Nigeria is 159, at the bottom of the rankings of 177 countries in the latest Human Development Report and with a GDP per capita of $678.

Please, read Acho Orabuchi's Sickened by Nigeria's HDI Ranking published on page 79 of the The Guardian of Nigeria on Tuesday, August 14, 2007.

Nigeria continues to be an international disgrace in global economic development and our so called elected dubious rulers are still experimenting with erroneous and ambiguous policies and reforms without positive results.

Go on tour of Nigerian schools, colleges and universities from the classrooms to the toilets and go on tour of Nigerian police and military barracks and finally go on tour of Nigerian hospitals, then you will have a true picture of the present state of Nigeria. And you will know how our military and civilian public office holders have wrecked the nation and are still causing more damages even now. And the majority of the governed are waiting for the opportunities to take turns to continue to assault and violate mother Nigeria from the streets to the corridors of power.

Nigeria is not a democracy in polity or practice, but a political plutocracy in the masquerade of quasi-democracy. What we are seeing today is a corruption of modern democracy by corrupt politicians who rigged their way into the corridors of power and are now posing and posturing as the leaders of the most populous nation in Africa.

90% of those in the National Assembly ought to be in jail if judged by the malpractices of the last April elections when bribery and corruption and thuggery ruled at the polls. And as usual, the rubbish is going to be swept under the footmat and the gullible majority can only gape and gasp helplessly and scrambling for the crumbs of the national cake.

The greatest ambition of most Nigerians is to earn a seven-digit salary, climb up the ladder of the social class hierarchy and have a family and die happy and get buried in a decent cemetery. Finis. And such a selfish ambition cannot boost the economy of Nigeria. Because as you can see, it ends in the cemetery and not in any productive industry.

What has sustained our economic survival so far are the Made in Aba producers, Ontisha and Idumota traders, rural farmers and export of our mineral resources and not the white collar workers in air conditioned offices of Nigerian banks, insurance companies, oil companies and telecommunication companies. Because, most of our salary earners are mere consumers and are not producers. And without the producers and traders, Nigeria would have collapsed decades ago.

The most annoying thing is, many ignorant fools are clapping hands to applaud the President and Vice-President of Nigeria for the public declaration of their assets without asking them how they acquired their assets and how such assets have been used for sustainable human development. Saving N200 million in different bank accounts or to purchase shares cannot be of any benefit to Nigeria if the assets are not converted to tangible economic values in productive human capital development.

Criminals are still calling the shots in Nigeria and paying for full-page adverts in national dailies to congratulate their godfathers for their 59th and 70th birthdays with impunity and it is business as usual in Nigeria.
What a shame!

To revalue the Naira is not the answer to the problem of our economic underdevelopment, but to revalue our economic, educational, political and social scales in accordance with the global economic scale of preferences. 
You don't put the cart before the horse.

We must stop fooling ourselves and get rid of the cankerworms of corruption without compromise. Because, until we remove these cankerworms, Nigeria will continue to decay in the state of corruption and pollution.

All the banks in Nigeria are the receivers of the stolen goods of the criminals in power. And the apex bank is only their claearing house.

Until we revalue ourselves in honesty and transparency and let accountability and equity be the practical methods of our state policy, we are just wasting our time and wasting our lives.

i feel like crying reading through the lines of this thread.
it sounds as if am writing.
the policies and reforms are very good but they are all right moves at the wrong time.
our most honourable policy makers and economic reformists shld be thinking of "scale of prefference"
if we must work based on our scale of prefference, i think we shld be talking of power supply and security in nigeria and then the way to erasing criminal minded politicians before anyother reforms can hold water.
aso rock on daily bases has decided to increase the production of deciets in form of leaders.
we are all aware that snakes will never give birth to goats.
who brought obj and who did obj bring. like father like son. anything good coming from this set will be another miracle.
i want to make it clear here that i feel that efcc is the worst thing that happened to nigeria. a commission fighting against corruption in nigeria has never find anything tangible to nail IBB. abacha has remained the only past president that looted nigeria's money. what a joke?
i can't stand a country where a state like abia has become more important than the whole country. i still pass sleepless nights over while orji kalu has become too important that our federal roads, schools, hospitals, power supply etc can go to hell as long as we nail kalu.
i wonder what happened to our critical thinkers. i still want to know the relevance of Chris Uba, adedibu, and their likes.
pdp under the managements of Tony Annenih and obj has turned nigeria to arms free nation in their do or die electorial ambitions and the consequences we as the poor masses are paying with our lives and properties.
it is a shame that our most respected Ribadu has seen nothing wrong in pdp and obj's administration.

Oh, stop that! The true picture of Nigeria is not something you can read in any UN report. It's something that you have to experience by coming back home. Stop 'weeping' over nothing. Nigerians in Nigeria are not 'weeping'.

Don't let certain Nairalanders see this thread.They will brand you as "unpatriotic" for "denigrating" Nigeria

very good seun

@ kobe you can commend seun, but i think the question we should be asking is how accurate are these reports?

Agreed the true picture of Nigeria is not what you read on any UN report but what is on ground in Nigeria?

The data used to analyse and present these reports where obtained from Nigeria by the UN, they didnt go to the moon to get the data, maybe some of us should know that these multilateral agencies have more accurate and complete data on Nigeria (that can be used for analysis) than the Nigerian Government.

http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_NGA.html

Please read the report objectively, it is a compsite measure attempting to concentrate on standard of living across countries.

There was no plan to place Nigeria that low, it was the data analysed that presented the results. Its the same measure that was used for all the countires in the report.

I am beginning to find it hard to define what patrioticism is all about especially from the Nigerian perspective.

the data is nice and all, being that it teaches you some new things you probably didn't know, but at the end of the day the thread title is misleading. that report doesn't give you the true picture of Nigeria.

Seun:

Oh, stop that! The true picture of Nigeria is not something you can read in any UN report. It's something that you have to experience by coming back home. Stop 'weeping' over nothing. Nigerians in Nigeria are not 'weeping'.

Seun,
You should go and see the places I mentioned before posting any reply.

The WHO, UNDP, ILO, UNICEF, USAID and other global bodies are spending millions of dollars in Nigeria for sustainable human development and they have employed hundreds of skilled Nigerians in health, education and other sectors all over Nigeria and they know more about Nigeria and Nigerians than you who is limited within your box.

Have you travelled by road from Lagos through Patani to Port Hharcourt?
Or from Lagos through Okenne to Kaduna?
Have you spent days and nights in rural villages and drank only water from the stream and used only pit toilet?

I have spent weeks with Huasas in their markets in Kaduna in 1988 and spent a week with commercial sex workers in Calabar in 1993 and I have gone on working visits to other parts of Nigeria and trained over 100 petty traders in Lagos on Community Based Distribution.
And produced over 12 booklets in Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin English for mass literacy on Family Planning and Harmful Traditional Practices.

You don't know Nigeria if you have not seen and been through the heart and soul of Nigeria from the West to the East and from the South to the North and not on the Internet.
Seeing is believing.

Hello (@ kobe), i think you might choose to take that up with the originator, but i think the title is not short in any way presenting the report.

I am always  glad to learn more but note that the HDI is a very basic measure. I hope you too would learn "something you did not know before" and appreciate the task we have of building Nigeria to Global recognition.

I don't know what report and what picture you are on about, but the HDI is accurate on the standard of living in Nigeria at that date.

Just out of curiosity in your own opinion what is the true picture of Nigeria?

The HDI of Nigeria is the true picture of Nigeria and I gave my own reasons for the dismal report based on eye-witness accounts.

We can deceive ourselves.

The truth is bitter.

Nigeria is imploding and the bloody mayhem in Port Harcourt is just an angle of the true picture of Nigeria.

Go on tour of Nigeria.

Okay, I very much understand what you guys are saying.
I am not arguing about the reputation or factuality fo the report, I am in agreement with Seun.the provided data holds some significance, but literally speaking it does not present the "true picture" of nigeria, if it does, what would you consider the "fake picture" of Nigeria.

A picture is worth a thousand words homies, there's no better picture than experiencing the obscure nature of Nigeria in person. Beats any data, in my book.

@ originator please take it easy.

@ kobe i don't know if i should bother based on your comment. I asked you a simple question, what is the true picture of Nigeria.

We can live in denial for all the world cares, figures and statistics don't lie, the standard of living via the HDI provides an accurate picture of the true Nigeria and it is appauling.

Fortunately the civilised world is interested in every citiizens ability to reach their full potentials and not a few.

They would not reduce the standard so that Nigeria can look good.

@ kobe i don't know if i should bother based on your comment. I asked you a simple question, what is the true picture of Nigeria.

We can live in denial for all the world cares, figures and statistics don't lie, the standard of living via the HDI provides an accurate picture of the true Nigeria and it is appauling

I answered you in my very first response. There is no definitive or outstanding response to that question.

keep in mind i also asked you "what is the fake picture of nigeria"

buluti:

@ originator please take it easy.

@ kobe i don't know if i should bother based on your comment. I asked you a simple question, what is the true picture of Nigeria.

We can live in denial for all the world cares, figures and statistics don't lie, the standard of living via the HDI provides an accurate picture of the true Nigeria and it is appauling.

Fortunately the civilised world is interested in every citiizens ability to reach their full potentials and not a few.

They would not reduce the standard so that Nigeria can look good.

Buluti,
All right.
But the bitter truth is provoking.

I have been on Bonny Island on and off since 2004 to date and explored the environment.
The Nigeria LNG Bonny is there and the Nigerian LNG Estates are there.
But outside these modern estates, you see the Bonny Town looking worse than the Ajegunle ghetto in Lagos aand you see villages looking like scenes from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. So, you gape and gasp at the glaring contrasts of human development.

The sight of the public schools break my heart.

You see a man with a wife and four children earning only N9,000 monthly in an oil and gas producing state!

A young man who was the bread winner of his mother, a poor widow and siblings was hit by an Okada motorbike and when he was rushed to the hospital, there was no good medical care to treat his wounds and he died.

Those in Northern Nigeria are even worse.

Many still forget that 85% of Nigerians are poor.

@ Kobe I am in the sporty mood so i would oblige you.

Please present a write up or report and call it "the fake picture of Nigeria" then i would have a basis to determine if the report is a true or fake picture.

In the absence of that you are asking me to get into a blind and subjective arguement. It would all be i think and you think.

The originator presented a basis to ascertain "the true picture of Nigeria" please provide yours for a fake picture.

@ orikinla, we dont understand what income inequality means becos we dont have ideological perspective. Its all so myopic of our surrounding environment and elitist conservative attitude.

@ Kobe I am in the sporty mood so i would oblige you.

Please present a write up or report and call it "the fake picture of Nigeria" then i would have a basis to determine if the report is a true or fake picture.

In the absence of that you are asking me to get into a blind and subjective arguement. It would all be i think and you think.

The originator presented a basis to ascertain "the true picture of Nigeria" please provide yours for a fake picture.

That would be a waste of productive time. Still remains, the write-up isn't the true pictue of Nigeria, but I have yet to argue that the write-up is false. If you want the true picture of Nigeria, CNN won't thoroughly give it to you, the write-up won't either, the truest picture is the picture you see for yourself. go and take a look.

Why am i not surprised? Waste of productive time, ironic.

You just keep stating a biased subjective opinion that "The write up is not a true picture of Nigeria" present your facts. In the absence of that i would advice you see properly, beyond your immediate environment.

No ones talking of CNN, thats how we as Nigerians mix up and complicate issues, restrict the discussion to the facts at hand you are bringing in CNN.

The "truest" picture is the picture i see for myself, is it the nice estates in Lekki/VI, or Asokoro in Abuja where mansions house a nuclear family of a father, mother and 2 or 3 kids, or the villages or ghettos were 10 people sleep in a small room and have no access to the most basic amenities.

Please wake up.

What's ironic is this dancing around in ci rcles.
your introduction of lekki into the conversation is evidence of your stray thought on this matter. I haven't mentioned lekki, VI, bar beach, sango, whatever as a true picture of Nigeria.

I have offered you my reasoning, why don't you get it? I'll repeat myself
If you want to see a true picture of Nigeria, go and experience it yourself.  How many times must I say this?

Think about this in a common setting, you can read a chemistry book all your life and not understand the material until you get practical with it.

don't you get it.

Please present your facts.

My introduction of lekki/VI etc was in response to "what i see for myself", and i ask myself is that is a true picture. Just a clarification.

Anyway it was nice, we are clearly looking at issues from different perspectives. i rest.

what facts? if you've taken anything from my posts, it's that I have no facts, stats, or data.

Anyway it was nice, we are clearly looking at issues from different perspectives. i rest

very well.

k0be:

what facts? if you've taken anything from my posts, it's that I have no facts, stats, or data. very well.

Keep quiet then

that would be hard to do. I don't have a true picture of your mother just by looking at her, or reading about her in a local newspaper article. keeping quiet is unacceptable. it's like asking bbc to provide me a "true picture of nigeria" it will be biased and incomplete. spooky.
the only fact I have to offer you is "see for yourself"

I guess no wonder American kids read reports like this and call us lion chasers, naked travellers, and etc. i want a picture of nigeria and the best I can get comes from a report, tha t's great.

i-man I'm still awaiting your elaborate response. shut up on what grounds? you can't say kobe bryant is not a clutch shooter because you looked at his late-game shooting statistics. if you see the man play you'll want him to take the last shot to win a game, even GMs agree.

@poster

good job.

A true picture of naija that does fear about offending anybody is a patriotic act capable of improving and bringing development of naija.

Thanks

Whoever believes these HDI figures are wrong should provide us with thier own because, as long as the Nigerian Government would prefer to falsify economic data in order to avoid the truth in front of their noses, then we have to keep relying on the West to give us information on what we do in our own houses.

Orikinla:


I have been on Bonny Island on and off since 2004 to date and explored the environment.
The Nigeria LNG Bonny is there and the Nigerian LNG Estates are there.
But outside these modern estates, you see the Bonny Town looking worse than the Ajegunle ghetto in Lagos aand[b] you see villages looking like scenes from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart[/b]. So, you gape and gasp at the glaring contrasts of human development.

Even Achebe's villages were clean and wholesome compared to these filthy ghettoes we live in. But that may not entirely be the fault of the Government.

@ Orikinla you're right. Nigeria is just about to implode. All we are waiting for is a true ethnic nationalist from the creeks, all these Jomo Gbomo, Asari, Ateke Tom are just common criminals and armed robbers.

And our newly bred oligarchs just dont understand. They sit in their airconditioned offices in Lagos counting money and making shady deals with Government. They dont know, that we are all sitting on a time bomb. Even the CBN (with baldheaded genius Soludo in charge) is almost redundant. All the NNPC need do is make a cash call and the ripples are felt throughout the financial sector. So where is the monetary policy If our producing capacity in the Delta is completely crippled for just one week, the whole of Nigeria will go up in flames.

Whoever posted this topic!!!!see, let me tell you, if you are not satisfied with being a Nigerian and with the pace at which things are going, then take a dive into the nearest lagoon. C'mon, where were you all when nothing was working in this country? I mean absolutely nothing!!! And now, here we are trying to put in our best to "wake up this sleeping giant" that has almost entered a state of coma and you all are shouting from the roof tops with these yeye "oyinbos" that have put us where u currently are. I mean, i just don't get it. If only we have had democracy in place since 1960 when they "claimed to have let us be on our own" then some black brodas would have no reason to sit back tight like arm chair critics and criticize our little efforts. NIGERIA IS OURS TO BUILD! WE'VE GOT NO OTHER COUNTRY THAN 9JA! YOU EITHER BE PART OF THIS NATION BUILDING NOW & BE PROUD OF WHERE U FROM OR JUST SHUT UP AND BE A COWARD WITH YOUR NEW FOUND CITIZENSHIP!!


Spisssssssssssssshhhhhh!!!! hisses and walks out of the room slamming the door,

@POSTER

have u heard of the adage ' washing your laundry in public'. If you have any pride for where you come from you would not have titled this thread as 'The True Picture of Nigeria' and if you really live in Nigeria presently then you are very stupid.

_{*****long hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*****}

its just like Dissing ur family in public. HAVE SOME PRIDE

Orikinla has made a wonderful analysis of d report. D fact dat d likes of seun and others did nt believe or see d real picture of things in nigeria sadden my heart. it is so disheartenin 4 somebody to complain or neglect d report when adequate facts are available 4 any body to see dat d truth is obvious. i so much agree wit him (orikinla) about everything he said in his analysis, may be seun and others are nt n dis country. let me give dis honourable house one fundamental example, if travel 4rm lagos to abj u will see hw bad all d roads are, if all d major roads dat leads to abj can b dat bad then wat can u say of other roads n d country like benin etc. aside infrastructure, wen it comes human development dat aspect is ZERO, we ve many graduates dat are jobless cos of no job n d country. witout job and basic amenities of life hw can human development can b establish in d country. political aspect is d most bad aspect of our national policies, our politicians are so corrupt to d extent dat we can even change their name to CORRUPTION. most of them get into power thru fraudulent means wit d co-operation of their political god fathers who turns out to b number 1 enemy of d nation.i like one side of obj's reforms programme, d programme really reform d pocket of some few individual to d extent dat those ones can now b call BILLIONAIRES. effc did nt see any thing wrong wit d high level of corruption dat was perpetuated under d leadership of former president obj n d nnpc and some other agencies of government, it is only d enemy of state or those dat does nt ve gud rapport wit d obj dat are corrupt, ribadu started well but allowed d politics n d system to consumed him so easily. as okinrin and some patrotic nairalanders ve said, we need to change our orientation and ask our leaders hw d declaration of asset will leads to political and economic emancipation of nigerians, so dat CORRUPTION will no longer b d order of d day n our nation policy.

NaJa HaJe:

@POSTER

have u heard of the adage ' washing your laundry in public'. If you have any pride for where you come from you would not have titled this thread as 'The True Picture of Nigeria' and if you really live in Nigeria presently then you are very stupid.

_{*****long hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*****}

its just like Dissing your family in public. HAVE SOME PRIDE

But, isn't the story up there the true picture of this country? If it's not, then show us how the picture looks like - with facts and figures.

@ Oriki,
That's an interesting picture you have up there. Keep it up!

if u read what i wrote properly u would realise am talking about pride. Patriotism.

Exactly how is this conversation going to help Nigeria. Re focus this thread.

nice write-up bro, though the posting seems to carry much of the pains u feel, the point is still crystal. the true Nigerian picture, however, can really be seen in our ivory towers. wanna ask why? because in there, lots of eyesores are seen as good things. to some ends when i take a look at our education system it seems as if the schools are not functioning. how then can we improve on ourselves when we are not feeding the youths with necessary thing. u see, if care is not taken. it will take the complete overhaulage of this generation to set things in motion.

As I have already quoted on the same bone of contention started by another poster on Politics, Bishop Ajayi Crowther said:

Only the best is good enough for us.

Therefore, we should not settle for less.

I know the true picture of Nigeria, because I am the photographer as shown on Nigerian Times and as you see clearly if you are on broadband or on a more advanced Internet connection, I have been flying the Nigerian flag with pride since I came online in 2005 as Seun and others like Kazey have also been doing even before me.

To bury your ugly head in the quick sand like an Ostrich in shame does not mean the rest of the world will not see your dirty anus.

I gave examples of how the hardworking UN agencies arrived at the conclusions, because I have been an insider.

When I was a Unicef program consultant for Child Survival and Development, I produced educational materials for Nomadic education and as I mentioned I have been at the grassroots since 1984 to date.

Any dummy can pretend to be ignorant of these facts and join the Joneses of the ruling class and I have been there too with the Abachas, Bamanga Tukurs, Sanusis, Sotomis and others. But one day the former madam of the late Gen. Sani Abacha told me:
"Nelson, I am afraid that if the poor masses find out the corruption in high places and what we have been doing to them, they will cut off our heads."
Go and read the novel, The General's Wife by Lady Tanya Hume-Sotomi.
And find out who was the Mike Nelson she knew.

If you have no conscience and you are evil and wicked, you can damn the grave consequences of the terrible things in the length and breadth of Nigeria and join the ruling class. But as I said, all ends in the cemetery.

Look at what is happening in Zimbabwe today.

I was a refugee child during the Nigerian civil war and I have seen horrors and I am still having the nightmares.

During Ali Must Go riots in 1979, soldiers flogged me with Koboko, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti was my hero.

During the June 12 riots in 1993, I took a heavy blow meant for a mortuary attendant when an annoyed big guy from the US nearly killed a mortuary attendant for delaying him from collecting the corpse of his mother. I left my mother's corpse to make peace and got a punch in my face. The mortuary attendants at the General Hospital in Lagos asked for bribes to approve the collection of corpses after we paid the mortuary fees.
My mother was on the last floor of the mortuary and I passed by heaps upon heaps of corpses on the floors.

After the burial of my mother I left for Calabar on an ADC flight for a workshop on educating commercial sex workers in Cross River state and I stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel for one week in July, 1993. Then I returned to Lagos on an ADC flight and from 1993 to 1995, I did a market survey of all the major markets in Lagos and coordinated the training of 100 traders on Community Based Distribution for Primary Health Care and Micro Finance at the popular Tejuosho Retail Market in Yaba, Lagos. The video is available in the office of the former Program Specialist of the USAID in Nigeria, Alhaja Hadiyat O. Shtta-Bey of the famous Shitta-Bey Family in Lagos.

In-between these years, I was also preaching the Good News on Molue and Danfo buses in Lagos from 1989 to 2000. And even during the June 12 riots on Ikorodu Road, I spent the money meant for my treatment for typhoid fever on transport fares from Fadeyi to Ojota and back to comfort the broken hearted poor masses in overloaded public transport 911 Molue buses. I preached to over 5, 000 total strangers on buses and on the streets of Lagos in over 11 years.

I was the one who started the RAPAC office on HIV/AIDS of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Nigeria.

I have travelled by road and by sea and by air and I have seen Nigeria from the bottom to the top from 1980 to date. And I have seen the heart, soul and spirit of Nigeria, my Nigeria.

I know the true picture of Nigeria.
Because, I live in Nigeria and Nigeria lives in me.

Show me your own true picture of Nigeria from true life experience.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

God bless Nigeria.