Revealing the Nigerian mind

There is one person who has greeted more controversies more than any other citizen of the world. He is in fact a true citizen of the world because there isn't a country you won't find him.he is respected as he is distrusted ,popular as he is unpopular ,admired as he is feared . He is is a misery at home and a champion aboard .
He is a Nigerian! The most misunderstood citizen of the most misunderstood nation of the world . How else can I say it, I have been a Nigerian for over 30years and I still can comfortably give an accurate definition of who a Nigeria is beside a associating him with the geographical entity called Nigeria .in a 2015 interview by BBC of several Nigerian about the greatest thing about a Nigerian, the most recurrent comments were that an average Nigerian is happy and resilient .he is able to adapt to any form of challenge that comes his way.  If Nigeria's ranking as the 103rd happiest nation in the world in the 2016 UN report is anything to go by, I might be hesitant to agree to the notion of the average Nigeria being truly happy. A walk through the street of major cities like Lagos , Kano reveal that the average Nigerian is not happy.
Resilient yes, for a Nigerian never gives up. He will see to survive by what ever means necessary surmounting all forms of physical and  environmental huddles to make ends meet. I guess this is what account for their being able to survive in any country and excel. The average Nigeria is an opportunist always seeking out loop holes and taking advantage of situations to make quick money legally or otherwise . This leads to the big question, is a Nigeria attracted to criminal behavior;fraud, drug and prostitution by default ? This question will be explored in my next article

Our food ,our pride!

Being a hospitality professional and a foodie takes the larger part of my life , it's what I do for a living.my years of study at Yaba college of technology had giving me some good memories but of all I can't remember anything that was taught or said about our local dishes . Not that we never touched on the subject,it was that emphasis was never on appreciating local dishes .there was nothing to suggest or push us towards being creative with our local dishes as much as was done with foreign dishes. Worst of all nothing was said about the dishes of other Africa countries .
 . Back then I didn't see anything particularly wrong with it ,I was happy to learn about european  and American dishes,cultures etc.years later I have come to appreciate what manner of damage was done to my psyche .seeing chefs doing great things with our local dishes, seeing the appreciation and attention our local dishes are attracting even from foreigners and learning more about how our dishes can become such a unifying tool among we Africans .it amazes was me how for so long my mind was blind to the fact that I belong to a continent that is reach in delicacies that will probably take a life time to learn and perfect .
I had a conversation with one of my former lecturer sometime ago and realized that he too was eager to learn about dishes from around Africa but though traveling for that sole purpose was an expensive venture but was willing to bring it to the attention of the departments.I also spoke with some of the student to see if they were interested in learning about dishes from other parts of Africa and the response was not really positive .since then I have been making efforts to bring in chefs from neighboring countries to hold practical classes with the students in turns. The classes are due to begin in the first quarter of 2017 and its solely at my personal expense .in think Africa deserve a bigger space in the culinary map of the world and we can only achieve this by seeking to excel in what is ours .in the years to come, I hope to see fusions ,food books ,celebrity chefs ,and great restaurants come from works on African food .
Currently ,Nok by Alara is taking the lead in creating spectacular African fusions and offerings in luxury style .infact, my awakening only began with working at this great restaurant . Though ,relatively new, it has consistently stirs positive emotions within the African culinary space attracting celebrity chefs  of international repute such as chef pierre thiam and chef Micheal Elegbede who recently held a special chefs table on his works on food from northern nigeria at the restaurant .with NOK I have learnt that we can be African, creative , luxurious and international,all at the same time .