Culture is basically defined as the way of life of a group of people. Nigeria today is one of the nations with the poorest number of people (a.k.a poverty capital of the world), a number which is still growing according to world population.io

Apart from the obvious lapses in the economy and all the other excuses people make, the most important reason for such poverty is the culture of an average Nigerian.

These are four of the toxic cultures that keep Nigerians in abject poverty.


1. Lifestyle
Nigerians love to FLAUNT. They are the kings and Queens of show-off. I’m sure we’ve all come across the tag #kinging. But if we are in a country filled with abject poverty, does that make us Poor Kings?

An average Nigerian has one goal, to appear rich. Mind you, there’s a whole difference between appearing rich and actually being rich. Nigerians will be familiar with the phrase “Never to be caught unfresh”. Well, for those who don’t know what that means, it simply means never to be seen in public not properly (expensively) dressed.

A Nigerian lacks foresight when it comes to money management. We would rather spend all our money in one day (probably birthday) and go hungry the entire month. Let me share a story…

I have a friend who had a graduation event coming up. Mind you, he doesn’t come from the most buoyant of families. In preparation, he was given monetary gifts. He spent every single dime on getting new clothes for the event and feeding people. Immediately the event passed, he went directly to being broke again. The only consolation he had were the pictures he uploaded on social media. The pictures gathered likes and comments, but nothing to relieve his current broke state.

There’s another story I heard from an old friend. While he was growing up in his village in the ’90s, people were involved in a contributory scheme. About a hundred people came together to contribute a particular amount of money each month, then at the end of the month, one person takes all the money. This repeats itself until everyone gets their share.

So let’s say 100 persons contribute 50,000 naira monthly and at the end of the month, one person goes home with 5,000,000 (five million) naira.

Now, do you know what the people do with this money?

They throw parties!!! How ridiculous!

Nigerians are poor, but that statement isn’t true on social media. An average Nigerian on Instagram uploads sophisticated photos even if he/she has less than 10,000 naira (28 USD) in the bank account. You see why I tagged them show-off kings?

There’s an American couple I follow online. They are farmers and have a homestead and a Youtube channel of over 250k subscribers with an average viewing of 100k. Putting it mildly, if this couple isn’t worth a million USD, it will be only a couple of bucks short.

Now, compare this couple’s Instagram handle with thousands and millions of unemployed Nigerians who basically have nothing, but always feel the need to show-off.

If Nigerians should look so good on social media, who then are those that are suffering? You might probably say those suffering are not online. That I totally disagree with. More than half the number of flaunters are not worth 1000 USD (360,000 naira)

I’ve also met a young lady who worked at a bar. At the time, she earned 13,000 naira (36 USD) monthly. She spends most of her income on clothes because according to her…

“What you put on is what people see”

But tell me, who does a young lady earning barely 13,000 naira monthly wants to impress when she should be focused on growing her income.

When you get money, either through work or gifting and the first thing that comes to your mind is how to spend it, that’s an obvious sign of poverty.

Earlier, I talked about the lack of foresight. Let me buttress on that with a simple calculation.

For instance, you’ve 10,000 naira at the start of the month and you know that’s all you’ve got for the month. What a right-thinking person should do is to prepare a simple budget.

We have 30 days or 4 weeks in a month.

N10,000/30 OR N10,000/4
= N333 per day OR N2500 per week

This gives you the amount you have to spend each day or each week for the entire month so you don’t run out of money before the month comes to an end.

But for an average Nigerian, that’s certainly not the case. We do not make any plans whatsoever. We just spend the money as our wants dictate and hope when it finishes, God will send us a good Samaritan.

2. Buying Items
This culture affects mainly the working class. Nigerians who earn salaries monthly are of the opinion that the more things they own, the richer they are. A salary earner wants to ‘Behind’ his apartment to suit his taste, we are all for the comfortable life you see!

Even if the monthly salary can’t afford the luxuries, we either save up or buy on loan. Items like Air conditioning, top-notch flat-screen TV, satellite, generator/inverter, washing machine, and exquisite interior décor are a must-have.

Also, you can’t have a good apartment and not look good outwardly. So the salary earner has to appear sophisticated as well. Expensive outfit, mobile device(s) that match their inflated personality and for those that can afford it, a car.

There’s totally nothing wrong with living in comfort, mostly when you are able to provide it for yourself, but as I said earlier, if the first thing that comes to your mind when you receive your salary is spending it, you’ll hardly ever become rich.

The working-class Nigerians even take loans to buy a car. This is a show of total ignorance especially if the car is for personal use.

We have to realize it is impossible for the government to do everything. All developed countries have rich individuals who invest their wealth in the economy of their countries thereby keeping poverty at the barest minimum.

Salary earners have to do more instead of thinking of their immediate comfort. Earn money, save money and invest money. Grow your money to a point where you’re able to be an employer of labour. Employ people, let your services meet the needs of others. As you lift others out of poverty, in turn, you make more money.

“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth…these are one and the same fight. ” Ban Ki-moon

“You are truly rich only when you can afford not to work yet maintain your standard of living in perpetuity”

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Decent read

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