How Can I Cope With Living In A Dying Nation? | Hacker News Reader

How Can I Cope With Living In A Dying Nation?

22 pointsboeingUH6017 comments

My country (Nigeria) is in shambles. We have a poverty rate of over 80%, illiteracy rate of over 60%, high insecurity and violence. Yet, we just voted in a documented drug trafficker and extremely corrupt person as our incoming President [1].

Most of the votes for this candidate came from the Northern part of the country, the part with the highest poverty, illiteracy, and insecurity. Yet, the people from this region overlook their economic interests and are more interested in tribal and religious politics.

Once upon a time, we were improving and seeing progress...until 2015 when we elected a former military dictator who is very clueless about the state of affairs [2]. Since then, we have backslidden on all levels...poverty has become higher, my hometown has become ravaged by separatist violence [3], the economy is very bleak and continues to worsen.

I have lost hope. I never wanted to immigrate because I find it odd to stay in someone else's country, but I'm considering it now. Even at that, my passport registration got botched because of an incompetent immigration official that can't tell the difference between "new" and "renew", and I'll have to wait many more months for it to go through. I don't even mind if I end up in a monarchy like Oman and Qatar...as much as I detest that system, they seem to be performing a better job than our democratic leaders here.

I'm just tired...please, cherish your country if you live in a good one. Do the best to continue to vote in competent and good leaders. I don't want you to ever end up in my position.

1- https://prnigeria.com/2022/11/17/fact-check-tinubu/

2- https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/180422-inec-declares-buhari-president-elect.html?tztc=1

3- https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/02/26/in-anambra-even-policemen-live-in-fear/

I immigrated from a middle eastern country with hyperinflation and politics that are based on tribal/religious identity.

Even if you leave and do well, you will miss out on family, cousins growing up, grandparents passing away. Your parents..

A positive is that by you leaving you get to support your family back home.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, people in developed countries have no idea what they got. Simple stuff they take for granted like hot water/electricity.

Best of luck brother

At the end, finally do you recommend people migrating or staying? I am curious about your perspective.

In my case my 20s would be stagnating if I had stayed. Its hard to predict how exactly it would have gone but most likely I would still be with my parents working a job (or jobless) that barely pays anything.

I recommend leaving given my own experience, its tough and it won’t always work out tho.

Not sure how I’ll feel about this when I get older if I’ll miss my country/people there more or less.

I feel sorry for your country to hear that! That really sucks, I feel sad for you to face this. I didn't know things got bad. I've met many Nigerians and had the impression your country was on the up, and that your cities, particularly Lagos, were cool places to be. I'd really wanted to visit. Sounds like things must be desperate for you if you're reaching out here to an internet forum instead of to the people you live with in Nigeria. I'm sure there's lots of people from Nigeria on this forum, but in general I don't know what folks here would know that could help...Looks like you want to vent, and to remind others how lucky they are. Thanks, I guess. Poor you, tho. There might be many people here who have been through similar experiences in other countries. I know you said you never wanted to get out before, but did you ever think about it? If so, where would you go? Also...What makes you ask here in this forum?

Sound like you're quite upset, so, I guess one thing you could do, to make it easier on you, is you could work on the "mental game". Try to make staying work for you. Make it your strength. Be happy in it. I guess you could be successful and happy whether you stayed or whether you left, I suppose it just depends on you deciding if this is something you even need to decide right now, and if it is, what path you choose.

Anyway, I'm not you, and you'd have to do what you feel is best for you of course, plus I'm not giving you advice (I don't want that karma responsibility!) but I am trying to be helpful so I'll just tell you what I see--from my perspective, sounds like you need to take care of yourself and find a way out.

Maybe someone here can give you a helping hand? I don't know anyone in particular but there might be someone here who can. Maybe go to China? Many Nigerians in Guangdong I think, with many doing pretty well by the looks of it.

Also a random thought: What opportunities are there within the African continent to temporarily go to another country for work or study? Is something like that feasible--or you still absolutely need a passport?

Anyway, I wish you well and hope it work out for you! Take care! And maybe find someone to take care of! That could make things happier and better! :) Poor you.

Thanks for the kind words :)

Actually, I know I'm not leaving, just venting and reminding people to cherish the functional countries they're in.

Couldn't agree more. Writing from the UK here, and couldnt be more grateful to live in a functional democracy. Say what you wil about brexit but things are quite good here in comparison

I’ll be honest I read the headline and assumed he was writing about the UK.

I thought this would be about Russia.

To me UK is in the top-10 most desirable countries to live in.

When you start low the delta is small. The countries that start high have the farthest to fall

Functional democracy! How charitable. Especially as voter ID just came in this year (the issue is it fixes no real issue and just enables voter suppression.)

Not to mention the Government making noisy protests illegal (and more)

Functional != Perfect

Go live in Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Somalia, Nigeria, China, etc to see how it can not function.

There will always exist a worst thing to compare something to, and that will always be used by someone to go “look, it’s not too bad”

Unsurprisingly that pathetic logic is also used by people who make our country and democracy worse.

Crazy that Nigeria's population is going to be like 500 million in a few decades. That's a lot of people.

>Most of the votes for this candidate came from the Northern part of the country, the part with the highest poverty, illiteracy, and insecurity. Yet, the people from this region overlook their economic interests and are more interested in tribal and religious politics.

Sounds a lot like bolivia, where the communist clowns in charge love to drape themselves in indio clothing and pit west vs east in some kind of warm race-war.

Speaking as a US Florida resident, I almost thought you were describing this state.

I know the US is different, but the trajectory is disturbing. Stands selling accessories and tshirts disputing the legitimacy of President Biden draw ridiculously huge crowds. A towtruck driver I spoke to very seriously thought covid masks were government mind control devices. Child test and mental health scores are plummeting. I just recently saw a news segment blaming a hurricane that destroyed my town on... Democrats, one of our political parties. And I cant help but think of our own identity and religion politics when you describe yours.

You illustrate the OP point. Having some fools don't compare to a number of other countries where poverty rate is 80% and people trying to leave. Florida grew by 15% in 2020 compared to the previous census.

Comparing child test scores Florida isn't much different than CA. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-24/californ...

There is plenty to criticize about the US and individual states but some people don't seem to have any context as relates to many other countries.

Yeah that is a fair point, its not really a valid comparison.

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