As a Nigerian who had the chance of travelling extensively throghout the globe I do have to confess that I feel ashamed (whenever I return) that so few positive things of the western world had made its entry into our beloved country. Go to any country in Asia (for example take one of the "tiger economies" and you will be amazed at the gigantic hyper-modern shopping malls they do have there, some of them even got an Olympic ice-skating rink downstairs). There are food courts, cinema complexes (Imax), playing areas for kids etc. I cannot forget the ones I have seen on my last trip to Malaysia. Malay people are traditional but they love to embrace western culture by going on shopping sprees to fantatic malls (and I even ventured outside of Kuala Lumpur to Penang and Kota Kinabalu and I was amazed at what I saw) . I am not talking of countries such as South Corea, Hong Kong or Singapore which are ABSOLUTELY consumer-driven and shopping-frenzied people. ("Shop till you drop"can be read in the guide books). I am talking of the "lesser developed countries" such as Malaysia and Thailand which I would lke to compare with Nigeria. People love to go shopping there and you find all the hyper-stores and flashy boutiques with all the world -famous brands names (even better in some cases) than you find in Europe.
I will not enlarge on UAE (Dubai), which leaves one breathless!!!
Allover the globe you can see Starbucks, Burger Kings, Seattles Coffee, Subways, Coffee Beans, Pizza Hut, KFC, etc. BUT none of those in our beloved home-country!!! WHHHHYYYYY?? We are living in the year 2006 and no longer in 1984, globalisation is in full swing (even small children in Asia have the latest high tech gadgets!). It is a shame for a country such as Nigeria that it doesn´t have Africa largest mall(s). Why do we need to go shopping abroad? Lets´create some sub-franchising in the country which will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Nigerians are so brand-conscious and always well-dressed and a middle-class is slowly on the rise. SO WHAT´S THE MATTER?

PLEASE I WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS THIS TOPIC SERIOUSLY WITH SOME OF YOU AND I DO NEED YOUR INPUT AND THOUGHTS. Thank you!

i understand you but there are no few fast food joint or mall maybe you haven't travel far come to Abuja and see malls like something else. you shouldn't be ashamed of naijeria cos of that, instead think other wise that this is just a developing country and things are still managing to grow. apart from that we have too much of good food traditionally like fufuyi and jolofrice so we might not spend all of our time in a fast food joint.

Nooo, don´t you think that Asian people haven´t got lovely traditional food, too? You have mmaaaaannnnnyyy wonderful Malay or Thai food in Malaysia, A LOT , but you still have got mega malls and tons of fast food joints to choose from. The two of them peacefully coexist side by side. I would like to post a few photos on Malaysia starting with Kuala Lumpur. This country has been enormously poor in the 60´s and nothing but bush! Look how it flourished [img]http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/leofoo/KLCC/CYLeow/KLCCXmas.jpg[/img]







[img]http://www.tropicalisland.de/KUL%20Kuala%20Lumpur%20skyline%20from%20KLCC%20park_b.jpg[/img]



Highways sweeping through Malaysia:

[img]http://www.tropicalisland.de/KUL%20Kuala%20Lumpur%20modern%20highways2_b.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.minconsult.com/output/highway&airport/08.jpg[/img]



Internatinal Airport in Kuala Lumpur

[img]http://www.tropicalisland.de/KUL%20KLIA%20Kuala%20Lumpur%20Airport%20main%20building%20check-in%20area_b.jpg[/img]

wow those are one big mall, are you a nigerian?

Hi teju, yes I am a Nigerian (and I am PROUD of my country!!) , I said that in my first posting. Malaysia is truly a wonderful place and developmenet is to be seen everywhere (pockets of poverty have almost vanished). Malaysia underwent a massive boom in the 70´s, 80´s and 90´s and it has grown from an irrelevant backwater to a strong emerging market. People - while remaining traditional - are very open-mided and lembrace Western cultures without DENYING THEIR OWN CULTURE.
I am showing you some more pictures on Kuala Lumpur:

Can you see the monorail above?





Here is one of the numerous ice-skating rinks: (don´t forget that Malaysia´s climate is the same as that of Nigeria)




Look at the spotlessly clean roads:



[img]http://www.personal.psu.edu/suc105/malaysia/Kuala%20Lumpur.jpg[/img]



[img]http://img195.exs.cx/img195/5673/171091199fnnkwfph13ko.jpg[/img]


Look at the international events they host like Petronas autodrome:




Now I would like to show a few pictures of Putraya, Malaysia new capital built from scratch



[img]http://img227.exs.cx/img227/6171/1521sv.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img104.exs.cx/img104/9238/356129uv.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img79.exs.cx/img79/5803/1865022zr.jpg[/img]

Look at that bridge:

[img]http://img79.exs.cx/img79/249/189om.jpg[/img]







[img]http://img266.echo.cx/img266/6487/dscn43675wj.jpg[/img]

yo STAN, thats what happens when people visit other countries, u get fresh ideas and see what people are actually doing n not dreamin. The only thing is they wont implement it in their own country 

As they say E GO BETTER 

i hope nigeria gets to be like that it takes reduction of bribing and corruption but there's no sign of reduction yet it's even worsening.

one more thing is buying power, _{or what u call it spendin power or some shizzle like that, dissposable income,}

as it is there are probably less than 5 fuly functioning cinema in nigeria, all them nice Fast Food joints are only in lagos(some areas even) and Abuja, because "70% live on less that a $2 a day"

all i could say is dam!

The proliferation of fast food joints in a particular country is no proof of a country's exposure to the western world. On the contrary, fast foods have received bad press because of their poor quality of food, and its link to fatal illness like diabetes, high cholestrol, obesity. So, I am quite surprised that a "Nigerian" who has been exposed to happenings in the Western world, and is most likely aware of the health risks of consuming fast foods would actually want their presence in Nigeria. For what? So we can be more westernized? Must we always copy the Western world? How about us, introducing our own inventions and have it established in America and London?

By the way, I would choose fufu and afang soup over greasy big mac.

@Ndipe, I think you're getting this all wrong. First, Stan wasn't just talking about the fast food joints. He was just using that as an example to express his bitterness about the level that we are still in. I will agree with LoverBwoy. Nigeria has too many poor people. This is probably one of the reasons why we have very few international investors. Why did the owners of "The Palms" choose to locate their first Shopping Mall in Lekki-VI and not Ajegunle. If they were looking for a location with more people am sure they would have chosen Oshodi or Ajegunle. But they chose Lekki.

My Opinion about this is that Nigeria hasn't been stable politically or economically that is why we haven't been seeing the investors come in. Until we produce the right leaders and the right civil servants, I doubt if this country will ever experience galloping change.

Look at Abuja today. Why is Abuja so different from other cities? Our then military leader and the civil servants chose to change it and they started that by making sure that they implemented what they had planned. At least in that instance! Then the subsequent leaders followed. Then the private sector followed. Have you been to Abuja lately? You should go see the kind of structures we have there.
Maybe the men in their uniform just wanted to keep their surrounding clean. They did and we benefited from it. Bola Ahmed Tinubu already started a similar plan in Lagos. Lets hope that the next governor continues with the plan and implementation.

hmm im very embarassed.

what the hell is going on in nigeria

if you see singapore you will weep, ill look for some pics of singapore 30 years ago compared to what it is now and you will weep for nigeria!

@katherinae,

Yup Nigeria is in HELL!!!

you knwo constantin
we ahve the power to change this
teh question is do we want to
eventually all those useless men and thier wives like atiku and co
will all die
then it will be our turn.

hope u will be ready then

i want to go to malaysia
what did u do there business
darn im in the wrong profession

Definitely impressed with the pics, good job (which i hardly say to people). well it is a shame nigeria is in such a ridiculous state now.

What is the economic backbone for Malaysia?
What is the economic backbone for Nigeria?

Dont even go as far as Malaysia,

I lived in Ivory COast and Tunisia

Tunisia is a lovely country, all functioning infrastructure with beauty. Some places in Tunisia eg Tunis, Hammammet, Sousse you might even feel like u r in a European city. To the extent that they even applied to join the EU. Obviously they are in africa so they didnt get in.


Tunisia is a country that solely relies on tourism for its economy. Nigeria has petroleum and other things and we are not even comparable to Tunisia. I hope to provide pictures soon if I get my hard drive to work.


Before Ivory Coast started fighting, they had better infrastructure than Nigeria has.


Obviously we can all say let us hope for the best. If everyone is saying lets hope for the best that pretty much means nothing may be done to rectify the situation.

I wish i am in a better situation to do something and kick the asses of the useless and worthless people in power

the problem with nigeria is the very structure.

this is why i advocate the break up of naija.

instead of developing we are busy engaging in ethnic squabbles.

other countries are developing at a rapid pace .


can u compare lagos to any of these asian cities ?

look at ibadan. ibadan looks the same way it did , 40 years ago.

rusty tin roofs.

rubbish.

we need to break this country up and everybody go their seperate ways and develop themselves

just looking at these pics make me angry.

for nigeria

GOD HELP US!, is nigeria a mistake?

Wow. I have always been interested in Malaysia, but this evidence takes things to a whole new level. There is absolutely no reason why progress of this type can not take place all over the Continent.

Period.


Thanks for the Photos, friend. They say seeing is believing.

I love those pics bro. I too is headed for Malayasia by March next yr.

I'm gonna get me a camera and take photos too.

I will come post them here too when I'm back.

Slim

i like the gardens, will be overtaken by area boys if the place is nigeria

which way nigeria? sonny okosun asked this in the 80s and today we still stagnant.

Very interesting topic, I fully agree with Naijabuff that Nigeria has too many problems.

The number one problem is corruption and because of this nothing tangible can be done.

Our road infrastructure are very poor
Problems with waste management
Lack of good water, electricity and health problems
Lack of employment

The problems just goes on and on and on ,

It will take Nigeria a long time before it can be like Tunisia talk less of Malaysia.

Beautiful pictures I must say

Question, Nigeria Jaga jaga

What kind of thread is this?, Why don't you ask the Nigerian Government?

The mall thing is actually one of my biggest frustration whenever i get to naija! Abuja can only boast of mini malls like silverbird and whats the other one? Anyway shoping sucks in naija. And its 2011.

I think companies have started reaching out to Nigeria. An example is MicoStar Mall www.micostarmall.com. They are one of the biggest online mall service with their headquarters located in USA and now have opened offices in Lagos, Abuja and Osogbo. So now anyone in Nigeria can order anything they want from overseas and have it delivered to anywhere in Nigeria. I have been using them and it helps us in saving from paying inflated prices and getting authentic goods here in Nigeria. Their service is also quick and reliable.

Wow! that bridge is so fine,the inner city looks clean and well kept.
If the poster had taken the step into setting up a medium size mall or food court far back in 2006,who knows he may have been smiling to the bank but then the buiness climate is quite daunting