This year, we 'celebrate' 100 years of amalgamation( for me, I think it is unnecessary!)...and what is on my mind is why Nigeria is underdeveloped.

To me, the following are not responsible for Nigeria's underdevelopment.....the Hausas/Igbo/Yorubas/Nigerians/the President/the PDP/the APC/Buhari/The witches,/the Whites/the Chinese/you insert your example.

Here are my main reasons(for now) why Nigeria is underdeveloped...

1.MISUSED EDUCATION.

The average Nigerian youth gets an education not to solve problems, but to get a comfortable desk job where he/she can get a big salary. Most Nigerian youngsters despise vocational and technical education as 'being for dropouts and neer do wells'.

The thing is....it is the graduates of vocational schools that form the basis of tomorrow's technical workforce...who will help to keep your industries running....and we don't have enough of them right now. Even our university graduated in Tech based courses want to go into business(read contract cornering) instead of using that education to innovate solutions around which an industry can be built.

So.....misused education.....

2.TOO MANY RESOURCES.

Nigeria has resources....and yet we refuse to use them to fire our industrial development. Instead, we sell them off on the foreign market....and share the money....which is then used to import everything...including things we can manufacture.

Countries without a strong industrial base are not developed.....and yes, that includes Saudi Arabia and Libya under Ghaddafi. Because if you are importing the weapons you use to stock your army...how do you expect to stand up against foreigners in war....the same foreigners who sold you the weapons?

3.TRIBALISM....

Nigeria is a sharing country...which is why when we discuss who becomes president or governor or even traditional chief....we do not talk about merit....we talk about 'whose turn it is'. This enshrines mediocrity....and leads to a mess.

What are your views on the above.? Any additional reasons why you think Nigeria is underdeveloped?

P'S-----This article explains a lot of what I say.....[url].http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/friedman-pass-the-books-hold-the-oil.html[/url]

Victim of Army Arrangement.

Hmmmmmm,....Nigeria,its went god says our suffering is ok,not all are really suffering tho.

Education - the same Nigerians are in the western world making a name for themselves with the education you so much derided.
What you should say is the lack of critical thinking skills in the majority of the loudmouth ,brought about by the corruption in the educational system .
Many graduates are unemployable and this makes you wonder how they got admission in the first instance.


2 resources- Indonesia ,Botswana ,Brazil have resources too.

3TRIBALISM- there are tribes /clans and ethnic divisions in other places too.
The infrastructure in bombed Syria is superior to ours.lebanon ?do not even go there .
Mind you Beirut has been destroyed many times.even Belgium has tribalism.ukraine is in the news.

THE ANSWER
Awo on the Nigerian Federation
"Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. The word Nigerian is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not".
- Path To Nigerian Freedom, 1947

Corruption, Indiscipline and Lacking in Self Restraint.

@ blogernaija: You do know successful countries like the US were once seperate and at a point peoole said should seperate. Yet US remains. Your pessimism annoys me; Nigeria can work. Sweden is a hetereogenous mix of Italians, Dutch, Germans, French, indigenous Swedes etc and yet they made a system which works.

1) Does it for me. The average youth graduates with no handiwork. Especially engineers. Technical education in the coubtry is comatose BTW. And I laugh, look at folks like Innoson. What did they use ? Indigenous labour (in his case, mechanics, presumably roadside types we treat like $hit). The visionless govt. Of Jonathan thinks FDI's are impressive. How stupid when internal capacity is lacking. You lack a skilled labor force. You current model of growth is a corruption of that of places like Kuwait when you should be looking at the likes of Germany, Japan or China all of which have a large technical labor force which makes the goods myopc people in power love to have or use.

OP, I agree with you to a large extent.

O.p, politics before economy is essential. To get it right economically, you av to develop your polity which will enable bussinesses to thrive. China comes to mind here.

The fact about Education is that Nigerians living in Nigeria only go to the University to have a BSC and not to acquire skills. And the reason why I wouldn't blame them is because most Nigerian Universities could be compared to an Advanced High schools in other foreign Nations.

To confirm this fact, check out labs in most Nigerian Universities, the equipments there were the ones used in the 80'S.

ask the military govt thay stagnated the progress of the country.

Uyi Iredia: @ blogernaija: You do know successful countries like the US were once seperate and at a point peoole said should seperate. Yet US remains. Your pessimism annoys me; Nigeria can work. Sweden is a hetereogenous mix of Italians, Dutch, Germans, French, indigenous Swedes etc and yet they made a system which works.

Please tell us why must Nigeria work even against the wishes of the people.

Some ethnic groups want to opt out and some others refuse and are forcing them to remain in this bizarres union. Is marriage by force?

jusRadical:

Please tell us why must Nigeria work even against the wishes of the people.

Some ethnic groups want to opt out and some others refuse and are forcing them to remain in this bizarres union. Is marriage by force?

In the first place vested interests won't let us divide and if they allow it, it is to once again use the same divide and rule that the British used to conquer us centuries back.

Crucially, there are just as many citizens across all the tribes who believe Nigeria can work. Will you ignore them to ? Marriage is not by force I agree but forced (or arranged) marriages in the past have worked. I pointed US as an example. It was a marriage caised by circumstance. Today it is successful. I think the real thing you want is freedom for a group to actualize its dreams. Tha can and HAS (in the past) been done under Nigeria, only your bias will prevent you from acknowledging this.

THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA IS NOBODY GIVES A PHUCK ABOUT HER.YOU ALL .....SCRATCH THAT....WE ALL AREN'T READY TO BELL THE CAT.NOBODY READY TO BREAK NAIJA'S COCONUT WITH HIS HEAD.WE ALL TRYING TO PLAY IT SAFE AND JUST SURVIVE INSTEAD OF RISKING SSHITT WITH A POSSIBILITY OF THRIVIN

j

UyiIredia: 1) Does it for me. The average youth graduates with no handiwork. Especially engineers. Technical education in the coubtry is comatose BTW. And I laugh, look at folks like Innoson. What did they use ? Indigenous labour (in his case, mechanics, presumably roadside types we treat like $hit). The visionless govt. Of Jonathan thinks FDI's are impressive. How stupid when internal capacity is lacking. You lack a skilled labor force. You current model of growth is a corruption of that of places like Kuwait when you should be looking at the likes of Germany, Japan or China all of which have a large technical labor force which makes the goods myopc people in power love to have or use.

well, the mechanics of innoson are doing a great job.
Kudos to them. The end justifies the means

interesting