STEEMIT ENGAGEMENT CHALLENGE || Three Things I love about my country and Three Changes I would love to effect to make it better by @srrebullient

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Hello everyone, I am glad to be writing to you all today and it is a privilege for me to have this opportunity to share about my country in a foreign country.

In this post, I will be writing on the three things I like about my country and three things I do not like.

I will like to first of all start by giving you guys a brief intro about my country.

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Nigeria is a large country on the western coast of Africa known as the Giant of Africa and has a population of over 200 million people. It is home to various ethnic groups about 300 different ethnic groups in 36 different states and their respective local governments.

Nigeria gained its independence after several years of colonization by the Britains on the 1st of October 1960 and has ever since been in charge of its leadership.

In as much as it is still a developing country, it is still regarded as one of the wealthiest in the whole of Africa.

3 THINGS I LIKE ABOUT MY COUNTRY

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• NATURAL RESOURCES

Nigeria is a beautiful country blessed with diverse natural resources, from coal, iron, gold, tin, petroleum, wildlife, etc. It doesn't just have these resources at a bare minimum but enough to compete for the top spot when being compared to the quantity owned by other countries of the world.

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_Wikipedia

From the above screenshot, we will see that Nigeria is ranked 11th on the list of countries with the most oil reserves.

These resources don't just end with oil and gas but when talking about countries with the most renewable water resources in the world, Nigeria wouldn't be excluded from the top list.

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• CULTURE AND TOURISM

The fact that there are various ethnic groups with their respective culture and traditions is something to admire.

Over 300 different ethnic groups with their different interesting beliefs and culture. The ancient Benin city which is known formally known as the pre-colonial west African empire dating back to the 11th century is an example of ancient cultural practice in Nigeria.

This ancient city is known for its bronze work, beautiful carvings, and other artworks which can now be found in various museums around the world.

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Also, the beautiful and colorful cultural attires of the respective groups are so amazing. The different ethnic foods such as pounded yam for the Igbos, amala for the Yoruba, and tuwo shinkafa for Hausa are a lot to admire about Nigeria.

Various cultural and traditional festivals occur yearly from generation to generation to open up their cultures to people around the world.

From the new yam festival of the Igbo ethnic group, the argungu fishing festival of the Hausas, the eyo festival of the Yorubas, the Calabar carnival of the Calabar people, and many more.

There are also a lot of tourist sites in Nigeria ranging from cattle ranches such as Obudu Mountain Resort to caves and waterfalls such as ogbunike cave and Owerre/Ezukala cave and waterfall located in Anambra State, Nigeria.

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• Oneness OF NIGERIAN YOUTHS

I cannot conclude without mentioning the admirable oneness of Nigerian youths. It is indeed a thing to admire seeing people with different languages, different religions, and different cultures yet co-existing almost in perfect harmony.

I am not talking about Nigerian elders who I see to be the hands behind the conflicts in Nigeria but the youths who have stood by each other during the most trying times.

This set of people has shown the spirit of oneness and have stood and died for the cause of one another. This can clearly be shown during the massive protest on police reform that took place in October 2020 thus leading to the painful demise of a good number of Nigerian youths.

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3 THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO CHANGE

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Although there is no such thing as a perfect country there are still a few things one has to change to make Nigeria a better place and some of these include;

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• INSECURITY

The level of insecurities in Nigeria is alarming. It is almost as though we do not have security because the rate at which bandits attacks and go freely is very much worrisome.

The last incident that occurred Abuja-Kaduna train in the Northern part of Nigeria, claimed the lives of numerous persons including a young and promising female doctor.

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A lot of other bandits attacks have happened severally and numerous lives claimed and abductions made in several local communities.

The protection of lives and properties is of utmost importance and that is why I have added this to the first list of things I would like to change in my country.

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• POOR LEVEL OF EDUCATION

This is another problem I would like to fix in my country for it is vital for the future development of Nigeria.

It is very sad to say that the Nigerian government has grown to neglect public education which has been made obvious by the reoccurring strike on the side of ASUU due to poor funding.

The Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has often been embarking on strike actions to the point that it is now seen as a year-to-year activity.

The union which has currently been on over two months strike has always stated their reason to be based on poor educational funding by the federal government of Nigeria and their inability to keep to long agreed terms.

This complaint is clearly seen in different areas such as lack of teaching equipment, unconducive learning environment, small or little learning spaces, lack of enough offices for lecturers and a lot of other things lacking in the Universities.

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Coming down to the primary level, there is an insufficient reading desk for pupils, outdated teaching boards, lack of payment of teachers' salaries, and many more frustrating issues.

The above issues lead to having half-baked graduates who can't compete with their fellows in society.

Addressing this issue is vital as these young ones are the future of the country and giving them quality education should be a top priority.

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• LEGALIZATION OF CRYPTOCURRENCY

I wouldn't conclude without adding the legalization of cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency and blockchain which I would like to include NFTs have come to be the future of finance and the internet at large and I still do not understand why my country is lacking behind in adoption.

Officially joining the cryptocurrency and blockchain space which is still sounding like a joke is what I believe will see my country advance further in finance and technology thus closing the gap between them and other European countries.

This gap was created during the emergence of the current internet in the 80s when Nigeria failed to join the early adopters thus making them lag in development.

The emergence of cryptocurrency and blockchain is what I see as another opportunity for my country to at least try and close up the gap by adopting it early enough.

Sadly, the Nigerian government is still blind as to what is happening thus making unnecessary rules in other to avoid the mass adoption of cryptocurrency in the country.

These unnecessary laws against cryptocurrency include banning banks from trading cryptocurrencies and sanctioning banks that are found to be involved in crypto-related transactions.

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In as much as the Nigerian government has tried in putting an end to all cryptocurrency-related activities in the country, they have only achieved little to no success and that is due to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies which makes it impossible for the government to control.

Cryptocurrency transactions are still massively going on daily in the country and it's all thanks to peer-to-peer functionality which allows transactions to be carried out without the involvement of a third party thus making all activities private and impossible for the government to track.

CONCLUSION

As much as I cannot change any of the above issues I have mentioned, I still hope that sooner than later the government would realize the importance of acting on them.

I will like to invite the likes of @Whitestallion, @mato445, @fredquantum, @chiabertrand, and @goodybest to take part in this context in other for me to see their view about Nigeria.

Thanks for reading.