We don’t have anything near a perfect system in Nigeria. There are problems aplenty. But we must appreciate our country for the little we have. Nigeria may be corruption-ridden (in the public and private sectors). But Nigeria remains a country with some of the least inequality issues in Africa because we have a natural unbounded energy and a go-getting spirit. The class system could never take root in our country as we see new people come into wealth every day. The entrepreneurship spirit has since taken us over.
In my PhD journey, we spent quite a bit of time ruminating on something called ‘triangulation.’ Essentially, the idea is that in proving your point, you don’t want to consider only one source or method. In fact, even two sources are not enough. By the time you can underpin your point from at least three angles pointing in one direction, you’ll have been deemed to be writing a truly academic paper. In this instance, I am on a quest to prove that we have cause to be hopeful about the Nigerian economy and society, and will try to do that coming from different angles.
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Today, the idea is to consider those aspects that we as Nigerian have taken for granted about our country. If the rather moderate Gini-Coefficient (circa 0.351 as at 2019 but close to 0.40 today because there has been more inequality since COVID-19 and the consolidation of big money and big tech) is not enough, perhaps the call to interrogate our biases and assumptions should. But if those two approaches were inadequate, perhaps we should also consider what I’m about to bring to our attention today.
I checked for the number of foreign students in Canada by the countries that they were from. The largest population was from China at 102,150. China is a country of 1.4 billion people, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $20 trillion. It’s the second largest economy in the world (I actually believe it may be the largest already) and has the world’s largest population. The next country was The Philippines, with a student population of 48,870 and a GDP of $507 billion. Per capita income in Philippines is circa $4,400. Nigeria, with a GDP in the region of $250 billion (pre-rebasing), and per capita income hovering around $1,000, comes in at the third position with 45,975 students. France comes in a distant fourth, with 26,980 students, despite its very high GDP – gross and per capita.
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I checked the USA. Nigeria comes in at seventh position with 20,029 students, after India, China, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan and Vietnam. For the United Kingdom, Nigeria comes in third place after China (151,690) and India (126,535). These are high population and high wealth countries. Nigeria chips in with 44,195 students, way ahead of countries like Pakistan (23,075), United States (22,990), and Hong Kong (17,630).
Now, let’s consider the sheer amount spent yearly, mostly personally, and sometimes by governments through scholarships, to maintain these students. At an average of at least $15,000 yearly (without considering amounts spent on upkeep, rental, etc.), and if we add up the numbers for these three countries (US, UK, and Canada) only, then we have 110,199 x 15,000, which comes to $1,625,985,000 (one billion six hundred and twenty five million, nine hundred and eighty five thousand dollars only) yearly. In naira, if converted at a modest N1,500/$1, this runs to N2,479,477,500 (almost two-and-a-half trillion naira).
My pal who is on a programme at the University of Lagos recently informed me, out of the blues, that he paid N300,000 yearly to run a PhD there. For a Master’s programmes, I think he said the university accepts less than N100,000. Let us leave the Bachelor’s degree out of this analysis because we Nigerians consider it to be a right. But what about Masters and PhD programmes? Are they rights too? For a former colonised country struggling for breath? I think we should all show love to our nation.
Given that we have Nigerians in different schools – especially universities – from nearby Benin Republic, to Ghana, to as far as Brazil and Argentina, and from Niger Republic to Sudan, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, and to as far as China, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and all over Eastern Europe (Russia, Hungary, Estonia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria etc.), perhaps we should assume that we have a similar number spread all over the world. This doubles the yearly burden on the economy to about N5 trillion – mostly taken out of the pockets of ordinary Nigerians whose wards are in these countries, out of the work or businesses they have done in Nigeria, and a good fraction taken from the pockets of Federal and State Government through scholarships of different kinds
This is a burden that the economy carries silently, and often in an unappreciated manner. Unappreciated because quite a number of the people who are so supported actually now despise Nigeria, forgetting that the resource with which their fees and upkeep are paid comes from here, one way or another. The other countries mentioned here either bond their students, are so rich as to afford these luxuries, or both. Nigeria hardly does that, and we keep losing the minds of our young people who now look down upon it as a dysfunctional society, rather than a struggling one, which they too should help improve.
Of late, many universities, especially in the United Kingdom, have cited the reduced patronage from Nigeria as a major concern for them. Some, like Dundee University, are said to already have going concern crisis. They are dying and are in a quandary, and wondering where to get the required liquidity to continue. This is an interesting phenomenon, which calls to question this practice of several decades. Should a poor, low per capita income country like Nigeria be supplying the powerful United Kingdom or the US with so much money each year? Is it morally right? And claiming that it is our money to spend anyhow we choose is not adequate. At the end, Nigeria is relied upon to support that expensive habit. We are constantly putting pressure on our central bank for foreign currency. But when there’s a hiccup in supply, we shout to high heavens about how ‘Nigeria is finished’. Who finished it? We.
My pal who is on a programme at the University of Lagos recently informed me, out of the blues, that he paid N300,000 yearly to run a PhD there. For a Master’s programmes, I think he said the university accepts less than N100,000. Let us leave the Bachelor’s degree out of this analysis because we Nigerians consider it to be a right. But what about Masters and PhD programmes? Are they rights too? For a former colonised country struggling for breath? I think we should all show love to our nation. How do universities pay good salaries with these amounts as fees? I paid $85,000 as tuition for my PhD at Walden over a five-year period. I would have had to pay more if I didn’t struggle hard to complete my dissertation in good time. I left many people there who had started before me. PhDs are not expected to be cheap.
And it is not only education we take for granted. I recently had an argument with some gentlemen on WhatsApp when they asked if anything was free in Nigeria. I said education and health are free, even if the quality you get may be low. Primary health care centres are free, even though you will have to buy your drugs. Some of these PHCs are still functional. I had cause to take an accident victim to one about a year ago. We met a good doctor on ground and the guy was fixed in a jiffy – in the remote jungles just after Akwanga.
I have written two articles on this platform about Nigeria’s scholarship programmes that demand nothing back. I recall meeting a lady from Kogi State who enjoyed a scholarship for a Bachelor’s and then Master’s Degree from Niger State, and who swore never to return to serve any state or entity in Nigeria. I recall another old man interviewed on the streets of New York around the time of the #EndSARS protest who said he left Nigeria on a scholarship 38 years before and never returned. The dishonesty that he perpetrated decades before did not occur to him. Our PTDF and TETFUND complain daily about their beneficiaries abroad, many of whom take their scholarships for granted. Perhaps I can feel bad about this because I never enjoyed any such scholarship from Nigeria. I’ve never been good with pressing buttons and deploying what is known as man-knows-man. I may never be able to understand how people can enjoy such largesse and still run down the country. Not all beneficiaries do so though, to be fair. I just don’t get the idea behind feeling entitled to such huge monies just for being a Nigerian, and of late I understand the powerful have hijacked the process.
What really pains me is how our best brains are snatched by powerful countries who even devalue many of them and make it look like they are doing them a wonderful favour. Yes, many lives get transformed when they ‘port’ to these countries, but we cannot justify the disdain that many emigres show to the same Nigeria that sponsored them. My friend doing the PhD programme will pay N1,200,000 ($800) and walk away with a prestigious PhD that stands up anywhere in the world and could start earning at least $50,000 annually with it. If he wasn’t the deep-thinking type, he could start abusing and insulting Nigeria or working towards its disintegration – like many, not all, do. I hope this pricks their conscience. At that Nigerian university I mentioned above, a Master’s degree goes for about N70,000 ($45) for the whole year. Meanwhile, our education is not totally useless like some would want to push. If it was, some of us would not do well in class abroad. Many Nigerian students excel abroad; I did.
And it is not only education we take for granted. I recently had an argument with some gentlemen on WhatsApp when they asked if anything was free in Nigeria. I said education and health are free, even if the quality you get may be low. Primary health care centres are free, even though you will have to buy your drugs. Some of these PHCs are still functional. I had cause to take an accident victim to one about a year ago. We met a good doctor on ground and the guy was fixed in a jiffy – in the remote jungles just after Akwanga. Anyhow, our health systems here cannot compare to what they have abroad though. Thankfully, our diet helps, as well as our local remedies to everything. That’s why we didn’t die in droves in the COVID-19 era. We must continue to remind the folks who thought we had nothing then about this fact.
We don’t have anything near a perfect system in Nigeria. There are problems aplenty. But we must appreciate our country for the little we have. Nigeria may be corruption-ridden (in the public and private sectors). But Nigeria remains a country with some of the least inequality issues in Africa because we have a natural unbounded energy and a go-getting spirit. The class system could never take root in our country as we see new people come into wealth every day. The entrepreneurship spirit has since taken us over. What is more? Great weather. No natural disasters as such. Good cuisines. Good, trusting peoples who have remained unshaken by the vicissitudes that we pass through. Our diversity is perhaps our greatest asset. One day, Nigerians will be able to explore their country even better than we used to do in the olden days. Even if weeping may last till one night, joy cometh in the morning, says the Lord.
‘Tope Fasua, an economist, author, blogger, and entrepreneur, can be reached through [email protected].
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