Bad hats are a minority but get the most coverage

It is an eye opener reading “Exploding the Nigerian Myth” by Philip Golingai which appeared in today's Star. He went to see Abiodun Musa Aibinu, the president of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (Malaysian Chapter) prepared with some questions from his fellow tweeters. The main thrust is that the bad hats among the Nigerian community in Malaysia is tiny, only 5% and they hog the main news. 

Our newspapers do not highlight the fact that the majority of Nigerians in Malaysia are pursuing postgraduate studies lured by the lower school fees and exchange rates. Doesn't this prove that the Malaysian government's efforts to make this country an educational hub is now such a success to the extent that it has managed to find acceptance on another continent?

According to Aibinu, the 5% are mostly in private institutions under the guise of learning and he was puzzled on how they managed to get their visas. It seems these “students” were approved to study English in Malaysia even though the official language of Nigeria is English. Mind boggling to say the least. I guess our English language teaching modules are of such high standards that someone from a country that uses it officially prefers to come here and study. 

Should we be expecting those from Britain, the USA and the rest with English as their official language to come knocking on our doors soon? If that becomes a reality, our aim to make this country an educational hub par excellent would be chalking another success. We await with abated breath for the hordes of British and American students making their way to our shores to study English here.

Yes, perception influences the way we see and acknowledge others. If we take that 5% figure as an indicator of the percentage of bad hats in any society, we have to be honest to ourselves that our image in others' eyes are also coloured by this minority who monopolise the headlines. We cannot swagger and brag that our society are devoid of bad hats. They are part and parcel of our lives. We have always tried to minimise any bad elements in our society. 

Unfortunately the percentage might remain the same or even reduced but the numbers do look menacing as the total population itself has increased. 5% of 100,000 is just 5,000 but the same percentage applied to a population of one million is 50,000. A big jump in numbers and we must be cognisant of this fact.

Image from colette