This is SO Untrue: No Nigeria is living on less than 1$ a day!

An English proverb says that a lie which is repeated over and over without any reprimand starts to gain the status of truth. This is really true for the constant reference to the theme that Nigeria is a country where most or half of the families live on 1 USD a day. 

What is really surprising is the way and manner global financial institutions like the IMF, WORLD BANK e.t.c.that should know better have continued to harp on this as a way to create channels of neo colonialist governmental loans that is nothing more than financial slavery well packaged to guarantee loyalty of generations yet unborn in developing and under developed markets. For Nigerian politicians who latch unto that as a means to gain some political vantage points against the government and ministers of the government, I can understand...Its normal in Nigeria politics to engage dataless posturing and verbosical nonsensicality in the name of politics.

What I cannot forgive are those economists and well trained accountants who equally quote this whenever an opportunity arises to make a statement regarding the economic fortunes of Nigeria.

The poorest Nigerian eats mama put food a day; minimum spent is usually 100 Naira. Pays house rent of minimum 1000 Naira a month which translates to 33 Naira a day, makes one minute phone call of minimum 20 Naira a day, Clothes themselve with minimum 20 Naira a day, transportation minimum 50 Naira a day.

This is excluding, NEPA, WATER BOARD, WASTE MANAGEMENT, VILLAGE MEETING CONTRIBUTIONS, CHURCH/ZAKAAT OFFERINGS, GIFTS TO FRIENDS, e.t.c.

I am really in doubt that there is any individual in Nigeria who lives on less that 1 USD a day. That postulation is simply archaic, mythical, baseless and dubiotic nonsense.

There are many reasons to believe in the future of this country:

1. Nigerian economy is really evolving in all key facets, Over 70 million active telecom lines exist today signalling that half of Nigerians are able to own a phone and recharge them.

2. Nigeria has over 100 universities and each of them have over ten thousand students meaning over 1 million nigerians are able to get a university degree every 4 years. Add that to polytechnics, colleges of Education, Montechnics e.t.c, The number should be over 10 million.

3. Agriculture is getting funding like never before. We are getting down our food import budget every year and this is a good sign for self sustainability.

4. I like the look of Nigerian airports compared to 5 years ago.

5. New Investors are funding many start ups around Nigeria, Look at the Likes of Sim Shagaya, Efosa Omogui, Tunde Kehinde, Chika Nwobi, Jason Njoku, have all raised siginificant funding from Europe, Africa and US for their Tech start ups and in just 2 years are beginning to fund other techies.

6. Oil and Gas production is steady and Dangote is planning with other private investor to start refinning all of Nigerian petroleaum needs locally.

7. 2nd Niger bridge is already inuagurated. Lagos Ibadan Express renewal is under way, Benin Ore is worl class now and 10 lanes project in Abuja completed.

8. The railway lines now function every day along Ogun-Lagos, Kaduna-Abuja axis with new rails planned from maiduguri to PH.

9. All FMCG companies in Nigeria posted profits and growth in 2013 with no single company conducting mass sack as was the case in the last 3-5 years. Whenever this sector grows, The economy is on the path to greatness even if nobody accepts.

9. Other numerous projects too many to mention on this blog for lack of time and space.

Overall, I am very bullish that Nigeria will continue on the path to growth and even be among top 30-50 economies in the world by 2020 if all of the politicians outside government can join hands with the Federal government to focus on dealing with all its challenges.

While it can and should be better than it is now, its only rationale to close by saying...So far So good.

Joseph Onuorah is happy father and husband, A grassroots mobilizer and lives in Lagos Nigeria and Tweets from @JosephOnuorah

Could Oil deposits in Chad Basin be the REAL reason behind Boko Haram?

There is no gainsaying the fact that no reasonable and well meaning Nigerian is happy with the insurgency and its resultant tale of woes all around the North eastern Nigerian states or Yobe, Adamawa, Borno and lately Katsina and Kaduna.

Having been born and bred in Kaduna, I know religious and ethnic strife is common place between the Northern and Southern Kaduna Indigenes, Religious riots between Radical Islamic elements and Christians is equally common place while political skirmishes also happens every political season which is approximately spaced between 3-4 years.

However, The Boko Haram insurgency has come with a different myth and quickly evolving to be hydra headed with no clear focus on who is targeted. Its been the turn of students, military officers, police, politicians, Muslim faithfuls,civilian vigilante groups, market men, travelers, e.t.c

Everyday I have given myself to hard thoughts around what could be the end game for these terrorist with special interest as to their level of sophistication of armory and their sustainability quotient which has clearly bewildered every security analyst around the globe.

For the sake of argument, lets say the group is religiously driven and really inherent on stamping the Islamic faith and Sharia law across the northern states of Nigeria and beyond, but the truth is that the prospect of that happening in the next 50 years will be resulting to an excercise in futility & like a camel passing through the eyes of the middle! the truth is the average northern child is now Boko Kwarai (learned in the western educational system is the best) at least to the primary 6 level which has helped formulate their liberal psyche with full help of mostly western origin teachers and southern origin NYSC corp members since majpority of public schools in the north rely on NYSC as a source of teaching resource; that been said, it will be a hard time to migrate back to less liberal ways as proposed by the insurgents. This ultimately means there will be an internal clash of ideals between Boko Haram & Boko Kwarai.

Secondly, Boko Haram does not offer any spiritual ideals that speaks to noble slamic virtues like Zakat, respect for Old and weak, The sect has continued to kill and maim muslims during prayer sessions as witnessed in Kano and in the holy ramadan season last year in Maiduguri.

Thirdly, The number of aliens already arrested and killed in the military raids on Sambisa forest points to the fact their is a clear regional collaboration between various terrorist network with even an international colouration to the sourcing of their funding, personnel training and weaponry.

Fouthly, The average northerner may live below the poverty line but that does not take away the fact that they do enjoy life (albeit on the small economic scale), family, camaraderie and good neighborliness. This much I can validate from the over 23 years I spent living, farming, schooling and working in Zaria, Kaduna states and traveling on many occasions to Sokoto, Kano, Zamfara, Jos, Katsina, Bauchi e.t.c.

What has come to me as a conclusion is that following the theory of constant strife for resources that has been the bane of African Nations, and drawing from experiences in South Sudan, Liberia, Sierra leone, Libya and Syria, Its reasonable to say that Boko Haram may be more than terrorism & tending more towards resource harnessing and balkanization for pure economic interest by the western powers and the emerging pseudo democratic states like Russia, Turkey and China.

The plot as described above seems to be supported by the recent harnessing of Crimea against every sensibility of International due process by Russia, Turkish airline moving weapons to northern Nigeria via Aminu Kano International airport, Chinese recent interest in the OML in Nigeria by acquisition of Addax petroleum, Plateuing of the Niger deltan oil reserves by over 10% and the un-explored deposits verified in the Chad Basin.

The intent will be to sustain the tempo of the killing and property destruction to the extent that Nigeria will have to call for external support in light of aggravated danger and shortage in resources; The powers that be will then come in and position a ground force military presence in the region with a full economic no-go-area for the Nigerian government at the center. Subsequently, efforts will be put to re-start the Niger delta militancy and get government assume the case of BH is now second place.

With this line of reasoning, I call on the Nigerian Government to step change their strategy towards the war against Boko Haram, Initiate OPL and OML for the oil in the Chad Basin and establish strong military command in the entire North east to forestall the current deadly swate of BH on our brothers in the north eastern Nigeria. Lets stand up to any form of neo-colonization and feigned "help" from the west or any other powerful country.

This is our country, the oil in the chad basin must NEVER be a reason to slaughter over 4000 promising souls in just 4 years with over half a million displaced. In actual fact,, No economic prospect is good enough reason to waste a single human life. To all those that have lost a lost one in the BH madness, I say with all sense of respect in Hausa: "Allah ya Jikan su...Ya kuma basu zamman Aljannah...Amin"

Joseph Onuorah is a loving husband and father. Grassroot activist, born and studied in Northern Nigerian city of Zaria but residing in Lagos. Tweets from @JosephOnuorah