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Culture and Society

Introducing 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria

Dating far back to the 80’s, the term ‘419’ has associated Nigeria and Nigerians primarily with online financial scams – ‘Advance Fee Fraud’. Most unfortunately, the situation exacerbated to such an extent that the internet became overwhelmed with such negative news attributed to Nigeria.

In response to this, ‘The 419Positive Project’was initiated, with an ambitious objective of generating four hundred and nineteen positive

attributes about Nigeria and Nigerians. “If you could tell the world one remarkable thing about Nigeria and Nigerians, what would it be?”

419 Reasons

Furthermore, in Peter Reilly’s Forbes blog post (Aug 28, 2011), he suggested a similar intervention to his Nigerian audience – “Make lists of 419 reasons to like Nigeria and Nigerians…” His suggestion came as one remedial to his previous post (Nigerians Switching From Greed to Fear), after some Nigerians took exceptions to his views. Other online posts by Chika Uwazie, Nmachi Jidenma and Akin Akintayo, have further lent a voice in this regard.

Pulling these ideas and suggestions together, an online rebranding campaign is being furthered. The aim is clear – to consistently inundate the internet with positive Nigerian attributes, such that when anyone types in ‘419’ in a search engine, it yields positive commentary about Nigeria, irrespective of the pre-existing negativity. This drive is labelled 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria. Awareness is currently being ramped up online, with the topic having trended on Twitter in the early hours of 2nd of September. There will be the big bang launch on October 1, 2011 (Independence Day), of at least 100 Nigerian blogs and sites listing four hundred and nineteen remarkable reasons to like Nigeria, with subsequent monthly blog publishing till the end of 2011.

Every Nigerian with a blog, website, and online presence of any sort (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, account etc.) is encouraged to volunteer and be a part of this campaign. With sincerity and candour, it is true that some, in times past, have contributed unfortunately to the prevailing negative association of ‘419’ with Nigeria, however, the time is NOW for us to counter-strategise by providing alternative content via an online rebranding initiative.

To register your interest, simply send an email to volunteer@419Positive.org, with the subject –CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER, and be sure to provide contact details (email address) so you can be reached subsequently. Volunteers will be contacted latest by the 9th of September, 2011.

Be a part of this drive…the time is now! Let’s tell the world 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria.

2 Comments

  1. Peter J Reilly says:
    September 5, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    I am very grateful that people have been so grascious in accepting my apology for my thoughtlessness.  As I have mentioned in some of  my posts I am very parochial and ignorant about Africa.  Nonetheless, I would suggest that in working on this you consider my fellow Americans whose ancestors were taken in capitivity from Africa, about 30% from what is now Nigeria.  They have made an enormous contribution to both the United States and the world in spite of great adversity. 

  2. Nigerian Literature Review Database – can we collect 419? « Amy Reads says:
    September 7, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    […] One thing that Nigeria is quite known for is corruption and internet scams. In fact, internet scams have come to be called 419s throughout much of the world – referring to the Nigerian criminal code! Clearly the bad press is getting to be a little much, so a project was started, 419Positive, where people are asked to submit their list of 419 reasons that they like Nigeria. (You can see more history about it here at NigeriansTalk.) […]