Our Superlative Country Called Nigeria
By
Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
Burtonsville, MD USA
INTRODUCTION
There are 191 member-countries in the United Nations and about
262 countries and areas world-wide. So when a country like
Nigeria is always mentioned in almost any list that you can
think of as “Top Ten Best” or “Bottom Ten Worst or Least”,
or “Twenty Most X”, then there is no doubt that it can be
dubbed “The Superlative Country in the World.”
THE SUPERLATIVES
We might as well begin by stating that Nigeria, with about 134
million people, is the most populous, and 13th largest in
land area in Africa, and ninth most populous country in the
world after China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil,
Pakistan, Russia, Bangladesh, and before Japan. It is also
worthy to note that Lagos, Nigeria is the sixth largest urban
center in the world after Tokyo, Mumbai, Mexico City, Sao
Paulo, New York City, and before Dhaka, Calcutta, Los Angeles
and Shanghai.
With regard to crude oil, Nigeria has the 10th largest oil
reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab
Emirates, Kuwait, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Libya and Mexico,
and before China and the United States. It is the 13th
largest world oil producer, after Saudi Arabia, United States,
Russia, Iran, Mexico, Norway, China, Venezuela, Canada, United
Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Iraq, and before Kuwait and
Brazil. It is the 7th largest world oil exporter, after Saudi
Arabia, Norway, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, United Arab Emirates,
and before Iraq, Kuwait, Mexico, Libya and Algeria. The
importance of Nigeria to the US is presented in its being
that country’s 5th supplier – after Canada, Saudi Arabia,
Venezuela, Mexico, and followed by Iraq, Norway, Angola and
the United Kingdom. Our gas reserves of about 125 trillion
cubic feet (tcf) would place Nigeria as the 7th largest in
the world after Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United States,
Algeria and Venezuela.
Not too long ago, the news that Nigerians were determined to
be the Happiest People on Earth caused quite a stir and not a
few guffaws. A two-year (1999-2001) World Values Survey (WVS)
sponsored by Britain's New Scientist magazine was published in
October 2003, and reported that finding out of some 65 nations
polled. It based its conclusions on criteria ranging from
making friends and marrying, to growing old gracefully and a
genetic propensity to happiness. Mexico, Venezuela, El
Salvador and Puerto Rico followed Nigeria. New Zealand was
15th, the United States was ranked 16th, Australia 20th,
Britain ranked 24th while Russia, Armenia and Romania had the
fewest happy people.
In January 2003, Nigeria was announced to be the third most
optimistic country in the world, following Kenya and Kosovo,
and trailed by Turkey and the USA. The simple question was
“Will 2003 be better than 2002?” The least optimistic?
Zimbabwe, Portugal, Guatemala, Ecuador and Greece. In fact,
in 2000 (“Will 2000 be better than 1999?”), Nigeria was the
most optimistic, followed by Venezuela, Malaysia, Chile,
Panama, the USA, Georgia (60%), and Thailand and Hong Kong
(tied).
“Ee go better, ee go better…” is a popular pidgin English
saying in Nigeria – and its shows. Unfortunately in the
results published in January 2004 ( “Will 2004 be better than
2003?”), Nigeria has dropped out of the Top Five entirely
–something to think about.
Maybe the above two news items about our happiness and
optimism are tied up to the following news just in: Nigeria
was listed as the most religious country in a survey of 10
countries, with over 90% of Nigerians saying that they
believed in God, prayed regularly and would die for their
belief. And indeed many have died, particularly in religious
riots in the Northern part of the country. The countries
polled were Nigeria, Indonesia, India, Lebanon, Mexico, USA,
Israel, the UK, Russia, and South Korea – with that order of
fervor of belief in descending order. The interviews were
carried out in January 2004.
The last news is hardly surprising since Nigeria, which has
roughly equal proportions of Muslims and Christians, is the
eigth country with the largest Muslim population after
Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Egypt,
(Nigeria), Algeria and Morocco. Similarly, as Christian
populations go, Nigeria is also about the tenth largest in the
world.
The next superlative is that presented in a report on the
study conducted in 2001 by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in 30 oil-producing developing countries
which rated Chad the least developed with 0.365 point ranking
followed by Angola (0.403), and then Nigeria (0.462). Thus
Nigeria placed the “Third Least Developed” among
oil-producing developing countries. On the whole and more
generally, in the 2003 Human Development Indicators ranking,
Nigeria placed 152nd out of 175 countries, or 24th from the
bottom.
Next, we have Verisign's recent Internet Security Intelligence
Briefing which listed Nigeria as 8th country By Total Volume
of Fraudulent Transactions Rankings – in the midst of USA,
Canada, Indonesia, Israel, UK, India, and Turkey before
Nigeria, and Germany, Malaysia in that order - but 2nd by
Percentage of Fraudulent Transactions Rankings: Indonesia
before Nigeria, and Pakistan, Ghana, Israel, Egypt, Turkey,
Lebanon, Bulgaria and India following.
These last two placements so high up in Internet fraud would
not have been particularly irksome had we not placed 25th (out
of 180 nations) from the bottom with regard to the recent
first Global ICT Ranking (Digital Access Index 2002; released
November
2003).
Almost finally, I know that most of our readers have been
waiting for this: according to Transparency International
(TI) Corruption Perceptions Index 2003 (CPI), Nigeria is the
second most corrupt country in the world, after Bangladesh,
and is followed by Haiti, Paraguay, Myanmar, Tajikistan,
Georgia, Cameroon, Azerbaijan, Angola, Kenya, and
Indonesia. Finland, Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand,
Singapore and Sweden had the least CPI. Then just yesterday,
we were hit with another verdict: along with Cook Islands,
Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, and the Philippines,
Nigeria was designated as being retained in the international
Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) list of non-cooperative
countries and territories (NCCTs) which do not meet
international standards against money laundering, and hence
must continue to face heightened scrutiny by banks dealing
with any transactions originating from our country.
Finally, we recently joined another superlative: the country
with probably the highest paid Minister of Finance!
EPILOGUE
Reading all the above, one cannot but come away with the
impression that there is something special about that our
country Nigeria that one cannot QUITE put one’s finger on.
Large natural wealth, low human development index; low
technology access, high technology and economic fraud – all in
the midst of high religiosity. Hmmm…something does not
compute.
What a country - with Indonesia as a faithful “brother”
nation, “following” us everywhere at every opportunity in the
lists above!
So it is quite frustrating why we still are where we are
economically, socially and politically - but there you have
it.
.
Best wishes all.
iv> BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html
191 UN Member states