The Brutal Truths about Nigeria

Here are some brutal, uncomfortable truths about Nigeria and its people, backed by data and observable reality as of 2025:

1. Corruption is systemic and cultural, not just political
   Nigeria consistently ranks among the most corrupt countries on Earth (e.g., 154/180 on Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index). Bribery is expected at every level—police checkpoints, university admissions, hospital treatment, even getting electricity connected. Most Nigerians will openly admit that “nothing moves” without “settling” someone. It’s not an aberration; it’s the operating system.
2. Tribalism is stronger than nationalism
   The average Nigerian’s primary loyalty is to their ethnic group (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Ijaw, etc.), not to “Nigeria.” Political parties, marriages, business deals, and even football support are heavily filtered through tribe. The 2023 election was essentially a tribal census with ballots. National unity is a polite fiction.
3. Population growth is a ticking time bomb
   Nigeria has ~230+ million people and one of the highest fertility rates in the world (~5.2 children per woman). Over 60% are under 25. There are not enough jobs, schools, or land. Northern Nigeria already has millions of out-of-school children (almajirai) who are prime recruitment material for Boko Haram and bandit groups. The youth bulge is not a “demographic dividend”—it’s a demographic disaster in slow motion.
4. Religious hypocrisy is off the charts
   Nigeria is one of the most religiously observant countries on paper (90+% say religion is “very important”), yet it has astronomical levels of fraud, sexual immorality, ritual killings, and pastor-related scams. Pentecostal pastors fly private jets while their members live in abject poverty and still pay tithes. In the Muslim north, Sharia law coexists with rampant kidnapping-for-ransom empires.
5. The average citizen is complicit
   “Yahoo Yahoo” (cyber fraud) is celebrated in pop culture. Politicians who loot billions are given chieftaincy titles when they come home. Police officers who extort motorists are fed by their wives with the proceeds. The same people who complain about the system will cut corners, bribe, and scam the moment they get the chance. Everyone hates the game but keeps playing it.
6. Violence is normalized
   Kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, herdsmen-farmer clashes, and police brutality are daily realities. In 2024 alone, thousands were killed in banditry in the northwest. People get massacred and the news cycle moves on in 48 hours. Life is cheap.
7. The elite have zero loyalty to the country
   Nigerian billionaires and politicians keep their families, money, and medical care abroad (mostly UK, US, Dubai). Their children speak with British accents and have never experienced NEPA blackout. They only come back to extract more wealth or contest elections.
8. Education is in free fall
   Public universities are on strike more often than they are open. Lecturers are poorly paid and supplement income with “sorting” (bribery for grades). Over 20 million children are out of school—the highest number in the world. ASUU strikes have added 2–3 extra years to many people’s degrees.
9. “Nigerian exceptionalism” is a coping mechanism
   Nigerians love to boast about being the “Giant of Africa,” “most hardworking people,” “happiest people on Earth” (World Happiness Report be damned),” etc. It’s a psychological shield against the objective reality that the country is underperforming relative to its size, oil wealth, and human capital.
10. Most people are in survival mode, not building mode
    The average Nigerian is hustling 2–3 jobs, dealing with 20-hour daily blackouts, buying fuel at ₦1,200/liter, dodging okada accidents, and praying they don’t get kidnapped on the highway. Long-term planning is a luxury.

These are not the things you’ll hear in Nollywood or Afrobeats music videos, but they are the day-to-day reality for the vast majority of the 230 million “animals” in the Nigerian zoo. The country somehow keeps limping along, held together by resilience, religion, music, comedy, and sheer stubbornness—but it’s running on fumes.