NIGERIA THE GREAT COUNTRY
WHY I STILL BELIEVE IN NIGERIA
DR. SUNDAY ADELAJA
It sounds like a fantasy or a fairytale, but this is the kind of fairy tale that could soon become a reality. WHEN NIGERIA TEACHES AMERICA!
The United States of America, the most powerful nation on earth, which controls one quarter of the world’s economy, stands so tall that it doesn’t look possible for an African nation to be able to teach them anything, at least in the near 100 years. Anybody who has been to the United States or lived there would tell you that their colossal status in the world is not by accident. Surely, America is a great nation.
Let’s check out some statistics about the United States of America:
America is the father of our modern democracy.
America was the first to put a man on the moon.
Coca cola, the world’s most known soft-drink product comes from America.
America created the modern movie industry Hollywood.
America is the mother of the modern day technological age: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Internet, Facebook, Twitter etc.
America is a land of opportunities and equality.
America a country of religious liberty.
They are the inventors of the airplane through the Wright Brothers.
The American dollar is the most popular and most traded currency in the world.
America has produced the highest amount of Nobel Prize Winners in history – 270
I can guess what is going on in your mind. What is Pastor Sunday after? How is this guy going to write his way out of this? How is he going to top what is already stated to make Nigeria teach America? Ok, here we go.
Let’s start with the event of recent weeks. James Entwistle is an American Ambassador to Nigeria. After being an observer and a witness at Nigeria’s last elections, he made a remarkable statement that could signal to the greatness Nigeria possesses as a nation.
Despite our inadequacies and failures, even in the recently concluded elections, the Hon. Mr. Ambassador still made this compelling statement.
“I am very impressed by the decision of INEC to use technology in this election. The Permanent Voter Cards are very high-tech, they are more high tech than my voter card from the state of Virginia in the US. My voter card does not have biometric. It does not have my fingerprint. The high-tech gives the process more integrity. I congratulate INEC on taking the part of High-tech. I think we need to come and study it so that we can use it in my country.”
Could this be the proverbial cloud in the sky in the shape of a man’s hand that made Elijah to outrun King Ahab’s chariot? (1kings 18:44, 46).
Brethren, I see a picture of things to come for our beloved nation. Somehow I can see afar off, a day when Nigeria would arise as the leader of the black race, that will one day outrun the technologically advanced nations of the first world including America.
Mr. James Entwistle might not have had this in mind when he simply pointed out a visible fact during Nigeria’s last election, but beyond the visible, God sometimes allows us to perceive in the spirit things that are to come.
To anyone that has ears, let him hear today that America would eventually be referred to as the SETTING SUN, while the most populous black nation on earth would soon be referred to as the RISING SUN (Star).
Glimpses of this truth abound for those who have eyes to see. Allow me to share with you some of those facts that are already visible for everyone to see.
1. A big news hit the news rooms of the world media in the first quarter of 2015. Stars were born. Munira Khalif from Minnesota, Stephan Stoykov from Indiana, Victor Agbafe from North Carolina and Harold Ekeh from New York got multiple admission offers in all eight Ivy League schools in the United States of America: Brown University, Colombia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Preston University and Yale University.
This type of feat is recorded yearly in the United States of America. A semester before, Kwasi Enin, 17, a Ghanaian immigrant attained the same height. Still a few years earlier another Nigerian prodigy Saheela Ibraheem, attained the same height and ended up going to Harvard at 15. She is regarded as one of the 50 smartest teenagers in the world. She was treated to a dinner by no less a person than the President of the United States himself Barack Obama.
What makes this story of interest today is that, of the four outstanding students this year, TWO OF THEM ARE NIGERIANS, while all four are immigrants. Victor Agbafe and Harold Ekeh where born to Nigerian parents. This goes to prove my point that Nigeria is the rising star of the future world. While the fact that all the prodigies are immigrants shows that America is taking a nose dive and is becoming the setting star of the future.
2. America is a melting pot where all nations and tribes under the sun collate. Hardly can you find a better platform to access practically every nation on earth.
Friends, listen to this: NIGERIAN IMMIGRANTS HAVE THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION IN HOUSTON AND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN GENERAL, surpassing whites and Asians, according to a Census data bolstered by an analysis of 13 annual Houston-area surveys, the Houston Chronicle reports. According to a 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 17 percent of all Nigerians in the US hold a Master’s degree, 4 percent hold a doctorate and 37 percent have a bachelor’s degree.
In comparison, 8% of the white population in the U.S. hold a Master’s degree, 1% hold a doctorate and 19% have a bachelor’s degree.
Let’s face it, the education facilities in Nigerian schools, from Primary School to University level are inferior to that of the US. Also, the level of preparations in Nigerian universities is relatively low. Students are trained to know what is in the book. The practical area is weak, but in spite of all that, when a Nigerian leaves our substandard schools to a very competitive school environment like America they still beat the rest of the world to it.
For all these Nigerians to excel in a very competitive society and environment like America, it goes a long way to point out the potential of our people.
3. My third argument is simply put, DR. PHILIP EMEAGWALI.
Inventor of the World’s Fastest Computer: Emeagwali used 65,000 processors to invent the world’s fastest computer, which performs computations at 3.1 billion calculations per second.
Dr. Philip Emeagwali’s resume is loaded with many other such feats, including ways of making oil fields more productive – which has resulted in the United States saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year. As one of the most famous African-American inventors of the 20th century, Dr. Emeagwali also has won the Gordon Bell Prize – the Nobel Prize for computation. His computers are currently being used to forecast the weather and to predict the likelihood and effects of future global warming.
I have no doubt in my heart that given the same opportunity as Dr. Emeaguali, there are many more Nigerians that would perform as well if not better. Our land abounds with millions of Emeagwalis. Nigeria surely can teach the world.
4. Another reason why I believe Nigeria is the rising star of the future is in what the rest of the world would refuse to believe. WHO COULD HAVE BELIEVED THAT A NIGERIAN OWNS THE SECOND LARGEST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN ALL OF GREAT BRITAIN? Here is the story:
Up until February 2010, very few people had heard about Adebayo Ogunlesi. The Nigerian-born investment banker and money manager made international headlines when he led the acquisition of London’s Gatwick Airport from the British Airports Authority in a recorded £1.51 billion deal. The acquisition instantly propelled Ogunlesi, 58, into the global spotlight and earned him a place in history as the man who acquired London’s second largest international airport.
Adebayo Ogunlesi is the chairman and managing partner of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a New York-based independent private equity fund focused primarily on infrastructural investments, with over $5.6 billion under his management. The purchase of Gatwick Airport may have grabbed all the headlines, but GIP has some other noteworthy assets in its portfolio including a 75% stake in London City Airport, and Biffa Limited, a UK based waste management company.
Can you notice a repeating tendency that most of this outstanding Nigerians are based outside Nigeria? This explains the reason why I am so passionate about making Nigeria work. The amount of Nigerians outside the country is less than 1 percent of those in the country, yet we are having such a global impact on the world. What would happen if we fix Nigeria’s problems? What will happen if we give similar opportunities to the rest 99 percent of Nigerians living in the country? What kind of result would we then be producing?
Nigeria indeed can teach the rest of the world!!!
5. WHEN A NIGERIAN MADE DOLL OUTSELLS BARBIE, NOW THAT IS A REVOLUTION!
As Barbie sales continue to plummet, another doll is aiming to slide in and take her place. The Queens of Africa and Naija Princess dolls are outselling Mattel’s original. The dolls’ mastermind, 43-year-old Taofick Okoya, told Reuters that he sells between 6,000 and 9,000 dolls per month, claiming 10 to 15 percent of the small, but growing toy market in Nigeria.
That reminds me of the analogy we gave above about the SUN SET and the SUN RISE. For anybody that care to listen, Nigeria is going to be known as the rising star of the future world!
6. The sixth Reason why Nigeria is going to be the Rising star of the future world is because THE SMARTEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD IS NIGERIAN.
The BBC called the Imafidon family, Britain’s brainiest family and members of that family feature in most of the major media in Britain. Most recently in the premier business magazine in the world, Forbes. All five children, now ages 12- 24 have demonstrated incredible mental abilities in all domains. From music, to mathematics, to athletics. The youngest, the twins Peter and Paula passed the British high school mathematics examination at 6 and the Cambridge University advance mathematics examination, which most Harvard and Stanford seniors will have trouble with at age 8.
The oldest child Anne-Maria was the youngest ever to graduate from Oxford with a Master’s degree in both mathematics and computer science and is now the youngest vice president of a Fortune 500 Company, Deutche Bank. Another member of the family is in the leadership of the most powerful bank in the world Golden Sachs. The two immediate children, Christina and Samantha also passed the most difficult mathematical examinations in Britain before age 10. If one were to ask a statistician what are the odds that one family will produce 5 extraordinary geniuses, his answer would have to be about 1 out of 8 billion since it has never happened before.
Dear readers, now I hope you are beginning to agree with me that Nigeria is on its way to teach the rest of the world?
7. Most people know the name Aliko Dangote, but not too many people know that the best has not yet been heard about Dangote. This man is a visionary extraordinaire. He plans to glorify Nigeria and put her on the world stage in grand style.
Dangote is poised to make his Nigerian based company the number one producers of cement in the world.
Dangote Cement is a fully integrated cement company and has projects and operations in Nigeria and 14 other African countries; Dangote Cement’s current total production capacity in Nigeria from its three existing cement plants (Obajana 10.25MMTPA, Ibese 6.0MMTPA and Gboko 4.0MMTPA) is 20.25MMTPA.
The Obajana Cement Plant (OCP) located in Kogi State is reputed to be one of the single largest cement plants in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25MMTPA.
A fourth line which add 3.0MMTPA to the existing capacity will bring the total capacity of Obajana to 13.25MMTPA by 2015.
Dangote Cement is also the biggest quoted company in West Africa and the only Nigerian company on the Forbes Global 2000 Companies.
Dear friends, I so much believe in Nigeria. My reasons are not just because of emotions and sentiments. I mean, my believe is not because I come from Nigeria myself. Believe me I have traveled the world and I can tell you for a fact, there are no people like Nigerians. This is not about pride or arrogance, this is raw facts out of my interactions with people from almost every nation on earth. That is why nobody would make me keep quiet until we address and fix our vices as a nation. Because I want to see the full potential of Nigeria realized in my generation.
8. Another reason why Nigeria is the rising star of the future world is THE PHENOMENAL GROWTH OF THE NIGERIAN BANKS.
Thirteen Nigerian banks have been listed among the Leading 1000 Global Banks as published by The Banker magazine of the Financial Times Group in its 2014 edition.
The Nigerian banks that made the ranking based on Tier-1 capital are Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity Bank and Ecobank Nigeria.
Others are Skye Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria.
The report, which listed 13 Nigerian banks that made the ranking, underlines Nigeria’s financial sector’s leading position in Africa as no other African country has up to 13 banks in the Top 1000 World listing of banks.
According to the report, Zenith Bank ranked top in Nigeria at 293 in the world. Guaranty Trust is number 415 in the world. First Bank is number 424 in the world. Access Bank is number 532. United Bank for Africa ranked 539. And Fidelity ranked 622 position.
I don’t have any doubt in my heart that with an increase in stability of our economic and political life, our banks could only rank higher and higher. The sky is the limit for the future of Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
9. The best bet Nigeria has to lead the world however, is in her young people, which she has in abundance. The trend seems to be whenever Nigerians are given the right environment to function, they tend to exceed their contemporaries and colleagues. I would like to mention a few stories of outstanding young individuals who left the shores of Nigeria to become the best in the various nations they found themselves in.
A 22-year-old Nigerian, Emmanuel Ohuabunwa, made history at John Hopkins University, United States of America. Ohuabunwa from Arochukwu, Abia State, did the nation proud by becoming the first black man to make a Grade Point Average of 3.98 out of 4.0 to bag a degree in Neurosciences in the university. He was also adjudged as having the highest honors during the graduation that was held on May 24 that year.
A genius could be referred to as an exceptional child who is academically sound. But, how would you describe an individual who never misses a point in his examinations from first year in the university to the final year? If there is any adjective to qualify such a person, that word could best describe Tunji Olu-Taiwo, an Engineering student of Eastern Mediterranean University in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus who obtained 4.0 CGPA out of 4.0 CGPA, the first ever in the department.
Over the past five years, Nigerian students at the Russian National Research Medical University have consistently topped the graduation chat, bagging honors and contributing their wealth of knowledge to the University’s academic status.
Olalusi, who for three years represented Nigeria in the University’s Hall of Fame, delivered valedictory speech as the best graduating Student in the Faculty of Clinical Sciences with a grade point of 5.0CGPA out of 5.0CGPA possible.
In the same University in the year 2012 another Nigerian student, Ganiyu Sanusi bagged the “Best Student of the year” award at the University’s quiz competition. He graduated as the best student in the faculty with first-class honors and a CGPA of 5.0.
Another Nigeria-born Alonge Olanike Omotola, who in 2010 represented the country on the Russian national research university hall of fame, bagged first-class honors degree in Medicine and Surgery. She was the best Graduating student and valedictorian for that year.
A 24-year-old Nigerian, Uwa Osamede Imafidon, graduated from theUniversity of Texas at Arlington(UTA) in the US with Masters in Microbiology and made a 4.0 CGPA out of the maximum 4.0 CGPA
This is just a small list of incredibly talented young Nigerians that are scattered all over the world pursuing their dreams and proving to be best in their fields. In the next 20 years, these people will be leading the world for sure. Friends, I don’t have any doubt in my mind about the place and future of Nigeria among the comity of nations.
10. Finally, in all humility. I am not going to allow anybody to forget about Pastor Sunday Adelaja. The only black man in the world that leads a congregation of mostly Caucasians in 50 countries. Below are some facts about Pastor Sunday’s life and ministry.
Pastor Sunday is the pastor of the largest Evangelical Church in Europe with a population of 99.9% white Europeans in Kiev Ukraine.
His ministry has charity units that feed over 5000 people on a daily basis.
Through his ministry over 30 thousand people have been delivered from drug and alcohol addictions.
He helped raise over 200 millionaires in US dollars in his church, most of whom were former drug/ alcohol addicts and societal outcasts.
He has raised a global movement that is influencing over 70million people around the globe.
Branches of his church are in over 50 countries.
He has spoken in different nations of the world on National Transformation.
Pastor Sunday is one of the few, if not the only African, who has ever spoken in the US senate.
Pastor Sunday is one of the few African pastors who has spoken on the floor of the UN.
He has addressed the Japanese Members of parliament.
He has spoken in the Knesset to members of Israeli parliament. The list goes on and on.
His ministry has over 500 hundred government officials holding different government positions in Ukraine.
He has written and published over 300 books and recorded thousands of messages.
Many have challenged me to come to Africa to contribute my quota. Have no doubt about it. I am coming sooner or later. Right now I am busy fighting the demons, forces of evil and principalities of Europe and Russia. But, in the meanwhile, I am also thinking about my beloved county Nigeria and mother Africa for which I am developing some grand plans and projects. By the grace of God, by the time I am privileged to come to Africa, everything I have achieved so far would dwarf compared to what I would be doing for the African continent by God’s grace.
Now on a personal note, I would like to say that when I was growing up in Africa, I never saw anything special about myself that could distinguish me from the millions of kids in my nation. As a matter of fact, there are still so many millions of Sunday Adelajas wasting away in their villages and hamlets without any sort of recognition whatsoever.
I was destined to be in their number if not for divine grace. Whenever I visit Nigeria I see myself in all those young men. I see myself in those barefooted boys and girls running about the streets with protruding stomachs without shirts, hawking one product or the other for survival. That was me!
In fact, I still count it the biggest miracle of my life when a distant relative paid off my fifty naira WAEC fee (Final high school exams). Otherwise I was on my way out into the world without a high school certificate, because of fifty naira that my whole family could not come up with. Friends, believe me mine was not the only case. Cases like this abound in their millions all over Nigeria and Africa.
Many of them are wasted in the villages and farms of the continent. The Emeagwalis, the Adelajas, the Chimamandas, the Ogunlesis, the Dangotes, the Imafidons, the Okoyas etc. Imagine what awaits Nigeria when all our potential is harnessed towards the development of every Citizen, Nigeria, Africa and the world at large.
I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT NIGERIA WILL ONE DAY LEAD OUR WORLD!
This article is called WHY I BELIEVE IN NIGERIA. but in the same vein, it could easily be called: The Next World Super Power or When Africa Leads the World.
I see that many people who read my articles can’t seem to understand the reason for my passion about Nigeria. I have seen the future of this country.
“Let others lead small lives, but not you.
Let others argue over small things, but not you.
Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.
Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”
– Jim Rohn
Besides I have been privileged to compete in universities where we had students from 99 countries of the world and a Nigerian was leading the pack. This is not unusual as seen in the stories above. In over 60 countries of the world where I have been, Nigerians are always the head and not the tail, the first and not the last.
I remember in 2005 while in Seoul South Korea. Some South Koreans scientists told me they carried out an experiment, which showed that Nigerians have one of the 3 top IQ’s in the world.
Nigerians are resilient, hardworking, passionate, enterprising and aggressive even though most people tend to unfairly emphasize only the negative part of Nigerians, but there is much more to Nigerians than negative tendencies. I admit we are not without our demons, yet as said by Mario Andretti
“If everything is under control, you are not going fast enough.”
Can you imagine, a country where there is NO functioning electricity 24 hours? What will begin to happen if all our citizens have a 100% electricity supply? If Nigerians could come top in all the above listed areas of life, without any basic amenities. Imagine then what will happen if they were to have all these things.
Friends, can you imagine what would happen if every Nigerian child, in every village is raised up in a sanitized environment, with good nutrition, libraries, water supply, transportation system, equal opportunities, access to money, education, good health facilities etc. We don’t have much yet, still we are leading the world. What will happen if all the above mentioned facilities are in place?
We know the long list of our failures, despite all the things we lack as a nation, yet we perform. Now imagine what could have been. Today Nigerian’s economy is ranked number 26 in the world.
But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. Matt 19:30
I am convinced that if we get just one thing right which is electricity. Our GDP growth will double from 6% yearly to 12% which will propel us to become one of the top 3 countries in the world in the next 20 years.
I believe in Nigeria, that is why I would not compromise nor refrain from speaking the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth that will be able to set us free from the shackles of our weaknesses and inadequacies and propel us into our glorious destiny.
NIGERIA SHALL INDEED ONE DAY TEACH THE WORLD
“Let others lead small lives, but not you.
Let others argue over small things, but not you.
Let others cry over small hurts, but not you.
Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”
– Jim Rohn
SO HELP US GOD!!!
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CHURCH AND NATION
By Dr. Sunday Adelaja.
*Confusion in a country - Nigeria!!!*
✓ A 14-year-old cannot be admitted into university to study, but a 13-year-old can be married.
✓ A school certificate holder cannot become a director in the civil service, but a school certificate holder can become president of the entire country.
✓ The country is among the major oil-producing countries in the world, but it imports the fuel it consumes.
✓ The country has the highest number of foreign Doctors in the UK and USA, but its leaders travel abroad for their medical needs.
✓ The country shoots armless protesters but holds peace parleys with bandits.
✓ The country rehabilitates terrorists, but their victims languish in refugee camps.
✓ UAE and Qatar are deserts converted to
paradise. Nigeria is "paradise" converted to "hell". ...
Let each of us ponder over this...
When will Nigeria be saved?ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
*ROAD MAP TO SOLVE NIGERIAN ETHNICITY CRISIS, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT*
See what @Aminu Sa'ad Beli wrote on his wall. Moving forward I will start promoting peaceful separation for healthy development.
------------------
SEPARATION IS NOT ABOUT WAR, IT HAS PEACEFUL ASPECT.
In 1776, the USA split from the UK
In 1830 Belgium separated from the Netherlands
In 1965, Singapore split off from Malaysia
in 2002, East Timor got split off from Indonesia
In 1921, Ireland split off from the United Kingdom, and (possibly in the future) there will be secession of Scotland.
In 1944, Iceland split from Denmark with remarkable ease.
In 1905 Norway split from Denmark
In 1905, Norway and Sweden also peacefully split ways. One got the car. the other got the kids.
In 1947, the British India Dominion was partitioned into India n Pakistan. In 1971, Bangladesh secceeded from Pakistan.
In 1992-93, the two parts of Czechoslovakia agreed to each go their own way. Thus were born the Czech Republic and Slovakia after what's been named the “Velvet Divorce”., About the same time, another kind of separation occurred, of course, in Yugoslavia. This one led to a bloodshed.
in 1965, Singapore split from Malaysia for a variety of reasons, including religious (Malaysia is majority Muslim, Singapore isn't), ethnic/racial (Singapore has a very large majority Chinese population) and concerns over the Malaysian Bumiputra policy, which was (and is) basically a form of "Affirmative Action" for Muslim Malaysians - who make up the majority population in Peninsular Malaysia.
Ethiopia and Eritrea
Sudan and South Sudan are now separate countries
USSR is now broken down into several countries.
I see separation as an avenue for a healthy competition for development as the case of Singapore and Malaysia, India and Pakistan, Norway/Denmark/Switzerland.
In the case of Nigeria, I am sensing a healthy competitive development among the original component part, the North/West/East each making useful progress while competing with the others.
It is not about war after all there is nothing wrong for one to decide he is no longer comfortable with the union and therefore want to opt out.
LETS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE AND SEPARATE HONORABLY.
This is worth sharing over and over again...
British named them Burma. They rejected it, restructured & renamed themselves Myanmar.
-British named them Upper Volta, but they rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Burkina Faso - Land of Incorruptible People.
-British named them Gold Coast, they rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Ghana.
-British named them Southern Rhodesia. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Zimbabwe.
-British named them Northern Rhodesia. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Zambia.
-British named them Tanganyika. They rejected it, restructured & renamed themselves Tanzania.
-Germans named them colony of South West Africa. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Namibia.
-France named them Dahomey. They rejected it, restructured and renamed themselves Benin.
-Belgium named them Zaire. However, they rejected it, restructured & renamed themselves Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
-Britain named a bunch of people - Nigeria. They rather kill to preserve it than restructure and give themselves a befitting new name.
"It is only an animal that bears the name that is given to it by his enemy" (Proverb).
THE FUTILITY OF PRESERVING NIGERIA
My angry reaction earlier today on APC UK platform:
Most of the Diasporans here living in Europe. Can you show me one multi-ethnic state in Europe where one group is positioned to dominate the rest that hasn't broken up?
For those who do not know, what you call ethnic groups in Nigeria are called nations in Europe.
There's nowhere in the world where the white man accepts domination from another white man in perpetuity.
It used to be so under the Roman empire and the like. Not anymore. The Communists tried it, dividing society into capitalists and proletariats, deluding themselves that ethnicity is effectively swept under the carpet, but what followed? The Communist edifices in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the big brother, USSR, all collapsed, while the two Germans that are ethnically the same but split by communism vs capitalism were reunited. Such is the power of ethnic nationalism.
Czechoslovakia was made up of two ethnic groups, the Czech and the Slovakians. Both separated peacefully on 1st January 1993. The former is today 10.6 million people and the latter 5.4 million. Added together, they're not up to Lagos. Yet, they split for peace. Two masters can't be in the same house.
Yugoslavia in 1991 was 23.2 million, barely more than Lagos population. It broke into six countries same year - all along ethnic lines, namely: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.
Then the big brother, USSR. It had, at least, the following ethnic groups identified by their languages:
Regional languages:
Ukrainian
Belarusian
Uzbek
Kazakh
Georgian
Azerbaijani
Lithuanian
Moldavian
Latvian
Kyrgyz
Tajik
Armenian
Turkmen
Estonian
Minority languages:
Abkhaz
Bashkir
Buryat
Chechen
Finnish
Volga German
Korean
Ossetian
Tatar
& various others.
Today, your fingers will not be enough to count the number of countries that have emerged from the USSR.
Sit down there and be preaching unity in Nigeria as if you're the kindest gentleman on earth while you have no solution to the genocide in Southern Kaduna, the illegal but officially condoned arms in the hands of killer herdsmen roaming the country, and be condemning those better informed about the fact that the country is undergoing the strains of a forced union and should be peacefully restructured or let people go their separate ways.
In Europe, the two best examples of fairly stable multi-ethnic states are the UK and Switzerland. The former is led by reasonable men who permitted regional autonomy to the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh, while the English dominate Westminster. That's something some of us are asking for, but you're fighting against it in your own country wracked by ethnic crisis. Your own people are better off under oppression of fellow black men because your people have bad leaders who can't do better than their new internal colonisers.
The latter country, Switzerland, has four ethnic groups. Each of them rotates the presidency annually through seven cantons that constitute the federation units. All the four languages of the four ethnic groups are recognized as official languages and school languages to boot, namely: German, French, Italian, and Romansch that has just a few thousand speakers!
There's nowhere in the world where the Caucasians allow the domination of their group by another.
In Canada, Quebec is the only full French-speaking province, aside a little section of New Brunswick. The other seven provinces are English-speaking. Yet, Canada is bilingual for the sake of Quebec! And each of the provinces is largely self-governing.
Here we are in Nigeria, you have people arguing vehemently that a decrepit, structurally-flawed, and crisis-prone artificial contraption badly configured by the British only needs good people to survive. Why not centralise the powers of the British regions to London and see what happens?
My Conclusion:
When many commentators read and repost or share your articles with many of their friends and contacts, they do so because they want others to learn.
NIGERIA'S 36 STATES & FCT RANKED IN ORDER OF LAND SURFACE AREA (KM²)*
1. Niger State 76,363KM²
2. Borno State 70,898KM²
3. Taraba State 54,473KM²
4. Kaduna State 46,053KM²
5. Bauchi State 45,837KM²
6. Yobe State 45,502KM²
7. Zamfara State 39,762KM²
8. Adamawa State 36,917KM²
9. Kwara State 36,825KM²
10. Kebbi State 36,800KM²
11. Benue State 34,059KM²
12. Plateau State 30,913KM²
13. Kogi State 29,833KM²
14. Oyo State 28,454KM²
15. Nasarawa State 27,117KM²
16. Sokoto State 25,973KM²
17. Katsina State 24,192KM²
18. Jigawa State 23,154KM²
19. Cross River State 20,156KM²
20. Kano State 20,131KM²
21. Gombe State 18,768KM²
22. Edo State 17,802KM²
23. Delta State 17,698KM²
24. Ogun State 16,762KM²
25. Ondo State 15,500KM²
26. Rivers State 11,077KM²
27. Bayelsa State 10,773KM²
28. Osun State 9,251KM²
29. Federal Capital Territory 7,315KM²
30. Enugu State 7,161KM²
31. Akwa Ibom State 7,081KM²
32. Ekiti State 6,353KM²
33. Abia State 6,320KM²
34. Ebonyi State 5,670KM²
35. Imo State 5,530KM²
36. Anambra State 4,844KM²
37. Lagos State 3,345KM²
*Anambra + Enugu + Abia + Imo + Ebonyi = 29,525KM²*
*Kogi = 29,833KM²*
*Ogun + Oyo + Osun + Ondo + Ekiti = 76,320KM²*
*Lagos = 3,345KM²*
*Niger alone = 76,363KM²*
*Niger State = Entire Southwest States - Lagos*
*The entire Southeast
is a little less than Kogi State only.
Just for our record
The North Has enough land for ranching and cattle colony.
We in the South West have little land mass. PLEASE LET US BE; LEAVE US ALONE TO MANAGE THE LITTLE LAND WE HAVE
*GLOBAL CATTLE BUSINESS: FACT SHEET*
*A*. Top 10 NATIONS in terms of cattle inventory (2017).
1. INDIA 303 million
2. BRAZIL 226 million
3. CHINA 100 million.
4. USA 93 million.
5. EU 89 million.
6. ARGENTINA 53 million
7. AUSTRALIA 27 million
8. RUSSIA 18 million
9. MEXICO 16 million
10. TURKEY 14 million.
*B*. TOP 10 MILK EXPORTERS
1. NEW ZEALAND $4.4 Billion
2. GERMANY $2.6 Billion
3. NETHERLANDS $1.9 Billion
4. FRANCE $1.5 Billion
5. USA $1.4 Billion
6. BELGIUM $1.2 Billion
7. AUSTRALIA $852 Million
8. BELARUS $637 Million
9. UK $569 Million
10. SAUDI ARABIA $556 Million
*C*. TOP 10 BEEF EXPORTING NATIONS (2016).
1. AUSTRALIA $5.6 Billion
2. USA $5.2 Billion
3. BRAZIL $4.3 Billion
4. INDIA $3.7 Billion
5. NETHERLANDS $2.7 Billion
6. IRELAND $2 Billion
7. NEW ZEALAND $1.9 Billion
8. CANADA $1.5 Billion
9. URUGUAY $1.4 Billion
10. GERMANY $1.3 Billion
*Additional Considerations*:
1. Nigeria is not among the top 20 nations in the global cattle business.
2. Non of the top cattle producing nations create cattle colonies or engage in primitive cattle grazing. All the top cattle producing and exporting nations utilise modern technology and ranching methods to maximise production and profit.
3. Non of the top nations earning billions of dollars annually from the cattle business condone the killing of citizens for cattle.
4. Nigeria's cattle business requires a complete re-think now and not later, for posterity's sake. It's now or never..
_Knowledge_is_power,_ *Share to educate our leaders and citizens..
*GOD BLESS NIGERIA. AMEN*
UNFAIR AND IGNORANT STEREOTYPING OF NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS
This is a long write up. Please be patient to read it.
CASE STUDY 1
A few years ago we won a new piece of very large multinational business worth over £100m to our global group. But this client insisted he wanted a non Nigerian to head the business unit within our office. Because we had never hired a foreigner, it was a bit tough getting one. We finally did, a South African who everyone, especially the local client was happy with. On the day he was expected to move to Lagos, he was arrested at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Jo’burg because he had allegedly committed massive fraud in his former company. As he was being driven back to the city by the police, he jumped out of the fast-moving squad car and was reportedly badly injured. That was the end to the idea of a foreign staff. My Nigerian staff did the job for many years and very well too.
CASE STUDY 2
I attended a global network conference in Joburg for very senior WPP/Ogilvy people. As was usually the case, the first evening we all met at the bar for pre dinner drinks. Everything was going well until the alcohol began to loosen their tongues and somehow the conversation switched to Nigeria and corruption. Almost everyone had something negative to say. I quietly listened to their inebriated comments and finally asked if I could ask a few questions. They accepted. So I asked if they all had prisons in their countries. Not knowing where I was headed, they guffawed and said “of course ‘Lolu”. I then asked if the prisons were filled with Nigerians. They hmm’d and errm’d but finally answered in the negative. So I did my home run and coup de grace and added that what this meant was their countries also had criminals and corrupt people. They became very quiet and the next evening most avoided my company. Good riddance to rubbish. Bloody hypocrites.
Now where am I going?
Yesterday I put a post on Facebook on the need for Nigerian entrepreneurs and organizations to patronize qualified Nigerians in employing people as it had become fashionable to bring in especially Asians who are not necessarily more qualified and better and cost more to maintain as expats.
The post received mostly positive responses and many agreed with me. However, a few responses didn’t agree and some said they would prefer to hire foreigners because of integrity issues. They averred that Nigerians are criminal and corrupt and would kill their businesses. One or two cited some accounts to justify this position.
I felt sad reading them and will tell you why:
1• It is not true that Nigerians will wreck your business and steal from you. It is not a general rule or assumption. Since 1992, we have run the PGA Group and have never hired a single foreigner. And the businesses have grown and done well. And while we have had one or two cases of staff who showed an unacceptable level of integrity, most have been straight forward and very very honest. And over the period within the group we will have cumulativeky hired between 500 and 1000 people or slightly more.
2• This belief that foreigners are not corrupt is in itself corrupted thinking. Many people will tell you the problems they have had here with corrupt foreigners. As senior staff. As junior staff. Even as cooks and house keepers. I know a few.
3• Trusted Nigerians are doing so well in nearly all parts of the world as technocrats, professionals, political leaders, administrators, judges, policemen etc. And they serve with integrity and are making us very proud. I was on admission in a UK major hospital in 2021 and the foreign Consultant swore about Nigerian doctors. He spoke lovingly about their hard work, integrity and commitment. I felt very proud.
4• There is a lot of crime now in Europe and especially the UK. House breaking. Robberies. Pickpocketing. Murders. Credit card frauds. And most of the accused are Asians and Eastern Europeans. Very few Nigerians. Now do we then say all Asians and Eastern Europeans are criminals? Would it be right to generalize and stereotype?
Many Nigerians who hire foreigners also need to investigate their own integrity levels. Many steal from the companies they set up. Many encourage bribery and corruption. The Nigerian staff see all these and simply join their bosses in the debauchery and bad behaviour. Where ethical standards are high and flow from the top, the incidence of these things is much reduced.
And btw I was a member of a panel of discussants at an event organized by the Convention on Business Integrity where Prof Yemi Osinbajo told us that the total number of prisoners in Nigeria was less than 80,000. We were all shocked. You would imagine maybe millions? I did my research later and compared with large population countries and found Nigerian number was one of the lowest.
Didn’t we all feel so proud a week or so ago as Nigerian athletes performed extremely well in Accra. Were those 419 people? Criminals? How about the footballers all over Europe? Many teams would function less if their Nigerian players were to leave. Health practice in many places in America would also suffer if Nigerian doctors and nurses were removed. These are not 419 or criminals. They remain Proudly Nigerian. Nigerians are proudly part of the American and Canadian and British administrations. Are these corrupt and 419 Nigerians?
As I round up I must say this. A few years ago, America certified Nigeria a drug nation and many of us were shocked. And this was not because Nigerians were high users of hard drugs but because some of the drugs passed through our borders to other countries. And it was interesting that America of all people was the one labelling and sanctioning us. All the drugs consumed in Nigeria isn’t even up to what is consumed in the Bronx in NY. Yet no one ever certified or branded America a drug nation.
My final submission is that Nigerians are too quick to condemn anything Nigerian. We have an inferiority complex and believe it’s only good if it’s foreign. We also believe all Nigerians are corrupt and criminal. We now head to Asia to bring in “clean” people who are so clever when they cheat and steal they are so perfect you will never know. And then we go about boasting about how we prefer to hire them. We are a people to be pitied.
I headed the last National Rebranding campaign for Nigeria as the CEO and worked with the late Dora Akunyili. During this period I got to know more about our people, my people. We may be boisterous. Loud. Sometimes aggressive. Love good parties and jollification etc. But in majority we are honest people. Hardworking. Resilient. Trusted and trust worthy. We leave our cars to mechanics we hardly know and they return them to us intact. We invite artisans into our homes to work and nothing happens. That we have some incidences of bad behavior does not make all 200 million of us criminals.
And have you observed that the Nigerians in the diaspora who talk down on Nigeria are majorly those who are not doing too well? They are the ones who are happy when the exchange rate shoots up so they can make more money from the proceeds of their odd jobs. The very serious professionals don’t have the time.
We must show faith in Nigeria and Nigerians. We must stop running this country down. There’s a lot of good things to say about Nigeria and Nigerians. Tooooooo many good things. Let’s stop focusing on what the foreign press loves to do… the negatives. Let’s defend what’s good in Nigeria. Let’s showcase our successes. We admit things are not always good but it’s the same everywhere. It’s a country with a great future and we will get there.
Let’s be Proudly Nigerian. We are a good people and a great nation.
God bless Nigeria. Amen.
DR. SUNDAY ADELAJA
writes from Ukraine.
🟰🟰🟰
STOP CONDEMNING NIGERIA, WE ARE DOING BETTER THAN MOST COUNTRIES, INCLUDING ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
I am starting this year with a message to my countrymen Nigerians.
Today I choose to celebrate Nigeria. I’m tired and fed up of all the evil reports. While I don’t deny all the issues and failures of our nation and in particular of our leaders, I want to intentionally move away from all the stories of woes and point my country men to the other side of the coin.
There is always another side to any story as with any coin. So in Nigeria’s story there is also the other side that we hardly hear about. (In this article I’m using 60 years as an approximate age for nigeria).
1. Ever heard that Nigeria can’t produce anything even ordinary pencil? Stop speaking down on your country. Nigeria produces; automobiles, trucks, cars, copters, military wares, ships, pharmaceutical goods, agric machinery etc. How many countries have done this after only 60 years of independence?
2. At independence we had only one university. The university of Ibadan. Today, we have 170 Universities, 105 Polytechnics and about 100 Colleges Of Education. Compare that with what’s obtainable in other countries with similar fundamentals.
3. At independence our colonial masters only left us with 200 qualified medical doctors in the whole country. Today Unilag alone produces 250 doctors per annum. Nation wide Nigeria produces 12.000 doctors annually. ANPA - Association of Nigerian Physicians in Northern America, New York branch has 5000 Nigerian Doctors and Medical Professionals. 2nd highest ethnic group of Physicians in the United States and UK after India. Would you say that’s of no essence intellectual development, bearing in mind where we are coming from. Yes, they move abroad for greener pastures but this too shall pass, it’s a stage most countries pass through in their history.
4. 30 yrs ago, Lekki Peninsula was a mangrove. Including Ibeju Lekki that now houses the Dangote refinery which is said to be the largest single-train refinery in the whole world. Today, that whole axis ranks among the fastest developing estates in the world.
5. When the British colonisers left our shores there was not a single Nigerian Pilot 60 yrs ago. We are still not where we need to be, but Nigeria doesn’t need to import all her pilots as was the case a few decades ago. Today, we have female Nigerian Pilots flying planes with international airlines.
6. In sports we were not represented before independence. Now, Tobi Amusan and others before her have put us on the world map in athletics. In soccer our feats especially in junior football is unmatched and unparalleled in the history of the sport. The first African Nation to participate and win a Junior world Cup. We've won it 5 times, becoming runners up 3 times, the only country to come close to us is Brazil with 4 titles and 2 runners-up. We have even won 27 Olympics medals, Gold medals in Football, Sprint and High Jump.
7. Too many people glorify our past as if we were doing better than now. In reality it’s not anything close to the truth. All the so called cotton, groundnut pyramids, cocoa, timber etc gave us only about 4 billion USD GDP as at 1960, today it’s over 500 billion.
9. Within 60 years of corporate existence, we've produced a Nobel Prize Winner, A Pulitzer Award Winner, and other professional leaders of global repute.
10. Nigeria now has 5 satellites in space. In 60 years we now do Renal Surgery, IVR, organ transplant, and some good scientific breakthroughs. Could we have done better, yes of course and we should do better. But the point of this write up is that we often don’t even acknowledge what we have. To go higher we must take inventory of who we are and where we are. If we don’t know what we have we can’t be able to improve on it.
11. At the time of independence more Nigerians were dying than alive. Poor hygiene has now reduced to the extent that polio and cholera had been eradicated. This had dropped the number of children per woman from an average of 8 in 1960 to 3-4 in 2019. Infant mortality dropped from about 300/1000 to 100/1000 in 2021.
12. Nigeria contributes about 5% of global fossil fuel. This had earned billions of dollars, though not properly managed but had kept our finances as a nation going, helping us to experience the level of growth other nations couldn’t boast of.
13. We had fought the civil war and recovered, 20 regime changes, we had survived about 5 military regimes we now have 20yrs of uninterrupted democracy. Let’s compare this our instability with that of some countries in Europe, Italy has had about 50 regime changes in the same period. Some other nations didn’t even have the privilege of regime change because of the overbearing of dictators who won’t leave office until death do them apart.
15. Most of us reading this post are living in a "Cement Building” want to know how houses were built 60 years ago? Pay a visit to your granny's building in the "village". Yes, we are not where we need to be but we have moved a long way from where we used to be. Progress is not always in a leap but in gradual advancement.
16. The Sardauna of Sokoto, late Ahmadu Bello once complained that the entire Northern Nigeria had less than 10 graduates as at independence. Today the university named after him yearly produces about 10 thousand graduates.
17. Today we don’t often hear of cases of human sacrifice by the authorities of the land. Yes we unfortunately still suffer in the hands of kidnappers and money ritualists. However in 1960, the Oba, Igwe or Emir of your village was a god! They even have power of life and death. Today you can even take him to court if he infringes on your rights. Let me tell you it’s far from where we were.
18. Almost 2 million Nigerians write JAMB per year. That's 2 million people that can at least read compare to 90% of Nigerians that could not even read and write as of 1960, today we still have illiterates but not close to what we used to have.
19. How many military generals did we have 60 years ago? How many naval Admirals? How many airforce commanders? How many professors? How many Vice Chancellors , How many military bases, Banks? Bank directors and managers? SME directors, music producers, world class singers and composers, authors, engineers, architects, business men and women? At independence all we had then were itinerant subsistence farmers and the elites were the village teachers.
20. The entire south west Nigeria had only one TV and one radio station as at 1960. Today, we have over 200 functional private radio & TV stations in Nigeria.
NIGERIANS ARE NOT BEING FAIR TO NIGERIA
I’m sure I’m not the only person who is tired and fed up of all the stories of woes about Nigeria. In this article I’m going to be mainly writing in snippets and points to make it easier for my readers. I have already written seven books on Nigeria and her greatness, now I’m majorly giving out some bullet points for easier digestion.
1. Whenever Nigerians speak about their country it’s usually in derogatory manner, criticism and a times even hatred is what we see
2. If the hatred and anger is not directed at the nation it’ll be directed at the leadership. Most Nigerians believe we’ve had bad leaders since independence and that’s our problem, I believe this is debatable, again in comparison with other countries.
3. I personally think the reason we behave like this is because we are over zealous about our desires for our country, which is not a bad thing
4. Our expectations are too high, we are impatient and unrealistic in our desires, which is a form of greed
5. When it comes to leadership I personally think Nigeria hasn’t had it as bad: Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Gen Obasanjo, Shagari, Mohammadu Buhari, Chief Shonekan, Umaru Yar adua, were not perfect but some of the best compare to historical leaders of other nations.
6. When it comes to development even here Nigerians are not being fair to their country. Nigeria is number 24 of 200 countries in the world
7. More so it’s the youngest most successful country, no country is younger than Nigeria and richer than her. We are the richest of all the young countries in the world
8. Countries that are richer and greater than us have had a longer history and civilization than us
9. We often compare ourselves to todays USA, Germany and England, are we being realistic really?
10. Let’s see how life was in America when they were 150 years old, not when they were 60 like us but when they were twice our age
11. Things were much worse in America than it is presently in Nigeria, the truth is it takes time to build a nation
12. Nations are not built overnight. Poverty was worse in England a hundred years ago, than it is In Nigeria today, China was nothing to write about
13. Just a hundred years ago the average life expectancy in America was 47 years, almost 150 years after independence, we have 54-60 years but we are not 150 years old, only 60
14. 100 years ago only 14% of American homes had toilets or bathrooms, almost same as nigeria today what did Americans do, they worked hard and continued to build their nation
15. When America was 150 years old, only 8% of Americans had a telephone in nigeria at 60 it’s almost 70%
16. The average income per person in America was 2000 dollars, In Nigeria at 60 it’s close to 3 thousand dollars not after 150 years like USA
17. The hospital situation was so bad that 95% of all births were at home in America, after 150 years of independence
18. Illiteracy level was almost as high as nigeria now, even though it’s oyinbo land most couldn’t read or write. At 150 years old Only 6% of Americans finished high school. In nigeria it is 60% literacy rate at 60 years.
19. After 150 years, 20% of Americans who were considered the rich people had slaves, servants and maids in their homes, while close to have of the population were subservient to the 20%
20. Talk about Canada they actually passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering into their country for any reason whatsoever, it was a jungle country in their values.
21. So every nation grows and evolves into great nations according to how much dedication and hard work they put into it. Rome was not built in a day.
22. Let’s talk about Nigerians today in today’s America. Although Nigerians make up a tiny portion of the U.S. population, a whopping 17 percent of all Nigerians in this country held master's degrees while 4 percent had a doctorate. In addition, 37 percent had bachelor's degrees.
23. To put those numbers in perspective, only 8 percent of the white population in the U.S. had master's degrees, according to the Census survey. And 1 percent held doctorates. About 19 percent of white residents had bachelor's degrees. Asians come closer to the Nigerians with 12 percent holding master's degrees and 3 percent having doctorates
24. Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University who conducts the annual Houston Area Survey, suspects the percentage of Nigerian immigrants with post-graduate degrees is higher than Census data shows.
25. Of all the Nigerian immigrants he reached in his random phone surveys 1994 through 2007 — 45 households total — Klineberg said 40 percent of the Nigerians said they had post-graduate degrees. "These are higher levels of educational attainment than were found in any other community," Klineberg said.
NIGERIA’S UNREGULATED POPULATION GROWTH IS OUR ALBATROSS
To Those Who Say We Have Nothing To Show For 60 Years Of Independence:
STOP SPEAKING DOWN ON YOUR COUNTRY, DO YOUR RESEARCH, PRESENT YOUR EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES.
Compare the achievements and track records of Nigeria to those of the great nations of the world today when they were 60 years or even when they were 100 years old as independent and sovereign countries, in particular countries like England and USA. You can only objectively assess a situation when there is something to compare it to.
1. If not for our unregulated population growth, Nigeria would have been assessed more highly than the tiger nations of Korea, Singapore or Taiwan, as you’ll see below.
2. If we had regulated our population to grow same rate as for example England we would have been living better than some countries in Europe.
3. Despite all our numerous failures, our results in economic growth can only be compared to that of middle belt nations of Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and Japan. I’m presenting the facts to you here so please put aside your emotions and consider them.
4. In 1960 our GDP was 4 billion dollars approximately, to a population of 45 million, which means the per capita was 88 US dollars per citizen.
5. Today if we only take 400 billion as our GDP to 215 million people it makes our per capita to be at 2,300 US dollars. Remember this is from 88 dollars per capital at independence. How many times growth is that?
6. Our GDP growth is one of the highest in the history of the world, better and faster than that of America or Great Britain, 400 times, or 10.000% since independence. Remember I’m only using 400 billion as our GDP benchmark, even though we are close to 500 billion now.
7. The population growth since 1960 is 377% growth rate. This is the genesis of our sorrow as a nation.
8. Meanwhile the British population grew by only 30% in 60 years from 52.4 million to 68 million.
9. At the same time the per capita growth of Britain economy is 3.000%
10. Their GDP grew at the same period is 3.600% in Britain. Notice that their real nominal GDP growth is almost at par with their growth per capita.
11. If our per capita (or population) was to grow as our nominal GDP which is 10.000%, then the standard of living of our people would have increased 10.000% but unfortunately that’s not the case because our population has completely consumed our growth, such that it hardly shows in our per capita.
12. Our economy has grown by 800% yearly in the last 60 years. As of 1960 our GDP per capita was 88 dollars, today it is 2,300 dollars. So we have a growth of 2,500%, as against the UK with 3.000% per capita growth, while their GDP growth for some period was 3.600% growth.
13. Compare that to Nigeria’s GPD growth at 10.000%, if our population has grown same rate as that of Britain, our standard of living should have increased by 8000% percent as against 2,500% increase we have now.
14. The reason for 2,500% growth in the standard of living of our people from 1960 till now is because we didn’t control our population growth like Britain did.
15. Presently our population grows by 2.6% or 5 million every year, it’s a big problem that our government unfortunately is not taking seriously yet.
16. Meanwhile Britain is 0.5% growth in population. So what if we only grew by 30% in 60 years like Britain in our population we should be 58 million people now, meaning our standard of living would have been among the best in the world.
17. We could have been on the same living standards with Turkey, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil etc.
18. We need to maximize our human capital resources to produce at a faster rate than the population growth. If our government want a free fall population growth for Nigeria then they must work so hard as to make the economy grow at several times faster rate than the population growth.
19. In Nigeria only 20-25% are productively competitive in the economy, meaning these are the only skilled work force we have unlike in Europe where it stands at 75% to 90% skilled workers level.
20. How can we possibly compete with the world if our human capital resources is so low. No European country can function at such a low level of human capital development. Can you imagine the UK using only 30% of their working population to sustain the economy? It’ll be catastrophic for the British economy.
21. But that’s what we have In Nigeria. 50% of our people are not skilled workers we cannot compete with even smaller countries who put most their population to productive work.
22. Our human capital development is catastrophic. We grew thanks to oil which led to people running away from the farms.
23. Now it’s time to move away from dependency on raw materials. It’s time for human capital development so our future economy will be based on human capital maximisation like in the rest of the world.
24. If we do, then we will be poised to overtake England and all European countries in the near future. I strongly believe that if we put our acts together in the next twenty years we can grow an economy bigger than any of the countries in Europe.
25. A good example is Brazil. Portugal colonised Brazil in the past, but today they have changed their own story. Brazil’s economy is 1.5 trillion dollars, while Portugal is 230 billion, which is six times bigger or 552% bigger than that of their former colonial master.
26. Nigeria must do the same, build a bigger economy than the country that colonised us. It’s not a dream it’s a near future possibility, especially if we maximise our human capital development.
27. Nigeria's economy is projected to rank among the world's top ten economies by 2050 with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $6.4 trillion.
28. A report by PwC states that Nigeria, Indonesia and Mexico could displace the United Kingdom and France out of the top ten economies by 2050.
29. Nigeria could sustain average growth of around 5-6% per annum in the long run, if she does she’ll attain this goal.
30. I believe in the Nigerian resilient spirit, with good leadership and purposeful policies we will get there.
WHAT NIGERIA PRODUCES AND WHERE NIGERIA LEADS THE WORLD
Recently a Nigeria-American PHD student was writing her thesis on Africa and in particular about the achievements of her own country of origin Nigeria. She was at a state of despair for she couldn’t find any useful materials online talking of the the positive and great strides of our country. Thankfully she ran into one of my articles and that saved her day, and rescued her from shame. I’m sure she is not the only person with a similar problem as if there is nothing good to write about Nigeria. Below I’m going to enumerate the areas where Nigeria is leading the world, even though we are only a 60 year old newly independent country in comparison with the ages of other countries around the world.
Nigeria Is Ranked Number One In The World In Production Of The Following Agricultural Items:
1. Cassava
2. Melon seed
3. Cow peas, dry
4. Coco yams
5. Yams
6. Onions
7. Taro
8. Kola nuts
9. Shea nuts
10. Ginger
11. Sorghum
Nigeria Is Ranked Second In The World In The Following Items:
1. Fonio
2. Okra
3. Citrus
4. Sweet potatoes
5. Groundnuts with shell
6. Green Maize
OTHERS:
1. Oil palm fruits 4th
2. Cocoa beans 4th
3. Millet 4th
4. Pulses 5th
5. Plantains 5th
6. Sesame seed 5th
7. Chillies and peppers green 7th
8. Onions, shallots green 7th
9. Papayas 7th
10. Pineapples 8th
11. Fruit fresh 9th
12. Tomatoes 11th
13. Mangoes, mangosteens, guavas 12th
14. Oil crops 12th
15. Rice, paddy 13th
16. Rubber, natural 13th
17. Cashew nuts, with shell 14th
18. Beast fibres 14th
19. Soybeans 16th
20. Onions, dry 17th
21. Coconuts 22nd
22. Seed cotton 24th
23. Carrots and turnips 31st
24. Potatoes 34th
25. Oilseeds 49th
26. Fibre Crops 51st
27. Sugar cane 53rd
28. Coffee, green, 54th
29. Tobacco, unmanufactured 58th
30. Sugar Crops 71st
31. Garlic 79th
32. Wheat 85th
HOW NIGERIA STANDS IN AFRICA:
Nigeria is truly the giant of Africa. This is not just in term of population where every fifth black African is a Nigerian. Nigeria also controls a lot of the economic force on the continent, with 1/6 of the continent’s total wealth belonging to Nigeria. In West Africa Nigeria controls 2/3 of the region’s economy even though there are 15 countries there. What is even more impressive is that Nigeria is playing a huge role as a big brother to all countries of Africa.
1. Largest country in Africa by population
2. Largest movie industry in Africa
3. Largest democracy in Africa
4. Richest Black man
5. Richest African woman
6. Largest rice mill in Africa
7. Largest fertilizer plant in Africa
8. Largest oil refinery in Africa
9. Largest cement plant in Africa
10. Largest music industry in Africa
11. Fastest train in Africa
12. Longest subsea gas pipeline in Africa
13. Largest city by population
14. Largest news network in Africa
15. Largest pharmaceutical industry in Africa
16. Fastest woman in Africa
17. Longest concrete road in Africa
18. Most streamed musicians in Africa
19. Most awarded artist in Africa
20. Most valuable tech startup in Africa
21. Largest economy in Africa
22. Most tribes in Africa
23. Most languages in Africa
24. Largest university in Africa by area
25. Most accomplished writers in Africa
NIGERIA IS TRANSFORMING AFRICA, ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY
In this segment of the article I’ll be using only one country for illustrations of the huge big brother role of Nigeria in African countries. Let’s examine below the economic investment of Nigeria in Ghana. Nigeria is the number one investor country in Ghana out of all African countries followed by South Africa. A similar picture could be observed in most countries of the continent, where Nigeria is helping raise their economy through aggressive investments.
These are a list of a few Nigerian companies in Ghana.
1. Access Bank
2. Ecobank
3. Fidelity Bank
4. GT Bank
5. Zenith Bank
6. United Bank of Africa
7. Globacom
8. GiG logistics
9. Silverbird Galleria
10. Oando
11. Dangote Cement
12. Ovation magazine
13. Flutterwave
14. Plentiwaka
15. Remx Capital
16. Venture Garden
17. Multigate Solutions
18. Sendbox Software
19. Bento Technologies Instant Payment Solutions.
20. Scientellect DNA Diagnostic Centre
21. Eastern Quarries Ltd.
22. De Simone Ltd
23. Love Simon Series
24. Supermaritime Gh. Ltd.
25. Harley Reed Management Training
26. Monolo Plant Ltd.
27. Shopadollar
28. speed Technologies ltd
29. Waltergates Ltd.
30. Zomatek Engineering Ltd.
31. AB Bumps Ltd
NIGERIA CONTROLS THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IN AFRICA
I recently saw the article below on the internet which further proves the place of Nigeria in the music and entertainment industry of Africa and beyond.
“A Nigerian singer Rema has surpassed 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He joins fellow Nigerian singer CKay as the second African artist to accomplish this milestone.
In October of 2021, CKay became the first African artist to garner over 30 million monthly listeners on the popular music streaming platform. The Edo state born musician from Benin-City, Nigeria is doing incredibly well”
Here are the Top 10 Spotify monthly listeners in Africa.
1) Rema - 20.1 million - Nigeria
2) Burna Boy - 18.7 million - Nigeria
3)Tems - 15.4 million - Nigeria
4) Ckay - 15.3 million - Nigeria
5) Wizkid - 8.8 million - Nigeria
6) Fireboy - 7.8 million - Nigeria
7) Soolking - 7.3 million - Algeria
😎 Oxlade - 5.4 million - Nigeria
9) Mr Eazi - 5.07 million - Nigeria
10) Amaarae - 5.05 million - Ghana
Apart from economic influence, the cultural and social impact of Nigeria on Africa is much stronger than the economic impact. Nigeria’s music industry is pulling up their contemporaries all over Africa. The same thing can be said of the movie industry, it’s so big that even in French speaking African countries, Nigerian accent or even pidgin could be heard from the locals. Simply put Nigeria is the United States Of America of Africa. Let’s therefore stop denigrating our country for Christ’s sake.
NIGERIA’S INFLUENCE CUTS ACROSS ALL SPHERES OF LIFE IN AFRICA.
A Cameroonian brother recently called me to thank me for putting out all the positive information and statistics on Nigeria. According to him Nigeria is the only reference point for the black man. Otherwise only North African countries will be there to talk about, which would have further cemented the notion that black peoples can never amount to anything in life. If you point to South Africa, they’ll tell you it was built by whites. But to have so many Nigerians accomplished so much in all spheres is encouraging to our fellow Africans.
Another brother from East Africa told me that in most countries in East Africa, most successful and richest people are normally Indians or Arabs. Making them to think that they don’t belong even in their own country. So when they, the black Africans in East Africa began to see how comfortable Nigerians are with being the best, they are now bold to challenge the Arabs and Indians in their countries.
The chat below helps illustrates this dominant role of Nigeria and Nigerians in all areas of endeavours, especially when it’s seen in comparison to other countries of the continent.
1) Richest man in Africa and richest black man in the world - Aliko Dangote - Nigerian $18.3 billion.
2) Richest woman in Africa - Folorunsho Alakija - Nigerian $1 billion.
3) Richest male footballer in Africa - Samuel Eto'o - Cameroonian $95 million.
4) Richest female footballer in Africa - Asisat Oshoala - Nigerian $3 million.
5) Richest pastor in Africa - Bishop David Oyedipo - Nigerian $200 million.
6) Richest male musician - Youssou N’Dour - Senegalese $140 million.
7) Richest female musician in Africa - Asa - Nigerian $28 million
😎 Richest Comedian in Africa - Trevor Noah - South African $100 million
9) Richest leader in Africa - Mohammed VI of Morocco - Moroccan $10 billion
10) Richest doctor in Africa - Ambrose Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako – Nigerian $1.2 billion
11) Richest lawyer in Africa - Adewale Tinubu - Nigerian $700 million
12) Richest Basketballer in Africa - Hakeem Olajuwon - Nigerian $300 million
13) Richest stock exchange in Africa - Johannesburg stock exchange - South Africa -$1.3 trillion
14) Richest African nation by nominal GDP - $610 billion - Nigeria
15) Richest city in Africa - Nigeria $210 billion
16) Richest UFC fighter in Africa - Kamaru Usman - Nigerian $3 million
17) Richest boxer in Africa - Anthony Joshua - Nigerian $80 million
18) Richest DJ in Africa - DJ black coffee - South African $60 million
19) Richest female DJ in Africa - DJ Cuppy - Nigerian $3.5 million
20) Richest actress in Africa - Charlize Theron - South Africa $160 million
21) Richest music producer in Africa - Don Jazy - Nigerian $18.5 million
NIGERIAN ECONOMY IS 24th LARGEST IN THE WORLD (GDP by PPP):
Wait a minute how many times did you ever hear that Nigerian economy is one of the top world economies. If you listen to Nigerians too much you might even come to the conclusion that Nigeria is the worse place with the world’s worse economy.
Yes, our per capital income is still nothing to write home about but you need to build the economy before the economy could produce for you a higher GDP per capita. Right now Nigeria’s GDP per purchasing power parity is number 24 in the world. By nominal GDP we are number 27th economy in the world. Yes some platform will put Nigeria only as 27th position GDP(PPP), and 31st position GDP nominal. Whatever the true figures are, my point remains that Nigeria must be credited for the progress we have made as a nation.
I strongly believe in the next 10 years we will emerge as a top 20 economy in the world. Bear in mind that there are close to 200 countries in the world and Nigeria is in number 24, in my opinion it isn’t the worst of place to be. We also stand a good chance to become one of the top 10 economies of the world in 20 years. This will mean that by the time we are a 100 years after independence we as a country will be one of the 10 richest countries in the whole world. Friends, believe me this is not bad when we speak in terms of age of countries. The next few paragraphs you’ll be reading next is copied straight out of Wikipedia under the caption “Economy Of Nigeria”
“The Economy of Nigeria is a middle-income, mixed economy and emerging market with expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology, and entertainment sectors.It is ranked as the 27th-largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and the 24th-largest in terms of purchasing power parity and the largest Sub Saharan Africa’s
economy. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa. The country's re-emergent manufacturing sector became the largest on the continent in 2013, and it produces a large proportion of goods and services for the region of West Africa. In addition, the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost tripled from $170 billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012 ,though estimates of the size of the informal sector (which is not included in official figures) put the actual numbers closer to $630 billion. Subsequently, the GDP per capita doubled from $1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012. Again, with the inclusion of the informal sector, it is estimated that GDP per capita hovers around $3,900 per person. The country's population increased from 120 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2010. The GDP figures were to be revised upwards by as much as 80% when metrics were to be recalculated after the rebasing of its economy in April 2014.
Although oil revenues contributed 2/3 of state revenues, oil only contributes about 9% to the GDP. Nigeria produces only about 2.7% of the world's oil supply. Although the petroleum sector is important, as government revenues still heavily rely on this sector, it remains a small part of the country's overall economy.
The largely subsistence agricultural sector has not kept up with the country's rapid population growth. Nigeria was once a large net exporter of food, but currently imports some of its food products. Mechanization has led to a resurgence in the manufacturing and exporting of food products, and there was consequently a move towards food sufficiency. In 2006, Nigeria came to an agreement with the Paris Club to buy back the bulk of its owed debts from them, in exchange for a cash payment of roughly US$12 billion.
According to a Citigroup report published in February 2011, Nigeria would have the highest average GDP growth in the world between 2010 and 2050. Nigeria is one of two countries from Africa among the 11 Global Growth Generators countries.”
NIGERIA IS THE YOUNGEST MOST SUCCESSFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
Nigeria is the youngest Most Successful Nation in the world. What that means is of the 23 countries that are ahead of us in economic growth of the GDP none is younger than Nigeria. As a matter of fact Nigeria is actually doing better than many countries which have long been independent before her. Nigerian Economy Bigger Than That Of: Ireland, Israel, Norway, UAE, Denmark, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland, Romania, Ukraine, New Zealand, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Argentina etc
Check this out, the age of most successful countries in our world. I’m bringing these statistics here so Nigerians will stop judging their country so harshly. Nations are never built overnight. Years, decades and centuries are needed to build great nations. Compare to most nations in our world our country is not doing badly at all. In fact we are the most successful youngest country in the world. Please compare the age of these nations below to that of Nigeria.
World’s Largest Economies And Their Age.
1. United States 246 years
2. China Over 5,000 years.
3. Japan 30,000 years
4. Germany since 962 AD.
5. India 30,000 years
6. United Kingdom 9.000 years
7. France 1.035 years
8. Italy 3,000 years
9. Brazil 200 years
10. Canada 161 years old
11. Russia 1160years
12. South Korea 78 years
13. Australia 120 years
14. Spain 555 years
15. Mexico over 200 years
16. Indonesia over 50,000 years
17. Netherlands 37,000 years
18. Saudi Arabia 89 years
19. Turkey over 4,000 years
20. Switzerland 173 years
21. Poland 994 years
22. Thailand 20,000 years
23. Sweden 1000 years
24. Belgium 191 years
25. Nigeria 62 years
DO WE HAVE PROBLEMS, WHAT ARE THEY? HOW TO RESOLVE OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS
1. These are the biggest and most urgent problems I see in Nigeria as an entity, if we can fix these issues below our future is promising and bright.
2. An underdeveloped people is a liability, 60% literacy: We need to aggressively develop our human capital resources. A nation with the highest number of out of school children is not serious about development.
3. Lack of values and ignorance of how to develop them: It’s like our government and people in general don’t have an understanding of the role of value system in national development. We need to intentionally study and build values into our people and into the entire fabrics of our society.
4. Unregulated population growth and lack of Family planning: A matter of great shame to us as a nation is our income per capita. This problem will persist until we do something about our rate of population growth. We need to learn from China and begin to enforce family planning right now. We can start by limiting a woman to maximum 3 children and maximum of 6 per family or per father.
5. Lack of law and order: Unfortunately our country has not learnt to live by law and order. Yes we have parliament but we lack the culture of abiding by the law. This factor alone could propel us to become a civilized country. This will take a hard work in cultivating a new mind set in our people.
6. Biometric registration of all Nigerians: Statistics and figures are not a part of our culture yet. We must know that information and biometric data of every citizen and foreigners in our country must be a matter of highest priority. As long as we don’t have the data of every person living in our country, then we don’t have a country. We are only doing imitation of a country. It is the very basic requirement for us to call ourselves a country.
7. The elites vs the poor: Our society is build on feudalism principles when a man that has is worshipped by the have nots. Hence everyone else wants to attain some level of power either political or financial so they’ll also be adored by their countrymen. This must change if we are to build a truly civilized society. We need to make all equal before God and before the law. We must strive to build an egalitarian country, instead of a bourgeoisie class conscious country we are presently running.
8. No to secessions, yes to reconstruction: Our diversity is one of our greatest blessings by God. We should not let some separatist elements poison our feelings towards one another. We are better together hence we must all fight against all sorts of secessionist movements in our country. Unless you want your children to become refugees like Syrians, Liberians, Ukrainians or Sierra Leonians who had the bad luck of being forced out of their lands because of separatist wars.
9. Representative Democracy of all major groups in the nation: Nigerians like to blame leadership for all their woes, while there is a truth to this, it’s not exactly as our people see it to be. Leadership doesn’t compose of only the president and the parliament, but all citizens of the land. We are all responsible for the well being of our country. We all should show leadership and participate in the leadership of the land. By taking responsibility for where we are we become the leaders there. This mindset must be drilled into our people, such that we don’t simply wait for someone to do something for us but rather to individually take responsibility to build the kind of country we want for ourselves.
10. Religion must be guided and regulated: Religion is supposed to be a positive force in nation building if well channeled but with the way religion is given free fall in our country, it could become the greatest threat to our nationhood. The government must be bold enough to develop a set of rules by which all religions in the country must agree to abide. All must be equal before the law including religious organizations.
I have tried to paint a rather objective and positive picture of this great country called Nigeria. I happened to be born there and I’m so grateful and proud of that fact, hence despite living abroad for most of my life I still keep my Nigerian citizenship. I agree that a lot of the points and statistics I presented in this work might be objected to by critics, that’s not a problem for me. In fact I welcome all constructive criticism of my works.
I however, will insist that we begin to speak out about the positive things our country represents. I have personally visited over 60 countries in all continents and I can make bold to say I’ve never quite seen a people group like Nigerians. We are a most unique people. Nigerians stand out and stand tall in comparison with any group of people anywhere. Unfortunately, for the negative campaigns and propaganda against the most populous black nation, we are yet to fully realised our potentials. Hence I’m appealing to us Nigerians to begin to acknowledge all the good things about our country. Charity begins at home, if we will begin to speak well of ourselves then only would the rest of the world follow suit to celebrate us.
Chinua Achebe, our prominent Nigerian novelist and essayist is the one who was quoted to have said "There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."
It’s high time we begin to tell our stories, otherwise it’s those who hunted and still hunt after us who will end up telling us who we are or who we are not. These negative reports and propaganda against Nigeria and Nigerians was also started by these hunters, until we ourselves bought into the negativity and now can only talk evil of ourselves.
Friends, please let’s change the narration, let’s sell the best of ourselves to the rest of the world. I’m not saying we should not criticise our country. No, not at all, I’m a major critic of our country myself, but we should not sabotage ourselves in the process. Like I said earlier in the beginning of this article, there is always the other side to a coin, we must be diligent enough not to only focus on the negative but with a similar vigour we can likewise tell of the great strides of our country.
May Nigeria Succeed And All Her Enemies Live Long to witness it.
Dr. Sunday Adelaja
Kyiv, Ukraine.
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