nigerians love titles, power and money, ivy league degrees are a great proxy for these things that nigerians love...
if you ever want to make a nigerian person happy, mention the name of any of the ivy leagues (or equally prestigious schools in england). nigerians can rattle off the names of these schools from off the top of their heads from the day they are born. they memorize the us news rankings for these schools and will sell their own grandmother in order to get into one. it is a right of passage in nigeria to understand the beauty of the ivy league.
the greatest honor for a nigerian family is to send one their precious children to an ivy league school. entry into an ivy league school indicates superior genes and unquestionable intelligence. a nigerian parent with a child at an ivy league school is a treated as a god. her friends admire her for the blessing (not particularly the child -- just the fact that her surname will be on a ivy league degree forever!) check out some nigerian mom at a wedding introducing her ivy league daughter to other parents:
mrs. ivyleague: hello mrs. lagbaja, long-time no see, ba wo ni {how are you}?, and your children? they are in college too abi {correct}? congratulations -- god will continue to bless you -- and em, i wanted to introduce my daughter, morenike, she's at [sub ivy league school name].
mrs. lagbaja: morenike, it's a pleasure to meet you. i remember when i held you as a baby! you've grown so much to be such a beautiful girl, and now you're at [sub ivy league school name]. we always knew you were brilliant! olorun a wo {god will take care of you}
mrs. ivyleague: e se po {thank you very much} mrs. lagbaja, is this your son wasiu? he's become such a big man.
mrs. lagbaja: yes mrs. ivyleague, this is my son wasiu. he wanted to stay close to home so he didn't apply to [sub ivy league school name]. with his high score he could have gone anywhere, but he is such a good boy he wanted to stay close to home. e pe le {word of comfort}, it must not be easy to have a child so far away from home. you know mrs. zeke's son is at morenike's school as well -- ko easy {it's not easy}, she's always at my house, so lonely.
mrs. ivyleague: it is hard o, but with such a great scholarship, i don't have to worry about morenike. we thank god for everything! e je ka lo ki mama ezekiel [learning mrs. lagbaja's son is not at an ivy, she goes looking for mrs. zeke and her son to make a match].
the relationship between nigerians and ivys continues...
and when nigerians attend ivy league schools, they never find themselves alone, there are always droves of nigerians there with them. you cannot escape nigerians at ivy leagues! many of these nigerian faces are american, but a good number come straight from nigeria. you cannot escape the in between nigerian-and-british accents of these lovely people. they are confident in class, spend tons of time in the library -- and if they live in the dorms, they will cook up the most delicious smelling foods in the shared kitchens. at any ivy league, you will find a number of nigerians -- there's always more than one.
when a nigerian person graduates from an ivy league, they get special treatment every time they are introduced and no one ever forgets that they've attended an ivy league school. sometimes they even forget the person's name, but always remember the ivy league that the person attended. sad. but to be fair the ivy is more memorable to the nigerian, than any other identifying features...
. . . that's just how nigerians do it . . .
image of west college princeton courtesy andreas praefcke on ivy league wikipedia page.
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