₦airaland Forum

sukkot:
ignorant ass nigga obviously you dont know what you tambout. alright lets do earnings to car insurance ratio. so they want 4000 a year from me as insurance. this is 80 pounds a week. the average wage in uk is like 400 a week. so at 80 pounds you want a fifth of my salary just for insurance alone. i never pay rent ooooo and my other 20 bills. now here in naija the average wage is like 300 thousand a month ( average not minimum because i used average for uk too ). so the insurance at 5000 a year is 10 naira a week. wage at 300 thousand is 75000 a week. so out of 75000 naira a week they only want 10 naira a week for insurance. that less than one percent of my wage whereas in uk they want 20 percent of my wages in auto insurance. home you have been schooled ignant nigga

jedisco:
You write from experience and with facts...
Relativity is important. Dangote saying he's broke and an average Nigerian saying same do not mean thesame thing.
Most of the things the western media would be agog about and folks overseas would complain about are things we'd not even bother with in Nigeria... e.g inflation of 10%, forcing out a PM because he went for a party during lockdown, 'heatwave' of 35 C. e.t.c.

Lastly, when folks say Nigeria is the best place for someone with money to 'enjoy', ask them what enjoyment means and you'd be surprised.

Victoronah1:
who told you that you pay 10 naira, a week for insurance in Nigeria? You must be joking. So you think you pay for insurance of 5000 a year and come to repair your car with over 5000 abi. Oh, you're talking about the so called insurance they give you when you register a car? Hahaha, go and cal them nah let's see. For you to insure a car you need to pay about 200k a year in Nigeria

sukkot:
ignorant ass nigga obviously you dont know what you tambout. alright lets do earnings to car insurance ratio. so they want 4000 a year from me as insurance. this is 80 pounds a week. the average wage in uk is like 400 a week. so at 80 pounds you want a fifth of my salary just for insurance alone. i never pay rent ooooo and my other 20 bills. now here in naija the average wage is like 300 thousand a month ( average not minimum because i used average for uk too ). so the insurance at 5000 a year is 10 naira a week. wage at 300 thousand is 75000 a week. so out of 75000 naira a week they only want 10 naira a week for insurance. thats less than one percent of my wage whereas in uk they want 20 percent of my wages in auto insurance. hope you have been schooled ignant nigga

Itsrm:
Average wage 300k a month in Nigeria? You must be drunk

sukkot:
nigga just cuz your brokesass earn 15k a month dont mean the average wage aint 300k a month. there are many people earning salaries of 5 million naira a month. these ones shore up the average to 300k. all these people japaing with 20 million naira who had executive jobs how much do you think they were earning ? some where earning 2 million naira a month before they gave it all up to japa. people dey earn good money for naija oooo. forget that thing

sukkot:
ignorant ass nigga obviously you dont know what you tambout. alright lets do earnings to car insurance ratio. so they want 4000 a year from me as insurance. this is 80 pounds a week. the average wage in uk is like 400 a week. so at 80 pounds you want a fifth of my salary just for insurance alone. i never pay rent ooooo and my other 20 bills. now here in naija the average wage is like 300 thousand a month ( average not minimum because i used average for uk too ). so the insurance at 5000 a year is 10 naira a week. wage at 300 thousand is 75000 a week. so out of 75000 naira a week they only want 10 naira a week for insurance. thats less than one percent of my wage whereas in uk they want 20 percent of my wages in auto insurance. hope you have been schooled ignant nigga

IbeOkehie:
This is seriously funny. Please there's data about economic conditions in Nigeria, this isn't like 25 years ago. Let's quote some of them offhand -

* Only about 0.5% of Nigerian workers earn over ₦200K per month, about 95% of bank accounts contain less than ₦500K. Only 7% of Lagosians have running water in their homes...imagine the rest of the country. Life expectancy in Nigeria is about 60 years for men. That last one has been hitting home for me recently because I personally know 5 relatively healthy acquittances who left the USA & UK to live in Nigeria in the last 4 years and died from one emergency health issue or another. One just happened in Lagos LAST WEEK, the man had a heart attack and was stuck in traffic for 6 hours and died inside the car taking him to the hospital. This is someone that many of his friends had repeatedly advised him to come back to the USA. It just makes concrete the reality that choosing between Nigeria & the UK can be a matter of life and death.

I used to be a hospital lab technician. There's something called platelet concentrate that is sometimes used for babies born with some sort of haemoatology problem. When I moved back to Nigeria in 2011, I was at the FMC Hospital in Owerri when a child was born. The doctor on duty determined that the baby needed platelet concentrate. It was not available ANYWHERE. And the baby died. This is a product we used to throw away like water at my USA workplace because it has an 8 hour shelf life. The standing procedure is to have it available at all times just in case of a neonatal crisis. But in Nigeria it was NOWHERE to be found. The doctor cried and I cried too. It's not that babies don't die in the USA or UK, it's that they don't die cheaply. By the way, the son of a serving Federal Minister also died of the same thing some years ago, he had a crisis and needed a blood product that wasn't available in Nigeria. He died in an air ambulance on the way to the UK. Unfortunately I can't put their grief out here in public, but it's a lesson on how precarious life has become that someone so highly placed can't even save themselves. So much for living the good life in Nigeria.

Simply put, your chances of staying alive are higher in the West, period.



Yes there are people earning millions of dollars in Nigeria, I know a few field engineers in the oil & gas industry or top bankers or people working remotely for big IT companies. Yes, they are there but the more important point is that the numbers of such people in Nigeria are so few as to be negligible. They're a statistically insignificant number and their situation is getting more precarious with each passing year.

I know TWO highly placed families in Nigeria where both parents and ADULT CHILDREN and spouses and grandchildren have moved from Nigeria into the town where I live. These are people who live in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Maitama, who work at major oil & gas companies, banks and are in politics. They pulled up EVERYTHING and abandoned Nigeria. I don't live in a major city so imagine the number that are migrating to London, New York or Houston. The last push for one of them was being REPEATEDLY robbed in Abuja after fleeing the same problem in Lagos years before. The woman told me this personally.

These are people who know what is going on in Nigeria and they're leaving! It's not always about MONEY, it's also about quality of life and peace of mind. The elites of Nigeria - the perm secs, federal directors, academic elites, business moguls, top politicians - are a disgrace to the Black Race. I like the way things are going now, many of them are being forced to flee the results of their own idiocy, now in the West they have to rub shoulders with their victims on an equal basis. And everything I see tells me it's going to get worse.



What is the deception? It's telling that ORDINARY LOWER MIDDLE CLASS life depicted on Facebook is viewed as exaggerated luxury by Nigerians. I know many Nigerians who have been working low wage jobs for over 25 years and they all own homes in good neighborhoods and MULTIPLE cars and their kids are university graduates working good jobs. Most if not all of them have scrimped and saved to build homes in Nigeria too.
However much they spend in UK it's still enough to send plenty of money to their relatives in Nigeria.

This very topic is what brought me to Nairaland. I was SHOCKED to read people mocking the standard of living in the Anglo countries. I came to the USA with zero money, my plane ticket was bought with borrowed money. I started life working illegally in a restaurant. I know for a fact that even back then, working in that restaurant, I was better off than 99% of people in Nigeria. Summary - if I can live a good life in the West, most people can achieve it too.

I'm in the Nigerian community, I hear of people moving to UK all the time, I see people coming into my community every week, every month both illegally and legally, married with children and single, rich and poor. Even when they're starting from scratch, within a year or two they have fully paid off used car they couldn't dream of having in Nigeria, they live in apartments - maybe with a single roommate - with running water, flush toilet and 24 hour electricity. Breathing fresh air with no dust and generator fumes. They can walk the street with confidence, no police checkpoints, they can drive for hours on the highway with no fear of being waylaid by armed robbers or kidnapped. Those are things that are not guaranteed even in Lekki Phase Zero or VGC.

A Professor, a scion of one of the most prominent families in my ancestral village, was kidnapped right in front of his house in Nigeria. The kidnappers collected their 40million and still killed him.

Good thing too Nigerians going to the West now are learning to do manual work like landscaping, computer wiring/network setups, auto mechanics and mobile car wash, cooking food and selling from their homes, sewing clothes & shoe repair, so having papers is not even as much a problem as before. Honestly I wish I had such skills when I arrived here, life would have been a lot easier. There's a woman who sells Nigerian food that we patronize often, we buy like one week worth of food at a time. When you go to pick up at her home you can see they're VERY BUSY. There's one or two more people that have opened walk up - carry out restaurants. They cater parties too. A Nigerian mobile car washer cleaned my car last week, he came to the office and did it. Who needs Green Card to do that?

Nigeria today is not a good place to live for the VAST MAJORITY and it must be a terrible burden to even be rich in the midst of such misery. Hopefully it will get better but all this fakery about life in Nigeria must stop. Y'all know you're not real.

sukkot:
i dont kwow what you pay but thats how much i pay. i have the receipt if you want to see it. 5000 for the whole year. obviously it is not comprehensive. 3rd party

5000 for a whole year . Oya na why don't you call them now and tell them you bashed someone's car and it's the bumper, come back here and tell me your experience. Lol. You think the insurance they give you when you register a car is a real insurance?

LagosInter:
So if you lose your car in Nigeria or gets involved in an accident, the 5000 naira insurance will protect you?

Do you benefit anything from car insurance of 5000 in Nigeria?

Unlike the UK counterpart whose insurance covers damage to his car or even car theft and covers damage to the car of a third party whom he accidentally hit.


I won't respond to you again, it's obvious you are still wet behind the ears.

And you said average in Nigeria is 300k.

Mtchew!!

Victoronah1:
5000 for a whole year . Oya na why don't you call them now and tell them you bashed someone's car and it's the bumper, come back here and tell me your experience. Lol. You think the insurance they give you when you register a car is a real insurance?

Itsrm:
Lmao, numbskull.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/just-in-99-4-of-bank-accounts-contain-less-than-n500000-ndic/amp/

Maybe these people earning 300k a month keep the money on your bald head

sukkot:
nah brah i dont have a JOB. JOB means JUST ABOVE BROKE. am a binness man

Ceejay57:
you are a binness man, continue deceiving your self, don't let people be, selfish set of hoes an simps.

sukkot:
iono wachu tambou maynee

Ceejay57:
ara gbachie gi nti ebeafu,aturu nwuru anwu n'esi isi.

sukkot:
thats not the point bro. i dont drive like an idiot. i dont bash peoples cars. 3 years of driving since i have returned and no incident so i am not paying insurance because i think i am going to jam anyone. for me its waste of money. i am only getting the insurance so that when police stop me and ask for my insurance i can present it. and so i am happy to pay only 5000 a month. if by any chance i hit someone i would give them cash if need be but like i said i dont drive like the typical nigerian idiot. i am a defensive driver and i hardly change lanes. i stick to one lane. i drive like a civilized person

Victoronah1:
if you bash someone you give them cash, lol, you miss out the meaning of insurance then. Insurance out weights what you just said, unless you're a billionaire. Even billionaires has billions of insurance you think you can just bring out money just like that, make your account shake. Insurance is not for the police, it's for your own safety

Gerrard59:
Wages in the UK and all of Europe except Switzerland have never made sense considering the cost of living. I omitted Nordic countries because of the high taxes compared to Switerland. The UK has a high cost of living, an economy that is not really diversified as the US, Canada or Germany etc. However, many choose the country because of the ease of getting a student visa. Check the German student thread, ditto Canada. It is tough to get a visa interview date as a prospective student to Germany, and Nigerian students get denied 8/10 attempts when applying for a student visa at the Canadian embassy. So, I perfectly understand why many are choosing the UK, especially as Oga Agbado looks like the winner come next year.

sukkot:
I KNOW WHAT INSURANCE IS AnD I AM HAPpY TO pAY 5000 naira A YEAR as opposed to 4 million naira a year ( uk equivalent at 4000 pounds a year )

Victoronah1:
you miss the whole point. You are not paying for any insurance. Did you know you could have a terminal disease, is it your 5000 naira you go use travel overseas and treat yourself. With 4million you could start something. By the time you finish appearing on all nairaland forums begging for 4 million to treat the illness, you would have died or wanted so much time. I'll rather pay 4 million naira a year insurance than paying 5000 naira, which you know is nothing

sukkot:
I KNOW WHAT INSURANCE IS AnD I AM HAPpY TO pAY 5000 naira A YEAR as opposed to 4 million naira a year ( uk equivalent at 4000 pounds a year )

Victoronah1:
na poverty dey cause all this. 4000 pounds is supposed to be a chicken change. 4000 pounds spread in 12 months, that's 333 pounds. That's about 394 USD. If you're hardworking and know what you're doing, you should earnings of 5k$ a month that if you remove 400$ you still have alot

Regex:
This is a good read. The problem with Nigerians is that they want to come to another man's land and start at the top.

sukkot:
freedom, peace of mind, not being heavily taxed to death, you are beside the food you love to eat, no second class citizeshipp based on your skin color, not too many bills, not feeling like an out of place alien, not feeling like a unwanted visitor etc etc. thats what we mean by sweetness

Treadway:
Interesting. But it isn't a problem when the whites come to your land and start at the top. Lol

IbeOkehie:
Freedom - in Nigeria you will suffer greatly if you're atheist, gay or lesbian or you say the wrong thing about a powerful politician or even your richer neighbor who can hire POLICE to detain and beat you up. Yes, I saw that happen in Nigeria. Such is *less likely* to happen in the Anglo-West.

Taxes - just yesterday at this swimming place where my daughter is taking lessons - https://www.aqua-tots.com/raleigh/?utm_source=Profiles&utm_medium=GoogleMaps&utm_campaign=AquaTots - someone had a heart attack. Guess what? Fire trucks and ambulance arrived in 8 minutes (I timed it because it happened right when our lessons finished). You can call the school and politely ask what happened to their instructor yesterday that had a health emergency, are they OK? What would have happened in Nigeria? That's what taxes are for, it's a REAL THING, I know people in Nigeria who DIED from exactly such an emergency.

Bills - you get what you pay for, choose what you want. Simple as that. For example, I don't have cable TV anymore. I can buy a solar system OR Generac generator tomorrow and cut off my electric utility supplier. I can dig a well in my home and supply my own water, YES IT'S ACTUALLY VERY COMMON TO DO THAT in the USA, especially in smaller towns. The fact is that maintaining such stand alone systems is difficult. For example you have to treat and purify the water to prevent disease, it's not easy. So I have CHOSEN to stay on the public system. And yes, my water bill was $20 per month 10 years ago and now it's $150, but that's my CHOICE.

Nigerian Food - I eat just about any Nigerian food I want and for your info, we get BETTER QUALITY Nigerian food here than you will ever find in Nigeria. Why? The producers want FOREX so they make sure to send THE BEST to markets in US/UK. My mother comments on this all the time. If you want to eat the best quality Nigerian food, the US/UK is where you get it.

2nd Class Citizen - I'm an Igbo man. I think have more rights in the USA than Nigeria. Another example, I can own land in the USA but not in Nigeria. Yes, no individual owns land in Nigeria, your Governor can take it at any time, that's the law. There's more prejudice, discrimination and bigotry in Nigeria than in the UK or USA.

Feeling Out of Place - When I moved back to Nigeria in 2011, that was when I felt out of place because my life style was so outstanding compared to most people around me. Once I left the confines of my home, all I saw was poverty everywhere. It made me uncomfortable. I noticed pure HATRED in the eyes of people because of my living standards. Forget feeling out of place, I felt under threat.

Your counter-factual commentary is very interesting for insight into the mind of the Nigerian. Much as I sympathize with the Nigerian people, I've said it many times they're their own worst enemies. Take what's going on RIGHT NOW, how will anyone in their right minds campaign for APC? Crazy, but it's Nigerians who believed Buhari when he said "there's nothing like fuel subsidy" LOL. Sadly, the same attitude is creeping into the USA and yes, things are changing as a result. As in, APC = Democratic Party, check the policies.

So what are you trying to accomplish by putting out all these comments? You talk about living a paradisal life in Nigeria when rich elderly Nigerians are now moving here to the USA to retire I can't mention names, but I know a whole Nigerian Army Colonel who retired here, his daughter told me a few years ago he couldn't collect his Nigerian pension while he was living in Nigeria, he got tired of the whole thing and left. I know a Central Bank Governor whose child schooled with me, that's a Big Man for sure, he lives in the USA now. I know a businessman who owns a few high value buildings in Lagos, he lives here now, he even brought his adult kids and their spouses and grandchildren, I kid you not! In fact if I start reeling out names you will be shocked. Let me tell you, if I could exhume my father's grave and bring his dead body here, I would...at least he'll be buried in a decent cemetry with manicured lawns, bright flowers and all.

I read a comment where someone else was saying that those over age 35 or whatever should think twice about migrating. Well, I can tell you from REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE that it's still a good thing and I learned it from my own mothers experience. My mother is well known in the Nigerian community here. I know at least 4 people over the age of 55 who came to USA and started life over and have now accomplished things they could NEVER DREAM OF DOING in Nigeria. Like the lady who came here at age 50 to visit her daughter and new born baby in Baltimore, she started taking nursing classes. Eventually she decided to stay in America, she brought her husband and now they bought their own home and she works as a nurse and only now is building a house in Nigeria....for what I don't know, but there it is.

It's one thing to disparage those of us abroad with an anonymous post, it's another to bring real life experience to the board as I'm doing. My wife has told me how they used to look down on Nigerians living abroad when she worked in Nigeria. And this is someone who traveled the world, surprisingly the myth persisted for her until she came to LIVE here. Now let me shock you, I used to be a big proponent of moving back to Nigeria for all the reasons YOU HAVE GIVEN HERE, until I actually moved back to Nigeria in 2011. After I came back with my tail between my legs, I was the laughing stock of my social circle. And it's not just me, I know literally a dozen people that have moved back to Nigeria and it didn't work. Our experience is a VALIDATION of the STATISTICS....it's very difficult to live in Nigeria, the conditions are horrible even for the rich. One rich guy I know in PH is telling me his biggest problem is ELEMENTARY EDUCATION for his little kids, the cost in Nigeria is too high even for him and he's planning to send his wife and kids out here to take advantage of the TAX SUPPORTED quality education here. What was that thing you were saying about TAXES?

Theory is one thing, EXPERIENCE is another. You and your kind talk about taking VACATIONS in the UK/USA, but have you LIVED here? Nobody who has actually LIVED & WORKED here will say Nigeria is a better place for ANYONE except maybe 0.01% of the population. Please stop posting comments that are at best misleading. Nigerians are generally IGNORANT of even their own country and you're making it worse.

IbeOkehie:
Freedom - in Nigeria you will suffer greatly if you're atheist, gay or lesbian or you say the wrong thing about a powerful politician or even your richer neighbor who can hire POLICE to detain and beat you up. Yes, I saw that happen in Nigeria. Such is *less likely* to happen in the Anglo-West.

Taxes - just yesterday at this swimming place where my daughter is taking lessons - https://www.aqua-tots.com/raleigh/?utm_source=Profiles&utm_medium=GoogleMaps&utm_campaign=AquaTots - someone had a heart attack. Guess what? Fire trucks and ambulance arrived in 8 minutes (I timed it because it happened right when our lessons finished). You can call the school and politely ask what happened to their instructor yesterday that had a health emergency, are they OK? What would have happened in Nigeria? That's what taxes are for, it's a REAL THING, I know people in Nigeria who DIED from exactly such an emergency.

Bills - you get what you pay for, choose what you want. Simple as that. For example, I don't have cable TV anymore. I can buy a solar system OR Generac generator tomorrow and cut off my electric utility supplier. I can dig a well in my home and supply my own water, YES IT'S ACTUALLY VERY COMMON TO DO THAT in the USA, especially in smaller towns. The fact is that maintaining such stand alone systems is difficult. For example you have to treat and purify the water to prevent disease, it's not easy. So I have CHOSEN to stay on the public system. And yes, my water bill was $20 per month 10 years ago and now it's $150, but that's my CHOICE.

Nigerian Food - I eat just about any Nigerian food I want and for your info, we get BETTER QUALITY Nigerian food here than you will ever find in Nigeria. Why? The producers want FOREX so they make sure to send THE BEST to markets in US/UK. My mother comments on this all the time. If you want to eat the best quality Nigerian food, the US/UK is where you get it.

[size=18pt]2nd Class Citizen - I'm an Igbo man. I think have more rights in the USA than Nigeria[/size]. Another example, I can own land in the USA but not in Nigeria. Yes, no individual owns land in Nigeria, your Governor can take it at any time, that's the law. There's more prejudice, discrimination and bigotry in Nigeria than in the UK or USA.

Feeling Out of Place - When I moved back to Nigeria in 2011, that was when I felt out of place because my life style was so outstanding compared to most people around me. Once I left the confines of my home, all I saw was poverty everywhere. It made me uncomfortable. I noticed pure HATRED in the eyes of people because of my living standards. Forget feeling out of place, I felt under threat.

Your counter-factual commentary is very interesting for insight into the mind of the Nigerian. Much as I sympathize with the Nigerian people, I've said it many times they're their own worst enemies. Take what's going on RIGHT NOW, how will anyone in their right minds campaign for APC? Crazy, but it's Nigerians who believed Buhari when he said "there's nothing like fuel subsidy" LOL. Sadly, the same attitude is creeping into the USA and yes, things are changing as a result. As in, APC = Democratic Party, check the policies.

So what are you trying to accomplish by putting out all these comments? You talk about living a paradisal life in Nigeria when rich elderly Nigerians are now moving here to the USA to retire I can't mention names, but I know a whole Nigerian Army Colonel who retired here, his daughter told me a few years ago he couldn't collect his Nigerian pension while he was living in Nigeria, he got tired of the whole thing and left. I know a Central Bank Governor whose child schooled with me, that's a Big Man for sure, he lives in the USA now. I know a businessman who owns a few high value buildings in Lagos, he lives here now, he even brought his adult kids and their spouses and grandchildren, I kid you not! In fact if I start reeling out names you will be shocked. Let me tell you, if I could exhume my father's grave and bring his dead body here, I would...at least he'll be buried in a decent cemetry with manicured lawns, bright flowers and all.

I read a comment where someone else was saying that those over age 35 or whatever should think twice about migrating. Well, I can tell you from REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE that it's still a good thing and I learned it from my own mothers experience. My mother is well known in the Nigerian community here. I know at least 4 people over the age of 55 who came to USA and started life over and have now accomplished things they could NEVER DREAM OF DOING in Nigeria. Like the lady who came here at age 50 to visit her daughter and new born baby in Baltimore, she started taking nursing classes. Eventually she decided to stay in America, she brought her husband and now they bought their own home and she works as a nurse and only now is building a house in Nigeria....for what I don't know, but there it is.

It's one thing to disparage those of us abroad with an anonymous post, it's another to bring real life experience to the board as I'm doing. My wife has told me how they used to look down on Nigerians living abroad when she worked in Nigeria. And this is someone who traveled the world, surprisingly the myth persisted for her until she came to LIVE here. Now let me shock you, I used to be a big proponent of moving back to Nigeria for all the reasons YOU HAVE GIVEN HERE, until I actually moved back to Nigeria in 2011. After I came back with my tail between my legs, I was the laughing stock of my social circle. And it's not just me, I know literally a dozen people that have moved back to Nigeria and it didn't work. Our experience is a VALIDATION of the STATISTICS....it's very difficult to live in Nigeria, the conditions are horrible even for the rich. One rich guy I know in PH is telling me his biggest problem is ELEMENTARY EDUCATION for his little kids, the cost in Nigeria is too high even for him and he's planning to send his wife and kids out here to take advantage of the TAX SUPPORTED quality education here. What was that thing you were saying about TAXES?

Theory is one thing, EXPERIENCE is another. You and your kind talk about taking VACATIONS in the UK/USA, but have you LIVED here? Nobody who has actually LIVED & WORKED here will say Nigeria is a better place for ANYONE except maybe 0.01% of the population. Please stop posting comments that are at best misleading. Nigerians are generally IGNORANT of even their own country and you're making it worse.

Phraences:
.What i don't want is to go abroad and be forced to do nursing because that seems to be the only sector that pays well and vacancy is always open for blacks.

Regex:
Who let them start at the top then? Don't try to twist my words to mean such derogatory.

Treadway:
Interesting. But it isn't a problem when the whites come to your land and start at the top. Lol

Regex:
This is a good read. The problem with Nigerians is that they want to come to another man's land and start at the top.

sukkot:
lol bro when you pack so much points into one post i dont even know how to respond cuz its too many issues to tackle but i will say all your points are duly noted but this issue that as an igbo man you are a second class citizen is true but it is the igboman who architected himself to second class status. the igboman has been the architect of his own downfall in nigeria. remember this ? after independence the military was full of high ranking igbo men and igbo men practically ran the country with the queen. NNamdi azikiwe i believe was the first president after independence. so its safe to say the igbo man was running nigeria at this point. however the country was still regional and so the ultimate power was not at the center but the igboman wanted the ultimate power and somehow a plot was concocted to kill all the regional heads of the other regions but the igbo region head nnamdi azikiwe happened to be conveniently out of the country during the day they struck and killed all the other regional heads. and so power went to aguiyi ironsi another igbo man and he wrote up the constitution to abolish all regional governments in 1966, all this so that the ultimate power would belong to the igbo man. but you see, the igbo man was thinking superficially, he wasnt thinking deeply because nigeria is a country that is mostly northern people and by dissolving the regions and subjecting the country to the ultimate power being on top ? when it comes to democracy its one man one vote and so that means we would all now be at the mercy of the northerners as they have the most votes and that is the system that the igbo man subjected us to till today because he wanted the ultimate power and abolished regional goverments. it didnt occur to him that the hausa man would take the power from him which they eventually did

IbeOkehie:
Freedom - in Nigeria you will suffer greatly if you're atheist, gay or lesbian or you say the wrong thing about a powerful politician or even your richer neighbor who can hire POLICE to detain and beat you up. Yes, I saw that happen in Nigeria. Such is *less likely* to happen in the Anglo-West.

Taxes - just yesterday at this swimming place where my daughter is taking lessons - https://www.aqua-tots.com/raleigh/?utm_source=Profiles&utm_medium=GoogleMaps&utm_campaign=AquaTots - someone had a heart attack. Guess what? Fire trucks and ambulance arrived in 8 minutes (I timed it because it happened right when our lessons finished). You can call the school and politely ask what happened to their instructor yesterday that had a health emergency, are they OK? What would have happened in Nigeria? That's what taxes are for, it's a REAL THING, I know people in Nigeria who DIED from exactly such an emergency.

Bills - you get what you pay for, choose what you want. Simple as that. For example, I don't have cable TV anymore. I can buy a solar system OR Generac generator tomorrow and cut off my electric utility supplier. I can dig a well in my home and supply my own water, YES IT'S ACTUALLY VERY COMMON TO DO THAT in the USA, especially in smaller towns. The fact is that maintaining such stand alone systems is difficult. For example you have to treat and purify the water to prevent disease, it's not easy. So I have CHOSEN to stay on the public system. And yes, my water bill was $20 per month 10 years ago and now it's $150, but that's my CHOICE.

Nigerian Food - I eat just about any Nigerian food I want and for your info, we get BETTER QUALITY Nigerian food here than you will ever find in Nigeria. Why? The producers want FOREX so they make sure to send THE BEST to markets in US/UK. My mother comments on this all the time. If you want to eat the best quality Nigerian food, the US/UK is where you get it.

2nd Class Citizen - I'm an Igbo man. I think have more rights in the USA than Nigeria. Another example, I can own land in the USA but not in Nigeria. Yes, no individual owns land in Nigeria, your Governor can take it at any time, that's the law. There's more prejudice, discrimination and bigotry in Nigeria than in the UK or USA.

Feeling Out of Place - When I moved back to Nigeria in 2011, that was when I felt out of place because my life style was so outstanding compared to most people around me. Once I left the confines of my home, all I saw was poverty everywhere. It made me uncomfortable. I noticed pure HATRED in the eyes of people because of my living standards. Forget feeling out of place, I felt under threat.

Your counter-factual commentary is very interesting for insight into the mind of the Nigerian. Much as I sympathize with the Nigerian people, I've said it many times they're their own worst enemies. Take what's going on RIGHT NOW, how will anyone in their right minds campaign for APC? Crazy, but it's Nigerians who believed Buhari when he said "there's nothing like fuel subsidy" LOL. Sadly, the same attitude is creeping into the USA and yes, things are changing as a result. As in, APC = Democratic Party, check the policies.

So what are you trying to accomplish by putting out all these comments? You talk about living a paradisal life in Nigeria when rich elderly Nigerians are now moving here to the USA to retire I can't mention names, but I know a whole Nigerian Army Colonel who retired here, his daughter told me a few years ago he couldn't collect his Nigerian pension while he was living in Nigeria, he got tired of the whole thing and left. I know a Central Bank Governor whose child schooled with me, that's a Big Man for sure, he lives in the USA now. I know a businessman who owns a few high value buildings in Lagos, he lives here now, he even brought his adult kids and their spouses and grandchildren, I kid you not! In fact if I start reeling out names you will be shocked. Let me tell you, if I could exhume my father's grave and bring his dead body here, I would...at least he'll be buried in a decent cemetry with manicured lawns, bright flowers and all.

I read a comment where someone else was saying that those over age 35 or whatever should think twice about migrating. Well, I can tell you from REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE that it's still a good thing and I learned it from my own mothers experience. My mother is well known in the Nigerian community here. I know at least 4 people over the age of 55 who came to USA and started life over and have now accomplished things they could NEVER DREAM OF DOING in Nigeria. Like the lady who came here at age 50 to visit her daughter and new born baby in Baltimore, she started taking nursing classes. Eventually she decided to stay in America, she brought her husband and now they bought their own home and she works as a nurse and only now is building a house in Nigeria....for what I don't know, but there it is.

It's one thing to disparage those of us abroad with an anonymous post, it's another to bring real life experience to the board as I'm doing. My wife has told me how they used to look down on Nigerians living abroad when she worked in Nigeria. And this is someone who traveled the world, surprisingly the myth persisted for her until she came to LIVE here.

Now let me shock you, I used to be a big proponent of moving back to Nigeria for all the reasons YOU HAVE GIVEN HERE, until I actually moved back to Nigeria in 2011. After I came back with my tail between my legs, I was the laughing stock of my social circle. And it's not just me, I know literally a dozen people that have moved back to Nigeria and it didn't work. Our experience is a VALIDATION of the STATISTICS....it's very difficult to live in Nigeria, the conditions are horrible even for the rich. One rich guy I know in PH is telling me his biggest problem is ELEMENTARY EDUCATION for his little kids, the cost in Nigeria is too high even for him and he's planning to send his wife and kids out here to take advantage of the TAX SUPPORTED quality education here. What was that thing you were saying about TAXES?

Theory is one thing, EXPERIENCE is another. You and your kind talk about taking VACATIONS in the UK/USA, but have you LIVED here? Nobody who has actually LIVED & WORKED here will say Nigeria is a better place for ANYONE except maybe 0.01% of the population. Please stop posting comments that are at best misleading. Nigerians are generally IGNORANT of even their own country and you're making it worse.