Nigerian pride: Three success stories

Despite the many negative stories coming out of Nigeria in recent months, with Boko Haram attacks and corruption dominating the headlines, it isn’t all a downward spiral.

Nigeria has its fair share of successes. Most of the time, newspapers prefer to report on what went wrong. Here is an account, for once, on what went splendidly right.

Nigerian 10-year-old Zuriel Elise Oduwole made history this year, when she became the youngest person to ever be interviewed by Forbes.  She is an award winning documentary filmmaker, conference speaker and writer. There is an article about the talented young lady in the August 2013 edition of Forbes Africa.

Another writer that has made the country proud is Tope Folarin. Tope won this year’s prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing. His short piece, Miracle, set in an evangelical Nigerian church in the US city of Texas has won him $15 000. It is Africa's most prestigious literary award.

A worldwide success for Nigeria is the popularity that Nollywood has achieved. The film industry is third highest ranking in the world, beaten only by Bollywood (India’s film industry) and Hollywood. Nollywood is also the third largest producer of feature films, and has made a name by being able to pull together full film productions for the fraction of the cost of other industries. It emerged only 20 years ago, now Nollywood has grown into a $250 million dollar-a-year industry that employs thousands of people, a great feat for the Nigerian economy. The Nation says, "it has resulted in the creation of thousands of jobs, spawned international superstars, and endowed the country’s often-quarrelsome ethnic groups with a unifying reference point".

Focusing on the positive aspects of any society is guaranteed to build morale, eradicate negative energy and lift stigmas. Even though these are just a highlight of three success stories, it is evident that when you look beyond the stereotypical 'bad news' reported by the media every day, there is always a glimmer of a hopeful light, just waiting to be exposed.