Nigeria GDP is about $500billion, making her the richest in Africa, richer than South Africa.
But we know matter-of-factly , by all measures our economy is unproductive and one of the worst in the world given our population.
With a population of about 200million, our GDP should be in multiple of trillions, just as France with only 67 million people command a GDP of $2.9 trillion.
The depraved state of our economy becomes even more humiliating when countries like Sweden with just 10million people, boast of a larger economy($547billion).
We continue to wallow in the self-deception of calling ourselves the Giant of Africa because Botswana with population of 2million and South Africa with 57million people trail us on the economy log.
Recently, Nigeria over took India, a country of over 1.3billion people as the poverty capital of the world. In other words, we have more poor people than any country in the world-86.9 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty-50% of our population.
While there are those who frown at the idea of comparing Nigeria to Europe and North america. How about Asia? How about Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea that gained independence the same time as us?
How is it that Singapore, a country with no mineral resources transitioned from a third world country to a first world country in the space of three decades.
When Donald Trump calls Buhari lifeless or asks if we are humans,I believe he has a point. It’s not only abnormal but also soul less to have this much tolerance for failure and mediocrity.
With the prolongation of the ASUU strike and the country’s elections drawing closer, I truly hope we make a turn around in leadership for the better.
BY ALPHA RAPHAEL (RALPH DANIELZ)