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By Ibekwe Nnamdi Chimdi
Stewardship must precede expansion.
This paradox is captured in two African proverbs. The Yoruba proverb warns, “You do not go to Sokoto to look for what you have in your shokoto,” meaning that what you are searching for far away, in Sokoto – a state in Northern Nigeria – is already in your trouser (shokoto) pockets or immediate surroundings.
Similarly, the Igbo proverb validates this argument, stressing, “Ojemba Enwe Iro,” which means “a traveller has no enemy.” The traveller who leaves home with value, as the Igbo proverb suggests, meets no enemy.
Yet modern Nigeria presents a troubling inversion of this logic. The lesson is clear: before chasing distant prospects, Nigerians must first account for, develop, and harness the resources already within reach. It is a call to stewardship, not neglect.
Indeed, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Syrian, and other foreign entrepreneurs continue to navigate Nigeria’s bureaucracy, currency volatility, weak infrastructure, and regulatory uncertainty to establish thriving businesses. Unfortunately, millions of Nigerians are desperately seeking exits to those same foreign countries. The irony is profound: outsiders see possibilities where many Nigerians see only paralysis.
This phenomenon goes beyond economics or migration trends. It reflects what psychologists describe as inattentional blindness – the tendency to fail to perceive what is plainly visible because attention is focused elsewhere.
Nigeria today is a living case study of this condition.
Many Nigerians search for diamonds abroad while standing on vast opportunities at home. Like Conwell’s farmer, they abandon fertile ground, convinced prosperity lies only elsewhere.
Inattentional blindness explains this paradox: when focus is fixed on dysfunction, opportunity becomes invisible. The national narrative of insecurity, corruption, unemployment, and inflation blinds citizens to the “gorilla” in the room – the untapped potential foreigners readily exploit.
Lebanese and Indian traders dominate Nigeria’s building materials, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and plastics markets. They succeed not through magic but through systems: discipline, logistics, customer retention, and long-term planning.
Healthcare and education tell the same story. Indian, Lebanese, and Ghanaian-owned schools and hospitals thrive in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, charging premium fees for services Nigerians could provide if they invested in standards and execution.
The tragedy is not that foreigners recognise opportunity. It is that Nigerians no longer do. Years of negative conditioning have trained citizens to see only collapse, creating psychological fatigue that blinds them to functioning systems.
This blindness manifests in three ways. First, narrative framing: social media and peer pressure reinforce the idea that “Japa” – leaving – is the only plan. Second, priced proximity: opportunities nearby appear less valuable simply because they are familiar. Third, displacement of stewardship. Yet many Nigerians have never conducted a genuine audit of what already exists within their reach: fertile land, youthful digital talent, informal cooperative finance systems, vast local markets, cultural creativity, and diaspora capital that could be channelled into productive sectors at home.
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Without such an audit, migration becomes less an exchange of value and more an act of economic surrender.
This is why Nigeria increasingly exports talent while importing enterprise.
Engineers relocate abroad only to become survival workers disconnected from their expertise. Doctors leave to work in care homes despite years of specialised training. Meanwhile, foreigners with less cultural familiarity continue building profitable ventures within the same Nigerian environment these professionals abandoned.
This is not an argument against migration. Migration itself is not the problem. Migration, historically, has always been part of human advancement. The problem arises when an entire society begins to mistake displacement for strategy.
Healthy migration exchanges value outward while creating value inward. Dangerous migration leaves citizens as consumers in systems built by others.
Nigeria must confront not only economic challenges but also a crisis of perception. Reversing inattentional blindness requires retraining national attention.
First, conduct a “Sokoto Audit”: communities and states must map assets – skills, infrastructure, products, and industries. Second, study foreigners succeeding in Nigeria. Their methods – risk management, gradual relationship-building, consistent execution – can be adapted. Third, redefine success. Progress is not visas or remittances but businesses formalised, jobs created, products exported, and human capital retained.
Finally, tell untold success stories. For every Nigerian struggling abroad, others are building enterprises at home. These stories must enter national consciousness to restore confidence.
Examples already exist in places like Bende North Constituency, where innovative local development efforts are emerging. The diamonds remain here.
The irony is stark: Nigerians queue at embassies to leave, while foreigners queue at ports to enter. The same population, the same imperfect systems – liabilities to one group, opportunities to another.
Conwell’s message was not that foreign opportunities do not exist, but that they cannot be recognised if local value is ignored. Nigeria’s Sokoto is not empty. Its diamonds disguise themselves as problems: unreliable electricity as renewable energy potential, a massive youth population as digital services, housing deficits as construction opportunities, and food shortages as agribusiness potential.
Nigeria’s challenge is not confined to economics; it is rooted in perception. Unless citizens learn to recognise the value around them, fertile ground will continue to be abandoned for distant illusions. The task is not to seal borders – it is to sharpen vision.
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• Hon. Chimdi is a lawmaker representing Bende North Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly
