For over a period now, I and some of my friends and colleague tries to ponder on the country Nigeria, why we are so poor despite living in the midst of wealth, why our standard of living is so low when compared to other parts of the world and why milllions of youth have remained unemployed.

We embarked on individual and group research about Nigeria, our economic history, the way we started, the success story, where we got it all wrong and where we will possible find ourselves in the nearest future. I must confess we have found a lot of things, things we don't believe ever existed in our dear country.

In our minds and heart, we concluded that a united Nigeria "might" never work considering our political history and recent happenings unless the system is refurbished or restructured with the spirit of unity and oneness not hate and discrimination. We forsee the country could be broken anyime soon looking at recent political pressure.

Being all Yorubas, our decision was to plan for a new nation with the title "Commonwealth of Yorland" incase the unexpected happens so that we won't find ourselves in the same condition with present day Nigeria. We have gone on research on several sectors trying to bring out a viable masterplan in achieving greatness using the develop world as case study.

The preceding intro is actually not the subject focus here but I want to show you one of many thing we've discovered. It's about the country's national budget. Sadly, for the second consecutive year of Buhari's rule, the budget is being passed and signed after six month into the year, a time we should be planning for the budget of the coming year.

The size of our budget is $18 billion and we are 191 million people. It was shocking to find that so many nation has a bigger budget than ours and it was most devastating to discover that country's of less than 40 million people has bigger expenditure than ours. Despite this, Our politicians are world highest earners. This is very unacceptable, we really need to find a way to boost our revenue.

The figure below shows a list of 32 countries of less than 40 million people with a budget more than double of Nigerian budget. The populatin figure is according 2017 estimation by "Worldometers" and the budget size is according to the "CIA world fact book".



S/N COUNTRY POPULATION BUDGET
01. Canada ---- 36,626,573 ---- $632.4 billion
02. Australia ---- 24,641,662 ---- $446.4 billion
03. Netherland ---- 17,032,845 ---- $333.5 billion
04. Sweden ---- 9,920,624 ---- $250.2 billion
05. Belgium ---- 11,443,830 ---- $245.0 billion
06. Saudi Arabia ---- 32,742,664 ---- $236.7 billion
07. Venezuela ---- 31,925,705 ---- $228.8 billion
08. Switzerland ---- 8,454,083 ---- $213.4 billion
09. Austria ---- 8,529,400 ---- $192.6 billion
10. Norway ---- 5,330,800 ---- $188.8 billion
11. Denmark ---- 5,711,837 ---- $164.5 billion
12. Finland ---- 5,541,274 ---- $132.7 billion
13. United Arab Emirates ---- 9,397,599----$113.0 billion
14. Greece ---- 10,892,931 ---- $102.1 billion
15. Portugal ---- 10,264,797 ---- $92.25 billion
16. Israel ---- 8,,323,248---- $88.40 billion
17. Poland ---- 38,563,573---- $86.56 billion
18., Taiwan ---- 23,405,309---- $83.95 billion
19. Ireland ---- 4,749,153 ---- $80.86 billion
20. Iraq ---- 38,654,287 ---- $77.87 billion
21. Czech Republic ---- 10,555,130 ---- $74.75 billion
22. New Zealand ---- 4,064,871---- $67.01 billion
23. Peru ---- 32,166,473---- $66.46 billion
24. Kuwait ---- 4,099,932---- $65,32 billion
25. Malaysia ---- 31,164,177---- $63.01 billion
26. Romania ---- 19,237,513---- $62.14 billion
27. Hungary ---- 9,787,905 ---- $60.08 billion
28. Hong Kong ---- 7,401,941 ---- $59.07 billion
29. Cuba ---- 11,390,659 ---- $58.59 billion
30. Chile ---- 18,313,495 ---- $55.74 billion
31. Qatar ---- 2,338,085 ---- $53.95 billion
32. Singapore ---- 5,784,538 ---- $44.83 billion

Seen, Mynd44 fp

can you compare the level of development there to here?
Do they share budget money among citizens?

Mr man go and sit down

Nigeria is very useless

Can they pad budget ?
They are still learning work

Caustics:
can you compare the level of development there to here?
Do they share budget money among citizens?

Mr man go and sit down

What is his offence or is he the one that said your leaders should be corrupt

Caustics:
can you compare the level of development there to here?
Do they share budget money among citizens?

Mr man go and sit down

Sir, the question is;


Why haven't we become developed as they are?


It's we let go of third world thinking like yours, we need to think wide and large to make Africa a better place.


#iBelieveWeCan

crownprince102:

Sir, the question is;


Why haven't we become developed as they are?


It's we let go of third world thinking like yours, we need to think wide and large to make Africa a better place.


#iBelieveWeCan

If anyone has 3rd world thinking, it is definitely not me. So do you suggest increasing our budget since countries that are less populated than us use more? Its not as easy as that.

some things are bigger than the belief of one man

what is the essence of this thread? to defend ur missing president Abi? God is watching you o!

johnbuck81:
what is the essence of this thread? to defend ur missing president Abi? God is watching you o!

Sir, can you comprehend with reading at all.


if this article will ever take side, it will condemn the FG

That is what I try to explain to some people sometimes.. Our yearly budget is high insignificant compared to our population, that's why you hardly see any visible impact of the budget in the lives of the people.

With our population, we should be talking of a budget worth of US$400 Billion.. That's why we need Fiscal federalism, it will force us to start thinking outside the box.

@ op please do more by including there GDP per capital.

Nigeria is like this because we have leathers who are not ready to sacrifice

crownprince102:


Sir, can you comprehend with reading at all.


if this article will ever take side, it will condemn the FG

carry go...

There are no people there working very hard to clandestinely islamize them

anibi9674:
@ op please do more by including there GDP per capital.

Chai... you want make I finish Nigeria.


every nation on the list has at least $10,000 in GDP per capita.


Nigeria is still struggling with $2500

Nigeria is a failed state.

Restructure it or break it.

-Crownprince102 , did you notice that Austria and Switzerland are both landlocked with less than 10 million people?

-To the topic, there are a few basic things you need to create wealth, including but not limited to: Geography & Culture.

-Nigeria may have a decent geography(location), but the cultures that abound in Nigeria are appalling and counterproductive to creating wealth.

-Just take a look at the attitude to education in the country and the caliber of the so-called Nigerian leaders, starting with their President.

Add to that, an overbearing government that can't even protect the people's basic fundamental rights or provide a concrete economic map/policy, at same time won't get out of the way for those who have the means & knowledge to get on with the business of creating wealth.

- I have looked at the records of most recent UK Prime ministers, do you know it's a near requirement that any of them must have advance level knowledge of what they called PPE (Politics, Philosophy & Economics), now compare that with Nigerian President who has no evidence of mere secondary education(Ordinary level certificate!)

budget is one of the essential element in human development in a particular nation or country, comparing these countries budgeting to Nigeria is bangadash. reasons, Nigerian human development is completely zero becos of our self centered pen writers politicians who are convening our capitals to themselves not even in our financial institute rather to foreign country in a big Ghana must go bag... thanks

This is what I have been saying on nairaland for months ...

Something is wrong with Nigeria and its not our system of government

Op check the GDP of this countries with respect to there budget then compare that to our own

We are not taxing enough ...u have a GDP of $500bn dollars and u can't tax out $150bn ..

Tribalism is not in Nigeria ..as far as am concern that's just what selfish politicians make us to believe ...u hate Igbo's but u bank in an igbo man bank ...u hate Yoruba but u bank in gtb ??

See taxing the Nigerians will smell doom for our political leaders that's y they will never want to do it ...cos the people will want someone who will use their money to their own benefit ..not his brother or tribes man

Imagine roads in Nigeria ..we have 11 million cars ...tax all of them average of 50k per year to fix our road ..that's 550 bn for Roads ..alone ..all in all we can have 700bn for roads ..after toll gate and all ...if we pay such money why would any leader give u excuse not to repair the roads and expect u to vote him cos his ur brother


If we tax this private schools (100%) ...we can raise enough money to build our public schools

We need to tax ...tax and make it work ...money earned from oil is not enough but its very easy to steal that's y our leaders prefer if this way

crownprince102:

Chai... you want make I finish Nigeria.


every nation on the list has at least $10,000 in GDP per capita.


Nigeria is still struggling with $2500

And by writing this, you've just provided the answer to your own question. The main reason why Nigeria's budget is so small is because it is an extremely poor country, and the reason why the country is poor is because the productivity of most Nigerians is extremely low. Seeing as the nation's transport infrastructure is in shambles, its electricity supply is inadequate and erratic, its educational system is a joke, and its macroeconomic policies are hostile to private enterprise, this poverty is in turn no surprise.

The other chief reason why the Nigerian government's budget is so small is because, unlike most of the other countries you list, few Nigerians pay any taxes, and the primary source of government income is still the same old 2 million barrels per day it has been over the last 47 years. Unfortunately for Nigerians, the real price of oil has not kept up with the 3% annual growth rate of the population, so the same revenue that was spent on 70 million 40 years ago must now cater for 190 million: I hope I don't need to spell what that means for quality of services delivered (which in Nigeria has never been good).

omohayek:

And by writing this, you've just provided the answer to your own question. The main reason why Nigeria's budget is so small is because it is an extremely poor country, and the reason why the country is poor is because the productivity of most Nigerians is extremely low. Seeing as the nation's transport infrastructure is in shambles, its electricity supply is inadequate and erratic, its educational system is a joke, and its macroeconomic policies are hostile to private enterprise, this poverty is in turn no surprise.

The other chief reason why the Nigerian government's budget is so small is because, unlike most of the other countries you list, few Nigerians pay any taxes, and the primary source of government income is still the same old 2 million barrels per day it has been over the last 47 years. Unfortunately for Nigerians, the real price of oil has not kept up with the 3% annual growth rate of the population, so the same revenue that was spent on 70 million 40 years ago must now cater for 190 million: I hope I don't need to spell what that means for quality of services delivered (which in Nigeria has never been good).

Sir, first thing is that I never ask a question.... I just posted a research result.


The question now is why are we behind..... We were better off many of this nation at independence or is it a num for Africa to be underdeveloped.


we need to find a way to make our nation better by all means. it is now or never.

crownprince102:

Sir, first thing is that I never ask a question.... I just posted a research result.


The question now is why are we behind..... We were better off many of this nation at independence or is it a num for Africa to be underdeveloped.


we need to find a way to make our nation better by all means. it is now or never.

I'm afraid your answer illustrates what I was saying about the educational system. I already provided the explanations for Nigeria's underdevelopment within my original response, but clearly you didn't understand what I was saying.

Nigeria will never get anywhere as long as intellectual laziness drives people to reach for simplistic "solutions" that amount to the same old empty "unity and oneness" rhetoric that has led nowhere in nearly 60 years. No amount of preaching will ever substitute for policies that give people incentives to improve their productivity through saving and investing.

Caustics:
If anyone has 3rd world thinking, it is definitely not me. So do you suggest increasing our budget since countries that are less populated than us use more? Its not as easy as that.

some things are bigger than the belief of one man

my oga why you dey reason like this na? Do you know nigeria has all it takes to increase her budget to 15trillion per annum. more than 60% of our resources is untapped. oil money has finished us in this country coupled our visionless leaders. This country need reformation and should be managed like a business organisation for the first 50 years

Lord arrest all wicked politicians that don't want this nation to move forward.

Op you mumu shall
You are comparing developed countries with developing country?

Caustics:
can you compare the level of development there to here?
Do they share budget money among citizens?

Mr man go and sit down

I can see you are Brain less

fados4sure:
Op you mumu shall

You are comparing developed countries with developing country?

Romania, Peru and Chile are developing countries and their budget is more than Nigeria.

Even war torn Iraq has a larger budget than Nigeria.

anibi9674:
@ op please do more by including there GDP per capital.

Do you wish for Nigeria to look worse?

EzeUche:


Romania, Peru and Chile are developing countries and their budget is more than Nigeria.

Even war torn Iraq has a larger budget than Nigeria.

Are you saying Romania is a developing country? I have been to Constata & Bucharest in Romania

myright:
Nigeria is very useless

You are right.

Even apc is more useless.

nabiz:
my oga why you dey reason like this na? Do you know nigeria has all it takes to increase her budget to 15trillion per annum. more than 60% of our resources is untapped. oil money has finished us in this country coupled our visionless leaders. This country need reformation and should be managed like a business organisation for the first 50 years

laying out plans on paper and actualizing it are two different things. will the untapped resources tap themselves? these things dont come overnight.

Op, whatever your motive thank you for posting this information.
Many Nigerians will still come here to say Nigeria is a rich country that we should all be rich if the money is simply well shared. They can't wrap their heads around this information as they will still argue we are in this condition because our leaders steal the money.

The truth is we are poorly led as the government lacks ideas on how to raise money to run itself not to talk of the country.

Tell any Nigerian that the government needs to raise more from tax and witness a fierce attack asking what has been done with it one earlier collected.
Chances are higher that person has never paid any taxes his adult life.

Yet the person will pester you with complaints of how there are no high speed trains in Nigeria, no world class hospitals or good super highway all over the country.

The $18b we want to spend is not even earned by the government as a huge chunk of it is loan or deficit spending. How on earth do you spend $18b on 170 million people while another country spends $ 44b on 5 million people and you expect a similar result. Is that not a joke?