Yesterday, Saturday, October 1, Nigeria turned 56, having received political independence from the British colonial masters on October 1, 1960. Ordinarily, the day ought to be for the citizens, a day to roll out the drums considering the enormous dreams of Nigeria’s founding fathers that the country would become great in the years ahead.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria has come of age, given that 56 years is more than half a century. Expectedly, there are those who will beat their chests and say the country has done well on all fronts.We however assume what those in this school of thought mean is that the country is making progress having come of age.
Without doubt, the founding fathers envisaged a great country in Sub Sahara Africa in particular and the world at large capable of tackling its numerous problems of infrastructure, ensuring adequate power supply, good road networks, improved communication, transportation systems, education and social services.
They had a dream of a country where there should be political and socio-economic alliances that will propel good governance and translate to meaningful live for the citizenry. This however seems to have remained a mere dream.
So far, politically the country is not where the founding fathers would have preferred it to be. What we have dogging the country is wrong system and faulty political structure that have combined to stall desired development and growth these past years.
During independence, Nigeria was comfortable economically.The then federating units under the regional system depended on agriculture and other natural resources in their areas to foster development and create healthy competition.
But with the discovery of crude oil in large quantity and full dependence on it as major source of revenue, the country drifted to a mono-economystatus which today has tremendously contributed to the growing poverty and unemployment rate threatening its existence if the growing agitation by unemployed youths masquerading under different names in different parts of the country, is anything to go by.
At 56, Nigeria’s founding fathers did not envisage that insecurity would pose so much problem that seems to be the norm today.
Ordinarily, the happiness of the largest number of compatriots at any time should be the ultimate goal of modern, democratic governance.
Rather than that, we are confronted with the glum faces of dissatisfied countrymen and women battling with poverty in the midst of plenty. This is particularly now that the country is witnessing one of its worse moments as brought about by the recession. Needless to say that when the country was reaping from the soaring price of crude oil the leaders of today’s Nigeria forgot to save for the rainy day.
The glitz and glamour that attended the spending of all the wind falls in the past years made them forget Nigeria is still dependent on a mono-economy. Of course, no one can divorce bad governance over the years from the current economic situation. That is why the call for diversification of the economy to make room for value addition as well as restructuring of the current political system to enhance effective and more transparent governance has rented the air of late.
Compared with countries that had independence with us in 1960, ours undoubtedly is obviously trailingbehind in terms of poverty rate and life expectancy.
But we believe Nigeria can still pull out of the current situation if the leadersare ready to learn from their past mistakes and purge themselves of the noisy, fractious, treasury looting political class which relishes in corrupt, primitive acquisition as a way of life.
We need a political class that is tolerant of one another whether in power or opposition. The time to be antagonistic of the opposition party cannot be now.If anything, healthy opposition in a multi-party democracy has a lot to do in deepening democracy.
We are in agreement with those who think diversification of the economy which has been ongoing should be taken to another level where Nigerians should be getting results.
If for no other reason, there is a huge number of the unemployed which a committed government can address using mechanized agriculture.
We reason with those who think there is little to celebrate, more so at a time recession is tellingheavily on Nigerians, especially as there is still no clear-cut economic blueprint to pull the country out of the recession.
Every sector presents the same catalogue of woes because government seems not to have provided an enabling environment for it to flower.
For a population of 170 million and above national food self-sufficiency should not be taken lightly. In similar vein, the issue of power which has remained abysmal should not be allowed to persist.
Whether in education, sports, tourism, health sectors, we demand that government takes a second look at the manner of funding if it expects the kind of result in other parts of the world.
The time to continue to appoint accusing fingers at military rule should be over.At 56, the jury is still out on when and at what point Nigerian leaders got it all wrong.
After 17 years of return to civil rule in 1999, there should be remarkable change in orientation towards purposeful leadership and national advancement with enlightened, democratic governance.
Nigerians are tired of being superintended over by greedy, selfish, corrupt and lawless leaders with penchant for plundering national wealth and leaving majority of the led stranded.
The national rebirth which the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has promised to champion should only assume critical relevance when it is done with sincerity of purpose, devoid of cronyism, nepotism, ethnicity and other considerations that have stultified Nigeria’s growth.
We are confident that Nigeria is redeemable. If anything, the Asian Tigers of South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, among others, with which we started at independence should be used as yardsticks.
The only magic wand that propelled their own growth is nothing but the interplay of good governance and formulation of sound economic policies. Nigeria cannot afford to play down on such important matters.
The time for Buharito remember that Nigerians invested huge trust in his integrity for high democratic dividends in his leadership and its change agenda is now. He cannot afford to be banding excuses about.
Nigerians want to celebrate October 1 every year with fanfare. They want to look back and reflect on the promises of our founding fathers and be proud to be called Nigerians. They want transparent and sincere efforts at uprooting corruption from the land. They also need genuine actions that will see them renew their belief and confidence in the country.
Despite all skepticisms, Nigerians want to believe in the leaders they voted into offices to provide the enabling environment for them to succeed in whatever profession or vocation they find themselves.