I am saddened by the continuous act of some of my compatriots to always engage in social media fight with fellow Africans, most notably our brothers and sisters from Ghana and Kenya.
It is even unfortunate that these countries Nigeria youths love to abuse on social media are doing better than our potentially great country in virtually all sphere despite the fact that we(as a country) have more revenues, potentials, and opportunities. If Nigerians are not aware of the superiority(in terms of living) of other Africans over us, I will have to educate them using Kenya as a case study.
While Nigerians have always pride in the self titled “African Giant” rhetoric, facts on ground shows otherwise. Though we generate more revenue than Kenya, which is 70% due to the gift of nature under our soil(Petrodollars), Nigerians still lag behind greatly in basic things when compared to the East African giant.
According to 2015 data from World Health Organisation, Nigeria’s male and female life expectancy are 52years and 56 years respectively, meaning an average Nigerian is expected to die before he/she turns 60. Meanwhile, the expectancy for Kenyan male and female are 61 and 66 years respectively. Similarly, while Nigeria has the 10th highest infant mortality rate worldwide with average 72 deaths per 1,000 birth, Kenya’s infant mortality rate is rated 52nd in the world with average 32 deaths per 1,000 births. This means it is safer to give birth in Kenya than in Nigeria, and an average Kenyan living in Kenya is expected to live longer than an average Nigerian living in Nigeria.
Though Nigeria has more tourism potential than Kenya, but Kenya is one of the choice destination for vacation in East Africa. While Nigeria managed to rake in $601 million as Tourism receipt(Revenue) in 2014, Kenya raked in $1.833 billion in the same year. Nigeria can’t even boast of a National carrier meanwhile Kenya Airways, the National Carrier of Kenya boasts of 45 Aircrafts in their fleet with 4,000 workforce strength. In addition, Kenya Airways is reputed to be one of the best in Africa.
In Africa, Kenya is the leader of Mobile money. Nigeria is still still battling to get it right in the ICT sector with poor infrastructure, lack of power, lack of political will, and fantastically corruption.
At present Nigeria is experiencing recession in her economy, one would expect Nigerians to shun frivolties and seek for ways to turn the recession to prosperity instead of wasting productive hours fighting our African brethren over irrelevances. Why would one who is rationing his/her phone battery life due to epileptic power supply still spend the little battery life s/he got through his/her generator to abuse someone in Nairobi who is neither rationing his/her phone battery life nor is depending on generating set for power? There is no trophy or reward for social media fight, Nigerians should stop sending the wrong image to the world that our greatness lies in social media wars.
Nigeria is a great country with potentials, filled with great prospects, but we can never be great if we don’t channel our time and resources to fix our country.
A word should be enough for the wise… May God Bless Us All, and Bless Nigeria
