I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my countrythat turns 43 today (as a post-colonial independent nation).

October the 1st is an emotional day for many Nigerians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. Our country remains a paradox as the excerpts below attest:

The more popular view of Nigerians as a result of the proliferation of 419 scams (the mangled by-productof misdirected intellectual prowess and the boundless depths of greed --which applies to perpetrators and victims alike).

The Nigerian SCO Connection "I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP ..." [via Be Blogging ]

Funny! But many a truth is told in jest (I think that's how the quote goes); this one is pretty damned poignant.

Unbeknownst to many, there are other views of Nigeria (unfortunately these aren't the norm).

The call for optimism by our president (he doesn't support or condone the 419 nonsense):

President Olusegun Obasanjo urged Nigerians to change their ways and be optimistic about the future as Nigeria marks its 43rd Independence anniversary. Read on

[via Odili.net � this site desperately needs RSS!]

There is an increasing pool of key high-tech players of Nigerian decent (and nationality)making constructive impact on the high-tech industry (making it less lonely for myself and other Nigerians in the high-tech arena):

Dare Obasanjo is a member of Microsoft's WebData team, which among other things develops the components within the System.Xml and System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework, Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). More of Dare's writings on XML can be found on his Extreme XML column on MSDN.

Uche Ogbuji is a consultant and co-founder of Fourthought Inc., a consulting firm specializing in XML solutions for enterprise knowledge management applications. Fourthought develops 4Suite, the open source platform for XML middleware. Mr. Ogbuji is a Computer Engineer and writer born in Nigeria, living and working in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Website: http://www.fourthought.com/

Philip Emeagwali , a computer scientist, is one of the fathers of the Internet and a trailblazer in petroleum extraction ," as quoted by CNN .

Philip leavesall Nigerianswiththis important message on this special day (key excerpt below):

"Our investments in education and technology will be our legacy to our children. They are investments that will bring the best out of the next generation of Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation."

Happy Birthday dear motherland!