Niger not Nigeria

When people ask me where I come from, I say, 'Niger,' and they say, 'Oh, Nigeria!'

I sigh and patiently reply, 'No, not Nigeria ... Niger.'

I have asked myself so many times, 'Why has nobody heard about Niger?' Is it because they did not study geography at school? Is it because we have never had a civil war there? Or maybe it's because we are simply not very useful to the West?

Whatever the reason, it saddens me to think that Niger - the poorest country in the world - remains unknown to most people around the world.