₦airaland Forum

olyrayy:
Yes. Nigeria is a very poor country. A lot of Nigerians are under the illusion that we're rich and prosperous. The government should pay for my light, electricity, school fees, fuel, etc. They have the money, but they're looting it.

Sorry to burst your bubble. But Nigeria is actually a very poor country, even if we account for the looting and all other nonsense.

To calculate someone's wealth, you use their income and expenses.

I had a look at Nigeria's budget, which is basically how much we spend. And it's so freaking low. Especially if you divide it by our population.

You can check the list of countries by budget expenditure per capita. Nigeria is right next to shithole broke countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and co. When you think of those countries, do you think of rich countries?

Most Nigerians think that we're rich like Saudi Arabia. But we're not. We're poverty stricken.

I recently discovered just right now that Iraq earned $90 billion from oil in 2024. How much did Nigeria earn? $30 billion. Meanwhile, Iraq has to share $90 billion amongst 50 million people while Nigeria has to share for 200 million.

And I literally saw someone online lamenting about Iraq being a shithole third world country.

By the way, check out the budget for our African peers like Egypt and South Africa. Egypt's budget is 3x higher than ours.

Of course, you could say that we are rich in natural resources bla bla bla. I doubt we are as rich in resources as most Nigerians think. But even if we were, it doesn't mean shit. Potential income is not the same as income. I mean... I could as well say that if you work hard and start a business, you could be a billionaire. But you're not. You're most likely poor. Potential to be rich is not the same as being rich.

Once you understand that Nigeria is actually a poor country, many Nigerians would know where the problem starts from and stop saying asinine shit like government should pay for my light, electricity, fuel, school fees, food, and even my wedding.

lawani:
You don't even need any natural resources to become prosperous as a nation. What you need is ambitious leadership that will take half of the GDP as taxes and plough it back into the economy until the country becomes competitive

brain54:
Countries with no natural resources should depend on taxation...

Nigeria normally ought not to go that route. Taxation should be for countries like the UK.


It's only lazy Nigerian leaders... leaders too lazy to think that would go that route.


Nigeria is too blessed abundantly to have an economy dependent on heavy taxation!

lawani:
You don't need a benevolent leader. What you need is a viable, tested and trusted system. What has worked all over the world is taxing the economy at a rate of around fifty percent to pay for good education, universal healthcare, infrastructure and etc

olyrayy:
Yes. Nigeria is a very poor country. A lot of Nigerians are under the illusion that we're rich and prosperous. The government should pay for my light, electricity, school fees, fuel, etc. They have the money, but they're looting it.

Sorry to burst your bubble. But Nigeria is actually a very poor country, even if we account for the looting and all other nonsense.

To calculate someone's wealth, you use their income and expenses.

I had a look at Nigeria's budget, which is basically how much we spend. And it's so freaking low. Especially if you divide it by our population.

You can check the list of countries by budget expenditure per capita. Nigeria is right next to shithole broke countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and co. When you think of those countries, do you think of rich countries?

Most Nigerians think that we're rich like Saudi Arabia. But we're not. We're poverty stricken.

I recently discovered just right now that Iraq earned $90 billion from oil in 2024. How much did Nigeria earn? $30 billion. Meanwhile, Iraq has to share $90 billion amongst 50 million people while Nigeria has to share for 200 million.

And I literally saw someone online lamenting about Iraq being a shithole third world country.

By the way, check out the budget for our African peers like Egypt and South Africa. Egypt's budget is 3x higher than ours.

Of course, you could say that we are rich in natural resources bla bla bla. I doubt we are as rich in resources as most Nigerians think. But even if we were, it doesn't mean shit. Potential income is not the same as income. I mean... I could as well say that if you work hard and start a business, you could be a billionaire. But you're not. You're most likely poor. Potential to be rich is not the same as being rich.

Once you understand that Nigeria is actually a poor country, many Nigerians would know where the problem starts from and stop saying asinine shit like government should pay for my light, electricity, fuel, school fees, food, and even my wedding.
To start with, who told you our population is 200 million?
No survey gave that number, because it’s almost like 20 yrs ago we did census and that census wasn’t really correct.
Don’t let me hear “Nigeria is poor “ anymore please. It is either you are part of government bodies trying give excuses or you don’t know what wealth is.

okpouman:
Who ever said government should pay for electricity, school fees, fuel etc?

Why are government refineries not working? Answer that.
Weres ajaokuta steel? Answer that

Why are government officials children not in government schools?
Why do they go abroad for treatment?
Why is the 16 billion invested in electricity sector under Obasanjo not accounted for?

Pls answer these questions.

brain54:
They are more highly dependent and reliant on taxation because they have fewer natural resources...


Copycat syndrome is sometimes the bane of our problems as Africans.

It's good to copy sometimes... but other times is necessary to fashion out tailor made solutions to our problems.

It's the only way we can go. I always use China as an example. Their solutions are tailor made to fit their problems.

They don't copy the west hook, line and sinker. The worst they do, and we ought to do is modify what works there to suit our problems.

Another good example of tailor made solutions is Singapore!

brain54:
You are not wrong...

Nigeria is not rich based on our gdp per capital currently. But we do have the potential to be richer because of our available natural and human resources which we probably have tapped less than 10% or at most 20% into.


Also it's cliche but probably more than 70% of our gdp is stolen and squandered by corrupt politicians.

We don't earn that much but we can be better of and not supposed to be where we are presently.

We are poor because our leaders made us so!

lawani:
Not necessarily. US and Norway produce more oil per Capita than Nigeria.
If you want a working country, the sacrifice you need to pay is high taxes

okpouman:
Who ever said government should pay for electricity, school fees, fuel etc?

Why are government refineries not working? Answer that.
Weres ajaokuta steel? Answer that

Why are government officials children not in government schools?
Why do they go abroad for treatment?
Why is the 16 billion invested in electricity sector under Obasanjo not accounted for?

Pls answer these questions.

brain54:
Countries with no natural resources should depend on taxation...

Nigeria normally ought not to go that route. Taxation should be for countries like the UK.


It's only lazy Nigerian leaders... leaders too lazy to think that would go that route.


Nigeria is too blessed abundantly to have an economy dependent on heavy taxation!

lawani:
Not necessarily. US and Norway produce more oil per Capita than Nigeria.
If you want a working country, the sacrifice you need to pay is high taxes

olyrayy:
We're not. Whatever resources you think we have, remember that it has to be split with 200 million people.

brain54:
Oil isn't the only natural resource bro...


Nigeria is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of resources. Maybe 90% is untapped or unexplored.

My argument is because the US or Norway does it doesn't mean it is the best or that it's guaranteed to work in our own situation.

Taxation favors them because it was adapted to their system. I'm not saying taxation should be abolished completely in Nigeria. But we shouldn't be so highly dependent on taxing because we have more resources as compared to those countries.

Personally, I believe taxation should be some sort of last resort not the first option for a country like Nigeria!

olyrayy:
We're not. Whatever resources you think we have, remember that it has to be split with 200 million people.

lawani:
You don't need a benevolent leader. What you need is a viable, tested and trusted system. What has worked all over the world is taxing the economy at a rate of around fifty percent to pay for good education, universal healthcare, infrastructure and etc

olyrayy:
The US is richer in natural resources than Nigeria. By far.

brain54:
Richer in terms of natural resources. How...?


I wasn't talking about money generated through financial institutions, taxes or by investments.


I was talking about pure God given natural resources bro!

brain54:
Nigeria can survive and do well on the resources we have bro...


All it takes is a leader with vision.


Some of the countries doing well don't have as much potential as Nigeria.


Look at dessert countries like isreal and another country like Singapore what do they really have?

It only takes a visionary leader to transform out potential to something meaningful!

brain54:
You are not wrong...

But we do have the potential to be richer because of our available natural and human resources which we probably have tapped less than 10% or at most 20% into.

brain54:
Richer in terms of natural resources. How...?


I wasn't talking about money generated through financial institutions, taxes or by investments.


I was talking about pure God given raw and undeveloped natural resources bro.

They are richer in natural resources and they can't stay away from Africa since the era of trans Atlantic slave trading.

Just so you know most of those Western countries are still dependent on the resources of Nigeria and Africa till tomorrow!

DeLaRue:
This is also wrong.

There is no where in the world where 'available human resources consisting of about half of a population that can't read or right' makes any country rich.

If it was by population, India would be the richest country in the world. In reality, it is still a very poor country.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are similar population as Nigeria, they are poor too.

Yet, Switzerland, Norway, Holland, all very small countries are some of the richest countries in the world.

When you have a population where almost half cannot read or write, that's over 100 million people. In todays world, the lack of education of such a large component of the Nigerian population will be a major drag on economic progress.

That said, I think once the new tax law comes into effect, the revenue (and therefore the budget) narrative of Nigeria will start charging for the better.

olyrayy:
Yes. In God given natural resources. Even oil, the US has much more than we do. The total value of the US' natural resources is about $45 trillion. For Nigeria, it's just about $4 trillion at best.

lawani:
You don't even need any natural resources to become prosperous as a nation. What you need is ambitious leadership that will take half of the GDP as taxes and plough it back into the economy until the country becomes competitive