The challenges of an African Steemian ( Nigerian case study)

in #writing7 years ago (edited)


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Growing up as an African girl has its own challenges, from socio cultural issues to issues that relates mainly to a girl child. Life does not come easy. I remember, when I was growing up as a girl child, the freedom boys have is more like a daydream for many of us girls as we were restricted on how many hours to play, who to hang out with, where to visit unlike my brothers who are free to do whatever they like. Back then, my mum use to warn me against going near boys, that they are so dangerous and can get me pregnant even if they as much as touch my hands. So I developed deep fear and resentments for boys. Well, that was in the early Y2K. thank goodness I have outgrown all those issues naturally.

Furthermore, there are so many challenges as a Nigerian girl, from endless house chores like washing, cooking, fetching of water, going on errands to buy this or that and helping mum at home. Then here comes academics with all its ups & downs and unending burning of the midnight candle. As they say, "life is not easy" is a truism.


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In Nigeria, most times when it comes to enjoying quality time to watch a good home video or Walt Disney cartoons, at the peak of the interesting episode, kpam! NEPA strikes. NEPA which was short for National Electric Power Authority ( Now power holding) was nicknamed by Nigerians as Never Expect Power Always. Nepa is know to take light whenever you want to enjoy the light and at the end of the month get you estimated bills higher than what you can ever imagine. So this was the life style of an average Nigerian.

Now coming to issues relating to blogging in steemit, being a Nigerian steemian/blogger comes with so much challenges which I will enumerate below...

  • Power Issues- This post was supposed to be sent early today around 7am ( GMT) but since yesterday power has been off and not back as I write this as such, I had to go buy some Fuel (PMS) to power our generator at home to be able to write my post today. So one of the major challenges we have as a Nigerian Steemian is issues related to epileptic power supply and the government although always claiming they are working on permanent solution with so much money budgeted in that sector, still nothing to show for it.

  • Network Issues- Network in Nigeria is so bad that there are hours on end when you would want to check your blog messages, do some replies and read and comment on other steemians post but sadly no network availability to work with. Many times I would book for midnight browsing mainly to be able to have fast datas but would rather waste all night trying to connect to no avail. So another major issue is related to bad Internet network service.

  • High cost of data- The cost of Internet data is so high especially for unemployed students that being an active steemian is very difficult. Many good posts comes as Vlog especially in Dtube. Watching Videos or uploading videos is luxury as it comes with high data usage which are very expensive to maintain here. So another is high cost of data.

  • Hardware issues- By hardware issues I mean as a Nigerian student and a steemian, acquiring a good Android phone, Ipad and or Laptop does not come cheap as most high quality ones are way out of reach. As such, most steemians go for what we call “Tokumbo” which is second hand or used ones which comes with a lot of issues and maintenance/ repairs are not cheap. So in this area we are looking at high cost of hardwares both to acquire and maintain.

  • Security issues- due to high rate of youth unemployment and general hardship in Nigeria, many steemians face issues related to security like theft of their hardwares or even generator set. I have heard one steemian complain his handset was stolen while charging it outside his student lodge to be able to blog later with it. So another challenges we face as steemians in Nigeria is issues related to security.

But the good news is, with all these challenges we face as steemians, against all odds, Nigerian steemians are showing resilient spirit and taking over and leading the way as most active and resourceful steemians in Africa. If you visit the Nigerian Tag you find out it is the most active Tag amongst country related tags in steemit and after Soul in Korea, Lagos came as second most active city for steemit users. So this goes to show that although as a Nigerian steemian, we face a lot of challenges we have no reason but to keep steemian hot and strive to meet top steemains all over the world at the top.

If you agree with my post, please kindly support this steemian with an upvote, resteem to expose me more and follow for more.

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Amazing post. I do monitor your blog and find most of the posts motivating for a young lady and new steemian. Gave you some sbd tip and upped 100% to support you as it's really not easy to blog in Nigeria. Keep steeming hot


You have been so gracious and supportive to many minnows and myself. Keep it up 😘Thanks a mil @kenhudoy

Network and power is my own problem. These telecommunication companies no get joy at all. You won't believe I spent 4k on etisalat sub and it didn't even last 3weeks. Then power...u sef know as crase dey worry NEPA for Naija. I will still keep on smiling shaa cos at d end of a tunnel, there's light.

Good one. Those are already highlighted in my post and very evident in Nija. Steem on my guy 👌

The only solution to our problems is God intervention on Nigeria. I believe that things will go well for Nigeria.

This post has received gratitude of 1.58 % from @appreciator thanks to: @etilda.

Good point, most Nigerians steemians are really suffering. But they keep believing that things will get better.

Na true . Thanks for the comment 👌

We all believe so, thanks for Checking

i feel your story! Philippines is also facing problems not far from your country.And we are lucky enough to have steemit to help us little by little.

sure but in the issue of power failures and insecurity, my country is topping the list but as we live, we have hope for better tomorrow and thanks to steemit the burden is lessening for those who are ready to key in. thanks for the comment

Is well, I believe time will come when all these problems will be no more. Thanks for checking .