Talking of reputation, Nigerians are not the only ones committing crime worldwide.

We have a population of 200million, that's larger than most countries' population so you'd expect that we should be well represented in most scenarios.

The same way we are well represented in good things all over the world. I remember the 2006 world cup that Nigeria didn’t qualify for, there were still many Nigerians in the national teams of many countries; USA, England, Germany etc.

Same thing goes for the Olympics.

Just last week I was in Lagos, my family were watching E! tv, they were doing one relationship show like that. One of the guys featured there was a Nigerian; Ajirotutu was his name, although I don’t think he has ever been here.

And I once read a book on PostGis, a book on spatial database management for GIS specialists; PostGis in Action (Amazon Affiliate). The writer’s name was Regina, O. Obe. I’ve been dreaming of getting the book for long until I found it somewhere online. To my surprise in her acknowledge she mentioned her father; Olapade Obe. That’s when I knew the meaning of that O in her name.

Shouting crime, drugs, fraud etc. Whenever Nigeria is mentioned is similar to shouting terrorism whenever Islam is mentioned.

Then people will be left to choose between one of two wrong perceptions of us;

"Every Nigerian is a criminal or every criminal is a Nigerian"
Just as they were taught that they must choose between:

"Every Muslim is a terrorist or every terrorist is a Muslim"

We all know that all of the above are misguided opinions and conclusions.

Maybe one day Nigerian freelancers will have time to tell their victim story; How they’ve been duped several times by foreigners.

And I’ll have time to discuss how a Kenyan ordered for my service, ordered for revisions and still went away without paying a dime.

And how one Ugandan tried to learn GIS with no intention to pay.

And how an Australian guy asked me to digitize a whole block of cemetery as sample to know if I'm really competent.
He had up to 10 blocks to digitize. Imagine if he successfully deceived 15 freelancers on Fiverr to do sample work and prove their competence, his work would have been completed without owing anyone a dollar.

There's so much to be said. Perhaps Nigerians too should start speaking up.

About Nasiru: He is a GIS Analyst, Cartographer and CEO at GeoAfrikana Spatial Solutions. He also finds time to write articles and be a GIS tutor. His mission. “To provide cutting-edge geospatial services for researchers, businesses and governments”.