H/T Revolver for drawing my attention via the accurate headline Nothing can prepare you for 12 days in Nigeria… to Notes on Nigeria by Matt Lakeman, MattLakeman.com, May 9, 2023.
This huge (19,000+ words!) essay is the definitive statement about what can be expected in a totally black-ruled polity.
It is also very funny—If you can manage to live far away from these people.
Nigeria is an enormous country (356,769 miles—about 2.2 times California). Wikipedia says the population in 2023 is 230.8 million, Africa’s largest. Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960, which means it has been “Free” about as long as the British ruled.
At the time of independence Nigeria was economically in fairly good shape, with a large commercial agriculture, significant mining, and signs of surging oil production. Oil output is now 12th in the world, accounting for 40% of the GDP.
Lakeman says
Nigeria is chaos…
I’ve been to a lot of poor countries, but Nigeria felt just a bit poorer... maybe it’s the literal piss and shit that makes Nigeria seem so poor. Lagos has the worst traffic I have ever seen… It’s difficult to express how much garbage there is everywhere in Nigeria…even the extremely rural parts of Nigeria… are covered in garbage.
Lakeman explains in detail that after a “remarkably consistent and awful cycle” of corrupt “democratic” governments, military coups, and attempts at civilian rule, since 1999 Nigeria has had a succession of civilian governments, often headed by former coup leaders.
Unfortunately, prosperity continued to elude Nigeria… among the chief causes is rampant, systemic, all-consuming corruption… just assume that every government and leader I describe in this section is somewhere between very and extraordinarily corrupt.
Lakeman supplies great detail of evidence about the dysfunctionality of Nigeria. But management of the oil industry (a post-colonial bonanza) is the key.
Some companies say 80% of some pipelines are siphoned off. 95% of oil produced at Nigeria’s main hub is stolen, and this article hilariously describes Nigerian officials “discover[ing]” a massive off-shore structure connected to a 4 KM pipeline.
(I doubt this was actually built by Nigerians.)
Also
…when in February 2022 OPEC ordered everyone to ramp up production… the Nigerian oil companies couldn’t figure out how to turn all of their wells back on.
Lakeman supplies many stories about being “shaken down” by Nigerians who claimed to have an official, fee-collecting authority. But he does not report any cases of being mugged.
Perhaps Nigerians do not actually hate whites, whom they rarely see.
As I observed in South Africa Today—America Tomorrow? And Why?
There is simply no objective evidence that blacks can operate a complex society like whites or Asians.
However, even with an average IQ below 80, which is what the data suggests, the Bell Curve means Nigeria can produce some highly intelligent individuals. Matt Lakeman concludes:
In Benin, I met a highly intelligent and articulate Nigerian who… believed Russia had a right to conquer Ukraine because “Ukraine has always been Russian”… and that Donald Trump is one of the greatest presidents of all time.
