Nigeria, May 25 -- One of the hardest things to write about as a Nigerian is the subject of Nigeria itself. This is because any attempt to capture the full sense of this nation must take into account its layered complexities, its turbulent history, and its remarkable diversity of cultures and peoples. Simply put, Nigeria resists easy summation. To approach this country, to analyse it, celebrate it, critique it, one must come armed with nuance, prepared to navigate an overwhelming spread of realities that are at once contradictory, exhilarating, and deeply sobering. The writer who takes on this subject without that nuance risks producing something flattened and dishonest; the writer who succeeds produces something vital.

Zayd Ibn Isah is ...