Did you also notice that most Nigerian members here in Bitcointalk earn merit very quickly compared to other local members who have been on Bitcointalk for a long time and have quality posts but still struggle to rank up because they can't earn merit?[/qupte]
To be honest, there's so much merit going around in forum that anyone who is active and of decent post quality should have no issues whatsoever when it comes to ranking up.

Speaking strictly about Nigerian local board, their merit/post ratio is among the lower ones among all other local boards so no, I don't think that anything weird is going on there (at leats not on the mass scale). Having said that, they are one of the biggest local boards with many active members which may give you impression that something dodgy is going on.