I know you guys are having a busy day, but quickly take a look at these two figures, then resume what you were doing:

$72.56 billion
$26.1 billion

The first one was what Americans spent on their pets (domestic animals) in 2018, as reported by the American Pet Products Association.

The second one was what Nigeria made from crude oil sales in 2018, as reported by Nairametrics.

Now, when next any loud-mouth comes to tell you that Nigeria is a rich country, be sure to show them these figures. And if they still argue, feel free to give them a long hiss or fart in their lying mouths.

A myopic or uninformed person will open their social media app to see all forms of extravagant lifestyles displayed by few Nigerians, then conclude Nigerians have money.

You lie.

You lie, because that is a negligible fraction of the country's population and they can never be used as a factual reflection of about 200 million others.

About two or three years ago, the Director of Research and International Relations at the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) disclosed at a BusinessDay conference that ONLY 2% OF NIGERIANS HAVE MORE THAN 500,000 IN THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS.

Read that line again and do some maths. Then consider that things have since gotten worse, with millions more reported to have slipped below the Global Poverty Index.

And just before you counter that claim with beer parlour analysis, remember the source of that report is an authority in the field. So, let's not waste time on small talk.

Of course, Nigeria is home to some of Africa's wealthiest billionaires, but that is not a direct measure of wealth distribution in Nigeria as a whole.

What percentage of Nigerian youths can conveniently and independently afford basic necessities? What is the spending power of the average person you see around you?

The mathematics is really quite simple yunno.

Anyway, thanks for your time. Kindly resume what you were doing before you saw this post.