Ena Ofugara, left, Naira and Dollar

By Ena Ofugara

The debate is stupid and the pro-Buhari people stating what you can do with N200 that you cannot do with 1 dollar are either idiotic or are just being smart by half

The minimum wage in the US is 7:25. Many places do not pay this. As a CNA (certified nursing assistant)   cleaning butts, you get paid from 11 dollars an hour. In places like California, it goes as high as 25 dollars an hour.

But let us make comparisons. CNAs and those who work in McDonald and Walmart drive SUVs. What do you have to do to drive SUV in Nigeria? Even the single mothers with two kids are still able to afford cars. If you drive any SUV aka JEEP in Nigeria, you are an OGA.

Then, TIMBERLAND boots are 19 dollars. If you earn 10 dollars an hour, two hours can buy you a shoe you will wear in Nigeria and people will stare at your feet. Cleaners and those who go with the trash vans rock amazing Timberland boots. When I first arrived, I kept staring at the boots of the cleaners and the cars of CNAs till I bought my own car CASH- a Nissan Sentra with just a month savings as a CNA. 

And how about TRUCK DRIVERS? They eff all the women here. You do not need to be educated to drive a truck. Even if you have prison record, there is a truck job waiting for you. They earn between 18 and 30 dollars an hour. These dudes have a girl in every town… I am talking nurses and sales rep and really classy women. 

How many of you graduates can date a truck driver? Here, they drive SUVs and live the life.

So if a politician tries to compare standard of living and what a dollar does and how far it goes, tell him if you worked the lowest job in the US, after six months of diligent working, you will pay your rent (instead of begging your brothers and sister abroad at the end of every two years for rent money) and own a cash car or at least a “car note” car with reverse camera etc. 

And if you are a dude and can drive a truck across state lines, or even domestically, clean sharp truck not our agbeghi and 9/11..  I am talking MERC etc, dude!!! You are McDaddy in three months. 

And if you patiently and diligently care for old people and clean their buttocks with handgloves and wipe and read up to become LVN and even REGISTERED NIGERIAN aka RN aka Registered Nurse…

Or you truly know your computers.. 

Or the finall or ULTIMATE one… you come here as doctor or engineer. … RITUAL MONEY!

Compare a Registered nurse in Nigeria to one in the US. 

These Buhari supporters can be mad! If not for Pandemic and shutdowns, the problem in America is HOW TO STOP EATING and not that one is hungry… and I am talking Walmart and McDonald worker, not even security guard. 

There is no comparison, please… except you are doing some really profitable business. 

The only “advantage” Nigeria has is you can get away with anything, from MURDER to CORRUPTION. You can rape a girl and walk past the girls house the next day, things that will send you to jail and ruin your life in the US forever.

-Ena Ofugara, a public affairs analyst lives in the US