When l decided to do this article for my column, l called the attention of the publisher of Newdawngr.com to it because as you can see from the title, it seems to stand logic on its head.
I have known the publisher for close to 40 years now and as a stickler to facts and figures, he gave a go ahead with a proviso that it has to be verifiable.
It may seem illogical, yet the truth is that a very high percentage of people living in Nigeria lives a more fulfilling life than those in US or UK or even Canada in general.
This has nothing to do with the ongoing criticism of President Bola Tinubu in the media but it’s about comparatives.
Truly, Nigeria is a paradoxical country because it defies logic in so many areas. Here, l want to expose some facts that will bear out this paradoxes.
Credible statistics and verifiable figures covering housing, food, fuel, clothing and other basic necessities that makes life go round or pertaining to cost of living actually points to the conclusion that Nigeria has the second lowest cost of living in the world.
According to Numbeo, a highly credible data platform that runs a massive technology engine which pile out insights into consumer prices, industrial and property prices including house rents, food prices and all quality of life metrics , only Pakistan beats Nigeria to the second place in the world.
Nigeria’s current cost of living index as at today stands at 19.0 even when the inflation rate stands at 29%.
In Africa, Mozambique has the highest cost of living at 43.5, while Ethiopia stands at 43.1, South Africa is presently at 33.8 and Kenya at 24.8.
In Europe, Switzerland tops at 112.2 trailed by Iceland at 85.7 and France at 66.0.
Others like UK stands at 63.7, Germany runs at 62.7, Italy at 58.9 and Ireland is presently at 66.5
As for United States, it’s cost of living index is high at 72.9, while Canada has its own at 68.4. Hong Kong (China) runs at 71.5 and Australia is also high at 72.8.
To put this index into perspectives, as at 12th of February 2024, a friend of mine visiting Denmark informed me that the price of petrol is $1.8 per liter or N2,500. In France, it is Euro 1.9 or N3,230 per liter.
Meanwhile, in the case of US, l found that although $1 exchange for N1,500, yet no individual can get a break fast food for less than between $10 and $30 or N15,000 and N45,000 respectively.
Also, monthly rent for a self contained apartment in the US is about $1,000 a month. Convert to naira at the current exchange rate, you have something in the region of N1.5 million. That is a year rent in the same type apartment in Nigeria.
Things are hard in Nigeria but when compared to other African countries, we are well off. When compared to most advanced countries also, we are good.
For example, if you don’t use your phone in Nigeria, you are not cut -off unlike in the US.
Many Nigerians who sold their houses and relocated to abroad are regretting because it is not El dorado as was believed to be.
They have to work between 16 and 18 hours to be able to live well and save some money.
A bank manager in Nigeria who spent a fortune to travel out has no work to return to and grossly frustrated presently.
A nurse who has been living in Canada informed me that most nurses and doctors who recently migrated there could not pass the examination required for gainful employment and therefore works as ‘casuals’.
In fact, there are some doctors who opted for nursing examination because they couldn’t make it at physician level.
Methinks what is wrong with Nigeria is dwindling standard of living caused by poor and non existent infrastructure, poor state of rule of law and zero consequences for crimes, especially economic ones and deliberately inserted loopholes in the constitution.
In other words, we have failed to build strong institutions.
What exactly has the federal government got to do with Ministry of Education, Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture and Works and Housing?
We know that all the lands and rivers are located in one state or the other! Why should we have so large a National Assembly and why could they not work part time. After all, the reason why late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was so successful wasn’t because of a standing House of Assembly but because although they were part-timers, they were committed citizens with required experiences in their various professions.
As of fact, the greatest hindrance to our standard of living and dearth of strong institutions are those men in the National Assembly. Take their salaries, emoluments and perquisites for a vivid example; can we say that the money they ‘take’ are based on the amount of work they do?
And how can the executive allow them to inflate their budget from N174 billion to N344 billion?
That is where the scandal is really.
The power to seat on budgetary allocation of other arms and fingers of government like the ministries, parastatals, agencies etc until they make some dirty monies out of the allocations is not only criminal in nature but also abominable.
The recent death of Mr. Herbert Wigwe has also opened the eyes of Nigerians and took the lid off the can of worms for us to see what our banks are made of.
It has also shown us that the so- called billionaires are nothing but white collar crooks.
President Bola Tinubu- under relentless attack by frmr vp
The question on the lips of everyone is this: do these people pay tax?
Again, can’t they not be probed as to the actual source of their wealth?
We now know that the worst president Nigeria ever had is Buhari, and ironically, Tinubu helped him get to the position and having to clean up the mess he helped created.
What is he going to do about recovering the loots of the past 8 years and the new ones by some of his Ministers and cronies. Information has it that this administration knew as at June that Buhari and the NNPC officials sold Nigeria’s oil in advance, why have they not made it public or do something tangible about it. No matter how difficult it is, shouldn’t the government act legally on it?
If we have to copy the American presidential system, we should do it properly. Every now and then, American presidents would address the press and there are several spokespersons in each departments who daily inform their nation on the goings on. Why can’t Tinubu, a one time activist and a confessed democrat do away with military autocratic tendencies and speak to Nigerians regularly?
Wale Edun,Finance Minister
There is no doubt in my mind that Nigeria has nine lives and has continually defy logic and most times stand logic on its head walking. Tinubu has his own share of the blame, but he is not the cause of Nigeria’s falling standard of life. We hired him to fix it. And since we are not in a dictatorial system, policies take time to work. We need to give him at least 24 months but we must be kept abreast of happenings.
He needs to close his eyes to acquaintances and shun ‘man-know-man’ attitude which was largely Buhari’s undoing.
All the indicted Ministers must be brought to the court of law and other areas of the government as in the Judiciary and Legislative branches can’t be spared. Imagine that we are able to hold cost of living down and secure average standard of living; where would we be in the committee of nations?
