16th January, 2023
By Sunday Adelaja
Nations are not built overnight. Poverty was worse in England a hundred years ago, than it is In Nigeria today.
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.
Nigerians Are Not Being Fair to Nigeria
I’m sure that 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.
Whenever Nigerians speak about their country, it’s usually in a derogatory manner. Criticism and, at times, even hatred is what we see;
If the hatred and anger is not directed at the nation it’ll be directed at its leadership. Most Nigerians believe we’ve had bad leaders since independence and that’s our problem. I believe this is debatable, again in comparison with other countries;
I personally think the reason we behave like this is because we are overzealous about our desires for our country, which is not a bad thing;
Our expectations are too high, we are impatient and unrealistic in our desires, which is a form of greed;
When it comes to leadership, I personally think Nigeria hasn’t had it as bad: Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, General Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Shonekan, Umaru Yar adua, were not perfect but some of the best compared to the historical leaders of other nations;
When it comes to development, Nigerians are not being fair to their country. Nigeria is number 24 of 200 countries in the world;
More so, it’s the youngest most successful country. No country is younger than Nigeria and richer than it. We are the richest of all the young countries in the world;
Countries that are richer and greater than us have had a longer history and civilisation than we have;
We often compare ourselves to today’s USA, Germany and England; are we being realistic, really?
We consider how life is in America at 150 years old – more than twice our age, not when it was 60 like we currently are;
Things were much worse in America then than it is presently in Nigeria. The truth is that it takes time to build a nation;
Nations are not built overnight. Poverty was worse in England a hundred years ago, than it is In Nigeria today.
China was nothing to write about back in the day;
Just a hundred years ago, the average life expectancy in America was 47 years, almost 150 years after independence. We have a life expectancy of between 54 and 60 years, but we are not 150 years old, only 60;
100 years ago, only 14% of American homes had toilets or bathrooms, almost the same as Nigeria today. What did Americans do, they worked hard and continued to build their nation;
When America was 150 years old, only 8% of Americans had a telephone. In Nigeria at 60 years, it is almost 70% of the people;
The average income per person in America was $2,000. In Nigeria at 60 years, it is close to $3,000, and not after 150 years like USA;
The hospital situation was so bad that 95% of all births were at home in America, after 150 years of independence;
At 150 years old, only 6% of Americans finished high school. In Nigeria it is 60% literacy rate at 60 years;
After 150 years, 20% of Americans who were considered as rich people had slaves, servants and maids in their homes, while close to half of the population were subservient to the 20%;
Talk about Canada, they actually passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering into their country for any reason whatsoever;
Every nation grows and evolves into greatness according to how much dedication and hard work they put into it. Rome was not built in a day;
Let’s talk about Nigerians today in today’s America. Although Nigerians make up a tiny portion of the US population, a whopping 17% of all Nigerians in this country hold Master’s degrees, while 4% have doctorates. In addition, 37% have Bachelor’s degrees.
To put those numbers in perspective, only 8% of the White population in the US have Master’s degrees, according to the Census survey. And 1% hold doctorates. About 19% of White residents have Bachelor’s degrees. Asians come closer to the Nigerians with 12% holding Master’s degrees and 3% having doctorates;
Stephen Kleinberg, a sociologist at Rice University, who conducts the annual Houston Area Survey, suspects the percentage of Nigerian immigrants with post-graduate degrees is higher than Census data shows;
Of all the Nigerian immigrants he reached in his random phone surveys from 1994 through 2007 — 45 households in total — Kleinberg said 40% of the Nigerians said they had post-graduate degrees. “These are higher levels of educational attainment than were found in any other community,” Kleinberg said.
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.
If not for our unregulated population growth, Nigeria would have been assessed more highly than the tiger nations of Korea, Singapore or Taiwan, as you’ll see below;
If we had regulated our population to grow at the same rate as, for example, England, we would have been living better than some countries in Europe;
Despite all our numerous failures, our results in economic growth can only be compared to those of the Middle Belt nations of Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and Japan. I’m presenting the facts to you here so please put aside your emotions and consider them.
In 1960 our GDP was $4 billion to approximately a population of 45 million, which meant the per capita was $88 dollars per citizen.
Read part one of the article here
Sunday Adelaja is a Nigeria born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He was based in Kiev, Ukraine.