favor914:
Are you not Nigerian, or you don’t know what you are talking about?

Whether Electronic voting or human manual voting the results & outcome will still be the same, it always seems greener on the other side.

If Buhari had signed the bill into law, people like you would have been the first to wail that he did it to give his party an advantage. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.

Any which way, the perennial Wailers, must find a reason to wail.

abbey621:


Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth......Mike Tyson. Talk is cheap, are you ready to pay the cost? MKO, Dele Giwa and many others have paid the cost with their earthly life yet like Tupac said, STILL I SEE NO CHANGES! If we should elect you today, the last thing you would ever bring up is restructing, one threat against your life and gbam you do gentle o! Politicians are humans too, all the patriots are dead and buried!

Jackson105:


Omo ibo, focus on Atiku your slave-master, stop using Tinubu name for clout chasing, he is not responsible for your failure and poverty.

Your leaders in the mud republic has done worst, they even join the FG in killing your parents, sisters and brothers.

LoveFayfay:


I laugh at your stupidity..... You think everyone is like your misbehaved sister. You don't know me from Adam so don't judge me. Your type is the reason I don't give a damn about guys. I read my books and follow my morals. To hell with you guys.

jojo1415:
Season don reach...igbos sabi market strategies die

Ussycool:
3 Bedroom flat for sure
My family will be proud of for this.

Baba god pick up my call o.
Help with even plot of land this year.
It shall be well Nairalanders.

thatsleepboy1:
Political strategy and come to think of it, it might be the constant nagging and insults from the woman that pushed this man to this but she won't talk.






https://www.nairaland.com/6843958/islam-full-fables-not-g-d#107556223

BeeBeeOoh:
We know, but his job ought to be winning souls for Christ not politics.

Mbaka is a politician in a robe or abii sudan

Coronabirus:
Why Nigeria’s Test Rockets Send Waves Across The World

While it is public knowledge that Nigeria has a functional and reputable space agency ‘the National Space Research and Development Agency’ (NASRDA), not many are aware that the country’s rocket propulsion technology remains unmatched on the African continent.


The country’s technological advancement on rocket propulsion systems places it above its counterparts in Africa, as far as the space race is concerned.

As early as 1961, the Nigerian government began showing propitious interest in space research and technology, when it played a crucial role in manned space travel, housing a $3 million NASA space station in Kano, North-West Nigeria. The space station was part of a NASA satellite tracking stations system strategically located along the earth’s orbital track, under Project Mercury to test the viability of human space travel.

On August 23rd 1963, the first ever phone call relayed by satellite (via the Syncom Communications Satellite) between two heads of State was made by John F. Kennedy to Nigeria’s first republic Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. The phone call was part of a ceremony formally inaugurating service by the new Syncom II satellite launched July 26. Both Leaders discussed the result of peaceful space exploration, Dick Tiger’s WBA title victory over Gene Fullmer and the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963 prohibiting nuclear weapons explosion in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water.

However, it was not until 1999 that the most populous black Nation established its first national space agency, NASRDA.

In 2002, NASRDA revealed its 25-year road map for the research, development and launch of Nigerian made satellites from Nigerian soil by 2030, starting from 2005. Many Nigerians on social media think this is a pipe dream but with the tenacity and enthusiasm of engineers at the Centre for Space Transport and Propulsion (CSTP) and their research breakthroughs, NASRDA appears very optimistic with its 2030 goal.

CSTP was established in 2003, with a vision to develop and construct rockets that will be needed to launch Nigerian made satellites by 2030.

CSTP’s core roles in NASRDA’s 25-year strategic roadmap is to acquire launch capabilities of various satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO), and interplanetary space, by Nigerian scientists and engineers.

The Centre is further saddled with strategic mandates which include to acquire and establish adequate high-tech infrastructure in the country, facilitate the acquisition of scientific and technological know-how in aerospace transport and propulsion, to develop various types of propellants for rocket engines with attention on solid, liquid, and other forms of high-energy propulsion systems to acquire and develop the capacity to fabricate and integrate rocket systems for short, and long-range peaceful application missions and most importantly- to develop and construct rockets that will be needed to launch Nigerian made satellites by 2030. So far, the Centre has recorded notable success in this regard.

By 2019, CSTP had launched over 30 experimental rockets, with tremendous progress on structural wholeness and rocket instrumentation system. The Centre for Space Transport and Propulsion, CSTP has proven itself to be the most active of the six activity Centres of NASRDA.

The others being the Centre for Atmospheric Research, Centre for Basic Space Science, Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, Centre for Space Science and Technology Education, Centre for Satellite Technology Development, and the National Centre for Remote Sensing.

Before 2019, the farthest CSTP test rocket still had a record altitude of less than 10 kilometre but it appears the Centre is not sleeping on its achievements yet. Records from test rockets post 2019 are not available to the public but there are speculations that recent data on technological successes at the Centre have been deliberately redacted by the Nigerian government.

This is not unconnected with the worrisome spate of insecurity that has plagued parts of the country for roughly a decade. A fear of missiles and tech secrets ending up in the wrong hands might be the reason for the government’s fear.

Between April and June 2019, CSTP successfully launched three test rockets – CSTP_TL_1, CSTP_TL_2 and CSTP_TL_3. The test launches demonstrated the Centre’s education on efficient solid propellants and the integrity of its new rocket recovery system. Evidence from academic publications of CSTP researchers suggest advancement in guidance, navigation and control concepts, improved rocket thrust and longer burn time.

Despite the tremendous successes recorded by NASDRA’s CSTP, the Centre’s efforts remain greatly affected by inadequate government funding. CSTP’s test rockets are still away from the minimum 160km altitude for Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

However, with increased funding and private sector participation NASRDA might reach the Ionosphere sooner than we expect.

https://membership.dailytrust.com/2021/11/01/why-nigerias-test-rockets-send-waves-across-the-world/

Cultistupdate:


And some celebrities are promoting this cult and confraternities.

deyemia:
Hi House,

Please have you or know anyone who converted Toyota corrolla 2005 from manual to automatic? What was the outcome?

I have considered the cost and I’m ok, it’s still cheaper than selling the manual and buying auto.

Regards

TheRareGem1:



https://tribuneonlineng.com/fg-to-create-21-million-jobs-lift-35-million-nigerians-out-of-poverty-by-2025-%e2%80%95-osibanjo/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

Bighead9:


Using one for 8 years now and still counting. When you change a particular part, you might not change again after years of usage. I only changed my break parts ones, the automatic gearbox is still in its top condition, engine superb. Unlike Japanese that you'll have to change most parts weekly or monthly.

I use mine mostly for my long journeys. By month end, I'll leave Owerri to Benin then Abuja, Jos, kaduna, Kano and back to Owerri. I do this with my BM ones in two to three months. But 8 years ago, mechanics and friends warned me not to buy this Car. Most of them have spent more in fixing their Cars while others have changed their Cars severally within this period.

Cholls:
My brother I find this article really insightful.


Under the cover of counterterrorism, AFRICOM is beefing up Nigeria’s military to ensure the free flow of oil to the West, and using the country as a proxy against China’s influence on the continent.


Last month, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times. It might as well have been written by the Pentagon. Buhari promoted Brand Nigeria, auctioning the country’s military services to Western powers, telling readers that Nigeria would lead Africa’s “war on terror” in exchange for foreign infrastructure investment. “Though some believe the war on terror [WOT] winds down with the US departure from Afghanistan,” he says, “the threat it was supposed to address burns fiercely on my continent.”

With Boko Haram and Islamic State operating in and near Nigeria, pushing a WOT narrative is easy. But counterterror means imperial intervention. So, why is the Pentagon really interested in Nigeria, a country with a GDP of around $430 billion – some $300 billion less than the Pentagon’s annual budget – a population with a 40 percent absolute poverty rate, and an infant mortality rate of 74 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.6 per 1,000 in the US?

A US Naval Postgraduate School doctoral thesis from over a decade ago offers a plausible explanation: the Gulf of Guinea, formed in part by Nigeria’s coastline, “has large deposits of hydrocarbons and other natural resources.” It added: “There is now a stiff international competition among industrialized nations including the United States, some European countries, China, Japan, and India.”

Since then, the US has been quietly transforming Nigeria’s police and military into a neo-colonial force that can support missions led by the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). Buhari’s offer makes US involvement in Nigeria appear as if Nigeria is asking for help, when in fact the stage is already set for AFRICOM.

The Pentagon’s broader aim is to stop China and Russia from gaining a foothold in the continent. In the meantime, it aims to crush any and all opposition groups that disrupt energy supplies so that oil giants can continue exploiting Nigeria’s resources.

A brief history of a complex country

It’s important to get an idea of Nigeria’s ethnic and regional complexities. The country’s 206 million people, nearly half of whom are Muslim and nearly half Christian, live north of the equator in West Africa. Their country has 36 states, seven of which are coastal. The country borders Cameroon in the east, Benin in the west, Chad in the northeast, and Niger in the north and northwest.

A US Strategic Studies Institute report from the mid-‘90s describes Nigeria as “an artificial state created according to colonial exigencies rather than ethnic coherence.” Its fragility explains the country’s susceptibility to ethnic, religious, and class warfare. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, but Islam in the country spans the spectrum, from Sufism to Salafism. The Christian population is distributed among the Protestant majority as well as Anglicans, Baptists, Evangelicals, Catholics, Methodists, and Roman Catholics. Most of Nigeria’s Muslims live in the north in 12 states whose laws are based on sharia.

Nigeria boasts hundreds of languages and ethnicities, the largest groups being the Hausa (who make up 30 percent of the population), Yoruba (15.5), Igbo (a.k.a., Ibo 15.2), and Fulani (6 percent). There are, of course, exceptions, but in general the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples tend to be Muslim and the Igbo, Ijaw, and Ogoni Christian. Islam and Christianity tend to be mixed among the Yoruba. During the late-19th century “Scramble for Africa,” the British colonized the region, Christianizing the south and leaving in place the Islamic political structures in the north both for convenience and as a useful divide and rule technique.

Black gold, British rule

Drawing up “contracts” for energy companies, the Foreign Office (FO) created a monopoly for Anglo-Persian oil (later BP) and particularly for Shell. Prospecting contracts were awarded by the FO in the late-1930s, but it was as late as 1956 that financially viable amounts of black gold were struck. Most of the country’s oil is in the southern, Niger Delta region populated by the Ijaw and Ogoni peoples, hence there is little militant Islam in Nigeria’s illicit oil sector. Shell operations began in Ogoniland in 1958.

Nigeria gained slow and painful independence from Britain in 1960. Seven years later, armed Igbo fought a war of secession in the oil-rich south to try to form their own country, the Republic of Biafra. Under a One Nigeria policy, the British supported the central regime of General Yakubu Gowon during the Biafra War (1967-70). Fighting and blockade  led to three million deaths. Biafra failed to secede.

The UK Labour government’s Commonwealth Minister, George Thomas, explained at the time: “The sole immediate British interest in Nigeria is that the Nigerian economy should be brought back to a condition in which our substantial trade and investment in the country can be further developed, and particularly so we can regain access to important oil installations.”

As the British Empire declined, the US gradually pursued the same policy in Nigeria. At first, the US considered supporting Biafra.

The Kennedy administration initiated $170 million in economic and military spending in Nigeria under a plan that continued until 1966, into the Johnson administration. William Haven North, who served as the Director for Central and West African Affairs for the US Agency of International Development (USAID) said: “The issue of supporting Biafra was also tied up with the question of oil interests; the major part of the oil reserves in Nigeria were in the Eastern Region with substantial American oil company investments.” In 1978, the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet began the regular exercises in the Gulf of Guinea that continue to the present.


Indigenous activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was arrested on phony charges and executed by a Nigerian military functioning as a private army for the Shell oil company

Enter Uncle Sam

In 1990, the Nigeria-dominated Economic Community of West African States (ECO) established a military wing, the so-called Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). The George H.W. Bush administration contributed $100 million. The succeeding Clinton White House said that for so-called peace-keeping operations in other African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, “Nigeria provided most of the ‘muscle’.” At this point, the seeds were sown for Nigeria’s use as a delegate for US wars in Africa.

By the dawn of the new millennium, the 3rd Special Forces Group (Army Command) was training Nigerian battalions to assist United Nations support missions. The Nigerian military enjoyed tens of millions of dollars-worth of US weapons.

Meanwhile, indigenous activists suffering under oil spills and environmental destruction established the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. Nine of this group’s leaders, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were later arrested on trumped up charges and executed by the national military that had been funded by Shell to act as its own private army.

The murders sparked international outrage and activists successfully pressured the US to terminate military aid. General Sani Abacha, under whose dictatorship the Ogoni Nine were hanged, established a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to fight both activists and gangs. The MNJTF was later centered in Chad and used as a base from which to fight Boko Haram.

In 1999, Nigeria ended its military rule, at least on paper. By the mid-2000s, Human Rights Watch was wrote that, under the façade of parliamentary democracy, “the conduct of many public officials and government institutions is so pervasively marked by violence and corruption as to more resemble criminal activity than democratic governance.”

With the Ogoni, Ijaw, and other Niger Delta peoples crushed with force, some turned to violence. Following lobbying by Shell, Nigeria’s old colonial master, the UK, began spending taxpayer money on military operations to counter armed groups: £12 million between 2001 and 2014, when Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) co-authored their report. CAAT documents the UK exportation of nearly £500m-worth of weapons to Nigeria in that period, including missiles and grenades. It cites increased UK arms exports as a direct reason for the failure of the southern ceasefire. UK “security contractors” including Control Risks, Erinys, Executive Outcomes, and Saladin Security were embedded with mobile police units to crush protestors.

Nigeria and the “war on terror”

Western propaganda paid less attention to Shell’s systemic violence against the Ogoni and other peoples, focusing instead on the more headline-grabbing resistance, such as high-profile ransom kidnappings and pipeline disruption. State oppression in the drier, less fertile north, meanwhile, fed the narrative pushed by Islamic groups: that Western culture is toxic.

Founded in 2002 and led by Mohammed Yusuf who was later executed by the state, Boko Haram is officially called the Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad (Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād). It emerged in the northeastern city, Maidugari, close to Chad and Cameroon, where it set up semi-autonomous communities. Religious graduates who studied in Sudan attempted to form similar communes but were attacked by the police. In 2009, Boko Haram members allegedly fired at a police station in Bauchi. The government response was to trigger civil war.

The MNJTF mentioned above, is described as “notorious” in a British House of Commons Library report. It was reactivated, this time to fight the Islamists. The report also notes how the Nigerian Armed Forces terrorized the civilian population with raids, arrests, and indiscriminate shelling.

The UK ramped up its training of Nigeria’s military while the US used Chad as a base for its “war on terror” operations: the Pan-Sahel Initiative (covering Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) and the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (which included Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia). AFRICOM’s initial operations in Nigeria involved maritime training and integrating the country’s forces with those of other African nations to foster pan-African military alliances.

In its early years, AFRICOM paid little attention to Boko Haram. But this changed as the profile of attacks got bigger.

In 2011, Boko Haram launched a formal insurgency. A report published that year by the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence outlined Boko Haram’s roots and the reasons for its popularity. They included “a feeling of alienation from the wealthier, Christian, oil-producing, southern Nigeria, pervasive poverty, rampant government corruption, heavy-handed security measures, and the belief that relations with the West are a corrupting influence.” It added that “[t]hese grievances have led to sympathy among the local Muslim population despite Boko Haram’s violent tactics.”

These grievances were met with the kind of violence that further fuels grievances.

The US escalates involvement

In the context of the “war on terror,” the Pentagon saw Boko Haram as an opportunity to train Nigeria’s military and employ it for its objectives. The primary US goal was ensuring that the oil-rich regions did not fall into enemy hands.

The Congressional Research Service noted that by the time AFRICOM was founded in the late-2000s, Africa “supplie[d] the United States with roughly the same amount of crude oil as the Middle East.” An Armed Services Committee report in 2011 noted: “Nigeria’s oil rich Niger Delta is a major source of oil for the United States outside of the Middle East.” The US Energy Information Administration states: “Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa. It holds the largest natural gas reserves on the continent and was the world’s fifth–largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.” The country has 37 billion barrels of proven crude, second only to Libya, which was bombed to pieces by the US and NATO in 2011.

Nigeria’s forces summarily executed Boko Haram’s leader Yusuf in 2009. A thesis published by the US Naval Postgraduate School notes that in addition to the assassination, “security forces killing or displacing thousands of Nigerian Muslims, is credited with swelling [Boko Haram BH]’s ranks.”

Yusuf’s deputy, Abubakar Shekau, took over and escalated a suicide bombing campaign. The Navy thesis also notes that “the actions of BH, along with other militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), have reduced the country’s oil production, displacing Nigeria from 5th to 8th on the list of America’s largest foreign oil suppliers.”

In 2013, the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe imposed emergency powers. The Pentagon announced a $45 million-dollar budget to counter Boko Haram by training troops in Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. One of the consequences is that Nigeria has been transformed from a peripheral US interest to a proxy force. Years of war, mostly in the north and border regions, have led to 2.1 million internally displaced people. The World Food Program calculates that 3.4 million face hunger and that 300,000 children are malnourished.

Building a Sparta state

In June 2014, it was reported that a 650-person unit, the Nigerian Army’s 143rd Battalion, was set up on the ground and trained by US Special Forces from the California Army National Guard’s Special Operations Detachment-US Northern Command and Company A, 5th Battalion 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne). By then the Nigerian Army was active in 30 out of the country’s 36 states.

Chief of the US Army Africa’s Security Cooperation Division, Colonel John D. Ruffing, said: “It is not peacekeeping … It is every bit of what we call ‘decisive action,’ meaning those soldiers will go in harm’s way to conduct counterinsurgency operation[s].” One US soldier said: “This is a classic Special Forces mission—training an indigenous force in a remote area in an austere environment to face a very real threat.”

In 2015, Boko Haram’s leader Shekau reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State, rebranding the organization IS West African Province (ISWAP). A Congressional Research Service report notes that ISWAP “has surpassed Boko Haram in size and capacity, and now ranks among IS’s most active affiliates.”

It’s not as if strategists don’t understand that violence doesn’t work. They understand that violence escalates violence which can then be used as pretexts for more violence. A US Council on Foreign Relations article from 2020 notes: “the last two years have been deadlier than any other period for Nigerian soldiers since the Boko Haram insurgency began.”

As the war against Boko Haram waged on, Niger Delta gangs in the south threatened to resume attacks on oil infrastructure. US “aid” expanded to include training the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) across the country. In November 2016, 66 officers graduated from the Fingerprint Analysis and Forensics training program, an initiative run by the US Embassy in collaboration with the Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and Atlanta Police Department.

In March 2017, 28 Nigerian officers graduated from courses offered by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs division, led by US police from Prince William County, Virginia. The program also provided “equipment, training, mentoring, and capacity-building support to various Nigerian law enforcement and justice sector institutions.”


U.S. Army soldiers deployed to Nigeria Army’s School of infantry trained more than 200 Nigerian soldiers in 2018

Expanding AFRICOM’s role

In what the US State Department calls a “whole of government” approach, military operations continued as police training expanded. In early-2018, 12 US Army soldiers, led by Captain Stephen Gouthro, trained 200 Nigerians at the Nigerian Army’s School of Infantry. Facilitated by the US Army Africa, eight Security Assistance and Training Management Organization soldiers and four 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers shared “ground-combat tactics” with the Nigerian Army’s 26th Infantry Battalion.

In July this year, US Army Special Forces trained 25 officers of the Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service as part of JCET: a five-week Joint Combined Exchange Training program.  The Acting US Consulate Political and Economic Chief, Merrica Heaton, says that the training is designed to help the Nigerian military stop crime in the Gulf of Guinea and “counter violent extremists in the Northeast and enforce the rule of law throughout the region.”

As observers seemingly spotted the top-secret US stealth drone—Northrop Grumman’s RQ-180—over the Philippines, the Department of Defense sold nearly $500 million-worth of propeller planes to Nigeria, marking what the US Embassy and Consulate describes as “an historic level of cooperation …  between the U.S. and Nigerian militaries.” AFRICOM recently confirmed that the inauguration of twelve A-29 Super Tucanos into the Nigerian Air Force will serve a “critical role in furthering regional security and stability.”

The Pentagon allocated $36.1 million to the US Army Corps of Engineers to renovated Kainji Air Base, which will host the Super Tucanos. In addition to training simulator and small arms storage units, the Base includes “aircraft sunshades, a new airfield hot cargo pad, perimeter and security fencing, airfield lights, and various airfield apron, parking, hangar, and entry control point enhancements.”

To be continued on request!!!!!!

richmond500:
how do we confirm its not a fake news?

amliftedhigher:

His only crime was he ask why they are taking his friend's away.

richmond500:
how do we confirm its not a fake news?

DoggoneDogg:
By Nairametrics Analysts


Source: Nairametrics

dettolgel:
@op it seems your brain is paining you.

When will Nigerians start reasoning like people with functioning brain?

If there is anyone to blame it is the government both past and present.

Why did I say so:

1. if past and present governments had fixed our health system, passerby would have called ambulance to come get him. The EMT would have started treating or at least stabilize him before taking him to the hospital thereby increasing his chance of surviving.

2. If the past and present governments had improved security and provide opportunity for the army of jobless youths, the chances of him being targeted would have been reduced.

As for the passerby, you want them to take him to the hospital that will reject him without police report.

In the cause of trying to get a police report if he dies, the police will arrest the good Samaritans. The helper will be held for murder and accused of assassination and forced to cough out a large amount of money before being set free.

This brings us to point 3. If the past and present governments had made genuine effort in cleaning the police force ordinarily citizens won't think twice to help victims and hospitals on their part won't turn back such victims for lack of police reports.

Yes, I put all the blame on the government on our demonic politicians that over the years have done nothing but rape and blunder this country. The blood of untimely death of any Nigerian due to factors related to the governments not doing their jobs either in the past or present is on the head of the politicians and their families.

Reflect7:
If institutions are taking down the Nigerian flag in the East for fear of IPOB attacks, then it is time for a national state of emergency to be declared, and for the deployment of the military to the entire south east, for a comprehensive flushing out of all IPOB elements.

CitynewsNG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnFfDTiNYNU



Source: Vanguard News Nigeria

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/09/gunmen-set-anambra-station-ablaze-kill-5-officers/amp/

BigCabal:
Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

The 26-year-old in this #NairaLife YOLO’ed her way through some years of her adult life until eight months of unemployment stopped her in her tracks. Now, she’s all about financial security. How does she navigate this when her 9-5 pays her ₦70k? Sorry for your Dad

What’s your oldest memory of money?

This would be in the early 2000s. My dad used to give me and my siblings some money to take to school at the beginning of the week — I don’t remember how much, but we would end up not spending it. Whoever saved the most money scored some bragging rights. At the end of each week, we pooled our money together to make a big purchase.

My dad was an accountant, and I think his job influenced his relationship with money. He’d never give us the money he didn’t believe we needed. He always said children who were exposed to too much money had a tendency to steal. But as we grew older, he started giving us our allowances based on the classes we were in. In 2006, when I was in JSS 1, my allowance was ₦10. This increased to ₦20 when I got to JSS 3 three years later. The money was barely enough to do anything. Guess what I decided to do?

What?

I went to a boarding school for my senior secondary education to force my dad to give me a lump sum amount every term. My allowance at the beginning of the term was ₦1k. My dad would also keep ₦500 with one of my teachers. I would live on ₦1k for the whole term and at the end of the term, I’d collect the extra ₦500 to take home.

Interesting.

When I got to SS 2, my parents separated and that translated into more money for me.

How?

My dad got custody of us. My mum was no longer physically present and she tried as much as possible to make up for it with money gifts. Whenever she visited me at school, I got ₦10k. When I graduated from secondary school and got into university in 2011, the ₦10k became my monthly allowance.

But that stopped in my second year — my mum was relocating, so she resigned from her job and didn’t have as much money anymore. I wasn’t getting any allowance from my dad because the university was a short distance from my house, so I didn’t live in a hostel. Once my mum moved, I knew I had to figure out what to do to make money.

What was the first thing you did for money?

Does working on my dad’s fish farm count? My dad ran into problems at work in 2012 and quit his job. Subsequently, he started a fish farm and put us, four kids, to work. When we made big sales, he paid us about ₦2k at least once a month.

Simultaneously, I was working with a friend’s dad. He owned a lottery kiosk and he hired me to work on Saturdays. Typically, I worked from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and got paid between ₦1500 and ₦2k. Later in 2012, I started ushering and making between ₦5k and ₦10k every two months.

The biggest lumpsum amount I’d make in uni came in 2014.

Tell me about it.

It was the buildup to the 2015 general elections. Some campaign organiser hired me and some other girls to work on their campaign train. The job paid ₦10k per week, and I got ₦40k in the first month. In the second month, I got ₦70k — I worked an extra three weeks before the project was cancelled. bought a second-hand Samsung phone for ₦35k. I’m not sure what I did with the rest.

How was your relationship with money at this point?

I wasn’t big on saving anymore because there were things to use money for this time. I struggled to find a balance between earning and managing money and thought I could always make more.

So what happened after?

I wrote my final exams in December 2014 but didn’t graduate until a year later. ASUU strike happened. During the time I was at home, I worked on my dad’s fish farm. In 2016, I was finally mobilised and moved to Abuja to serve. My PPA paid me ₦7500/month and the federal government paid ₦19,800. I had a constant source of income now. But I made a money decision that could have gone wrong.

What was it?

MMM. Some of my co-workers introduced me to it. I put ₦15k in the first time and got ₦33k. Afterwards, I invested ₦10k. The thing casted on my third try, but I got my capital back. However, I’d introduced my mum and my brother to the scheme and they lost their investments. It was my first reality check about putting money into things I didn’t understand.

Anyway, my service year ended in May 2017. Hello, unemployment. This was when it first struck me that I could have done better with my finances.

Omo. How long were you unemployed?

Eight months. Those months were horrible. My mum came through whenever she could, but the frequency was far and in between. I was living with my brother and living off him. He didn’t mind that I couldn’t pull any weight, but the guilt ate at me. It’s one thing to be broke, but it’s another to be broke and knowing that your choices got you there.

I got my first job post-NYSC in January 2018 as a content developer. ₦40k a month. But I only got paid ₦10k once.

Ah.

All I heard was “Sorry.” or “Don’t worry, take this small change for transport.” Nobody could have prepared me for the helplessness I felt. After three months, I quit the job. I didn’t even turn in a resignation letter — I just stopped going to work.

Phew.

Two weeks after I quit the job, I had to travel home. My dad had fallen ill. Cancer.

Oh wow. I’m so sorry.

I won’t lie, it was one of the toughest periods I’ve had to deal with. My eldest brother wasn’t making a lot of money. My younger sister had just finished her youth service. My youngest brother was still in school. And there was me, unemployed as well. The family had only one source of income, and we were dealing with a terminal illness.

What was it like navigating that?

Tough. I stayed home from March until September 2018 to work on my dad’s fish farm, so we could get money to buy his drugs. There’s no nice way to say it; we were at ground zero.

Thankfully, a graduate trainee job I had applied for at a bank came through in September, and I started making money again.

How much did the job pay?

₦100k and I worked as a bank teller. For the first three months, more than 80% of my salary went into my monthly running costs, including the money I sent home for my dad’s medication. But I was making sure I saved ₦10k every month. Things got a little better in December because I started making more money at the bank, but it wasn’t from a raise.

What was it?

Tips from the bank customers I had built a relationship with. On average, I was getting between ₦1k and ₦3k daily in tips from people who had business to do in the bank. This took care of my feeding and transportation expenses for the day.

I had more money to save now, so I joined a contribution scheme with nine other people, and we saved ₦50k every month and took turns to cart away the money.

I also had my personal savings — ₦10k per month. I’d seen what not having money could do and saving money seemed like the best way to avoid it.

For the first time in forever, things were looking up. Then my dad passed away in December 2019. Cancer finally got him.

I’m so sorry.

Thank you. Funerals are expensive. The whole thing cost me about ₦800k, and I think the whole family spent up to ₦5m. We were broke oh.

How did you raise the money?

A lot of it was cash gifts. I had to take a break from work for a few days when he passed, and the bank customers with whom I had a rapport noticed. They found out the reason I wasn’t at work and started sending me money. ₦20k here. ₦50k there. Also, I got my ₦500k from the contribution scheme. It was in January 2020, in time for his funeral.

After the funeral rites had been completed, I had about ₦250k left. More money gifts came in when I returned to work, which shot my savings to ₦450k. The contribution scheme cycle had passed, so I was back to earning my full salary. But I was still channelling most of it into my savings.

Fast forward to March 2021, I lost ₦250k in some investment scheme.

What happened?

My contract with the bank was going to expire in September 2020, and I knew I didn’t want a promotion to full staff. I wanted a stronger safety net. Someone told me about the investment opportunity and I went in. The term was that I’d get 10% of my investment in the first month and subsequently receive 20% for six months. The first payment came through right before the lockdown. Then the whole thing came crashing down. That was the last payment I got.

Omo.

I was in worse shape than before, and I had only a few months to spend at work. I doubled down on my savings and made it ₦20k/month. When my contract with the bank expired in September, I had ₦300k in savings.

But you were out of a job again. What was that like?

It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I got a gig as a freelance content writer with someone I know. Then I got similar jobs with two other people. The rates were ₦1.20k per word. On average, I was making between ₦10k and ₦18k per week from each person I was working with. But it was also a lot of work for little reward. I did this for two months, then I got another job.

I was hired as an executive secretary at a forex management company for ₦50k/month. It wasn’t a hectic job, so I had time to continue freelance writing and making money on the side.

What has happened between then and now?

I got tired of writing for people and earning so little money in return. In February this year, I turned my sights to Fiverr. Later that month, I got a job on the platform, which paid me $20. Subsequently, the client put me on a retainer — $100 per month to create content for their Instagram page.

By this time, I had spent up to six months at my job, and they reviewed my salary to ₦70k. In May 2021, another client put me on a retainer, paying me $5 per hour. I was making $80 per week.

And how has your relationship with money evolved?

I’ve been saving most of what I got from my 9-5 and my side gigs. It’s been easier to do this because I always get money gifts from men these days. It’s hard to put a number to it but a ballpark amount would be ₦50k – ₦60k, and I put most of it into my savings.

I’m open to taking more risks too. In April this year, I took ₦300k out and put in an investment opportunity at my place of work. The terms are that I’ll get 15% of my investment every month, so it’s been bringing in an extra ₦45k/month.

Hmm. What does your savings chest look like at the moment?

₦800k sitting in my PiggyVest and $1200 in my dollar account. My goal was to have ₦1m savings goal by the end of the year, and it looks like I’ve surpassed it already.

Yay. This sounds like a good place to talk about your monthly running expenses.
I get ₦115k from my salary and my investment. The first thing I do is to save ₦30k – ₦35k. The other running costs look something like this:

What have your experiences done to your perspective about money?

I’m a lot more responsible with money now. I know what it feels like to be stuck as an adult, and I know that a constant source of income brought me out of it. So it makes sense to respect money and be responsible with it. Money has also become a safety tool for me. Knowing that I have it saved up somewhere is enough for me to have a good day.

Fair enough. How much do you feel you should be earning right now?

From my 9-5? ₦180k seems like a fair amount, but I stand a higher chance of making that from freelancing than from my day job. And that’s how I plan to increase my income.

How?

The plan is to double down on freelancing and figure out how to get better-paying gigs. I recently paid $120 for a course that should help me leverage freelancing platforms. The plan is to make enough dollar earnings by January next year, so I can quit this job.

Rooting for you. I imagine there’s something you want right now but can’t afford.

I don’t know. Maybe a car. It would definitely make moving around easier, but I don’t have ₦1.8m – ₦2m to splash on that right now.

What about something you bought that significantly improved the quality of your life?

I recently splurged on some human hair, and it cost me ₦80k. Not sure if it improved the quality of my life, but it made me feel really good.

Fair enough. On a scale of 0-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

6 ½. I’m not making enough and it makes me anxious. It’d be great to unlock more streams of income. That’s why I need this freelancing to work. My target is to make between $1k and $2k per month. When this happens, I can move up to an eight.

Source: https:///2WiRD9X

assent:


I understand. My comment exposed the lies in your Soul and you Igbos are boastful, thereby hating anything that exposes your lies and weakness.

Look among you when looking for betrayers and backbitters. Leave youruabs our of your takes of woe.

assent:


I understand. My comment exposed the lies in your Soul and you Igbos are boastful, thereby hating anything that exposes your lies and weakness.

Look among you when looking for betrayers and backbitters. Leave youruabs our of your takes of woe.

assent:


If you are not too blind, you would have seen that the news is about Igbos.

Yorubas aren't your enemies. Your enemies are among you.