Former US Ambassador extols Nigerians’ optimism

Former US Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, on Thursday, lauded Nigerians’ industriousness and optimism over the years in spite of the country’s challenges.
Campbell gave the commendation in Lagos at a public presentation of a book he co-authored with Mathew Page, titled “Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know”.
According to him, there is also a high sense of national identity and growing entrepreneurial culture among Nigerians.
He said: “Nigerians are survivors. Nigerians have continued to show industriousness and optimism about the future in spite of challenges.
“We have emphasised this optimism of Nigeria’s future and challenges in this book which we hope will be available to Nigerians and Americans soon.”
Campbell, the Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, however, identified Nigerians current challenges to include education, infrastructure, electricity, infant mortality, corruption and insurgency.
The former Ambassador added that there were challenges of the Nigerian population living in poverty, risk of sea level rise and population explosion.
He also said that the book would be of benefit to Americans that were interested in knowing about Nigeria’s recent history, politics, culture, corruption, terrorism, and human rights issues.
Campbell, who was US Ambassador to Nigeria from 2004 to 2007, said that they were commissioned by the Oxford Press to write a book on Nigeria.
The former Ambassador to Nigeria, who said that he was “a little bit of Nigeria and more of America’’, added that he had in the book look at Nigeria from an intellectual perspective.
He said that the book was divided into question and answer sessions that related to past and future issues bordering on Nigeria.