I get all the comments and your question on my piece – https://lnkd.in/e7SCSV2F): Why do you compare India with Africa when one is a country and another is a continent?
My Response: there is no other way to do so since I cannot compare Cape Verde (pop 600,000 people) with India which has 1.4 billion people. Maybe I can try with the Seychelles with 100,000 people!
Good People, you do not need to remind me that India is a country while Africa is a continent. Focus on the thesis of my post and you can understand that comparing India with Cape Verde or Seychelles, etc makes no sense due to the asymmetric nature of the population disparity. But if anyone can do it, please do, and we will read.
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Next time, I will continue to compare India (pop 1.4 billion) with Africa (1.3 billion population) because both have clear parity. I will not compare India vs Cape Verde because it makes no sense!
Comment on Feed
Comment 1: Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, what then can we say about comparing Japan to India? In terms of population, isn’t it closer to comparing Nigeria which is an African country to India? Yet, Japan’s GDP outperforms that of India. We can also throw Germany into that mix, with an even significantly lesser population. These two countries (Japan & Germany) also appear to have suffered high casualties during World War II.
My Response: “Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, what then can we say about comparing Japan to India?” – I am not saying any person cannot compare with whatever he/she likes. I am only saying how I want to compare!
Comment 1R: Ndubuisi Ekekwe I like this response. I think people should focus on content, most times people focus of trying to prove they have better knowledge of everything.
Comment 1R2: my comment is far from proving superior knowledge. That was not the impression I wanted to make at all. The thought alone is laughable, haha. What do I really know? Contrarian takes, Questions and Debates do not only serve as tools for proving “better knowledge”. They also help with clarity and solidification of views, for or against the author. Either ways, the goal is to learn and learn well.
Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe seemed to have presented “population size” as the basis of his opinion. My input is aimed at deriving more information as to the logic behind that basis. Which can even help me understand the view better.
From his response, we can now deduce & conclude that it’s not about logic, but choice. That’s amazing & puts a lot in place if you ask me.
Comment 1RR2: wasn’t actually directly refering to your opinion specifically, many comments toed your line of thought. I agree everything is in the line of knowledge exchange.
Actually, concepts are usually contrasted along many atteibutes, concerning this particular subject, Prof. I believe only mentioned the word ‘choice’ because he expects readers to easily understand what he is trying to say after the clarification-post he made and expectedly doesn’t want to go any further into proving theories or arguing with anyone. As a matter of fact, there are many ways to skin a cat, contrasting countries or economies with the population as a attribute is a very standard way of performance comparison. So, in many ways we compare Lagos economy to the entire Ghana etc, just because by similarities in population and opportunities. they seem more comparable. As Prof said, this doesn’t constrain anyone from choosing using GDP, historical journey, politics, culture, geo location, perciliar challenges faced based on environmental factors, and so on. Picking one angle of comparisons doesn’t render orher methodologies futile. It’s not a basis to argue which method is right or wrong. Nevertheless, I agree it’s all in pursuit of knowledge.
Comment 2: Well, the only way India cannot be compared to Africa is when Africa starts delivering multiples of what India is delivering, in that way we may not have enough basis for comparison. The population numbers are similar, the GDPs are similar, so if Africa is truly a continent, why is it performing below a single country? We just have people here who like looking for what’s not missing, still part of the deficiencies in the land.
Comment 3: What about possible impacts that structural arrangement will have in the analysis Ndubuisi Ekekwe India will have a single leader which is a key factor in policy review and Africa will have more than 50 Presidents -some clueless, some fairly fantastic and few outliers. I understand the population side. Quality of monetary policy direction is one of Africa’s problems- the fiscal side can even rest – as most of them overspend their budgets with borrowings. What are the assumptions that we should hold on to in reading such a review and which should we relax? Population assumption can be relaxed. I ask because I read you wella.
My Response: Great – you can compare Seychelles vs India to deal with those . Nothing wrong with that. But for me, I will not do that. This is not about telling anyone what to do. It is about what I want to do.
My Further Response: … my post has no right or wrong. And there is nothing to agree or disagree. I am not asking you NOT to compare a country of 100k with one of 1.4b people. I am only saying ” Ndubuisi Ekekwe will not do that and will focus on Africa vs India”. That does not mean you are wrong if you write a paper and compare Seychelles vs China or India. So, whether you agree or not is irrelevant; anyone can do whatever he/she likes; I was defending myself on what I will do.
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