The Free Market Makes the World Great
Nigeria is a country located on the western coast of Africa. It is a democratic and secular country, where English is the official language. After a century of civil war and military conflict, Nigeria has been relatively free and prosperous for a little under one decade. As the dust of this geo-political nightmare has cleared, the emergence of a stable governmental and economic paradigm has materialized. Nigeria now has a larger economy than South Africa (not having a great decade).
Economic and Societal Outlook
Nigeria is currently, by GDP, the 20th largest economy on the planet; outranking the likes of Netherlands, Australia, Sweden and Singapore. By diversifying industry into agriculture exports, tourism and a budding mining/service sector, Nigeria has become known as the, "Giant of Africa." Historically, Nigeria’s former top two sources of wealth are oil production and remittances. As is happening in many developing nations, population has grown rapidly. Nigeria is now three times its former size, up from 33 million in 1971 to over 150 million in 2015. Moreover, over half of Nigeria's population is under the age of 15 years old. Yes, they are set to become a global power and with a population of 1 BILLION by the next century. Nigeria's economic production is set to explode, and that is putting it lightly.
How Nigeria Will Grow
As shown in the picture above, the natural landscape of Nigeria is a central planner's wet dream. With a resource rich North, flanked by oil producing neighbors on all sides, Nigeria can seek to capitalize through the expansion of shipping and infrastructure assets around its rivers to deliver these assets to its industrial centers on its coastal trading hub. Shell Oil recently finalized its investment into four previously untapped oil fields in 2014 and production is set to ramp-up in the coming years. Furthermore, foreign commercial interests are expanding Nigeria's agricultural production to record levels, securing global market share of cocoa, peanuts, rubber and palm oil production. The largest source of the coming Nigerian prosperity will come from two new sources of income generation: mining and the service sector. These are entirely human resources, as they rely directly on the human capital of the country. The creation of modern hospitals and universities will come out of two things, demand for engineers used for mineral production and the need for a highly educated populace to become the doctors, lawyers and business persons that the country will need for daily operations of a great economy.
Barriers to Progress!
The short answer, a militarist state and militant Islamic terrorist. The 75 million Nigerians that are currently under the age of 15 need to avoid voting their way to poverty. This entails a shift away from government managed economies, to a militarily secure nation with a free market economic system. Then practically any country would thrive, but Nigeria is on the cusp of fantastic wealth and prosperity. However, as the history of this nation has shown, military and governmental forces tend to undo this growth through taxation and regulation. Dictatorial control over production is easy when the primary source of income for a country is oil (cough, Venezuela, cough). Sadly, there is always a point in which people have to fight back against the growth of government to sustain their level of economic growth. More often than not, the governments of growing nations use the increase in profit and prosperity as a method of increasing state-subservience of its population. "Vote for me cuz muh public good. I needs muh universal healthcare and muh single mother benefits."
That centralization of power tends to create states who inflate their currency, begin bread and circus politics and then create a Boogieman-industrial-complex out of their media and military. Sad. If they can overcome this, they would become the new model society in the world. Who would have thought it? Not these guys...
Entrepreneurs Despise Pirates
If there ever was need for a country to re-institute the ye-'ol-fashioned hang, drawn and quarter death penalty it would causal to the rise of Boko Haram.
Boko Haram is a Nigerian militant Islamic group that survives on ransom, oil theft, slinging drugs and the charity of other terror organizations. They declared alliance to the brigand group ISIS in 2015, adopting a similar flag and credo. However, these guys are ranked as the deadliest terrorist group in the world, having displaced more than 2.3 million Nigerians from their homeland, gnarly bro. These vermin - are the ISIS of Kony 2012 and - should be hunted like animals. There's an idea! * Rolls over in bed, * Nigeria, if you are listening, enlist the services of American big game hunters to take these c**ts out to pasture -- namely Blackwater Security Force. That'll clear the way for the big-dick swingers of commercial enterprise... Ya, or just giv'm the 2nd Amendment equivalent... We'll see.
Nigerian 2.0, It All Rests On the Next Gen
Overcoming the problems of terror will allow for Nigerian entrepreneurs to attract foreign investment. Hope is present for the, "Giant of Africa" to graduate to the level of, "We Iz Kingz of Africa." However, this hope rests on the youth of Africa embracing western capital and a free market economy. It is easy to suck off the t**s of mother oil to run a country, but Nigeria has the potential to grow into a superpower by establishing physical security over its territory, and limiting taxation on industry. What ever they do, the Nigerian 2.0 generation will have chance to reject the regulatory misgivings of EU-Europe, the currency defacement of the United States and all without the ethic diversity strife that faces South Africa. Austrian economics is where it's at.
How They Will Probably Mess It All Up...
I believe that if Nigeria fails to embrace the free market system and leverage their economic potential with foreign capital, then they will fall into another century of war and poverty, just like the last. It will be sad to see history repeat itself, but with the combo of rapid population growth and no thriving economy, sick s**t happens. Nigeria won't be in sitting pretty to say the least. I wish good fortune for the people of Nigeria. I have great hope for their future and high esteem for the upcoming generation of what I hope will be a celebrated generation that brings about Nigeria 2.0.
Lastly, I believe that crypto currency, like Steemit, will be a huge contributing factor in the rise of Nigeria. This would be another factor of decentralization and wealth storage for the working class. Meanwhile, no matter where you are, keep storing that gold, silver, crypto, liquid investments and what ever else non-paper asset you can hold -- and let it ride.