I am many things. Nigerian. American. Political Scientist. Writer. Friend. Sister. Daughter. And here is one you may not expect to see: I am a spirit-filled, born-again Christian. I do not say that lightly. When I say I am a Christian, I don’t just mean that I identify as one culturally, the way two-thirds of Americans do or that my parents are Christians and raised me as one. No, I mean I study the Bible, I meditate on God’s word daily, and I am eternally, desperately committed to pleasing God and obeying his commandments—loving Him and loving people. As any honest Christian would tell you, I struggle but if there is a “Christian tenet” you better believe I abide by it or at least try to. If anyone could revel and boast in their extreme commitment to strictly obeying the law, it would be me. I say none of this to boast. I say this in the spirit of Apostle Paul who said he was a pure-blooded Jew, a real Hebrew, if there ever was one, in response to the Jews—mutilators, Paul called them—who were dogged in their belief that to be saved and accepted into the fold of faith, you had to be circumcised. Paul brought a radical idea: salvation belongs to both the Jew and the Gentile.
America is an experiment, founded on a premise of democratic ideals and principles like the rule of law, equality, liberty. It is the one country where this starry-eyed daughter of Nigerian immigrants could embody the spirit of resilience and grit and hard work it holds so that in so many ways, I become American. So that in fully embracing this spirit, in accepting the promise and opportunity of America, I can embrace its complexity and multi-dimensionality and what does it produce in me? It reinforces these same ideals and values that light up my torch to expect change and progress. It seduces me into an unwavering faith in its institutions especially as they stand in stark contrast with those I grew up with in Nigeria.
