California – America’s Second Country . No Oil But Richer Than France Brazil and Nigeria !

California is the 6th largest economy in the world. It’s economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a country. It is a State in the United States of America. It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.


California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its premier university, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.


As a matter of fact, much of California’s economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon valley developed. I’m sure you’ve heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life.


Now with Silicon Valley came companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla… and the list goes on and on ad infinitum.These are multibillion-dollar companies.

The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I’m taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA’s GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the “Big Eight” consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.


Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.


This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas’ oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more.


Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.


You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for local county governments to handle.


The State handles weightier matters like Property law, Education,Commerce laws of ownership and exchange, Banking and credit laws, Labour law and professional licensure, Insurance laws, and Electoral laws, including parties and Civil service laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the school curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated school curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the science curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria.

I recently read of a high school in Japan which has amended its curriculum to include robotics and drones technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don’t have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of physics and chemistry in our schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms!


For the few public schools that are lucky to have labs, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around schools. What would the city of cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusett without Harvard University. These cities depend on these universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its universities and was earning $1billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near FUTO where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product.

Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the world-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by university students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our students In Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a war college. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can’t do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian society.

So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let’s forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is In Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, english form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point i’ve been laboring to make, shall i say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. We all play a vital role directly or indirectly to contribute to the system that promote both equality and equity, thereby gradually restructuring Nigeria at large.

allgoodlight:
California – America’s Second Country . No Oil But Richer Than France Brazil and Nigeria !

California is the 6th largest economy in the world. It’s economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a country. It is a State in the United States of America. It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.


California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its premier university, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.


As a matter of fact, much of California’s economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon valley developed. I’m sure you’ve heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life.


Now with Silicon Valley came companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla… and the list goes on and on ad infinitum.These are multibillion-dollar companies.

The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I’m taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA’s GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the “Big Eight” consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.


Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.


This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas’ oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more.


Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.


You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for local county governments to handle.


The State handles weightier matters like Property law, Education,Commerce laws of ownership and exchange, Banking and credit laws, Labour law and professional licensure, Insurance laws, and Electoral laws, including parties and Civil service laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the school curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated school curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the science curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria.

I recently read of a high school in Japan which has amended its curriculum to include robotics and drones technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don’t have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of physics and chemistry in our schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms!


For the few public schools that are lucky to have labs, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around schools. What would the city of cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusett without Harvard University. These cities depend on these universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its universities and was earning $1billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near FUTO where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product.

Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the world-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by university students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our students In Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a war college. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can’t do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian society.

So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let’s forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is In Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, english form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point i’ve been laboring to make, shall i say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. We all play a vital role directly or indirectly to contribute to the system that promote both equality and equity, thereby gradually restructuring Nigeria at large.

You made a wonderful post here
I remember my undergraduates days in the late 2000s, I did a lot of research about america most especially their university, being a civil engineering student. It was surprising for me to discover that as at then in 2008, Havard University was the 24th biggest economy in USA. If a university can achieve that how much more a state like California that was open to all as long as you are coming in to create value. In the 1900s California was referred to as the State of Opportunities, everyone were pouring into it even pastors, I remember that Four Square started and became popular right from California.
I want to also shock you sir that when it comes to some crops like Almond among some others, the same California is the highest producer of such farm products in the world

Ynix:

You made a wonderful post here
I remember my undergraduates days in the late 2000s, I did a lot of research about america most especially their university, being a civil engineering student. It was surprising for me to discover that as at then in 2008, Havard University was the 24th biggest economy in USA. If a university can achieve that how much more a state like California that was open to all as long as you are coming in to create value. In the 1900s California was referred to as the State of Opportunities, everyone were pouring into it even pastors, I remember that Four Square started and became popular right from California.
I want to also shock you sir that when it comes to some crops like Almond among some others, the same California is the highest producer of such farm products in the world

and to further prove the op right what's a civil engineering, a whole civil engineering student be researching on economics and economies for his/her project works when you should be doing researches on structures and bridges designs, perhaps how to make more durable bridges at a cheaper rate. But no, they sent you on a wild goose chase.

Una still de blow grammer ontop the hopelessly hopeless zoological shithole called Nigeria? Nigeria Nigeria can only get worse not better. The only way that op's suggestions can take effect in Nigeria is by completely removing political power from the North and share it fairly to all regions of Nigeria, that is impossible.

From what I understand about that place it’s not really an economy but a massive commercial district the size of a country.

To generate so much revenue you need industry and for that you need energy, even if they’re not directly making any revenue off energy it’s not unreasonable to state that the sheer amount of outsourcing and industry that place needs in order to manufacture the goods and the tools it’s service workers use to keep the state alive vastly outpaces whatever the hell it produces

Namnam:
From what I understand about that place it’s not really an economy but a massive commercial district the size of a country.

To generate so much revenue you need industry and for that you need energy, even if they’re not directly making any revenue off energy it’s not unreasonable to state that the sheer amount of outsourcing and industry that place needs in order to manufacture the goods and the tools it’s service workers use to keep the state alive vastly outpaces whatever the hell it produces

You're right. But all were possible with right leadership and prudent handling of resources.

For real ?

You are on point.

Very very apt.

Weldone.

We surely needs restructuring but the gworo chewing population won't let us achieve it.

We asked the white man to leave too early. Agreed that they were stealing our resources. But we are way too behind in intellectual capacity. We need the white man to rule black Africa for at least a century for us to get sense. Nobody can give what he or she doesn't have.

If you talk, they will say you should stop comparing Nigeria with America. @op all these things you have stated, Buhari does not even understand them talk more of implementing them








But what do I know

Hmmmmm! While other states are busy developing Nigeria is still struggling to elect yet another directionless president in Tinubu.

Hahah anything nigeria is backwordness, evil, hopeless. A very good write up u made there. But know this and know peace in your life and that of your childen born and unborn. There no futuer hope for this nigeria.

$2.987trillion Gdp

Cali is a big man state

Deep...we'll never learn

Public opinion doesn't even matter, we can't ask for restructuring by protest they will send their dogs to hunt us.

Hopefully we will someday get a president who is well educated and has the love of the people at heart to make all these things happen.

Democracy is dead and buried in Nigeria, a leader is someone a group of people elect to represent, manage their resources and cater for their needs, but reverse is the case here in Nigeria, you see the president, governor or whatever you voted for harassing you for calling he or she out for not doing their jobs.

The people gave you the power, the people can take it back but we are not United, our broom stands in pairs, we are lost as a nation.
The divide and conquer techniques the government is using to suppress our voices is working.

Ok

Been called a Nigerian is an insult we have draft and stupid leaders and useless people in Nigeria and africa at large buhari is useless so is every leader in Nigeria at large in my next world i will never ever want anything to do with Africa or blacks a curse people

Comparing somethings or places should be considered a crime

Ynix:

You made a wonderful post here
I remember my undergraduates days in the late 2000s, I did a lot of research about america most especially their university, being a civil engineering student. It was surprising for me to discover that as at then in 2008, Havard University was the 24th biggest economy in USA. If a university can achieve that how much more a state like California that was open to all as long as you are coming in to create value. In the 1900s California was referred to as the State of Opportunities, everyone were pouring into it even pastors, I remember that Four Square started and became popular right from California.
I want to also shock you sir that when it comes to some crops like Almond among some others, the same California is the highest producer of such farm products in the world

So you had to quote the OP's post to reply, even as FTC

Bonesbreaker:
Been called a Nigerian is an insult we have draft and stupid leaders and useless people in Nigeria and africa at large buhari is useless so is every leader in Nigeria at large in my next world i will never ever want anything to do with Africa or blacks a curse people

Boss, be calming down!
You're taking things too far now

California na ur country mate!?

Plays California Love by Tupac ft Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman

Hmmm

Can the world power be poor

The then western region could have achieved similar based on the foundation set by the sage. Unitarian government and charlatans leaders backed by the fraudstitution is holding a lot of regions back.

Ynix:

You made a wonderful post here
I remember my undergraduates days in the late 2000s, I did a lot of research about america most especially their university, being a civil engineering student. It was surprising for me to discover that as at then in 2008, Havard University was the 24th biggest economy in USA. If a university can achieve that how much more a state like California that was open to all as long as you are coming in to create value. In the 1900s California was referred to as the State of Opportunities, everyone were pouring into it even pastors, I remember that Four Square started and became popular right from California.
I want to also shock you sir that when it comes to some crops like Almond among some others, the same California is the highest producer of such farm products in the world

Wonderful write up you posses a resourceful knowledge and information. Thanks for your contribution. Remain bless.

Abudu2000:
and to further prove the op right what's a civil engineering, a whole civil engineering student be researching on economics and economies for his/her project works when you should be doing researches on structures and bridges designs, perhaps how to make more durable bridges at a cheaper rate. But no, they sent you on a wild goose chase.

Bullet points on plater of knowledge. Nice one.
Thanks for your contribution.

abouzaid:
Una still de blow grammer ontop the hopelessly hopeless zoological shithole called Nigeria? Nigeria Nigeria can only get worse not better. The only way that op's suggestions can take effect in Nigeria is by completely removing political power from the North and share it fairly to all regions of Nigeria, that is impossible.

Deep

How old is California?

iamyemiakins:

So you had to quote the OP's post to reply, even as FTC

Bros abeg forgive me, I never knew it will trend. Oya go and collect Fanta from Iya Chinyere I will pay

Abudu2000:
and to further prove the op right what's a civil engineering, a whole civil engineering student be researching on economics and economies for his/her project works when you should be doing researches on structures and bridges designs, perhaps how to make more durable bridges at a cheaper rate. But no, they sent you on a wild goose chase.

It was not a civil engineering project work, it was my choice to study different things. I have been doing that before I clocked 10 unfortunately I am trapped in Nigeria's quagmire

Namnam:
From what I understand about that place it’s not really an economy but a massive commercial district the size of a country.

To generate so much revenue you need industry and for that you need energy, even if they’re not directly making any revenue off energy it’s not unreasonable to state that the sheer amount of outsourcing and industry that place needs in order to manufacture the goods and the tools it’s service workers use to keep the state alive vastly outpaces whatever the hell it produces

Tourism alone is enough to make a country prosper, Holly wood and Las Vegas are America's tourist attractions centres and I think they both are in California