and best, not small minds. In Nigeria today,tocite one example, the influence of an effective Minister of Agriculture has improved the lives of millions of poor farmers inNigeria. Nigerian Agriculture Minister,Dr AkinwumiAdesina,was named Forbes African of the Year for his key reforms to Nigeria’sagrarian sector.According to Forbes Africa editor Chris Bishop,“[Adesina] is a man on a mission to help Africa feed itself”.Indeed, Adesina’sin-roads so far in Nigeria’s grossly neglected and corruption ridden agricultural sector is a proof of Chua’s triple package -a confidence based on his world-class competence and proven track record, an insecurity driven by his need to perform as promised coupled with a real fear for a nation that can’t feed her own people, anda dogged determination to succeed in spite of a systemic resistance to positive change- Nigeria needs more of such leaders in all strategicpublic positions.
Chua’s observations are complimentaryand, thankfully,ring true. It is always particularly refreshing to see Nigerians portrayed positively in the global media. However, thisrecognition of Nigerian Americans is also an indictment on the current state of our country. As we enter 2014, with our universities re-opening after a six-month lockdown, let us, for starters, (among other equally much-needed changes)willingly yield to our deep-seated insecurities by committing toconfidently demanda reformed and drastically improved qualityof education from our government, institutions of learning andall stakeholders, as we jointly manifest our authentic Nigerian self.
By: Jumoke Oduwole
