Nigeria rebased its national accounts and doubled the size if its economy. With a GDP of $510 billion Nigeria soared past South Africa, which has a per capita GDP that is nearly three times larger. Similarly, Ghana rebased its national accounts in 2010 and expanded its GDP by 60 percent.
But Boko Haram rained on Nigeria's parade, bringing into sharp focus the paralyzing incapacity of the Nigerian state. Moreover, GDP size is just a meaningless statistic for a vast majority of Nigerians when the country ranks 153 out of 187 in the United Nation's Human Development Index. Youth unemployment has reached crisis proportion. In March, a stampede among jobseekers taking recruitment test at a stadium in Abuja left many dead and scores injured.
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