22/08/2020
It was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her popular speech "Danger of single story" that said: Stories can be used to build or destroy a people.
I was in Dubai World Trade Centre for Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC) last year when a speaker who was discussing on a topic "Turning your workforce to Human Firewalls" made mention about how Nigerians are defrauding the world with Nigeria Email.
After his speech I stood up and introduced myself as a Nigerian Security Analyst and founder ThinkSecure Technologies. I tried to correct his impression about Nigerians and made the audience understand that there are lots of Nigerians like me who are ensuring we have a cyber safe world. It would be unfair to categorize Nigerians as fraudulent people because evil is not resident in a particular location.
WannaCry Ransomware (malware that locks your document and demands for payment to be made via bitcoin before unlocking your document) originated from Pyongyang in North Korea. Carberp Malware (a Trojan designed to give attackers the ability to steal private information from online banking platforms accessed by the infected PCs). I am yet to come across comments like "North Korea Malware" or "Russian Virus".
Only Nigeria and Nigerians can correct this anomaly. It is time for us to tell our story, and it better be a good story that showcase our resilience and determination.
If you always tell the story of your weakness, overtime you will be seen as a weakling. If your message is always that of doom, very soon people will start avoiding you because you will be seen as a prophet of doom
FINAL WORDS
"The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."
Tell a good story by your actions today.