₦airaland Forum

while oil prices have given nigeria a big knock you got to remember that the dollar has been artifcally raised against all world currencies for the time being .though the naira has taken a beaten against many world currencies too not only the dollar.
i doubt the naira will improve much too soon because xmas is usually the time the naira gains not loses so when xmas is over and the influx of dollars dwindle the naira will slip more.
despite what some here feel nigeria is too dependant on oil sector and as years go by we fail to invest into other sectors properly.
a classic good example is Russia and a good model for all the countries with oil.I think if you look at the production of oil we are now number 7 .All the countries above us have a lower population then nigeria even Russia.
Russia pumps more then 3 times the amount of oil (6.67m barrels to our 2.19m)we do and thats nothing compared to how much they make from gas which basicaly warms most houses in  the whole europe and they also sell to china ,india etc.
They also have a huge industrial base .But rather then sit and spend without thinking ,they have invested into bringing up new industries and buying foriegn companies.
Someone argued that they are using the money to spend on building their military.But if you think about it they are in no real conflict at the moment and the war in georgia ended in a few days after heavily thumping the georgians with their american bought weapons and the final result is as of the end of 2008 russia is now the number one arms dealer in the world overtaking usa for the first time in history which is loads of billions of $$$$$.
Now i am just pointing out the success story of russia not to say we must go build weapons but that in times of high oil prices we should build up our reserves and invest the money wisely in constant electricity,water and good roads and then focus on industries.Not erect numerous new buildings ,raise salaries and new cars.