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There’s something quite peculiar and absurd about being a Nigerian.
It’s a country of—so to speak—unspecified data and dimensions. Nigeria is not simply plagued by inexactitude; it cultivates numerical and other forms of fuzziness.
The other day, Ikhide Ikheloa, one of Nigeria’s most pugnacious gadflies, was waxing indignant on Facebook and Twitter.
His grouse? Nigeria has been in the global news circuit on account of the dreadful abduction, on April 14, of teenage girls from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno State.
Mr Ikheloa was riled that nobody in Nigeria, least of all reporters, seemed to know the exact number of girls who were abducted by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.
The initial figures ranged from 100 to more than 200.
Later, Asabe Kwambura, the principal of the Government Girls Secondary School, stated that 230 girls were abducted. Some said 234.
An official of the Borno State government said 129.
That manner of inexact information is painful to stomach. Yet, Nigerians have grown accustomed to it. Continue reading.
Okey Ndibe is an acclaimed Nigerian writer, essayist and political columnist. He teaches African and African Diaspora literatures at Brown University.
Source: The is Africa
Image: The Guardian
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