Why Nigeria Is the Greatest Country in the World by Lawson Akhigbe

(A PowerPoint Presentation Sponsored by Hope and Diesel)

Nigeria is the greatest country in the world. This is not a claim to be tested with data; it is a spiritual position. Evidence is optional. Doubt is treason. Anyone asking questions is advised to “leave the country” — as though Japa were not already a national development strategy.

We are great because we have potential. This potential has been with us since 1960 and, like some government projects, remains permanently “ongoing”. Other countries waste time turning potential into results; Nigeria prefers to admire it from a safe distance.

We are great because we have oil. We extract it, export it, import the refined product, subsidise the inefficiency, borrow to fund the subsidy, then remove the subsidy and explain that suffering is patriotic. This is called economic sophistication.

We are great because we have electricity—not in practice, but in policy documents. Power supply in Nigeria is best understood as a motivational concept. When light appears, citizens celebrate as though they personally negotiated the contract. When it disappears, NEPA is blamed, even though NEPA itself has been missing for two decades.

Healthcare works efficiently too. If you are rich, you fly to London. If you are poor, you pray. If you are a politician, you do both and still cut the health budget.

Security is handled with equal professionalism. Bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists operate freely, while the government assures us it has the situation “under control”. The control, regrettably, appears to be with the bandits.

Anti-corruption remains Nigeria’s favourite performance art. Committees are formed. Panels sit. Reports are written. Nothing happens. Occasionally, a small fish is arrested to remind the public that corruption is wrong — provided it is not profitable or politically useful.

Yet despite all this, we are constantly reminded that Nigeria is great because Nigerians are resilient. Resilience, in this context, is what citizens develop when the state consistently abdicates responsibility. It is praised loudly so governance does not have to improve quietly.

The tragedy is that Nigeria does not lack intelligence, resources, or capacity. It lacks consequences. In Nigeria, failure is rewarded, incompetence is recycled, and accountability is treated as foreign interference.

Nigeria is not the greatest country in the world because it says so at conferences.
It will be great when power supply is boring, budgets are real, and resilience is no longer a prerequisite for citizenship.

Until then, greatness remains uninterrupted — just like darkness.