₦airaland Forum

TayserMahiri:
Well, maybe our first impressions are world class but dont you think there is more to other parts of the country that makes foreigners settle? Few foreigners want to go back once they land here and they dont necessarily live close to the airport. Life here is easier, better, human even. Despite the bad parts which we never deny having, world citizens overlook that and stay which means its not as outstandingly bothering as you believe. Most things work.

The example of N.K works here because the citizens of both countries have this mad urge to 'defect' if I may use that word. N.Koreans run away to the south any time they have an opportunity and the same is vaguely true of Nigerians who continue to break defection records in the most insane way. The difference between N.Korea and Naija is that while North Koreans live in both a physical and mental prison (brain washing), Nigerians live in a mental prison with no physical barriers. There is no way people can be fleeing a country like that in the 21st century even with all the information they get from a free media only to die in the sea,, and the cycle continues!!! No No No! Hello No!. These guys are fleeing things we have to undertake understudies about. Analogically, N.Korea is like a prison where prisoners are told not to leave and actively prevented from doing so, while Nigeria is like a prison where prisoners are told not to leave but the doors are wide open. Hence, they pour out like water.

Kenya is a tourism driven economy and of course most foreigners have to feel welcomed to stay.
Most of the foreigners are not there because they love seeing the ugly faces of Kenyans, no! They are there because they want to see the enchanting wildlife while simultaneously enjoying a luxurious stay.

Also, many foreigners feel appreciated and worshipped in Kenya, courtesy of the culture of 'white worship'.
Foreigners also see Kenya as an economically easy country to dominate and control!


Very pointless. Your poor sense analogy makes it easy to question the value of education in Kenya. Is good education exclusive to whites & Indians in Kenya or what?

Migration to Europe through the Mediterranean is a west african thing, not just a Nigerian, many horn Africans are now joining in too! So you have no point here!
Most Latin Americans have a better life than Kenyans yet they still risk it all to the US!

Also, check again, most Nigerians who leave for the journey leave with thousands of dollars. Many of them were just victims of deception.

South east Asians like Phillipinos leave their country far more than Nigerians do!

How about the Chinese many of whom are illegal immigrants in African countries and are even deported?

Give more reasonable points ..

TayserMahiri:
Unfortunately first impressions do matter. A Nigerian who landed in Nairobi airport the other day called your airport a bus station.

The thing about NEVER trading your nationality is what mostly people from back ward places of the world such as North Korea say while at home. The best measure is when they leave home and become open minded and realize how the outside world really has progressed. Thats the same way Nigerians bark about never switching nationality untill they land in places like Kenya that they realize blind patriotism is nonsense. They become more of world citizens as opposed to villagers.

First impressions do matter to gullible people. People who easily judge a book by it's cover.
Sadly, there are more gullible people in the world. So, yes I agree, Kenya's ethic of first impression definitely pays off in many ways.

How embarrassing it is for people to later discover how boring a book is in spite of it's fascinating and captivating cover page! That's Kenya.

I might have not been to Kenya, but the researches and discoveries I've made about Kenya in contrast to the way Kenyans here brag about Kenya has given me a perfect clue to the picture of the country. Sorry, no! But I'll pass.

Using North Korea in analogy to Nigeria speaks of the depth of your ignorance.
North Koreans live in the world's largest prison and have no access to the outer world unless what they are being fed with. Is that the same situation with Nigerians who have the largest access to the internet and satellite television in Africa? Nigerians who are also the most widely travelled Africans? Hell No!

Learn to use your analogies well or go back to your alma mater and ask for a refund of your tuition as I always tell you guys..

OMANBALA1:
Igbos are involved in many social vices around the world not because our ideologies but because the Nigerian broken system. But NO Nigeria tribe or any African tribe can match the Igbos in wealth based on per capita. Igbos are still by far the richest African group, by a very wide margin and we are not talking about drug money here. Igbos even do trades in Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, India and many other ridiculous places no African can ever dream of migrating.

The resentment the average Nigerian have for the Igbo man is not because the Igbo are criminals but because of fear of complete economic domination. Sarduana of Sokoto had expressed this fear, the last Oba of Bini had expressed this fear, the Oba of Lagos had expressed this fear and many Nigerians live with this fear which show is offensive way. But they all love Igbo women, of course.

Bro, you are more intelligent than this. It seems like you are bragging.
I am not denying the fact that Igbos have a good record in terms of wealth creation, entrepreneurship etc.

In fact, you are very correct that Igbos have the largest wealth of any African group. Well, that's partly because there are only 3 or perhaps 4 other African ethnic groups as large as the Igbos (Oromos, Hausas & Yorubas, perhaps we include Amharas & Fulas).

Of all these ethnic groups, only the Igbos have an overwhelming christian and heavily westernized population. The rest have a very strong Islamic culture/background. They are either overwhelmingly Islamic or at least 35-50% of their population are muslims.

Westernization helps with wealth creation and equality in a society (or should I be more specific, in a subsaharan African context).

Have you heard of Kenya's Kikuyus? They are just like the Igbos in terms of the culture of wealth creation. Just that they are smaller in population.

The Igbos have a culture that encourages wealth creation which is cool. However this culture has bred a very destructive mentality of making wealth through any means necessary. This is one mentality other Nigerians fear and not necessarily the fear of domination.
Igbos also have a very bold and outspoken nature. This turns off other people as cocky and proud.

A large chunk of the wealth of Igbos is also made through criminality, fraud, fetishism etc. This also scares other people..

Kudos to hardworking and honest igbos who make genuine wealth. They are all over the place too.

OMANBALA1:
I get your point but we can't ignore the fact that we have been unfortunate with bad leaders. Nigeria has never had a decent leader. Kenyans have A LOT OF FOREIGNERS LIKE SOUTH AFRICA WHO HAS HELPED TO DEVELOP THEIR COUTRY. The inputs of these foreigners has helped to maintain the standard of projects and institutions.

Dang! You hit the nail on the head.

Another factor that helps Kenya is the fact that it is a Tourism driven economy. This makes their government work so hard to meet up to world standards of doing things in order to impress foreign tourists.

However, I discovered that there has been a lot of downside to this ethic of theirs. It has brought about heavy uneven development around the country and many more problems which we have highlighted here times without number.

TayserMahiri:
Not true. If you landed in Nairobi you'd burn your Nigerian passport immediately! Try just once

Yes, but only a small section of a capital city doesn't make a country. There are many more things to a country than that.

obaaderemi:
Nigeria has suffered no humiliation here,my brother. We know things are not well with Nigeria. No be today. But even in spite of all the shortcomings brought about by the political class in Nigeria, one way or another, the resilient spirit of Nigerians (the honest ones) continue to make a way for them home and abroad. The kind of opportunities you see here is hard to find in other African countries. But you need to open your eyes. I am currently involved in poultry stuffs and every morning I kick myself that I hadn't started earlier. People like Nowenuse and 68888419 have shown with the thread that cost of living in most African countries is higher than in Nigeria. Corruption is worse in Kenya, for example, than in Nigeria. You think police brutality is bad in Nigeria? Nigeria police is a learner beside their Kenyan counterparts.. Nairobi as we have shown, if you had paid attention, is more unequal than Lagos. 2.5million out of that city's 4million live in slums. Most of the Kenyans here cannot even live in the houses they are posting here. . The biggest businesses there are either started or owned by foreigners. That's why they are always so angry when we call them Little Indians One of them almost ran mad when his brother confirmed for him that a poorly run country like Nigeria leads them in cement consumption per capita.. It's understandable that as Nigerians, we should be angry at the level we find ourselves today. There was a time the rest of Africa used to look up to us but like Litmus said,we dropped our standard and because of the failure of the leaders,we started comparing ourselves to lesser African countries. Hence this back and forth with Little Indians and Ghanaians. Another problem is our bad apples, taking advantage of the laxity of security in those African countries, going over there to tarnish Nigeria's image. And again, the olodos who can not pass exams here nor afford Nigeria's private universities going to these African countries to study and even beat them in many cases. As per Buhari's case, I don't think there is any Nigerian alive who detest that no-gooder more than I do. A lot has to be done. And finally, the bolded shows where your anger is coming from. Don't worry, brother, you are not alone there.

Nicely put bro!

People like OMAMBALA1 easily fall for the tricks of other Africans here to believe that life in other African countries is better in all aspects than Nigeria, which is completely false.

Other Africans e.g Kenyans are very good at hiding their own problems and painting a very good picture while we Nigerians always try to accentuate our problems.

I'm not against us accentuating our problems, in fact I support it to a great extent, just that it would be stupid for us to do that before those who hide their own problems.
It would be akin to an abused wife sharing her own problems of abuse to her fellow abused woman who doesn't share hers and paints her own husband in good light.

@OMAMBALA1. Tbh with you, when I joined this thread, I thought highly of Kenya and felt they were completely better than us in all ramifications. Not until I did some deeper research on my own. That was when I discovered that these people are not worth taking seriously. They have very very terrible problems as well. Problems that make me prefer my Nigerian citizenship and would never wish to trade it for theirs, not even if I was offered a good sum of money.

1Sharon:
I also know a few ppl from the same ethnic group in delta and they still choose to speak pidgin over their language. So all you all you wrote are excuses and you are being dishonest

People from the same non hausa ethnic groups in the north still choose to speak Hausa to themselves sometimes because it has become the lingua franca over there and many are already abandoning their languages.
As long as you are from a smaller ethnic group, it is difficult to retain your language due to the smaller geographic spread of your language.
The average yoruba person in Ibadan meets mostly yoruba people on a daily basis, compared to the average Urhobo person in Warri, Ughelli or even Sapele who meets with people of many different ethnic groups on a daily basis.

1Sharon:
Pidgin ain't a proper language mate

Do you know that Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese etc evolved as Pidgin languages of Latin?
Today these languages are standard official world languages, while Latin has has become obsolete?

So many official languages of various countries today evolved as Pidgin languages. Then later become Creoles.

@Op selemempe. I'm just reading this thread now, but I guess someone must have already told you by now that Oro is not celebrated in Ilorin as you mentioned in your opening post earlier.
Yoruba traditional religions are not tolerated or celebrated in Ilorin emirate (Kwara central).

baby124:
The heavy chains were not forged in Africa, they were given to co conspirators especially in the hinterland by the Europeans. As for Africans betraying their people in this age, well materialism is the order of the day. But you still see that majority frown on slavery, fraud and deception. It is the scum of the earth who deceive their fellow Africans into countries like Libya.

During the transatlantic slavery trade these scum were given guns, guards, lands and money to enable the success of the trade! The scum today are our leaders and the wicked human traffickers. Anyone that wants to rule and make real change is undermined to a large extent! Africans need to wake up and demand a change or the world will never take them seriously! As to human sacrifice, many cultures practice that!

The only time humans are buried with another human is when a royal dies. These people are raised or dedicate their lives for that purpose, like the Abobakus. The Abobakus elect to die with the king. They live a rich life like the king during their lifetime, and choose to die with him to continue enjoying in the afterlife. Does that look like a forced death to you? No. Different cultures, different practices. This narrative falls into a single story trap.

My own family, the slaves became part of the family and took on their masters name. They married, had children and they are part of my extended family once their debt was paid. They were totally absorbed into society and married freeborn as long as they could afford to take care of them. This author making her father’s narrative an African narrative is very dangerous and should be questioned immediately. Several tribes had different practices. We don’t have the caste system in Yorubaland and no one is discriminated against.

Many times slaves even grew to army general rank and other prominent titles in Yorubaland. They were so integrated that people barely remember which family came in as slaves. We need to paint the right picture of slavery or indentured servitude in the African context.

It’s apparent that the writer’s forefather was a criminal who rose the ranks with the help of Europeans. The real royals did not live such crude lives. They always had servants and their own priests to do rituals for them. This writers father was doing his own rituals and terrorizing people by himself like a modern day shekau. Remember Igbos don’t believe in royalty, so it would have been easy for low life criminals to be imposed and elevated.

You are correct. Different African cultures, different practices. There must never be a generalization.

As for human sacrifice to deities, Only Africans and Native Americans were noted to practice. I do not think it was practiced elsewhere.

baby124:
Lack of creative ability led her to write this nonsense in the New Yorker. Yes, there were instances like this. But involvement of foreigners fueled transatlantic slave trade. Many many cultures in the world buried their dead with slaves. Even South America had slaves who were buried with monarchs and they did a lot of head hunting. So don’t go on New Yorker to write patronizing articles which in the long run racists are looking for to justify their actions and absolve their ancestors who preyed on old practices guided by rules.

Whites injected materialism into the process and made it absolutely foul. Africans never ever treated their slaves like animals till the whites taught them how to treat their slaves like animals. Those heavy chains and weapons of torture were not forged by Africans but by White people. Slaves were like indentured servants who reintegrated into society mostly. Most of the slaves captured when the greed got High were regular people trying to go about their daily lives! Also the Africans did not have an idea of the fate that was meted out to the salves sold. It was absolutely horrendous and most of them died in transit. Had they known, things may just have been different.

As much as I'd like to be happy about this comment of yours vindicating Africans, I can see how the current crop of Africans today still sell each other for the same material gains. Are our leaders not selling the future of the masses for their own personal gains?

The most painful of them all are the Human traffickers who defraud and deceive their fellow Africans with the promise of a good life in Europe, only to trick them into the hands of Libyans to sell them off. It's so pathetic!

I highly doubt that even though the fate of the slaves in the new world has been made known to their African sellers, it wouldn't have made any difference to the sellers. Afterall, these same slaves were used for human sacrifice in many places by their masters.

The writer also made very clear the heavy chains her father used for his slaves.

EasterDell:
"Brain Damage"... Your very choice of words expose the bile in you. Ok now let me add some good old sense to your deranged thinking!

A lion does not pity a goat, when he wants to eat... A human does not spare the chicken when hungry! That's the beauty of nature! Don't be weak, or you will pay the price dearly!
.
.
.

The white man owes no apologies for dominating, enslaving and coercing you to do their economic bidding! They where clearly superior and if your lazy, unitintlligent, tree worshipping ancestors did what they were supposed to do, history would be different!

But noooo, they did nothing, and even today their children are still doing nothing!

Blacks were backwards and useless in ancient times, couldn't read, write, build anything meaningful!... Sadly enough they are still very useless today! Look at the whole of black Africa! a disgrace to the international community, corruption, diseases always blaming and begging people!

The black man owes himself some good dose of self respect, man up and be serious! No body owes you nothing! Lead well, study hard and build cities, technologies to dominate others!

You made salient points above I must confess. But for you to completely underrate, Ignore and rubbish the achievements of past african empires is what I would not accept.
The Mongols once ruled half of the world, how great are they today? They are a small minority in China almost absorbed and have another landlocked insignificant country btw China & Russia.
Arabs once ruled and conquered even parts of Europe. How great are they today?

Will you just throw away the numerous past Kingdoms and Empires of Africa like Mali, Abbysinia, Nubia, Kush, Askum, Songhai, Ghana, Benin, Kanem-bornu, Ancient Egypt etc as Africans always being backward?

The Greeks once ruled the world, today they are the economic embarrassment of Europe.

Assyrians were once a world power, today they are a small almost ethnically cleansed minority in the Arab world.

Empires and kingdoms rise and fall and times change.

musicwriter:
If someone ''could own land, property and could also become integrated members of the community'' then he/she wasn't a slave in the same way we have come to know slavery. In Africa, till today, there exists what we call apprenticeship, whereby people serve under a master, and this's an old practice. It is not called slavery.

Yes, there were captives held as prisoners of war and probably looked down upon in society, but that was all there's to that. They were not ''traded'' as commodity from a seller to a buyer.

Its interesting you mentioned Arabs. Both the Arabs and Europeans brought these practices to us when our lands were invaded. There were no ''buying and selling'' of human beings among Africans before the arrival of either the Arabs or Europeans. The slavery I am talking about is buying and selling of human beings before the arrival of the Arabs and Europeans. That's what I want to know. How did Africans buy and sell slaves before the arrival of the Arabs and Europeans? To whom did we sell the slaves to? That's what I want to know.

@theoldpretender. I think this person above is very very correct. Africans never traded slaves with each other before the Arabs or Europeans came.

The Arabs/Europeans took great advantage of our naivety and unexposure. Now they make it look like slavery was all our fault and they were just innocent passersby who were enticed/offered some slaves to purchase.

As an African, the only blame I think we fully deserve was the human sacrifice of enslaved people. We and the native Americans were the only group of people to really have practiced this inhuman act for millenia.

theoldpretender:
If your great grandad had been caught as a slave...God forbid

1.You might have not existed because he would have died in the ship enroute to the Americas.

2.Most slaves ended up in what is now South America. Millions did end up in North America.

3.If your grandad ended up in South America...chances are you would be living in a favella...where life is just as cheap as it is in Nigeria (Police brutality, violent drug gangs, etc).

4.If your grandad ended up in US or Canada....good. You have a high chance of living in a violent, drug ridden, gang ridden neighbourhood. And most blacks are victims of crime...commited by other blacks.

5.There is also a chance you might end up living in a higher level of life...if your ancestor got educated...or played sports brilliantly..

6.Is it worth allowing your ancestors suffer years of discrimination, often violent, just so that you can call yourself an American.

7. Black slaves were never sent to Australia. (The black Australian or Aboriginie is the original owner of that land. There are Africans there...but those are recent legal immigrants. Plus, Australia had a No Black Immigrant policy till 1968).

8. ThaNK God your ancestors were not sent to Argentina...to be used as cannon fodder in the wars of independence that wracked Argentina in the 19th century. Most blacks died in those wars...that, and massive whites only immigration, is why Argentina has less than 100000 black people.(once upon a time it was half the populaiton).

I'm happy that we still have enlightened nairalanders like you here who help to enlighten the ignorant Nigerian mass.

Just see how some ignorant people jump over here wishing their ancestors were slaves so that they can be citizens of the Americas. They don't know that only probably 1% of the descendants of African slaves shipped away live very comfortable middleclass lives in a first world country.

I weep for the ignorance of Nigerians of today. Our educational system is failed and ignorance is the order of the day.

theoldpretender:
The black man in North America...the US and Canada ...still does have some issues with racisim (eg racial profiling, bad police treatment, poor schools, etc) but things as I said are better than they were in say the 1930's (when blacks could be lynched for flimsy reasons).

I should add that when I say things are better.....I usually throw in a lot of caveats. But that one na another long tori.

South America and Central America...hmm. In the US...you can see black faces on US TV shows. On telenovelas from South American countries with a large black population...zero (Even PLACES LIKE BRAZIL!)

Thank you very much. You see, I thought I was the only one who noticed this.

Make no mistake bro, I have discovered that there is a very big difference in the mentality of Blacks in the USA and Blacks in Latin America.

Blacks in the USA promoted themselves, they fought aggresively and died for their own rights because they found themselves in a society that was completely against them and ostracized them.
Blacks Americans sang their own musics, acted their own movies, created their own magazines and beauty products to inspire themselves, the likes of BET, Ebony etc come to mind.

Afro-Latinos on the other hand have a history of heavy intermixing with their white masters which gave rise to the large mixed race population you see all over the Latin world.
This somehow made Afro-latinos not to feel too hated by the whites or to develop a very distinct culture or identity from the whites unlike African americans. Instead they prefer to try to be like the whites, marry more whites and become whitenized. They live to please white people. They have no identity, struggle or pride of their own.

In a country like Brazil where 50% of the population are mixed race or black (pardo or preto), you see a disproportionate number of whites representing their media and politics, yet the mixed and black people seem not to be worried about it or challenging it as such.

Why don't they have their own movies like the Black Americans started doing to promote their own selves?

In America, the one drop rule was used and all mixed and black people had one identity and struggle as black people.
In Brazil, the mixed people look down on the black people and never identify themselves as blacks. The mixed people try their best to become whiter and appeal to the white majority population. It's just a very pathetic case for the blacks and mixed populations in the Latin world.

rosita33:
are the Egyptians black? buhari brother

Are they whites? Of course the ancient Egyptians were black just like present day Nubians (Sudanese). The present day Egyptians are not a direct reflection of the ancient ones.
There has been a lot of Arab and European influences over the millenia which has diluted and almost eradicated the ancient genes. Check the Southern parts of Egypt which have largely retained their ancestral cultures (like the Beja for instance), they are black.
Infact, many believe the Bejas to be pure descendants of ancient Egyptians because they have many cultures that exactly match that of the ancient Egyptians.

TayserMahiri:
Which thread did you leave Nowe. You have been here as the mad woman Timewilltell. Deny

You have become so obsessed with me perhaps to the extent that you now see me in your dreams maybe and you think I've been here with you all this while.

Look below. My last comment on this thread was on June 24th. That's almost 3 weeks ago!
Unless you can prove otherwise!

Since I left this thread, it has gone to the dogs.

But seriously, don't Kenyans have a life outside this thread? You guys eat, breathe and live on this thread. It's so bad that Kenyans have even outnumbered Nigerians on this thread.
You guys should get a life. Nigerians are no longer interested in you. Can't you go somewhere else?

Why are you guys addicted to talking about Nigeria and with Nigerians?
Aren't you guys ashamed that in a forum with millions of Nigerians, the number of people who have Kenya's attention can be counted with the fingers of one hand? It's really pathetic!

Life isn't really fair.

It's a crime to be born in a third world country really, especially if you miss being born in the tiny middleclass population.

One bastard who would have definitely embezzled the money for building a school for this children would be somewhere enjoying in the comfort of his air conditioned house while his children attend high expensive schools. So unfair.

Japhet04:
I tried using hair dye on it to avoid the questions I receive daily...pls it's really troubling my life.

*modified

Wow I never knew nairaland was this helpful.. Thank you all very much

OP, I hope you do not mind the insensitivity, childishness and stupidity of many people commenting here. Nairaland allows the good, the bad and ugly, so just try to select the positive comments and move on.

I suggest you go to platforms like Quora where you can ask this question and get responses from a more international and enlightened audience, or you can just check if someone with a similar condition has perhaps already asked this question (which I definitely think so).

All I can advice you to do is to voraciously peruse the length and breadth of the internet on this issue. You said you have already seen a dermatologist. You could read advices and recommendations online from other international dermatologists and people who have successfully tamed this situation.

I heard that it is a condition without a cure. You must stop every contemplation of suicide in your mind. I know it's very difficult, but you must be strong.
It could be that nature wants you to discover the cure to this ailment or at least be among the people to bring about a revolution to this. .. You have to give yourself the opportunity to make a difference. Try to make friends with people who are successfully battling with this ailment, so that they can be a positive source of inspiration to you.

Lastly, are you a faith-filled christian? I am and I believe God can intervene and rescue you from this situation if you truly believe and have the faith for it.

I wish you thee best in your endeavours and above all a happy and successful life whatever the outcome of your condition. .. There are many people who love you just the way you are and will still love you no matter how bad things get. You mustn't give up on these people.

Lifeoffjay16:
Nigeria is not matured enough for state policing. This is simply an invitation to anarchy and states will experience one party system for decades to come.

If this is what will bring an end to incessant and senseless killings across the country, then so be it!

Are you not ashamed to hear regular news of hundreds of people being massacred in Nigeria on a single day due to issues of ethnic clashes?
Even countries like Somalia, Afghanistan & Syria that are war torn and unstable hardly experience such terrible killings on a single day, but it has become a normal every day occurrence in Nigeria.

CSTR1005:
Then that is a stupid policy.

What happens when the FG police intefers with state policing?
Who wins?

Take police off federal government control completely and give the money to states to fund their police.

The federal capital territory is the only place that should have federal policing.

The NSCDC can remain under federal government control to mimic the National Guard of the United States of America.

It is not stupid. In most countries, especially civilized ones, you have the federal & state police existing side by side. In the US for instance, you even have county/city police existing with the state and federal police.
They all have their respective roles and hardly encroach on each other's roles.

OfficialAPCNig:
The fact we don't have doesn't mean we don't have the capacity.

Do you now see why I said you are as dumb as Buhari?

Stop being stupid, there are a lot of franchise businesses in Nigeria. It is not just the francophone countries.

I don't blame you. I blame the school you graduated from

Have you heard of Factor Equalisation, do you understand what Repercussion Effect is in Economics?

With this common market now, there will be 2 mega markets in Africa, AU's 1.2 billion Mega Market and Nigeria's 180 Million market. Which market do you think Investors would love to access?

We would conquered Africa if our 180 Million market can access that 1.2 billion market. Foreign Investors would use Nigeria as a base to access that AU market.

I joined the thread lately and see the manner at which yourself and SalamRushdie have been propagating your ideas.
No doubt, you guys have a good point about your 'Nigeria having access to 1.2 billion market'. But one question I would love to ask you guys, have you guys analyzed the nature of that market you are talking about?

Do you know that 44% of all internet subscribers in Africa for instance are Nigerians?
Do you guys know that about 40% of all the middleclass citizens of Africa are Nigerians?

Yes, there is a large market in the entire Africa, but this market is overwhelmingly dominated by poor and rural citizens who may have no need for Innoson's cars or other Nigerian products you think would heavily sell outside Nigeria.

What we are saying is that, compared to what Nigeria has to offer or gain from this deal, other African countries who heavily repackage foreign products which are superior to Nigerian products have more to gain.
Many of these countries heavily invest in production and their govts are more serious in that sector and are ready to invest so much in it compared to Nigeria.
In Nigeria we do not even have stable power for industries to run in the first place. How can we compete?

I guess you guys know Dstv of course, it is the largest and most common satellite television of Africa. It is owned by SA. Guess what? 40% of it's active subscribers are Nigerians.
Nigeria is only 15% of Africa's population but check out a lot of statistics which are somehow indicative of wealthier citizens, you will observe that Nigeria is either 40 or 50% of Africa.

Africa, especially Sub saharan Africa has less to offer us than we have to offer them.
North African countries which are a bit better in standards of living are quite racist against sub saharan Africans. These people can easily ignore or boycott our products for superior European/Asian ones while Nigerians on the other hand swallow their products cos we are gullible.

Had it been that there existed a far larger middle class population outside Nigeria in other African countries, especially sub saharan Africa, then of course, a free trade will be beneficial to us.
We cannot accept countries who are hoping to use Nigeria's large market as a source to alleviate the poverty of their own people or make their elites richer (as the endemic corruption case in Africa is).

IBBG:
Lol. the mistake with most graduates especially in this country is their narrow prespective in life. They tend focus only in the area they graduate from, disregarding other areas. My profession is in the medical field, but i've also cultivated interest in economics, entrepreneurship, philosophy, politics, entertainments, sports, agriculture, ICT, civil engineering etc. i may not be a specialist in these areas, but i study them to atleast have a general knowledge about them and have some basic form of understanding when discussions are made about them. Morever i want to become an investor, even though i don't have the money now, i can atleast read up on the various industries, you never can tell when an idea can pop up. So the problem with most Nigerian graduates is that they are not versatile. they only focus in their area of expertise neglecting other areas.

God bless you. You know, I have always thought I was alone in this observation. Where did we go wrong?

While I was still in the university as an Anatomy student, my fellow course mates were usually confused and angry at me when I talk about about international politics, History, economics, Anthropology and other unrelated fields to our study course.
They felt like it was very odd for someone studying a medical science course to know so much outside it. Most of them knew absolutely nothing outside their own states let alone Nigeria. They knew absolutely nothing aside what they read and cram from Anatomy textbooks.
It was such a pity.

ghostmist:
Isn't it time to prop up our local industries to take over markets in those other countries?

We claim to be the giant of Africa, yet we are unable to dominate smaller African countries. Nigeria ought to be the china of Africa.

Nigeria has very corrupt government officials who are only interested in oil wealth.
We cannot compete with other African countries whose governments have a very strong eye in the aspect of boosting local industries. They will sink us. Ordinary steady power supply for our industries, we don't have yet. People run companies here on losses.
Had it been that we were not an 'oil only country' and we invested heavily in industrialization, then a free trade in Africa would have been of much benefit to us.

jomoh:
Signing such document will only mean death for our local industries especially with all this Francophone countries that only serves as transfer destinations for French products.

They will just be transferring all products imported from France directly into nigeria the only country that has the population to buy.

Signing such an agreement will never beenefit us especially now that we don’t produce enough products to consume let alone export.

We won’t have anything to export we will only be using our oil money to import goods thereby killing our local industries.



This is not the type of competition nigeria needs. This will be an unhealthy competition because the likes of francophone countries don’t produce anything. They only import from France and Belgium only to look for the economy where they will dump it.

So in essence, Nigerian products will not be competing with other African products but European products indirectly.

South African products are also superior to Nigeria’s so there’s hardly anything we can send to them to buy. Even with tariffs and all, Nigerians will still prefer South African or Europe produced products(francophone). If you now remove the tariffs, It will only be a one way traffic.

Exactly, Thank you for enlightening many people here.

Nigeria must not sign any free trade agreement in Africa.
It will be to our loss and the gain of others.
We have the largest market in Africa and of course the largest middle class population.

Elfmannisback:
Work on the govt.

Of course I will. It's just a matter of time. I have plans for that. I'm still young and not fully independent yet. A fresh graduate.

Elfmannisback:
Are u middle or poor?

Middle. Why?

Jokerman:
I support her.... How will Nigeria be better when our best brains are running away rather than fighting?

After campaigning and voting for Buhari, you now want to run and leave innocent and uninformed Nigerians to suffer alone??

God forbid... if you are amongst those that keep voting for bad leaders because of religion and tribe, your visa and application will never be granted in Jesus mighty name.... We must all work together and take Nigeria to where it's supposed to be.. Amen..

I fully support her too!

Only Nigeria's middle class can fight and bring the change we want in this country. The poor has no power.

If all the middle class abscond this country. Who will then change it?

wink2015:
Nice write up!

But the best solutions is to avoid getting a meal oversalted.

Does this solutions for oversalted meal apply to over pepperish meal?

There are some of us that prepare YORUBA stew or soup which is known for TOO MUCH PEPPER

How do one deppepperize it? Ignore my english

Hahahaha , are you really asking this or just joking?

meobizy:
Why do the ugly females on this forum act like their opinions matter? Who knows you clowns apart from your next door neighbours? Tattooed players are dirty, ok, leave them. At least the world class models they impregnate see nothing wrong with their skin. Wetin una don achieve for una life?

Thank you.
I wonder why people cannot just mind their businesses and keep their opinions to themselves.

Of all the problems in this Nigeria, it is what millionaire footballers do with their bodies that seem to be their problems.