How big is Nigerian economy?


That big.

A key reason is Nigeria is a resource-rich country and here I am talking about oil & gas. Large oil reserves means speedy recovery from serious governance and economic shocks compared to a resource-poor country like Kenya all other factors constant.

Kenya's economy was screwed by the Professor of Politics for 20 years. Nigeria was screwed by its military dictatorships for decades. When a more economically-literate president checked in for Kenya, it was a slow climb back up. But because of oil, Nigeria simply pumped oil/gas and revenues shot up when its politics somewhat stabilized. Nigeria's GDP per capita was less than Kenya's a decade or so ago but just a little stability gave it the conditions to overtake Kenya's even before rebasing. You can see the same thing in Angola which after decades of war, has skyrocketed far beyond Kenya's GDP despite having a smaller economy than Kenya in 2003. You can also see the power of oil in Nigeria by how weak the country's non-oil revenue is - just double or 2.5 times Kenya's despite having an economy 10 times ours.

All in all, Professor of Politics f***ed up Kenya economically real good. But as @masukuma says, GDP is just one part of the story albeit an important one. Kenya has better indicators than both Nigeria and Angola on several fronts. Plus resource-powered GDP growth can be deceptive as seen with countries like Angola (Nigeria is more diversified). Nigeria's two GDP advantages are population and oil which makes it very hard for any other African country to compete with them as long they have decent political stability.

See bold above. My point is, oil-based economies Nigeria/Angola recovered much faster than resource-poor Kenya did post-2002.

Moi's economic mismanagement is unfortunately an unerasable disaster and there are already books/texts on Kenya's history to that effect. One of the few things Cord and Jubilee agree on. Kenya can make improvements going forward. But we cant hide from history. Professor will be blamed for his misdeeds like everyone else will.

i agree with your analysis.
The Red part a little sticky though!

Like many of his generation, Atiku's father was opposed to the idea of Western education, and tried to keep Atiku out of the traditional school system. When the government discovered that Atiku was not attending mandatory schooling his father spent a few days in jail until Aisha Kande's mother paid the fine.[1] At the age of eight Atiku enrolled in the Jada Primary School where he performed well

In Nigeria the govt can arrest a parent for not taking his/her kid to school as can be seen with the former Nigeria VP parents back in the 50's. There was mandatory education then, I wonder what's there now. Did you know that Goodluck has PhD in Zoology, earned not honorary (Bachelors to Masters to PhD). I do not mean that those credential make one a good leader but they have a huge effect. Now these GDP and PPP differences between KE and Nigeria are getting clearer.