chyz:

I swear some of you people find it so hard to read and later you will go to someone from another country and speak nonsense about nigeria. If you want to know the READ!!!!!!

Read? I'm sure you that you are well read, what is stopping you from exercising your intelligence on the subject matter? I mean it's not that hard, is it?

I have problem with this particular statement. Although I was late to highlight it but @Sagamite did, more than 70% of Nigerians are currently living below the poverty line; under $1 per day. Now if you base your argument on that, then we have a serious problem because Nigeria is not the only country with natural resources yet so many countries are doing better than $1 a day. Just my opinion.

@Manny4life
Yes, but you still can not attribute these shortcomings to our population growth. Like many countries, we do have serious problems, however population growth is only minuscule compared to the serious problems we have. It is a fact that 9ja like many countries in Africa, has the potential to feed and support the whole of west Africa. In our priority list of problems, population growth is no where close,  and shouldn't be just because "white massa" is obsessed with it.

Dem say, person wey get headache, u no dey give am belle medicine.


"Nigeria close to population disaster" is one of the many "Africans close to a population disaster" anthem Europeans have been singing (incessantly) for the past 400 years.

Nigeria will have a ready supply of workers into the future with more than 40 per cent of the West African nation’s population younger than 14.

However, the oil-rich nation’s gross domestic product remained flat as its population multiplied in the last two decades, leaving it dangerously out of balance unless true economic development takes hold, the report said.

“Large cohorts of unemployed or underemployed young people destabilise their societies, fuelling crime and creating conditions where civil conflict becomes more likely,” it said. “Instead of collecting a dividend, a country that is not well prepared to make the most of its Baby Boom generation can find itself in the midst of a demographic disaster.”

To avoid that chaos, the report urges Nigeria’s government to step away from relying solely on its crude oil revenues and encourage investment in emerging industries like telecommunication and manufacturing.

well, cant argue with any of this.


nigeria does have a lot of youths who lack proper focus, and neither is the culture or society at large equipped to handle them besides calling for human shields while reviving old conflicts.

@Manny4life

"I agree with your assessment because after looking at it, I agreed, however no offense but I wanted to point out what I think are is somewhat underestimated in your calculation. "Using the Rule of 70", you said that Nigeria's GDP would double by 2050 at a constant growth rate of 1.75 which is 40 years, calculation is right based on your 1.75% but it isn't consistent. If you saying for every 1.75% annual growth for the next 40 years, a population growth of 1.05% over the next 40 years is ok, these's a big problem. A ratio of 1.7:1.0 is too low, that is economic poverty. I would expect more as a 5:1 ratio"

You are missing the point, what i am trying to say is, Nigeria is a developing nation that has a achieved a GDP growth rate of btw 4 and 7% in the last few years and i believe this will continue into the foreseeable future. Given this scenario we are likely to achieve a GDP/Pop growth ratio greater than 1.7:1.0. So the issue of a pop disaster does not arise. However, this is not to mean that come 2050 all will be well in Nigeria.

chyz:

No, he's not suffering for delusion, your just suffering from ignorance and stupidity. Read more and learn about controversies that are going on in the world and in the news. Nigeria is not overpopulating in the way that Britain is making it seem. Open your eyes because from what you've typed you know nothing. Look up the Depopulation Agenda, u can even youtube it.Better yet just go on CNN webnews or BBC web news. Hell type it in the search engine lol. You are the one suffering from the inferiority complex.

What an utter slowpoke!

You want me to waste my time checking up on your conspiracy theories?

chyz:

After reading throug the whole article i have deduced this argument as another ploy to cause panic and pressure African countries,like nigeria, into British agenda. They are introducing nothing to nigeria as facr as development that nigeria isnt doing already to boost its economy. Nigeria invests in telecommunication heavily and manufacturing investments are on an increase. Its in its development stages.

This is a rerun of what britain always does, make the country believe that they are in turmoil that they cant get out of, and they have the answer and cure. This is how the agenda pushing always begins.They just want to build their own manufacturing companies and telecom companies in nigeria to exploit its people and resources.

Conjecture throwing foool!

If you ask him to give examples of his retarded points, he would not be able to.

chyz:

Go read the business sections in the nigerian newspapers. Innosons car manufacturing is going to be one of the big ones as well.

Retard, tell me what metric you used to arrive at this?

I bet your retarded metric is the company's own boast.

Maple:

@Manny4life
Yes, but you still can not attribute these shortcomings to our population growth. Like many countries, we do have serious problems, however population growth is only minuscule compared to the serious problems we have. It is a fact that 9ja like many countries in Africa, has the potential to feed and support the whole of west Africa. In our priority list of problems, population growth is no where close,  and shouldn't be just because "white massa" is obsessed with it.

Dem say, person wey get headache, u no dey give am belle medicine.

"Nigeria close to population disaster" is one of the many "Africans close to a population disaster" anthem Europeans have been singing (incessantly) for the past 400 years.

How can you say population growth is not a serious problem?

We have a huge population at the moment which we are not capable of taking care of.

The population we can't take care of is not growing but exploding, yet we have no visible fundamentals on the ground to show we would be able to take care of the growth, and yet you think the growth is not a problem?

And even if we start developing the fundamentals, do you know how long it will take to perfect them? We have already spent 11 years trying to diversify our economic base and build power. Have we got anywhere?

Honestly that is very similar to the reason why we are having population problems.

People that can not take care of (feed, educate, clothe) their 2 kids with one wife, taking another wife and having more kids with both wives hoping to make it big one day despite not having any improved skill that will guarantee he can support his now 9 kids and 2 wives.

Do nigerians really earn less than #150 a day ? Lwkmd.who even made that analysis sef when a common beggar will earn more than that in less than an hour.

~Bluetooth:

Do nigerians really earn less than #150 a day ? Lwkmd.who even made that analysis sef when a common beggar will earn more than that in less than an hour.

There is a difference between earning N150 a day and living on N150 a day.

If you make N20k a month and have a wife and 4 kids to care for, that is living under N150 a day without factoring in tax in the first place.

Sagamite:

There is a difference between earning N150 a day and living on N150 a day.

If you make N20k a month and have a wife and 4 kids to care for, that is living on N150 a day without factoring in tax in the first place.

. . . Story tory. . .begger wey dey beg with im kids too na im you dey reason say im go use im money give family wey follow am dey work. . .hahahaha. . .a dollar a day? na wetin dat one wan buy garri abi na pure water. . Scheew

rhymz:

. . . Story tory. . .begger wey dey beg with im kids too na im you dey reason say im go use im money give family wey follow am dey work. . .hahahaha. . .a dollar a day? na wetin dat one wan buy garri abi na pure water. . Scheew

And your point is?

You know how much beggars make in Nigeria?

And even if beggars make more than $1 a day, most Nigerians are beggars, hence beggars are representative of the bigger picture?

~Bluetooth:

Do nigerians really earn less than #150 a day ? Lwkmd.who even made that analysis sef when a common beggar will earn more than that in less than an hour.

Sagamite:

There is a difference between earning N150 a day and living on N150 a day.

If you make N20k a month and have a wife and 4 kids to care for, that is living under N150 a day without factoring in tax in the first place.

Again @Sagamite replies what I was about to explain, so I shouldn't have to explain over. I wouldn't know what the government calculation is based on their GDP; however, when external people agencies perform these same calculation, they use just about the same measures to arrive at same answer. So yes about 70% of Nigerians are actually living under $! per day at about $30 per month. When you calculate the average income over the average household number that should answer your question.

I know this doesn't relate and I read an article about it but was never interested but now I am. Does anyone know if the HP Slate is out? Any comp tech in the house to tell me which to get; wait on the slate, get an iPad or the Archos 9 pc tablet.

You know if moderators are going to delete someone's post, at least give the person the courtesy of sending a message. Nairaland isn't that serious, see no reason why my post should be deleted or removed.

manny4life:

You know if moderators are going to delete someone's post, at least give the person the courtesy of sending a message. Nairaland isn't that serious, see no reason why my post should be deleted or removed.

Moderator was not deleting your post, it was the spambot for some reason. I bet it is the iPad and HP stuff you put mixed with things like $30 per hour.

Wait a few hours and it would be manually unblocked.

The population we can't take care of is not growing but exploding, yet we have no visible fundamentals on the ground to show we would be able to take care of the growth, and yet you think the growth is not a problem?

And even if we start developing the fundamentals, do you know how long it will take to perfect them? We have already spent 11 years trying to diversify our economic base and build power. Have we got anywhere?

Sagamite

i dont know what ure talking about; what fundamentals are you talking about exactly?

The Infrastructures? have you been to India? are the Infrastructures better than what we have in Nigeria?

have you checked why we are called a frontier market?

tell me the fundamentals ure talking about maybe i can get exactly what ure saying

In a normal setting, population growth should not be a thing of worry; i get you that we are not matching the growth in population with productivity, but does it take a rocket science to right the worngs?

how long will it take Nigeria to achive a single digit inflation, grow at more than 15% per annum, diversify her export base and probably go industrial

my friend , the fundamentals to do all these are there; maybe the frameworks are missing

like i said b4, we dont need a charles darwin to make it wwork

presently, their is no cause for alarm. let BBC chop Igbe

There is a clear problem - the unemployed, the increasing crime rates, the violence from Boko Haram to MEND show you that there is a large population of young people not being gainfully engaged in work - with that large number you have a recipe for disaster if things aren't changed rapidly.

A government fixated on how to continue extracting rent from its oil production (without even investing properly in developing more production) cannot possibly rectify this problem.

Unfortunately, many of us prefer to see this as a white vs black issue and are too 'proud' to appreciate the underlying problem.

If a population has not been of advantage in all these years, what is suddenly going to change to make it into an advantage when the likes of China, India and even Indonesia are far more attractive?

Tell me why with all our grammar and English, why have no outsourcing centres sprung up in Nigeria despite the fact we are on the same time zone as the UK? Why, given our low wages do manufacturers prefer to go halfway round the world to China to set up base when Nigeria is much closer?

There is a very BIG problem which will only get bigger. . . . unless Nigerians as a whole wake up to this reality and do something, not just hoping things don't turn out badly.

@tkb417

I completely agree with you.

tkb417:

Sagamite

i dont know what ure talking about; what fundamentals are you talking about exactly?

The Infrastructures? have you been to India? are the Infrastructures better than what we have in Nigeria?

have you checked why we are called a frontier market?

tell me the fundamentals ure talking about maybe i can get exactly what ure saying

In a normal setting, population growth should not be a thing of worry; i get you that we are not matching the growth in population with productivity, but does it take a rocket science to right the worngs?

how long will it take Nigeria to achive a single digit inflation, grow at more than 15% per annum, diversify her export base and probably go industrial

my friend , the fundamentals to do all these are there; maybe the frameworks are missing

like i said b4, we dont need  a charles darwin to make it wwork

presently, their is no cause for alarm. let BBC chop Igbe

Yep.

That is why I have always maintained that India is like Nigeria, haphazard and full of potential, whilst China is like SA, more structured and sane.

Just like Nigeria, India has a lot of suffering, dearth poor people despite its strides.

The fundamentals I am talking about that can bring change are Education, Social Values and Tight Central control.

All 3 are at perdition in Nigeria. They are rotten.

At least India can claim Education and it is their major strength and a luanching pad. Nigeria's educational institutions are not even in the Top 20 in Africa (the worst educational continent on the planet) talkless of the world. Most so called graduates on NL can not even type in English. Lets not even delve into their critical thinking process except you want me to vomit, yet they are some of the most boisterous and vocal in the world and want to give their opinions in decisions.

Our Social values, culture and mentality is major league fcked. That takes a full generation to wipe and replace before you can even talk of progress. Yahoo Yahoo, corruption, get rich overnight with minimal effort is here to stay for a while. Having the right work ethics and honesty is very scarce. You have to make that fast dough to buy the weekly Aso Ebi.

Tight central control like China where government can force or coerce people to do things to accelerate progress does not exist. We are too heterogenous and each group lacks trust in the other, yet we have to make joint decisions, most would only want to make decisions in their owns best interest. Decisions will take longer due to the size of the groups and would not necessarily be in the best interest for the collective. FFS, we were not even allowed to identify ethnic and religious affiliation in our Census. How the fck will business be able to function efficiently if they can not segment markets and target their consumers? Let Nigeria even try introducing the China one-child policy, you will get one moronic Boko Haram with 23 kids and 4 wives he cannot feed screaming it is a Xtian crusade and take his sword to riot.

The above, apart from education, will take a generation if done right (if done wrong, it will take longer) and by that time the population explosion, remember not growth, will have taken place. We need to manage the population.

@Debosky and Saga

Our problem is strictly poor governance

Our Population is one of the reason the West are rushing here, despite the inherent risks in investing in the country, multinationals based in Nigeria are churning out better numbers compared to their branches elsewhere. Our fundamentals are catchy just because Nigeria is a ready market just for any product - in essence we are a ready market for almost anything because we have a large population!!!!

what we need to do to move forward is just to move from being petty to an industrial giant!!! unemployment, social strife, militancy, kidnapping are not necessarily because our population is outta control, its simply because of the unequitable distribution of wealth.

If half of the nations wealth was channeled into developing an industrial base, our population would come handy in making our industries viable

Even if it takes us 25 years to get it right, i dont forsee any population explosion at the present rate we are growing and oh yeah anytime we get it right, we'll be on point

Sagamite, go away with ur Oyinbo mentality and ur consultant grammar

Thank you Sagamite for exposing the beautiful rubbish that Ikegawo wrote. Why do we have to argue on the basis of sentiments instead of facts? When would we as  nigerians see that we have a serious problem and start addressing the problem instead of waiting for the white man to identify and solve our problems for us? Are we not ashamed that we have a government that has no think tank or research institute, rather the Brits have to be the ones to tell us that our population is spiralling out of control? The issuer here is SUSTAINABLE population not just population increase. AT least the Brits have an idea of the maximum level their population would be to stretch their resources uncomfortably whereas we are not even sure of oyr population figure as most of the states keep manipulating census figures in order to effectively position themselves for a greater chunk of the national cake. Truth be told but all those that sided with Ikegawo are either misinformed or willfully blind. let us look at the figures
1) Only 10% of students that write JAMB enter our tertiary institutions.
2) 70%(most likely more) of Nigerians live with a dollar a day.
3) 40 % of Nigerians have access to potable water
4) 1.8 million Nigerians have access to LIMITED health care

What do these figures show? It simply shows that our facilities are dangerously close to stretching point,hence imagine the effect of unchecked population growth on these facilities. Can you actually remember the last time a teaching hospital or Federal University was built?? That is one aspect of the study. Another aspect is the danger of an ever increasing population of unemployed youths. Unemployment levels in Nigeria is at an all time high and our government rather than address this would rather buy 3 more private jets. And for those people that argue that we have vast undeveloped natural resources let me ask you a question. What percentage of the human brain is actually used? The answer is 10%. Most people die without tapping into the vast potential of their brain ditto Nigeria. If care is not taken we would still be talking about vast untapped natural resources 100 years from now so let us not console ourselves with that worn out cliche.I could go on and on but time is not on my side.

) Only 10% of students that write JAMB enter our tertiary institutions.
2) 70%(most likely more) of Nigerians live with a dollar a day.
3) 40 % of Nigerians have access to potable water
4) 1.8 million Nigerians have access to LIMITED health care

sir, slow down

im not sure ure as informed as some people here judging from what ive read from you

can we do a lil exercise? how did you arrive at the less than 1 USD a day thingy and the other stats u threw at us

thank u

Boy, the Nigerian abroad are going to REALLY be embarrassed to call themselves nigerians, once fammine, disease and blight get broadcasted around the world.

tkb417:

sir, slow down

im not sure ure as informed as some people here judging from what ive read from you

can we do a lil exercise? how did you arrive at the less than 1 USD a day thingy and the other stats u threw at us

thank u

1) Only 10% of students that write JAMB enter our tertiary institutions.

2009 Figures released by JAMB and NUC

2) 70%(most likely more) of Nigerians live with a dollar a day.

2010 Global Monitoring Report of UNESCO

3) 40 % of Nigerians have access to potable water

5th Annual Water for the Poor Act 2009

4) 1.8 million Nigerians have access to LIMITED health care

Figures released by NHIS


Sir I do not speak without facts as these facts are easily verifiable. If this does not convince you that we have a MAJOR problem, then I have no idea what will

^^^
Sir, with due respect, i still think your stats have got serious and major flaws

how on earth did the Global monitoring team arrive at the less than a dollar figure?

what empirical evidences are there to show that the majority of the peasants (bulk of those in the informal sector) are captured in this silly stats.

I have worked in credible research desks of major IBs and i know when stats are faulty

Lemme give you a scenerio

when MTN was about to come to Nigeria. They appointed a local consulting firm to conduct a biz plan, feasibility/market study. while the local consulting firm was going about with the study, they appointed another foreign firm to do the same and both were commissioned to submit their reports and make presentations same day

sir, on the day of the presentation, the foreign coy were categorical about their findings. The summary of their findings was
The minimum wage in Nigeria is 7,500 in some Fed pararstatals and 5,500 in most states of the federation. They also said the Organised private sector can only account for just 30,000 people. In this light, they didnt see how MTN would make money cos of the perceived low wages and the seemingly 'poverty' in the country

Sir, the local consulting firm (with full understanding of the market) mentioned the 7,500 angle and the 30,000 angle in the OPS but were quick to chip in that most Nigerians have developed a survival attitude which makes them engage in a host of other activities to make a living.

they further stressed that has anyone bothered to find out how a peasant farmer sends 3-4 children to the Univeristy? or how a teacher with 12,000 manages to send his/her wards to school?

The audience listened with rapt attention how he demonstrated how 9ja labour market is fragmented and how the bulk of the income is generated in the informal sector with no data to capture what really is earned in the country.

Sir, MTN has not only been growing in leaps and bound cos not only do almost all the 7,500 earners have fancy fones, they also spend more than 7,500 on recharge cards monthly. then where are they making the money?

pls, do not be gullible to foreign stats

be smart enough to know what obatins in your country. You live here , they dont

Bulk of Nigerians dont live on less than a dollar a day. a dollar a day is 30 dollars a month. By my calculation, they are using the 7,500 minimum wage

brother, ask MTN if that stat is correct and they'll tell u thank God they never used those frivolous stats to make investment decisions

peace!

tkb417:

^^^
Sir, with due respect, i still think your stats have got serious and major flaws

how on earth did the Global monitoring team arrive at the less than a dollar figure?

what empirical evidences are there to show that the majority of the peasants (bulk of those in the informal sector) are captured in this silly stats.

I have worked in credible research desks of major IBs and i know when stats are faulty

Lemme give you a scenerio

when MTN was about to come to Nigeria. They appointed a local consulting firm to conduct a biz plan, feasibility/market study. while the local consulting firm was going about with the study, they appointed another foreign firm to do the same and both were commissioned to submit their reports and make presentations same day

sir, on the day of the presentation, the foreign coy were categorical about their findings. The summary of their findings was
The minimum wage in Nigeria is 7,500 in some Fed pararstatals and 5,500 in most states of the federation. They also said the Organised private sector can only account for just 30,000 people. In this light, they didnt see how MTN would make money cos of the perceived low wages and the seemingly 'poverty' in the country

Sir, the local consulting firm (with full understanding of the market) mentioned the 7,500 angle and the 30,000 angle in the OPS but were quick to chip in that most Nigerians have developed a survival attitude which makes them engage in a host of other activities to make a living.

they further stressed that has anyone bothered to find out how a peasant farmer sends 3-4 children to the Univeristy? or how a teacher with 12,000 manages to send his/her wards to school?

The audience listened with rapt attention how he demonstrated how 9ja labour market is fragmented and how the bulk of the income is generated in the informal sector with no data to capture what really is earned in the country.

Sir, MTN has not only been growing in leaps and bound cos not only do almost all the 7,500 earners have fancy fones, they also spend more than 7,500 on recharge cards monthly. then where are they making the money?

pls, do not be gullible to foreign stats

be smart enough to know what obatins in your country. You live here , they dont

Bulk of Nigerians dont live on less than a dollar a day. a dollar a day is 30 dollars a month. By my calculation, they are using the 7,500 minimum wage

brother, ask MTN if that stat is correct and they'll tell u thank God they never used those frivolous stats to make investment decisions

peace!

tank u brother for your true talk ,most black people will believe anything white massa says ,even a bus conductor in nigeria will never work for $1 day. An okadaman in lagos makes $20 a day.

@tkb ur on point

debosky:

Tell me why with all our grammar and English, why have no outsourcing centres sprung up in Nigeria despite the fact we are on the same time zone as the UK? Why, given our low wages do manufacturers prefer to go halfway round the world to China to set up base when Nigeria is much closer?

There is a very BIG problem which will only get bigger. . . . unless Nigerians as a whole wake up to this reality and do something, not just hoping things don't turn out badly.

There was an analysis in a consultancy I used to work in to assess BPO attractiveness of new countries for multinationals to outsource their Shared Service Centres.

The countries accessed where: Nigeria, UAE, SA, Kenya, Turkey, Egypt, Mauritius.

Nigeria was bottom of the pile after assessment based on: Capability, Cost and Risk.

We did well on Cost, based on that criterion's sub-indicators: Labour rates, telephone call costs and internet charges all combined. What really carried us was the first one (labour rates).

In regards to Capability and Risk, we scored the lowest on all sub-indicators on both. We were worse than everyone, Kenya was second worse in everything but beat us in 2 out of 4 indicators and were on par in the other 2.

tkb417:

@Debosky and Saga

Our problem is strictly poor governance

Even though poor governance is core, I would say it is not strictly our problem.

Our mentality is as poor as our governance.

tkb417:

Our Population is one of the reason the West are rushing here, despite the inherent risks in investing in the country, multinationals based in Nigeria are churning out better numbers compared to their branches elsewhere. Our fundamentals are catchy just because Nigeria is a ready market just for any product - in essence we are a ready market for almost anything because we have a large population!!!!

You are right.

Partly because of:

1) Large market

2) Overcharging within the markets especially for high-end goods.

tkb417:

what we need to do to move forward is just to move from being petty to an industrial giant!!! unemployment, social strife, militancy, kidnapping are not necessarily because our population is outta control, its simply because of the unequitable distribution of wealth.

If half of the nations wealth was channeled into developing an industrial base, our population would come handy in making our industries viable

Even if it takes us 25 years to get it right, i dont forsee any population explosion at the present rate we are growing and oh yeah anytime we get it right, we'll be on point

You are right on the potential, but believe me, a 60% rise in population within 15 years is a population explosion.

Even if Nigeria does the right thing to the letter (optimal performance), we can only take the present population to the level of South American countries, so why should we want to double the heads?

Furthermore, we can not do the right things with our current mentality and educational system. Before China and India did, they had very good educational systems, not rubbish like most of our unis churn out.

tkb417:

Sagamite, go away with your Oyinbo mentality and your consultant grammar

Yeah, blad!

I eat chicken and chips, mate. 

tkb417:

^^^
Sir, with due respect, i still think your stats have got serious and major flaws

how on earth did the Global monitoring team arrive at the less than a dollar figure?

what empirical evidences are there to show that the majority of the peasants (bulk of those in the informal sector) are captured in this silly stats.

I have worked in credible research desks of major IBs and i know when stats are faulty

Lemme give you a scenerio

when MTN was about to come to Nigeria. They appointed a local consulting firm to conduct a biz plan, feasibility/market study. while the local consulting firm was going about with the study, they appointed another foreign firm to do the same and both were commissioned to submit their reports and make presentations same day

sir, on the day of the presentation, the foreign coy were categorical about their findings. The summary of their findings was
The minimum wage in Nigeria is 7,500 in some Fed pararstatals and 5,500 in most states of the federation. They also said the Organised private sector can only account for just 30,000 people. In this light, they didnt see how MTN would make money cos of the perceived low wages and the seemingly 'poverty' in the country

Sir, the local consulting firm (with full understanding of the market) mentioned the 7,500 angle and the 30,000 angle in the OPS but were quick to chip in that most Nigerians have developed a survival attitude which makes them engage in a host of other activities to make a living.

they further stressed that has anyone bothered to find out how a peasant farmer sends 3-4 children to the Univeristy? or how a teacher with 12,000 manages to send his/her wards to school?

The audience listened with rapt attention how he demonstrated how 9ja labour market is fragmented and how the bulk of the income is generated in the informal sector with no data to capture what really is earned in the country.

Sir, MTN has not only been growing in leaps and bound cos not only do almost all the 7,500 earners have fancy fones, they also spend more than 7,500 on recharge cards monthly. then where are they making the money?

pls, do not be gullible to foreign stats

be smart enough to know what obatins in your country. You live here , they dont

Bulk of Nigerians dont live on less than a dollar a day. a dollar a day is 30 dollars a month. By my calculation, they are using the 7,500 minimum wage

brother, ask MTN if that stat is correct and they'll tell u thank God they never used those frivolous stats to make investment decisions

peace!

Delicious!!!


I get so pissed hearing about the yeye $1 a day too (-N-150) for what?

A bottle of Kerosene goes for -N-80 naira, so how do you survive on less than a dollar a day when just Kerosene is that high?

Less than $1, but i am yet to see a starving, bonny looking Nigerian ever in my life (Except those REALLY sick).

What does people even think a dollar can buy in Nigeria?

A bike man makes an average of $20-$30 a day and we all know how many of these people we have in Nigeria.

A farmer has graduates as kids, how did he manage to do that if he was actually living on a $1?

The lowest earning Nigerian sees and spends more than $1 a day on food, so make una carry una rubbish go.

OUR PROBLEM REMAINS THE UNDER-UTILIZATION OF WHAT WE HAVE.

Even though I agree with tkb's informal survival sector, I think people should not be too carried away with it.

For example, in the "Welcome to Lagos" BBC documentary, I can fervently remember when the man that was a lotto "mathematician guru" won N14K on a lotto, he and his family were dancing like no tomorrow that it was big money. This is a man that has 18 children.

When Vocal Slender had a fight and damaged someone's eye, the family agreed to a N300K settlement and the BBC commentators said based on his current earnings that it will take him 15 years to pay it off. That is N5K per month, lets imagine they did not calculate it on his total earnings. And considering they said he saved for 3 months to get N15K to book studio time for his album, it would be safe and generous to say he probably makes about N15K a month.

The cow broker hausa guy had a what he called a "very good day" when the Mr Biggs buyer came to buy big time and bought 20 cows. The broker said he gets N100 per cow and so made N2000 instantly that day, hence he said it is a good day so he is done and going to "baff" and have his own fun and a nice time. 

The grad from poly that used to collect cow blood and transform it to Agric chicken feed was making about N5000 per week and we have not factored in how much it cost him to buy the blood.

The sawmill foreman had to save for months (sleeping for 5 years in his office at the sawmill) to finally get the N15K deposit for his room (if you can call it that) in Makoko which he was so chuffed to get.

Now imagine these people have wife and kids, it is not like if their wages will increase.

So because we live in Lagos and mix with the middle class does not mean we should underestimate the challenges that others we never interact with face.

If these guys are struggling like this in Lagos, I don't think those in the villages will be better off. When I go to Kaduna to meet my friend, I sometimes meet his relatives and once I gave his aunty from a village (not Kaduna city) N200, he said "you really don't realise how much prayers she will give you, that is serious money to her".

It might not be as bad as painted but I don't think it is far off, our view is just corrupted because we live in the cities (and in the livable parts of it for that matter) and our press are too useless to show us things we can't see.

Sagamite:

Even though I agree with tkb's informal survival sector, I think people should not be too carried away with it.

For example, in the "Welcome to Lagos" BBC documentary, I can fervently remember when the man that was a lotto "mathematician guru" won N14K on a lotto, he and his family were dancing like no tomorrow that it was big money. This is a man that has 18 children.

When Vocal Slender had a fight and damaged someone's eye, the family agreed to a N300K settlement and the BBC commentators said based on his current earnings that it will take him 15 years to pay it off. That is N5K per month, lets imagine they did not calculate it on his total earnings. And considering they said he saved for 3 months to get N15K to book studio time for his album, it would be safe to say he probably makes about N15K a month.

The cow broker hausa guy had a what he called a "very good day" when the Mr Biggs buyer came to buy big time and bought 20 cows. The broker said he gets N100 per cow and so made N2000 instantly that day, hence he it is a good day so he is done and going to baff and have his own fun and a nice time.

The grad from poly that used to collect cow blood and transform it to Agric chicken feed was making about N5000 per week and we have not factored in how much it cost him to buy the blood.

The sawmill foreman had to save for months (sleeping for 5 years in his office at the sawmill) to finally get the N15K deposit for his room (if you can call it that) in Makoko which he was so chuffed to get.

Now imagine this people have wife and kids, it is not like if their wages will increase.

So because we live in Lagos and mix with the middle class does not mean we should underestimate the challenges that others we never interact with face.

If these guys are struggling like this in Lagos, I don't think those in the villages will be better off. When I go to Kaduna to meet my friend, I sometimes meet his relatives and once I gave his aunty from a village (not Kaduna city) N200, he said "you really don't realise how much prayers she will give you, that is serious money to her".

It might not be as bad as painted but I don't think it is far off, our view is just corrupted because we live in the cities (and in the livable parts of it for that matter) and our press are too useless to show us things we can't see.

You have to understand that our local tv stations hardly embark on investigative journalism or documentaries about everyday realities within the country.

To the person asking how we know if Nigerians live under $1 per day, according to the World Research Institute; survey data provided by the World Bank Group for Research and Development. Anyone would agree with me that the World Bank Group is a reliable international organization with no motive nor intention against any member country.