Habits of Nigerians: 

A poem

By Ndigwe Ifunanya 

We are a people of laughter,

Carrying so much problems on our shoulders,

But never forgetting to dance.

Habit One: Hustle.

From dawn till night,

we chase dreams with dusty slippers,

hawking on highways, typing in cyber cafés,

praying in traffic, closing deals at weddings.

We believe tomorrow can be better,

if only we sweat enough today.

Habit Two: Survival.

Generator hums like a stubborn hymn,

water fetched, bucket balanced,

still we smile through heat and hardship.

Our lives may bend but they do not break.

Even in the dark, we find our own light.

Habit Three: Celebration.

Give us a reason, we turn it to a festival.

A baby born? Music.

A wedding? Road blocked.

Even funerals can feel like carnivals,

tears and drums clashing in one heartbeat.

We dance because life is too heavy otherwise.

Habit Four: Faith.

Church bells, mosque calls, shrines under trees,

hands raised, knees bent, eyes closed.

We believe fiercely

in God, in destiny, in miracles,

sometimes in politicians,

but always in ourselves.

Habit Five: Talk.

We talk loud, fast, endless.

In buses, in queues, in markets,

arguing football like it is war,

politics like it is theatre,

gossip like it is medicine.

Words are our currency,

stories our inheritance.

Habit Six: Community.

We are never truly alone.

A cousin will appear uninvited,

a neighbor will knock for pepper,

your struggle is shared, your victory too.

In our world, one person’s laughter

can feed a whole street.

Habit Seven: Hope.

Ah, Nigerians will hope.

Even when leaders fail,

when pockets dry,

when the road ahead looks like Sahara sand.

We still say, “e go better”.

Hope is our last unbroken habit,

our stubborn national anthem.

And so we live

between struggle and song,

between chaos and color,

between hustle and hope.

We are Nigerians,

the ones who turn survival into art,

who season pain with laughter,

who make habits out of miracles.