CChild

Let me answer your question simply:

Oil companies: Btw 3.6 - 4.8 million basic going up to 6 - 8 million per annum when you talk about TOTAL RENUMERATION.

Banks: Btw 1.3 - 2.3 million per annum.

When I say oil companies, I am talking about PRODUCING companies like Shell, Chevron, Mobil etc. I know oil servicing companies (schlumberger, Haliburton, Geoservices etc) have a wide range of salaries depending on where you are and what arm of their business you are in.

Let me know if you are interested in those.

Problem with Nollywood??

Me thinks the problem is the fact that they know that whatever they come up with, THEY WILL SELL!!! If peeps refuse to buy low quality movies, no one will tell them to start doing things the right way. Imagine the craze about "aki" and "pawpaw"?, that's the height of it? Casting old men in children's roles and people find that funny Can't they produce roles that a midget can fill in?

chichinma,

For example, Nigerian expatriates that can not go home year after year because of not having papers can derive some joy out of these movies too

Are there Nigerians abroad that can't go home Did somebody seize their passports or something??

@sage, Ndipe, Somebody

I laughed and am still laughing when I read your posts. Do you guys actually think nobody pays an undergraduate degree holder 7.5 million naira in Nigeria? No wonder you post all kinds of mistruths here. I will not be drawn into an argument on that, I don't even have the patience for it. I'll only ask you a question: Do you know that oil companies are globalized? Do you know that slaries are comparable across board whther you are in the US, UK or Nigeria? I read a thread where people were quoting all sorts as salaries in the oil industry in Nigeria. Well you don't know until you are there. I'll only say this: Nigeria is not like the UK and US where salaries are absolute. When somebody writes BASIC SALARY of 4 million naira per annum, that represents under 60% of you TOTAL RENUMERATION most of which is untaxed. You have a lot of allowances which make up the rest. Maybe some other time I can explain why this is so.

I understand where you are coming from now. For you to think that somebody with an undergraduate degree is not paid as much in Nigeria, JEEEEZ.

Do you guys know that there are young men making millions monthly in Nigeria? When I say that I don't mean paid jobs. I mean BUSINESS. I don't understand why you will find it difficult to comprehend. Or is it that we relate with different circles of folks back home?

@Somebody, I only used 30,000 pounds as an instance. The truth is, whether 30,000 or 40,000 pounds it all doesn't make much of a difference. It doesn't matter whether you've worked in heaven, nobody in the oil industry in the UK will pay somebody with less than 2 years experience more than 35,000 pounds. Ask people who ACTUALLY work there and don't depend on hearsays.

There's no need going on with this. Believe what you'll believe and I'll believe what I believe (which I know to be true). Posterity will judge.

Meet you guys on some other thread.

How to be an American
By Ose Oyamendan from Los Angeles (oseoyamendan@alumni.usc.edu)
Sunday, November 5, 2006

"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
Albert Einstein

I used to think that I will write this as part of a satirical book but my life is taking on courses that sitting down to write a book is something I might have to do much later in life. And, the way life is these days, it may be a long time. Have you noticed that the "old" folks don’t really look or walk old these days? Or, that the pension fund is in for a serious problem soon because people are staying around longer than the planners thought, that is, if we really have planners. People are living longer.

Just the other day, I was lifting weights in the gym and the man next to me was benching 120 pound weights. I thought out of courtesy and bravado, I should outdo him. You see, the man looked like he was in his late fifties. That’s a little under twice my age. So, I went for twice the weight. He did five repetitions. I did ten. He stood up and stretched his muscles. I grabbed a 60 pound weight and flexed my muscles with it, just for effect. We were not talking but we were competing alright. Because of my build, the man thought I played or still play American football or basketball. I said no, the only sport I played professional was sitting in the stands and heckling the professionals. He told me he played football in college - in the late 1950s. And, he was a few months from turning 70. I was shocked – one, that he was that old, fit and strong and, two; if I’d known he was that old, I could have done triple what he did. And, I would have been in hospital about now having my shoulder surgically re-fixed.

Anyway, since the older folks are staying around longer, I figured I should just write this now because if I don’t, God knows you may never read it because I don’t plan on writing a column when I’m a retiree in Florida or wherever they go when I’m old enough to retire. The tale has to do with how to be an American. And, since a lot of Nigerians want to come to America or be like Americans, I figure they might get a crash course. It’s a course I gleaned from years of watching and listening to wannabe Americans – so called because they are immigrants who think they are more American than the natives.

The first thing you learn is to talk American. You have to use the slang, like "wanna", "gonna", "gotta" and the others. Now, that was tough for someone like me. In high school, I almost always avoided writing my father letters from the boarding house because he saved them for when I came home on holidays and pointed out all my grammatical errors. Sometimes, my holiday started with grammar lessons. I hated doing that and I wasn’t about to do it now. So, I passed but most people don’t. The next thing is the way you talk. People try to hide their accents like a bad scent. It cracks me up because everyone had an accent. But, it’s like most Nigerians here are ashamed of their accents or where they come from so they hurry to speak like Americans. Now, America is also a country of accents so these new and old immigrants end up as fake as two badly done boob jobs. You can hear them from a distance.

They roll the "t" in their speeches so bad sometimes you can’t help but laugh. Sometimes, when they speak, they make you feel like you have a hearing defect because their voices are so alien. The weird thing is that by trying too hard, they return to where they are trying to run from – the Nigerian in their accents become more pronounced. The funny thing though is that if they had only relaxed and gone with the flow, their accents would blend with the other accents.

Another thing is that everyone works. Hard. People keep two, three jobs just to get by. And, forget it when the fall season rolls in. They work like crazy saving that extra cash they’re taking to Nigeria come Christmas. They slave here for a few months so they can go back to Nigeria and live like royalty for a fortnight.
Try as much as I have, I still can’t figure out why people go through so much pain to pretend they are who they are not. Maybe it’s the lazy part of me. I’m a filmmaker living in Los Angeles so my routine is hardly considered hard work. I wake up, work out, meet a few creative folks for tea or lunch, write and do some post production work. And, when night rolls in, I sometimes feel I’ve gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson in 1990. So, when I see these guys working three jobs so they can be Kings in December, I wonder if I’m less of a human. Or, maybe it’s just because I never want to be a prince in December.

One of the things they don’t tell you but you come to realize is that everything is on "hire purchase" or on loan. A house is financed by the bank and you pay it off monthly while the bank gets fat on the interest. Same goes for cars and anything you want. It explains why in the glitzy world of showbiz and sports, a rich man today is a poor man tomorrow. What happens usually is that when these folks have the big cash, they just keep spending until one day they go to the bank and find out that the thirty million dollars’ contract they signed a few years ago is all gone. Worse, they might have forgotten to pay all their taxes, in which case, they either go cool off their heels in jail for a while or make an arrangement whereby future earnings goes to paying off their back taxes. Confused? Just take a quick study into the case of Mr. Mike Tyson.

As a Nigerian, you’re used to paying for all you own. I love that system and I still try to live like that. But, it’s tough. My friends still laugh when they remember how I bought my first car. Back then, I was counting pennies. I went to the dealer and picked out a car. The cost was in low five figures. When they added up the numbers, I would be repaying the car by about seventy percent more over four years. I took a good look at my account and told the dealers I’ll be back in three months. My friends thought I was nuts.

They told me it was the American way to be a debtor. But, back then, my skin was as Nigerian as the bar beach. So, three months, countless hours of labor and several material deprivations later, I returned to the dealership with a check. They also thought I was nuts. And, they didn’t believe I had that much money. They could tell I wasn’t a drug dealer because I had no earrings or tattoos or any of those bad boy tell-tale signs. I even told one of the customer service guys to put out his cigarette because it affects my breathing. But, they won’t take the check. So, I went to the bank, cleaned out my account, put the money in a gym bank and went back to the dealer.

The bankers thought I was going cuckoo. The dealers were sure I was cuckoo. They had only experienced that from sports and showbiz stars. The closest I came to being a star was sitting in the bleachers at a Chicago Bulls game. They can’t take that much cash, they said. They wanted a certified check. So, I went back to the back, deposited the money again and asked for a certified check. I’m sure I went through so many security checks for such irrational behavior. But, I had nothing to fear. So, I gave the dealers the check. When I drove off with the car, the dealers didn’t know if to say "thank you" or "goodbye" so they just waved.

Was I nuts? Maybe. But, the system is funny. You can be paying for the car for three years but default with only a few months to go and they take the car from you. You go from a car owner to a bus regular. I didn’t want to that to happen so I went with my heart, sweat and wallet.
When you look around, it’s not uncommon to find folks who go from a 2006 car to a 1989 beat up car because they couldn’t afford the payment and had to tumble into ignominy with a car on its last breath. It’s not a big deal, really – it is America. And, like one of my friends would say, "wharever, men". The "wharever" is the way he rolls "whatever" around his tongue.

@ Loverbwoy

My Guy,

Na wa for you o!!! Is it because I simply pointed out that peolple still make the standard of living you guys claim to have in the west here in Nigeria that you are alluding to shakara? If I no give example now you go say na hear-say. I give example finish you say na shakara.

Anyway, let me apologize. I no dey chop for 3 days at a time for naija o I dey work for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and them no dey pay me for 3 months !!! .

Abi? No be the kind of things you dey like to hear from naija be that?

Admit it, it's an individual thing!! What works for you might not work for others. That's the thrust of my argument.

I REST MY CASE!!!!!!!(finito)

@Ndipe

I'm sure you've allowed your position on this issue prevent you from reading what I wrote objectively. Let me address the points you brought up:

Seriously, how many people back home are making 7.5 million Naira a year back home?: My dear, if you read what I wrote carefully, I said that the malaise with those of us in diaspora is that we are not really in touch with Nigeria. I can tell you that a lot of people earn 7.5 million back home, NOT MAJORITY THOUGH, but as a basis I'll say majority of those that work in Nigeria earn more than 50,000 naira monthly.

Maybe you lived a sheltered life back home, to be unaware of the plight of the common man in Lagos: My dear, I lived in Ajegunle for 25 years before I moved to Lekki. That experience gave me the resolve to make a good life for myself. I didn't have no connections but my God blessed me with a good brain and gave me the wisdom to apply it correctly in order to attain to what I want. My father wasn't rich by any means, but I still achieved my targets. For your information I attended university in THAT SAME NIGERIA on scholarship, and I am now studying in the UK on scholarship from THAT SAME NIGERIA. People just say all manner of things for propaganda. Do you know how many people the likes of Shell, Chevron, Mobil, Elf, Niger Delta states, other state governments etc award scholarships each year? And I'm sure you won't award a scholarship to somebody on 3rd class (maybe they do that in the UK and the states)? Do you think everybody can go to school abroad? NO. So those that can't should make the best use of what they've got. Thousands do well in life without going to school abroad.

I lived in Nigeria, and have been in the USA for quite a while now, and from my standpoint, the chances of making it in today's society without resorting to pressing someone's palms is greater in America than Nigeria: Maybe, but A LOT of people still make it in Nigeria without greasing anybody's palms.

Look at Oprah Winfrey, a sell made billionaire, and countless other folks who made it on their own accord: Oga, this one na fallacy of hasty generalization oooo. If I should start listing self-made Nigerians here, I'll be typing for ages!!! Abi no be for America Adenuga drive taxi? Why e no siddon there forever?

That you lived a good life, does not mean you should gloat over it at the detriment of the common masses: Again, fallacy of improper assumption. If you read my post, you'll see that I wasn't gloating. I was only explaining to you that A LOT of people still make it here in Nigeria than they will do abroad.

You should just get on your knees, very seriously, and Thank God for blessing you financially, and also create in you a humble heart to be aware of the wide gulf between the rich and the poor in the Nigerian society: I already have a humble heart and ascribe all that I am today to God. For your information, there is an emerging middle class in Nigeria right now, like it or not. At least you can not say people like me are rich, neither can you say I am poor.

So, that saves you the heartache of waiting for the dreaded cancellation of JAMB results 'beause expo leaked out at the community center' or getting F9 in all your classes because of a technical glitch in the computer back home: Ol boy, ask yourself what % of candidates have their results cancelled. Where did you hear that a technical glitch caused somebody to be given F9. Those are just stereotypes in the minds of those of you that don't want to see anything good in Nigeria.

Lets talk of opportunity being available to every member of the society, and not to a select few, as you have written in your discourse on the availability of jobs at Shell.: My dear there's opportunity everywhere, what differs is how hard you look in order to see it. Tell your folks to do well in school forst, at least that will give them a foot in the door first. Abi for America dem no dey discriminate based on what you make in school for jobs? Personally o, I've not seen anybody that did well in school that doesn't have an OK job, and I am including all of my peeps that we grew up in Ajegunle together.

I am surprised that you never wrote about the challenges and hunger that manifests in the lives of students in Nigeria. I am sure, you may have heard of the slang, 1-0- 1, or 0-0-1 or 111: Again, propagandaaaa. I went to school in Nigeria and I can tell you that the percentage of people doing any 1-0-1 or whatever is not up to one percent. Those are stories you tell in order to get more money from your parents.

Since Nigeria is better than America, why do people, as you outrightly mentioned, send their kids to study abroad? Make me sef I ask you question? America get oil abi? Why dem dey import from Nigeria? That's because the one they have is not enough to cater for their needs QUANTITATIVELY. In the same way, Nigeria too does not have enough in Educational infrastructure QUALITATIVELY. That is why the world is a global village. You tap from others what you don't have. As per coming abroad to study, that is because I have a personal goal. I want to build the foundation for some international businesses I'll be into in the future. The certicate is a add-on. When I was leaving, my manager (American) told me that I didn't need further study and that I was already proficient at my job. So your choice should be based on your aspiration for yourself.

PLEASE DON'T LET US JUST BLANKET NIGERIA AS IF THERE'S NO HOPE THERE. A lot of people (without long-leg) are making it big time there.

LAST WORD: There's nowhere in my post that I condemned Nigerians living abroad. I only made a case for Nigeria.

I have been following this thread for a long time now and I can see that a lot of Nigerians abroad are generally uninformed. I will list out the issues as I remember themL:

- Who said people work without receiving salary for 3 months in Nigeria? Maybe 1% of the work-force at any time. Because you hear on the news that some people were not paid doesn't mean you should generalize that that is the norm.

- Who said 70% of Nigerians live in abject poverty? I have lived in Nigeria for more than 25 years and from my own interactions I KNOW that that figure cannot be more than 20%. Doesn't it baffle folks that villagers are able to send their children to universities?

- When folks talk about earning $4,000 in 3 months and that bank mangers don't earn that in 8 months I laugh. I earned more than that in a month in Nigeria. I personally know self-employed young men (under-30s) who will conveniently pay you that amount monthly out of what they make here in Nigeria.

- I'm in the UK presently for studies and I must say I'm disappointed, not with infrastructure and stuff, but with the fact that Naijas paint a totally unrepresentative picture about life here. The people talking about the UK being heaven must be people who were jobless and hungry back home or doing a 20,000 naira a month job. How can you compare working in ASDA to a professional job. Or security or all these jobs that you toil for so long on? I personally know naija folks in the UK who say that if they get a job paying 250k naira a month they would gladly go home. Again, people talk about corruption. Are most of us even in diaspora right now not fundamentally corrupt? I say that because it amounts to corruption for you to go abroad on a visiting visa and start working. Or you want me to define corruption? The visa expires and you start using fake oassports and social security/NI numbers? What else is corruption? Or the folks that perpetrate card scams and stuff everyday in London all in the guise of hustling?

- Have you ever asked yourself why the nairaland administrator has not moved abroad? I think it's because he's making a good living in Nigeria. Don't worry, he will soon be visiting folks in the UK and doing things most people there can only dream about doing.

From the standpoint of someone who has been on both sides, PERSONALLY I am going to live in Nigeria. Why, you may ask? Let me explain it:

1) If I choose to live here after my program, I will get a job that pays about 30,000 pounds a year before tax. I was earning the equivalent of that (7.5 million naira) in Nigeria before I came here and that's after working for 18 months. My tax out of that is not up to 1 million naira annually. I live in a 400,000 naira per annum house in Lekki and I must confess I have not seen a lot of houses with comparable finishing in this UK (YES, I SAID THAT).

2) Every year I have more than 3 million naira in cash to invest in whatever I chose to invest in and that is after living COMFORTABLY. Peple talk about organization and stuff but we still have places that are organized - as in access to funds and stuff. I bought a 14 million naira 4-bedroom terrace house (duplex with a pent-house) in one of the estates in Lekki (10% down payment) and you know what?, I am going to pay it off in 5 YEARS. To an individual that house goes for 22 million but as I said you could still organize people together and get good deals.

3) I have a non-contributory pension plan, free world-class health services, free recreational services, free transport to and from work if I chose and what else do people make noise about sef? Point is, all of these in THAT SAME NIGERIA.

4) People should reconnect back home to actually know what's going on. Do you guys know that there's a revolution in the oil industry in Nigeria and that a good engineering graduate will pick up a job there now? How do I know? Let me explain: my graduating class in the university had five 1st class and more than twenty 2:1 graduates. Out of this lot, more than 20 (YES, I MEAN TWO-ZERO) work in the oil industry in Nigeria. That's not an invitation for people to start coming on about thousands of 2:1 engineering graduates who don't have jobs. 2:1 different from 2:1 ooooooooooo. You don't expect someone that cannot pass ordinary aptitude test to get a job, do you? Others work in banks, consulting and so on. I do not know any of the more than 70 graduates we had in my class that does not have a job. I MEAN THAT SERIOUSLY. I'm not saying there isn't any of them in diaspora. We have a fair repesentation in major multinational oil companies in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico doing well for themselves. What they cannot say is that they are doing better than their colleagues in Nigeria. Do peolple know that these companies in the oil industry (producing, servicing, design) are SERIOUSLY searching for engineering graduates to employ. I don't need to explain why though you can take a clue from the oil price.

5) The oil sector in Nigeria is just a small fraction of the society: I KNOW, just that the same things are extending to other sectors. Plssss we should understand that business is not charity, nobody will employ anybody that doesn't bring anything to the table. You have to be employable (as in good at what you profess to do).
I could go on and on but I don't have the time now.

BOTTOM LINE - Where you live is whatever you make it out to be. For me, Nigeria suits me better. Maybe for others the west does?

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!!!!!!!!

N.B: If your username is Sage please don't reply!!!

I don't know why folks ask these questions with obvious answers. I said "obvious" because it's certain that Lagbaja doesn't have a definite plan of what he'll be doing abroad. My own advise is this : Keep what you have as I don't think 50% of the population in the UK that I know about very well earn up to 15 million naira (equivalent). Or do you have a definite business plan or job that you want to move on to? Do you have the necessary 'pali'. Ol boy, make I no decieve you, it's only when you're not doing well in Nigeria that you'll be hankering about relocating abroad. Life hard abroad no be lie!!!

Again, when we talk about good future, what do we mean? I thought good future means being able to assure yourself of your long term sustainability. In truth, I personally believe that I can attain to my future targets in terms of financial stability/inependence earlier in Nigeria. I say this because I earn money comparable to what I'll earn in the same job abroad here in Nigeria. So issues of tax and living expenses and stuff now come in. You cannot compare naija to Europe or America when it comes to that. You can comfortably afford to save and invest 50% of your pay in Nigeria but you fit try am for UK?

I personally know people here that say that if they get a job paying 300k a month in Nigeria, they'll be in Naija in 24 hours. Please let's stop painting the picture as if it's all rosy abroad. t this same UK that the government published that more than 100,000 children will spend winter in unheated homes because their parents cannot afford heating.

FINAL WORD: Dem no dey tell blind man say war don start ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo