Article: To Act Or Give-up

Below is a compilation of
just a few indices in which
Nigeria ranks proudly at the
bottom 10 in the entire
world:

#8 – General Corruption:
Nigeria is 8th most corrupt
nation in the world
according to Transparency
International 2013 Global
Corruption Barometer.

#4 – Police corruption:
Nigeria ranked 4th highest in the world for perceiving the police as corrupt, according to the same
Transparency survey.

#1 – Being born: The Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, ranked Nigeria the worst place to be born in 2013.

#4 – Population in Slavery:
Nigeria with up to 740,000 in
slave bondage ranks 4th in the world in modern slave nations, according to the just released Global Slavery Index. Following closely after Pakistan.

#1 –High Sea Piracy: As the
world records lower global
stats, thanks to Nigeria, West
Africa is now the world piracy capital. According to the International Maritime Bureau reported Nigeria had 11 of 66 global incidents for the first quarter of 2013. 966 sailors were attacked last year off West African
coasts.

#9 – Maternal mortality:
According to World Bank data, Nigeria ranks 9th worst in the world with 630 deaths per 100,000 from 10 years data collected from 1990-2010.

#2 –Software Piracy:  The
2011 Global Software Piracy
Study conducted by Business Software Alliance ranked Nigeria 2nd in the world, with software piracy costing the nation a
whopping $251m (N39.4bn).

#1 – Exam Malpractice:
Director General National
Orientation Agency (NOA) Mr. Mike Omeri whose agency partners with Exam Ethics Marshals International, in 2012
ranked Nigeria #1 in the World Exam Malpractice Index.

#11 – Good Governance:
Nigeria ranked 4th worst in West Africa, 13th of 16, in Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable
Economic Opportunity, and
Human Development, in the
2013 Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Nigeria ranked 41st out of the 52 countries listed overall.

#1 – Bribe:  Nigeria ranks highest for Bribe in the world on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) interactive map, online at-
fcpamap.com

#1 – VVF: According to United States Agency for International Development, USAID, Nigeria has the highest prevalence of
Vesico-Vaginal Fistula in the
world, with over 200,000 patients and an annual incidence at 20,000. That is 40% of the global cases in Nigeria alone. (my words: what do one expect when the likes of Yerima make-up the Senate, and pass legislations that allows a child to socially metamorphose into an adult; childbride).

#7 – Terrorism: Global Terrorism Index (GTI) ranks Nigeria the 7th worst in the world for terrorism over the last 10 years, according to its 2012 assessment.

#2 – Road Traffic Accidents (RTA): In 2012, Nigeria ranked second highest in road traffic accident (RTA) fatalities among the 193
countries in the world according to the Minister of Health.

#1 – Aviation Accidents for 2012: In 2012 with over 153 onboard deaths and more on the ground, in the Dana Air Boeing MD83 airline accident, Nigeria had the
world’s worst aviation accident.

#4 – Worst City: Despite aggressive transformation by the Lagos government, the EIU in its 2013 annual survey of 140 major
metropolises ranked Lagos the 4th worst city in the entire world.

#7 – Growing Old: Global AgeWatch Index 2013 ranking of 91 countries, put Nigeria at #85; the seventh worst country to grow old in. Nigeria in the report ranked third lowest for income security.

#2 – HIV/AIDS: With an estimated 3.4 million living with the virus, the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA) put the nation as the
second worst in the world.

#2 – Electricity: Nigeria is ranked by the World Bank as the 2nd worst in the world in power (electricity) supply. According to the report, 82.4 million Nigerians, half the nation lived without power. India is #1.

#1 – Kidnapping: In the first half of 2013, Nigeria had the most kidnapping attempts of any nation in the world, according to NYA
International organization of Crises prevention and response. Recording 26%, over a quarter of all incidents. Mexico was
second with 10% and Pakistan 3rd with 7%.

#1 – Oil Spills Worldwide:
From Vanguard on November 14, 2012: Nigeria has highest oil spills in the world – Senate; the nation
records the highest number of oil spill incidences among oil producing countries with no penalty regime attached
to such oil spills.

#4 – Oil Spillage Outages:
Vanguard reported on October 8th, 2013, that with more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil being lost to pipeline
vandalism, Nigeria ranks 4th
worst in the world in oil spillage outages, according to Deutsche Bank and other shipping and industry estimates. Libya, Syria, Iran and lead Nigeria in outages
for obvious reasons including recent wars and US sanctions at Iran.

But there is a glimmer of hope in it all. Nigeria actually does take the first position in something great:

#1 – Highest Paid
Legislators: The Economist magazine revealed that
Nigerian federal legislators are the highest paid in the world with an annual basic salary of $189,500 (N30.6m).
With the current state and direction of both the government and the people of Nigeria—Africa’s largest nation and the world’s most populated black country—the nation is not headed for improvement on these
shameful rankings, but more predictably to slide further down the ladder into the darkest crevices of thevblack hole of Calcutta.

The question is: To act or to
give-up? And the follow-up
question is: If we the people
decide to do something,
what should and can we
do?

By: Dr. Peregrino Brimah
Sahara reporter.

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He forgot to add this; despite the aforementioned, Nigeria toughens, shapens, and brings out the best in you. I love my Naija.