Abagworo:

My gardener is paid 15k while the Gateman is paid 25k. The gardener works for many people and they each pay 10 to 15k. So don't look down on a gardener. He could be earning up to 150 to 200k per month. In fact all those people you mentioned earn nothing less than 20k a month.

Are you using the salary you pay your house workers as the benchmark that is paid across Nigeria? I hope not

I know of primary school workers paid 6k per month, gardeners paid 10k and not given the opportunity to freelance, cleaners paid 13k, househelps who are given 6k per month (and that is even considered as very generous), drivers who are paid 30k and have 5 dependents, and even local government workers who earn less than 20k per month. This is the reality that surrounds me day in day out.
I have lived in Lagos, Bauchi, Osun, Plateau and Ogun state; and things like this exist in all of them.

MARK-REN:
It is funny how we sit on our chairs and become overnight analysts after reading “one liners” and headlines without any investigation.
How many of us travel outside our areas of commute to & from work?
How many of us go to the Hinterland outside Lagos, state capitals or business hubs where we reside. Over 65% of our population still live in Villages outside these areas , and that is where the “real” poverty our statisticians are talking about is: Where people earn less than a dollar a day.
Just becos you have internet access & manage to look after yourself and family in the city, does not mean its like that for all people ( I served in a village in this country were you grow what you eat and sell the rest in exchange for other necessities, which they cannot still afford. Even in my Village in addition to this, we have a lot of Idle people with no livelihood who rely of “Transfer Payments” for people living in the town to survive) . And for the ignorant comment on paying a laborer over "N200", have you asked him how many dependants he has here and in his village to cater for after paying all the Omonile/Govt dues to enable him operate his cart in the market?.
I don’t need to be a statistician to deduce all this it is right there in our faces but we choose not to see becos we are so blinded by our ignorance, selfishness, tribal sentiments and religious dogma
We should stop this myopic way of analysis and comments on issues if we want move forward as a nation.
Reading some comments on nairaland on issues make me wonder if there is hope at all for this nation as it is no different for those made by the so called leaders we also criticize..................

first, always get your facts right before you post on public forum, 65% of Nigerians dont live in villages, we have over 40 major cities in nigeria, or else lagos, abuja, and portharcourt are the only cities in nigeria in your book, majority of people living in villages don't need up to a dollar to survive. what you can buy with 150 in villages are much more than what you can buy with 150 in cities. take pepper or yam as example, you can eat 150 yam or pepper for almost a week in remote villages but its not possible in the city. most of those living in villages dont complain except the youths that want more for themselves and migrate to the cities to ride okada etc... if I say cities, its not lagos, abuja, porthacourth, we have benin, ibadan, enugu, anambra, warri etc these places might not be major cities but they are far from being rural areas

so dont come here and feed us rubbish. by the way, you are not the only one that has been to rural areas in Nigeria your view should be your view instead of criticizing others view on subject matter because you felt you know more than 80% of people that made comments on the post

@ collynzo2 If you have the basic knowledge of Economics & the inner workings of how a country's economy works along with statistical measurements of economic data you will understand that the report is false even without reading it. It is not rocket science. What is the pedigree of the NOI as a data reporting institution? The fact that agencies use our economic data to attract aid for embezzlement does not make the data false.
Yes my comments reflect my frustration in this country. “A country where you have to know someone who knows another person, who in-turn knows a govt official, before “anything” can be done”.
My comment of average Nigerians is true with due respect to everyone, including myself. If we are to move as a country we should start to “Investigate, Analyse, Think, Document & Solve our problems ” for ourselves. We are yet to get to this level as a people that is why we are still backward 50 years after Independence. The Asians (where our citizens now go to for studies & employment) are no better than us but have left us behind while we still argue whether there is still widespread poverty in the land or not.
The truth is bitter for us to face and confront as a people that is why we remain the way we are.
And for your information I have had opportunities to leave this country but turned them done because they did not meet my criteria/ambition as compared to my current position (Not all of us are “hyped” by overseas travel). In Nigeria what we call achievement is only measured in “Naira & Kobo”, so it would make no point reeling them to you.

collynzo2: What have you acheived with your own intellect other than coming on NL and probably other internet forums to put down people? Your comments smacks of frustration, you are now referring me to a report from a govt agency that says 65% of Nigerians live in rural areas but you rejected the one that says 80% live above a dollar per day, why didn't you analyse the former and see if it's actually true. I know what I think of people that use phrases like average Nigerian but I'll keep it to myself for now. If you are that good you should be working as an expatriate in one of those your ideal countries by now not wasting away in Nigeria and complaining.

who is actionaid?
and who is husseni abu? or is it ab[b]dull[/b] ?

I used to live on 20 naira per day and I was fine. Naira get value for mama put.

Kslib: All of you supporting this statistics should first help me define the meaning of the word "POVERTY"..
A.. Is it not having enough food to feed onself,where to sleep and no cloth to wear.
B.. Is it not having enough money to cater for your "ESSENTIAL" needs

LASTLY, can someone who has food to eat,cloth to wear,where to sleep be considered poor...
Again, what makes you think those in rural areas are poorer than those in towns/cities? What is even your defination of "poor"?. Must you have tv,internet connection,firdge e.t.c before you can be classified as "not poor"...
Yes,there are many many poor people in naija who cant feed well,cloth themselves but saying "80% of Nigerians live below 1dollar is an insult" except i'm getting the meaning of "1dollar" wrong..

I don't need to give definitions. A poor man knows he is a poor man whatever you think or tell him. A rich man knows he is rich.

@ Red-Light I would like to ask a few question based on your comments
1 What is the population of people in the over 40 "cities & towns" you highlighted?
2.Compare that poulation to the entire country?
3.Compare your findings to the reports by various population studies done by locally & abroad.

Then we can talk................

MARK-REN:
It is funny how we sit on our chairs and become overnight analysts after reading “one liners” and headlines without any investigation.
How many of us travel outside our areas of commute to & from work?
How many of us go to the Hinterland outside Lagos, state capitals or business hubs where we reside. Over 65% of our population still live in Villages outside these areas , and that is where the “real” poverty our statisticians are talking about is: Where people earn less than a dollar a day.
Just becos you have internet access & manage to look after yourself and family in the city, does not mean its like that for all people ( I served in a village in this country were you grow what you eat and sell the rest in exchange for other necessities, which they cannot still afford. Even in my Village in addition to this, we have a lot of Idle people with no livelihood who rely of “Transfer Payments” for people living in the town to survive) . And for the ignorant comment on paying a laborer over "N200", have you asked him how many dependants he has here and in his village to cater for after paying all the Omonile/Govt dues to enable him operate his cart in the market?.
I don’t need to be a statistician to deduce all this it is right there in our faces but we choose not to see becos we are so blinded by our ignorance, selfishness, tribal sentiments and religious dogma
We should stop this myopic way of analysis and comments on issues if we want move forward as a nation.
Reading some comments on nairaland on issues make me wonder if there is hope at all for this nation as it is no different for those made by the so called leaders we also criticize..................

If I curse you now, Seun and his mods will start sending annoying emails to me, bros take this rubbish you wrote above back, or else

I don't even think its possible to exist in Nigeria on less than a dollar a day. I'v seen the so-called "poor" own mobile phones far better than mine and they pay almost 1 dollar equivalent to watch Football matches during the weekends. Who has ever witnessed people starving to death in this country?? It simply doesn't happen. The worst you can get is malnutrition. People dwelling in the villages even have it better than city dwellers in terms of affordable, farm fresh food products. The people @Mark Ren is talking about are the lazy and mentally poor people.......When its time to drink alcohol, sit down and watch how people living on "Less than a dollar" a day act.

sakaguchi: They can use the one dollar benchmark any other place in the world, but when it comes to Nigeria, the only veritable statistical tool to know the poverty rate and purchasing power of Nigerians is by this very simple questionnaire:
CAN YOU BUY ONE CUP OF GARRI EVERYDAY? Yes= RICH
CAN YOU BUY ONE CUP OF GARRI EVERYDAY? No= POOR

ROTFLMAO!!!!

MARK-REN:
@ collynzo2 If you have the basic knowledge of Economics & the inner workings of how a country's economy works along with statistical measurements of economic data you will understand that the report is false even without reading it. It is not rocket science. What is the pedigree of the NOI as a data reporting institution? The fact that agencies use our economic data to attract aid for embezzlement does not make the data false.

What is the pedigree of action aid as a data reporting institution? Their major reason for disputing the findings of NOI was that most of the respondents were mobile phone users, which suggests that those maintaining mobile phones are living above poverty level as measured by the $1 a day benchmark. Following their logic and the fact that we have over 110 million mobile subscribers in this country which is around 70% of the population. What is your conclusion?

Since we've now entered the realm of conjecture ("personal stats" ) with our discussion on poverty, let's see what others really think...

Poverty in the mind of its owner, huh?

fpeter: [b]

100 naira ke?? it wasnt even up to 2km

The very ignorant ones are calling others ignorant. So in your dull head people living in villages are poor, ehn? Simply because they don't have dollars or internet connections or DSTV? Guy, those guys enjoy more than most people in the cities. Their meals are what can be referred to as balance diet..yam, palm oil, bush meat, fruits and you down everything with palmy. Omo those guys enjoy pass even some new yorkers oooo. No jokes.
Abeggi. Talk another thing

Arsenate: The very ignorant ones are calling others ignorant. So in your dull head people living in villages are poor, ehn? Simply because they don't have dollars or internet connections or DSTV? Guy, those guys enjoy more than most people in the cities. Their meals are what can be referred to as balance diet..yam, palm oil, bush meat, fruits and you down everything with palmy. Omo those guys enjoy pass even some new yorkers oooo. No jokes.
Abeggi. Talk another thing

correct guy. everything na fresh fresh. Just that oil companies don destory our farms finish

Misunderstood_G: A wheelbarrow pusher makes more than 1 dollar a day.. So that statistics is false..

Thats true

Chinaimporter: [size=18pt]my family was living on less than 70 naira per day in 1999 and we where 4 ppl.that was b4 i made it and now i live in a
Mansion and i have no poor family member or friend thank to just 5 months of drug pushing in 2006
My brothers,poverty is not an option just dont kill or harm pple when hustlin[/size]

so what are u doing to those dat use dat drug u pushed

Arsenate: The very ignorant ones are calling others ignorant. So in your dull head people living in villages are poor, ehn? Simply because they don't have dollars or internet connections or DSTV? Guy, those guys enjoy more than most people in the cities. Their meals are what can be referred to as balance diet..yam, palm oil, bush meat, fruits and you down everything with palmy. Omo those guys enjoy pass even some new yorkers oooo. No jokes.
Abeggi. Talk another thing

Now someone is really talking.

@ collynzo2 Nice one but have you factored in that of the 110 million active lines in Nigeria the average Nigerian telecoms subscriber has a minimum of 2 lines, in some cases 3 and we discount that number by 50% the "real" number of active phone subscribers amounts to about 55M. This is less than 40% of our population. Even if we discount people under the age of 18 from our population out tele-density is still low. If I may ask if it is so easy to “maintain a phone”, how come we have recharge cards denominations of N100 & N200 and with that we still have promos to recharge and get more specially targeted at low recharge denominations……..

collynzo2: What is the pedigree of action aid as a data reporting institution? Their major reason for disputing the findings of NOI was that most of the respondents were mobile phone users, which suggests that those maintaining mobile phones are living above poverty level as measured by the $1 a day benchmark. Following their logic and the fact that we have over 110 million mobile subscribers in this country which is around 70% of the population. What is your conclusion?

lol at people living in denial..

I work in a company and 90% of the staff here make N15,000 a month(this is for unskilled labor basically)

When i go to the village, PEOPLE beg for money, basically in Nigeria it seems like everyone is begging...

This same denial happened when it was said that average life expectancy in Nigeria is low, until i gave a good argument and people understood.

Think about this, the unemployment rate here is ridiculous.. In Enugu, we put a job ad out for a machine operator @ N18,000 a month, and had over 150 people show up for the interview. We needed only 3 spots..

What do you think all those unemployed people are living on?

Just because you see people with fancy cars doesnt mean people arent poor.. For every rich person making millions, there are thousands making nothing...

All these foolish ratings.... Ehen in other relevant news which day nairaland turn twitter, i just found someone following me, how de de take follow person back

So sad peeps dnt knw hw tough life is in Nigeria. There are married men with kids earning N10-N15k monthly all around this nation, especially in the cities. If not, why should a sane tinkin human being live in a slum?
Alot of Nigerians are so insensitive, abi unexposed to the brutal realites of life in naija. When politicians shares out N200-N500, y does peeps leave their supposed well paying jobs to scramble for dat peanut at campaigns?
Alot of comments on nairaland is really saddening. We are all no better than our leaders. GEJ, and others, sorry i insulted una alot of times. We are all the same.

first time comment on nairaland. i think the statistics is wrong

Where is Rossikk, the foul mouthed, unabashed defender of all and anything Nigeria? I cannot find him on this thread. Probabaly, he has not been paid his salary by the fed.

I have NEVER met anybody in my life who didn't eat more dan 1$ a day! RUBBISH statistics! Begger dey get reach 400 a day sef!

Misunderstood_G: A wheelbarrow pusher makes more than 1 dollar a day.. So that statistics is false..

The fact that a wheel barrow pusher makes more than $1 a day doesn't translate to him leaving above $1 a day.
2ndly half d population of Nigeria can't even afford to buy a wheel barrow,...but am sure u ain't aware of that

Frankie9ice:

The fact that a wheel barrow pusher makes more than $1 a day doesn't translate to him leaving above $1 a day.
2ndly half d population of Nigeria can't even afford to buy a wheel barrow,...but am sure u ain't aware of that

Those that can't buy rent wheelbarrows @ N400 per day. They also rent shovels, cutlasses etc to go work and they earn up to $10 a day if not more. They rent to come meet me for work whenever i'm on site. Do you think an average Nigerian will sit down hungry at home and starve?? U underestimate Nigerians. Have you ever heard of a Nigerian dying from starvation??

Frankie9ice:

The fact that a wheel barrow pusher makes more than $1 a day doesn't translate to him leaving above $1 a day.
2ndly half d population of Nigeria can't even afford to buy a wheel barrow,...but am sure u ain't aware of that

what are you saying?

I know in all locations in Nigeria, there's a healthy population of beer drinkers and a bottle costs $1 and above.....and they don't just drink a bottle.

mamaaustin:

Are you using the salary you pay your house workers as the benchmark that is paid across Nigeria? I hope not

I know of primary school workers paid 6k per month, gardeners paid 10k and not given the opportunity to freelance, cleaners paid 13k, househelps who are given 6k per month (and that is even considered as very generous), drivers who are paid 30k and have 5 dependents, and even local government workers who earn less than 20k per month. This is the reality that surrounds me day in day out.
I have lived in Lagos, Bauchi, Osun, Plateau and Ogun state; and things like this exist in all of them.

God bless you lady.

So many educated illiterates around here, the first fact is, that a man earns more than 1 us dollar per day does not mean he lives more than 1 us dollar per day

Nigeria has a median age of 18, meaning 50% of population are below the age of 18. The bulk of age 0-17 do not work or earn a living, they are highly dependent.

2. The poor people have more fecundity rate than the rich, they give birth to more children, average of 5.

3. The lower class(poor) is growing at a much faster rate than the middle class is growing.

4. Rural poverty and urban poverty abounds.

5. For those using 110 million phone lines as a basis to dispute 80% nigs. poverty rate, less than 40 million nigerians out of 167 million nigerians own those lines.. in addition most lines cost next to nothing,(N0-N150).

6. That a man is drinking beer or palmwine like it will run out, does not mean his wife or wifes with children are living more than 1 us dollar per day, there are many irresponsible men around.

Please, we need to be more sensitive, you cant solve a problem you dont know exist, who knows, you might find yourself in a position to bring the much needed change to your locality or country.

Willgates: 80 wat? Dat means m included....so only our puliticians can afford $1 a day? Coz dy mke up d oda 20%. Lolz. What a joke!

Nope! Dont be mentally lazy--- thats the bane of Nigerians today. Too lazy to think analytically.

Nigeria's population is what, 170m? So, whats 20% of 170million? 34Million, right? Ok, then! 34million is a very, very huge number when you think of countries that have a population of 200,000+ citizens etc

So, while you might be among the 34million that can afford $1 or more a day, THERES CERTAINLY 140MILLION+ OF YOUR COMPATRIOTS THAT CANT! Deal with it, its facts, your country is poor and ravaged by poverty. Do something about it instead of sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich.

kingoflag:

Nope! Dont be mentally lazy--- thats the bane of Nigerians today. Too lazy to think analytically.

Nigeria's population is what, 170m? So, whats 20% of 170million? 34Million, right? Ok, then! 34million is a very, very huge number when you think of countries that have a population of 200,000+ citizens etc

So, while you might be among the 34million that can afford $1 or more a day, THERES CERTAINLY 140MILLION+ OF YOUR COMPATRIOTS THAT CANT! Deal with it, its facts, your country is poor and ravaged by poverty. Do something about it instead of sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich.

just stop spewing trash .