Our 'Oil Rich' Nigeria Is Actually Oil Poor!

Chippla has done some simple maths to reveal that Nigeria is actually quite poor despite the so-called oil wealth.  According to his calculations, the country only makes about 2100 naira per month ($15) per citizen.  So because of our enormous population, oil wealth is not going to be enough to guarantee us a good standard of living, even if there is zero corruption!

http://chippla.blogspot.com/2006/01/poverty-beyond-corruption.html

What do you think about this?  I think we have to look for ways to make every man, woman and child in Nigeria productive.  Create jobs people, we shouldn't all be jostling for jobs in the oil sector or banking sector!

i guess i was rong!!
thanx for da info!!  (by da way your CLEVER!!! )

xxxprincessxxx

OH! OK then, Thanx Chippla!!!

I showed Chippla's article to someone and he laughed it off as government propaganda...

From time 'imo -river' this information and 'grimmier' ones have been known by all discerning minds.
It was the basis on which Nigeria went on a borrowing spree in the early eightees... in an attempt to diversify the economy.
It was the basis on which the national rolling plan of the late seventies was made.

Operation feed the nation, Green revolution, etc were targetted at ensuring that dependence on an 'already insufficient amount of oil money' is reduced to the barest minumum.

Invested wealth always multiplies and grows itself. squandered wealth ends up in the 'rest' room. Therefore Oil wealth would have been enough to ensure a decent standard of living if it was invested and nurtured, but alas, it was stolen and still being stolen.

The real wealth of a soceity of country is its people. It then beats the imagination why and how men/women/children are being killed, maimed and incapacitated just because there is oil under their houses/farms and settlements.

Nigeria's undoing is this gross misplacement of focus/attention.

Human beings are the real wealth (or source of wealth) in any system or society. The failure of leadership and followership in Nigeria has been the failure to fully grasp this fact, its import and to fully implement the issues that arise therefrom.

It's huge, but you know the revenue the government gets comes from the taxes paid by the oil companies. Ignorance.

Owo blow! U're right! My mistake. I stand corrected.

Looking inwards is what we should have been doing since 1973... We should have invested the oil boom money properly!

Part of the voodoo in the economics is that with the best of intentions Nigeria's revenue base, sources and level is precarious.

Below is a list of the so called fortune 500 companies with their accompanying revenues and profits for year 2005
                                                                Revenue m$             Profit  m$
1   Wal-Mart Stores                   288,189.00   10,267.00
2   Exxon Mobil                   270,772.00   25,330.00
3   General Motors                   193,517.00   2,805.00
4   Ford Motor                   172,233.00   3,487.00
5   General Electric                   152,363.00   16,593.00
6   ChevronTexaco                   147,967.00   13,328.00
7   ConocoPhillips                   121,663.00   8,129.00
8   Citigroup                                   108,276.00   17,046.00
9   American Intl. Group   98,610.00   11,050.00
10   Intl. Business Machines   96,293.00   8,430.00
11   Hewlett-Packard                   79,905.00   3,497.00
12   Berkshire Hathaway                   74,382.00   7,308.00
13   Home Depot                   73,094.00   5,001.00
14   Verizon Communications   71,563.30   7,830.70
15   McKesson                                   69,506.10   646.5
16   Cardinal Health                   65,130.60   1,474.50
17   Altria Group                   64,440.00   9,416.00
18   Bank of America Corp.   63,324.00   14,143.00
19   State Farm Insurance Cos   58,818.90   5,308.60
20   J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.   56,931.00   4,466.00
21   Kroger                                   56,434.40   -128
22   Valero Energy                   53,918.60   1,803.80
23   AmerisourceBergen                   53,179.00   468.4
24   Pfizer                                   52,921.00   11,361.00
25   Boeing                                   52,553.00   1,872.00
26   Procter & Gamble                   51,407.00   6,481.00
27   Target                                   49,934.00   3,198.00
28   Dell                                   49,205.00   3,043.00
29   Costco Wholesale                   48,107.00   882.4
30   Johnson & Johnson                   47,348.00   8,509.00
31   Marathon Oil                   45,444.00   1,261.00
32   Time Warner                   42,869.00   3,364.00
33   SBC Communications   41,098.00   5,887.00
34   Dow Chemical                   40,161.00   2,797.00
35   Albertson's                   40,052.00   444
36   Morgan Stanley                   39,549.00   4,486.00
37   MetLife                                   39,535.00   2,758.00
38   Walgreen                                   37,508.20   1,360.20
39   United Technologies                   37,445.00   2,788.00
40   UnitedHealth Group                   37,218.00   2,587.00
41   Microsoft                                   36,835.00   8,168.00
42   United Parcel Service   36,582.00   3,333.00
43   Lowe's                                   36,464.00   2,176.00
44   Archer Daniels Midland   36,151.40   494.7
45   Sears Roebuck                   36,099.00   -507
46   Safeway                                   35,822.90   560.2
47   Lockheed Martin                   35,526.00   1,266.00
48   Medco Health Solutions   35,351.90   481.6
49   Motorola                                   35,349.00   1,532.00
50   Intel                                   34,209.00   7,516.00
51   Allstate                                   33,936.00   3,181.00
52   Wells Fargo                   33,876.00   7,014.00
53   Merrill Lynch                   32,467.00   4,436.00
54   Walt Disney                   30,752.00   2,345.00
55   CVS                                   30,594.30   918.8
56   AT&T                                   30,537.00   -6,469.00
57   Caterpillar                   30,251.00   2,035.00
58   Northrop Grumman                   29,868.00   1,084.00
59   Goldman Sachs Group   29,839.00   4,553.00
60   Sysco                                   29,335.40   907.2
61   PepsiCo                                   29,261.00   4,212.00
62   American Express                   29,115.00   3,445.00
63   Delphi                                   28,700.00   -36
64   Prudential Financial                   28,348.00   2,256.00
65   Wachovia Corp.                   28,067.00   5,214.00
66   DuPont                                   27,995.00   1,780.00
67   Sprint                                   27,428.00   -1,012.00
68   New York Life Insurance   27,175.50   1,213.30
69   Viacom                                   27,054.80   -17,462.20
70   International Paper                   26,722.00   -35
71   Johnson Controls                   26,553.40   817.5
72   Tyson Foods                   26,441.00   403
73   Caremark Rx                   25,801.10   600.3
74   J.C. Penney                   25,678.00   524
75   Honeywell Intl.                   25,601.00   1,281.00
76   Ingram Micro                   25,462.10   219.9
77   Best Buy                                   24,901.00   705
78   FedEx                                   24,710.00   838
79   Alcoa                                   23,960.00   1,310.00
80   HCA                                   23,502.00   1,246.00
81   TIAA-CREF                   23,411.30   540.5
82   Sunoco                                   23,226.00   605
83   Mass. Mutual Life Ins.   23,159.20   677
84   Merck                                   22,938.60   5,813.40
85   St. Paul Travelers Cos.   22,934.00   955
86   Duke Energy                   22,779.00   1,490.00
87   BellSouth                                   22,729.00   4,758.00
88   Hartford Financial Services   22,693.00   2,115.00
89   Weyerhaeuser                   22,665.00   1,283.00
90   MCI                                   22,615.00   -4,002.00
91   Cisco Systems                   22,045.00   4,401.00
92   Coca-Cola                   21,962.00   4,847.00
93   Bristol-Myers Squibb   21,886.00   2,388.00
94   Lehman Brothers Hldgs.   21,250.00   2,369.00
95   Electronic Data Systems   21,033.00   158
96   Plains All Amer. Pipeline   20,975.50   130
97   Wellpoint                                   20,815.10   960.1
98   News Corp.                   20,802.00   1,533.00
99   Nationwide                   20,558.00   1,010.00
100   Abbott Laboratories                   20,473.10   3,235.90


NIGERIA     (population  - 130m)         22,000.00                          

Taiwan       (population -   23m)          49,000.00      

With a population less than one fifth (1/5) of Nigeria, Taiwan with no oil or abundant 'Natural resources' has a revenue that is more than double that of Nigeria with 'all' the oil, ores and others.
The secret.... It developed its human resources...eg .It makes more computer motherboards than any other country on earth, its research and development efforts are top of the range.

In addition to the voodoo, consider the american military budget.
American military budget estimate(2006)          $441,000.00m

It easy to fall into the temptation of giving historical and  social reasons/excuses as to why there are disparities in the income level..... If so, then consider south korea, taiwan and malaysia that started out with us in the 60's. This place can be the best place in the world.....It can.

Can Nigeria grow and move on from here?.... Yes
Will it grow?.... No.... unless it is restructured, realigned, reorganised or broken into growth based units. Its current constitution/organisation/set-up is aimed at systematically underdeveloping all its contituent units. That explains why it has over a million of its best brains in the US alone and an innumerable multitude scattered accross the globe.

The companies listed above make their money from harnessing the power of the human brain within its fold.....No organisation can grow beyond the intellectual capability of its men/women.same for any soceity.

The point here is ... Without corruption, Nigeria with all the oil money does not have enough money to invest or feed itself. Even the small peanuts is poorly invested dues to crass ignorance and illiteracy
In any case, there will be no domino effect when siting infrastructure depends on where the presidents hails from. Go and check Minna Airport that has near zero traffic and compare it with Port Harcourt Airport that handles the 'oil money' traffic. Consider the economic relevance of the state of both roads. It will tell you the story

As important as tourism is, it must not be a first line source of income. If it was so good, how come the carribeans economies are still in their doldrums. Accurate statistics do not lie. France that receives the highest no. of tourists does not rely on it as a first line source of income. Rather they they ensured that they have some of the best brains in the world. The Eiffel tower for instance has the name of the great scientists (Largrange, Bernouli, marie- Curie, and the like) that worked in paris

Whether it is per-capita or what ever name..... this soceity is desperately poor and in need of an urgent revamp. The young at heart, will keep quiet at their (and children's) own peril.

Starting with your brother, uncle, village-man, town-man etc , present the facts, data, information and ideas on what needs to be done to move us forward. Their hearts will be stirred and prayers will be answered.

The consequence of positive investments were clearly stated as the quote below shows


But that is talking about possibilities that would have been if the monies of yesterday were positively invested. Even today, there is still no positive investment.

In tomorrow's terms... Nigeria may be classified as potentially 'rich' (after all since the early seventies, its potentials have never been in doubt). It would smack of denying today's reality to build hopes and draw conclusions on what Nigeria could possibly become tomomrow.

In any case, all the economic projections/predictions concerning the outcome of our 'investments' over the last 35 years  have failed. What then is the basis on which the supposed 'future' wealth of Nigeria is built?

Therefore, if today's wealth (and not future possibilities) is the index to judge/determine wealth then, Nigeria is grossly poor. Indeed, very poor as previously shown. Projections and possiblities have been with humans from ancient times, but it has never been the basis of judging current realities.

Declaring wealth based on tomorrows possibilities would amount to making the same mistake that our forbears made  - that of assuming that we can always have an economic miracle when we want it. No nation has ever had an overnight economic miracle. It has always been the result of constant, steadfast positive investment in people (first), social infrastructure, harmony and people politics.  Even this is not being done in today's Nigeria

In all of today's terms, Oil 'rich' Nigeria is desperately poor.

Oasis and Owo, I've learnt quite a lot from you both. Thanks.

I agree.

Besides, $1 in poor country may be worth $10 in the USA.