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Dr. Sunday Adelaja, Kyiv, Ukraine
I am starting this year with a message to my countrymen Nigerians.
Today I choose to celebrate Nigeria. I’m tired and fed up of all the evil reports. While I don’t deny all the issues and failures of our nation and in particular of our leaders, I want to intentionally move away from all the stories of woes and point my country men to the other side of the coin.
There is always another side to any story as with any coin. So in Nigeria’s story there is also the other side that we hardly hear about. (In this article I’m using 60 years as an approximate age for Nigeria).
NIGERIANS ARE NOT BEING FAIR TO NIGERIA
I’m sure I’m not the only person who is tired and fed up of all the stories of woes about Nigeria. In this article I’m going to be mainly writing in snippets and points to make it easier for my readers. I have already written seven books on Nigeria and her greatness, now I’m majorly giving out some bullet points for easier digestion.
NIGERIA’S UNREGULATED POPULATION GROWTH IS OUR ALBATROSS
To Those Who Say We Have Nothing To Show For 60 Years Of Independence:
STOP SPEAKING DOWN ON YOUR COUNTRY, DO YOUR RESEARCH, PRESENT YOUR EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES.
Compare the achievements and track records of Nigeria to those of the great nations of the world today when they were 60 years or even when they were 100 years old as independent and sovereign countries, in particular countries like England and USA. You can only objectively assess a situation when there is something to compare it to.
WHAT NIGERIA PRODUCES AND WHERE NIGERIA LEADS THE WORLD
Recently a Nigeria-American PHD student was writing her thesis on Africa and in particular about the achievements of her own country of origin Nigeria. She was at a state of despair for she couldn’t find any useful materials online talking of the the positive and great strides of our country. Thankfully she ran into one of my articles and that saved her day, and rescued her from shame. I’m sure she is not the only person with a similar problem as if there is nothing good to write about Nigeria. Below I’m going to enumerate the areas where Nigeria is leading the world, even though we are only a 60 year old newly independent country in comparison with the ages of other countries around the world.
Nigeria Is Ranked Number One In The World In Production Of The Following Agricultural Items:
Nigeria Is Ranked Second In The World In The Following Items:
OTHERS:
HOW NIGERIA STANDS IN AFRICA:
Nigeria is truly the giant of Africa. This is not just in term of population where every fifth black African is a Nigerian. Nigeria also controls a lot of the economic force on the continent, with 1/6 of the continent’s total wealth belonging to Nigeria. In West Africa Nigeria controls 2/3 of the region’s economy even though there are 15 countries there. What is even more impressive is that Nigeria is playing a huge role as a big brother to all countries of Africa.
NIGERIA IS TRANSFORMING AFRICA, ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY
In this segment of the article I’ll be using only one country for illustrations of the huge big brother role of Nigeria in African countries. Let’s examine below the economic investment of Nigeria in Ghana. Nigeria is the number one investor country in Ghana out of all African countries followed by South Africa. A similar picture could be observed in most countries of the continent, where Nigeria is helping raise their economy through aggressive investments.
These are a list of a few Nigerian companies in Ghana.
NIGERIA CONTROLS THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IN AFRICA
I recently saw the article below on the internet which further proves the place of Nigeria in the music and entertainment industry of Africa and beyond.
“A Nigerian singer Rema has surpassed 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He joins fellow Nigerian singer CKay as the second African artist to accomplish this milestone.
In October of 2021, CKay became the first African artist to garner over 30 million monthly listeners on the popular music streaming platform. The Edo state born musician from Benin-City, Nigeria is doing incredibly well”
Here are the Top 10 Spotify monthly listeners in Africa.
1) Rema – 20.1 million – Nigeria
2) Burna Boy – 18.7 million – Nigeria
3)Tems – 15.4 million – Nigeria
4) Ckay – 15.3 million – Nigeria
5) Wizkid – 8.8 million – Nigeria
6) Fireboy – 7.8 million – Nigeria
7) Soolking – 7.3 million – Algeria
😎 Oxlade – 5.4 million – Nigeria
9) Mr Eazi – 5.07 million – Nigeria
10) Amaarae – 5.05 million – Ghana
Apart from economic influence, the cultural and social impact of Nigeria on Africa is much stronger than the economic impact. Nigeria’s music industry is pulling up their contemporaries all over Africa. The same thing can be said of the movie industry, it’s so big that even in French speaking African countries, Nigerian accent or even pidgin could be heard from the locals. Simply put Nigeria is the United States Of America of Africa. Let’s therefore stop denigrating our country for Christ’s sake.
NIGERIA’S INFLUENCE CUTS ACROSS ALL SPHERES OF LIFE IN AFRICA.
A Cameroonian brother recently called me to thank me for putting out all the positive information and statistics on Nigeria. According to him Nigeria is the only reference point for the black man. Otherwise only North African countries will be there to talk about, which would have further cemented the notion that black peoples can never amount to anything in life. If you point to South Africa, they’ll tell you it was built by whites. But to have so many Nigerians accomplished so much in all spheres is encouraging to our fellow Africans.
Another brother from East Africa told me that in most countries in East Africa, most successful and richest people are normally Indians or Arabs. Making them to think that they don’t belong even in their own country. So when they, the black Africans in East Africa began to see how comfortable Nigerians are with being the best, they are now bold to challenge the Arabs and Indians in their countries.
The chat below helps illustrates this dominant role of Nigeria and Nigerians in all areas of endeavours, especially when it’s seen in comparison to other countries of the continent.
1) Richest man in Africa and richest black man in the world – Aliko Dangote – Nigerian $18.3 billion.
2) Richest woman in Africa – Folorunsho Alakija – Nigerian $1 billion.
3) Richest male footballer in Africa – Samuel Eto’o – Cameroonian $95 million.
4) Richest female footballer in Africa – Asisat Oshoala – Nigerian $3 million.
5) Richest pastor in Africa – Bishop David Oyedipo – Nigerian $200 million.
6) Richest male musician – Youssou N’Dour – Senegalese $140 million.
7) Richest female musician in Africa – Asa – Nigerian $28 million
😎 Richest Comedian in Africa – Trevor Noah – South African $100 million
9) Richest leader in Africa – Mohammed VI of Morocco – Moroccan $10 billion
10) Richest doctor in Africa – Ambrose Bryant Chukwueloka Orjiako – Nigerian $1.2 billion
11) Richest lawyer in Africa – Adewale Tinubu – Nigerian $700 million
12) Richest Basketballer in Africa – Hakeem Olajuwon – Nigerian $300 million
13) Richest stock exchange in Africa – Johannesburg stock exchange – South Africa -$1.3 trillion
14) Richest African nation by nominal GDP – $610 billion – Nigeria
15) Richest city in Africa – Nigeria $210 billion
16) Richest UFC fighter in Africa – Kamaru Usman – Nigerian $3 million
17) Richest boxer in Africa – Anthony Joshua – Nigerian $80 million
18) Richest DJ in Africa – DJ black coffee – South African $60 million
19) Richest female DJ in Africa – DJ Cuppy – Nigerian $3.5 million
20) Richest actress in Africa – Charlize Theron – South Africa $160 million
21) Richest music producer in Africa – Don Jazy – Nigerian $18.5 million
NIGERIAN ECONOMY IS 24th LARGEST IN THE WORLD (GDP by PPP):
Wait a minute how many times did you ever hear that Nigerian economy is one of the top world economies. If you listen to Nigerians too much you might even come to the conclusion that Nigeria is the worse place with the world’s worse economy.
Yes, our per capital income is still nothing to write home about but you need to build the economy before the economy could produce for you a higher GDP per capita. Right now Nigeria’s GDP per purchasing power parity is number 24 in the world. By nominal GDP we are number 27th economy in the world. Yes some platform will put Nigeria only as 27th position GDP(PPP), and 31st position GDP nominal. Whatever the true figures are, my point remains that Nigeria must be credited for the progress we have made as a nation.
I strongly believe in the next 10 years we will emerge as a top 20 economy in the world. Bear in mind that there are close to 200 countries in the world and Nigeria is in number 24, in my opinion it isn’t the worst of place to be. We also stand a good chance to become one of the top 10 economies of the world in 20 years. This will mean that by the time we are a 100 years after independence we as a country will be one of the 10 richest countries in the whole world. Friends, believe me this is not bad when we speak in terms of age of countries. The next few paragraphs you’ll be reading next is copied straight out of Wikipedia under the caption “Economy Of Nigeria”
“The Economy of Nigeria is a middle-income, mixed economy and emerging market with expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology, and entertainment sectors.It is ranked as the 27th-largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and the 24th-largest in terms of purchasing power parity and the largest Sub Saharan Africa’s
economy. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa. The country’s re-emergent manufacturing sector became the largest on the continent in 2013, and it produces a large proportion of goods and services for the region of West Africa. In addition, the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost tripled from $170 billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012 ,though estimates of the size of the informal sector (which is not included in official figures) put the actual numbers closer to $630 billion. Subsequently, the GDP per capita doubled from $1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012. Again, with the inclusion of the informal sector, it is estimated that GDP per capita hovers around $3,900 per person. The country’s population increased from 120 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2010. The GDP figures were to be revised upwards by as much as 80% when metrics were to be recalculated after the rebasing of its economy in April 2014.
Although oil revenues contributed 2/3 of state revenues, oil only contributes about 9% to the GDP. Nigeria produces only about 2.7% of the world’s oil supply. Although the petroleum sector is important, as government revenues still heavily rely on this sector, it remains a small part of the country’s overall economy.
The largely subsistence agricultural sector has not kept up with the country’s rapid population growth. Nigeria was once a large net exporter of food, but currently imports some of its food products. Mechanization has led to a resurgence in the manufacturing and exporting of food products, and there was consequently a move towards food sufficiency. In 2006, Nigeria came to an agreement with the Paris Club to buy back the bulk of its owed debts from them, in exchange for a cash payment of roughly US$12 billion.
According to a Citigroup report published in February 2011, Nigeria would have the highest average GDP growth in the world between 2010 and 2050. Nigeria is one of two countries from Africa among the 11 Global Growth Generators countries.”
NIGERIA IS THE YOUNGEST MOST SUCCESSFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
Nigeria is the youngest Most Successful Nation in the world. What that means is of the 23 countries that are ahead of us in economic growth of the GDP none is younger than Nigeria. As a matter of fact Nigeria is actually doing better than many countries which have long been independent before her. Nigerian Economy Bigger Than That Of: Ireland, Israel, Norway, UAE, Denmark, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland, Romania, Ukraine, New Zealand, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Argentina etc
Check this out, the age of most successful countries in our world. I’m bringing these statistics here so Nigerians will stop judging their country so harshly. Nations are never built overnight. Years, decades and centuries are needed to build great nations. Compare to most nations in our world our country is not doing badly at all. In fact we are the most successful youngest country in the world. Please compare the age of these nations below to that of Nigeria.
World’s Largest Economies And Their Age.
DO WE HAVE PROBLEMS, WHAT ARE THEY? HOW TO RESOLVE OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS
I have tried to paint a rather objective and positive picture of this great country called Nigeria. I happened to be born there and I’m so grateful and proud of that fact, hence despite living abroad for most of my life I still keep my Nigerian citizenship. I agree that a lot of the points and statistics I presented in this work might be objected to by critics, that’s not a problem for me. In fact I welcome all constructive criticism of my works.
I however, will insist that we begin to speak out about the positive things our country represents. I have personally visited over 60 countries in all continents and I can make bold to say I’ve never quite seen a people group like Nigerians. We are a most unique people. Nigerians stand out and stand tall in comparison with any group of people anywhere. Unfortunately, for the negative campaigns and propaganda against the most populous black nation, we are yet to fully realised our potentials. Hence I’m appealing to us Nigerians to begin to acknowledge all the good things about our country. Charity begins at home, if we will begin to speak well of ourselves then only would the rest of the world follow suit to celebrate us.
Chinua Achebe, our prominent Nigerian novelist and essayist is the one who was quoted to have said “There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
It’s high time we begin to tell our stories, otherwise it’s those who hunted and still hunt after us who will end up telling us who we are or who we are not. These negative reports and propaganda against Nigeria and Nigerians was also started by these hunters, until we ourselves bought into the negativity and now can only talk evil of ourselves.
Friends, please let’s change the narration, let’s sell the best of ourselves to the rest of the world. I’m not saying we should not criticise our country. No, not at all, I’m a major critic of our country myself, but we should not sabotage ourselves in the process. Like I said earlier in the beginning of this article, there is always the other side to a coin, we must be diligent enough not to only focus on the negative but with a similar vigour we can likewise tell of the great strides of our country.
May Nigeria Succeed And All Her Enemies Live Long to witness it.
For a better society
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