The football world was shaken to its bone marrows, when PSG through Neymar’s representatives paid the £198million (N95billion) release clause in FULL to Barcelona on Thursday.
Here are five things the record transfer fee when converted to Naira can purchase in Nigeria.
Linda Ikeji’s home: News broke out late 2014, that renowned blogger, Linda Ikeji had purchased a home for a reported sum of N500million in Banana Island, Lagos. The area which houses the super-rich, and powerful in Nigeria, will be shaken to its foundation if Neymar does venture into the real estate business in Nigeria. Agreed that real estate appreciates over time, but judging by the 2014 estimate of Ikeji’s home, Neymar’s big fat cheque will purchase 190 houses in Banana Island!
Galactica Star: Nigeria playboy, Kola Aluko, who is a known associate of former Petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke has been reported to own a £50million Galactica Star yacht which he rented out to billionaire entertainment couple, Jay-Z and Beyonce. Aluko is under intense global pressure to dispose of the luxury item, but a closer estimate reveals that Neymar’s £198million transfer fee will comfortably purchase three or four of such yachts.4
Minimum Wage: According to information provided by Wikipedia from the preliminary 2006 Nigerian Census figures, Neymar’s cost price would work wonders in the Nigerian labour force. Taking into account the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, all states excluding Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Katsina, Oyo and Rivers State are under the 5million population mark per state. At a present rate of N18,000 monthly minimum wage, Neymar’s cost price will pay 5,300,000 Nigerian workers drawn from any of the 31 states, a welcome relief it will be to the Nigerian governors. Unfortunately, they can only dream about such a bailout as the funds belong only to FC Barcelona!
Defence and Health Budget: A couple of days ago, Twitter went on a meltdown when it was revealed that Manchester City’s total defence cost more than the national defence budget of Bosnia and DR Congo. Well, wait for it! According to information gathered from a December 2016 publication of Punch Nigeria, which gave a detailed breakdown of the 2017 national budget, the ministry of defence and health were both allocated the princely sum of N87billion each. Unfortunately, the purchase of just one football player dwarfs those figures, as Neymar will comfortably fund either of the ministries budget with about N8billion remaining unspent.
Davido: Nigerian and global music act, Davido who is widely known as Omo Baba Olowo (O.B.O) in his home country was in the news earlier in the year with talk of 30billion in the account. Though he never revealed the currency the said sum was owned in, but it could be concluded that it was in Naira. Davido went over the moon, releasing a single titled ‘IF’, where he talked about having 30billion in the account. Based on the Neymar transfer fee, O.B.O will be forced to record three of such singles in the studio!
