Why southern Nigeria is richer than northern Nigeria

Posted by James on Saturday January 17, 2015 at 10:36:35:

According to a research, when Nigerian states were categorized according to their wealth - that is, from richest to poorest, it was observed that a lot of the states on the top of the list were all southern states. This goes on to suggest that southern states are obviously richer than the northern states.

When it comes to why Southern Nigeria is richer than Northern Nigeria, there are a couple of factors that should be considered. These factors range from the nature of their economy to the calibre of people living in these various areas.

The northern Nigeria is known to have a poverty rate of above 70 percent and is double that of southern Nigeria. Its income per head is known also to be 50 percent lower than the southern Nigeria.

The poverty condition of the northern Nigeria is partly due to the lack of economic opportunities in their states and its over 60 percent of youth unemployment - this is known to be the reason why some of them are being driven into the arms radical Islamists.

Due to the insurgency and violence exhibited in the Northern regions, the few oil barons they had are largely moving to the south where it is relatively peaceful. A this happens, the south is been intoxicated with oil leaving the north with little or no oil at all. As we all know that revenues from oil brings a great deal of the financial prosperity of Nigeria. This is also responsible for the lack of opportunities in such regions. Also, a result of certain factors of which violence is a part, a majority of the rich oligarchs from the north do not reside there. Some of them are known to have their businesses in the southern areas and this obviously means a lack of tax revenues for the northern states. With the incessant bombings, Investors are no longer interested in investing any more in these regions as they are afraid that something wrong might just get to happen some day and all their will go down the drain. No sane investor will ever want that. With lack of investors, it also means lack of opportunities for the youths and the circle just goes on. Economic activities are reducing a the day goes by and this does not tell well of these regions.

With the poor education in the northern (or the Northern Nigeria is characterized by poor education), as a result of the insurgent acts, there is also a lack of skilled labour for the few investors that will want to till remain. It is very difficult to find such in the southern state where everyone is encouraged to get educated.

Also, due to the fact that many state in Southern Nigeria tend to have a lot of oil deposits and oil companies working there unlike in the north, the oil derivation formula has helped southerners get more income from their crude oil which the north does not have. The north would have also made up for this by boosting their agricultural wealth which helped them in the early 60s and 70s but this was not encouraged as many are gradually abandoning agriculture for easy money.

The above mentioned anomalies are to a very extent responsible for the poverty state of the northern regions and why the southern states are richer than them.