No Seat is Safe When You Sit Alone: A wake-up call to Nigerian professionals in corporate spaces

By Chioma Amaryllis Ahaghotu

Let’s talk plainly.

In the tech world and many corporate spaces
Indians and other Asian communities dominate not just because they’re smart, but because they’re strategic. From the ground up, they prioritize collective advancement. One gets in, and they send the elevator down. They don’t just build résumés they build pipelines.

You see it in Silicon Valley. In big tech firms. In consulting. In engineering. From entry-level QA testers to executive leadership, Indians didn’t sneak in quietly. They walked in together. The recruiter is Indian, the hiring manager is Indian. You better believe the next five interviews are going to people with names that sound familiar to them. And that’s not nepotism, it’s community optimization.

Now compare that to many Nigerians in similar positions in Corporate America. . The moment we get a seat at the table, we start auditioning for comfort in and proximity to whi teness. Performing gratitude instead of positioning power. Saying things like:

“I don’t see color.”

“I just worked hard, and anyone else can too.”

“I don’t want to mix friendship with work.”

What we’re really saying is: “I like being the only one.”
Why? Because being the exception makes you feel safe. Special. Validated. Until you realize: no seat is safe when you sit alone.

Let’s take an example.

A Nigerian woman becomes a senior PM at a top tech company. She’s brilliant, no doubt. But when the opportunity comes to recommend someone, she’s quiet. She wants to stay “neutral.” Meanwhile, her Indian colleague has already forwarded five résumés to HR three of them from her old university WhatsApp group. Guess who builds an internal army, and guess who stays isolated?

Another example: a Nigerian software engineer finally lands at Google. Instead of plugging in junior devs from the diaspora, he isolates. Doesn’t want to be “too ethnic” or “play the race card.” Meanwhile, entire Slack channels and lunch groups are working overtime to ensure cousins, friends, and classmates land interviews. That’s not favoritism. That’s how power maintains itself.

We need to unlearn the performance of exceptionalism. You don’t become more valuable by being the only Black immigrant in the room. You become more vulnerable. Because when you fall (and every corporate star has a fall), there’s no safety net. No buffer. No one to say, “She was solid, I’ve worked with her kind before.” Because you made sure they never met your kind.

Indians have understood this for decades. Asians too. Latinos are catching on. Meanwhile, Nigerians are still caught up in the image of being the lone success story. The unicorn. The miracle immigrant.

But there’s nothing miraculous about being alone.
The real flex is community.
The real power move is representation that multiplies.
The legacy isn’t “I made it.” It’s “We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere.”

So next time you get a seat at the table, ask yourself:
Who am I bringing with me?
Because the only thing more dangerous than being excluded is thinking your inclusion means safety.

Chioma Amaryllis Ahagiotu on Facebook