Nigerian accents!

...Omonoba...

Our people say:
Yoruba: Mélòó lÈjìgbò tí ọ̀kan ẹ̀ ńjẹ́ Ayé-gbogbo?
Eng: How large a community is Ejigbo that one of its settlements is named Ayegbogbo “The whole world”?
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Recently, a lot of people have been 'complimenting' me on how American I sound, when they see my name and ask me where I'm from. So, that really frustrates me because I take pride in my accent and I do not want to lose it :( .  

Some others admit that I do have traces of a Nigerian accent. Only traces? My friends will tell you that my Nigerian accent is pretty noticeable. Another thing that surprises people is that I speak good English. Take it in good fate that I was brought up in a country that was colonized by the British (X) and therefore I speak good English, and that the British met locals when they came(YES); locals who already spoke languages and therefore my English is accented. 

I mean, I have come across various comments referring to Nigerian accents as disgusting probably because they didn’t throw in extra r’s here and there. Let it be, let the accents that remind us that we own something be and do not try to belittle them calling them ‘bush’, local and unworthy. A person behind the camera or the president may spend a few seconds pronouncing a word in order to make his or her speech well understood by the majority who would be listening to him or her but I must note that even the current president speaks pretty clearly inspite of the “fee-dee-fee, fower’s” (PDP Power’s) that are conspicuous in his speeches. Let it be, hes’s not British nor American (people whose English by the way is accented since they learnt from the British, their colonists). Why has everything Western (and Eastern), as a matter of fact, everything non-indegnous to us Nigerians become THE STANDARD? I say Nigerians here because that’s what I am, a Nigerian and that’s the country I can speak for.

Yes, Learn the English Language or any other foreign language and speak it as close to the native speakers as possible but as we all know, it can never be the same. My occasional h’s here and there (since I am half Yoruba) reinforce my ‘Nigerianness’ and again, Let it be!

It's also not news that we as a country are a house divided against itself sometimes. So I speak to those of us from Naija too.