Nigeria At 54: Time For Reflection

The Nigerian government, since last Sunday, rolled out the drums as part of activities that would culminate in the celebration of the country’s 54th Independence anniversary on Wednesday, 1 October, 2014. But, while the government thumbs its chest in celebration of its perceived achievements, we are of the opinion that this period should be spent on ruminating about our dear country that has become a laughing stock among the comity of nations.

Over time, our leaders and the people have not demonstrated enough resolve to solve the problems confronting us as a nation. It is a shame that the government celebrates road construction and provision of other social amenities which ordinarily should be its responsibility. Even at that, such infrastructure are either grossly inadequate for the teeming population and many still in deplorable condition. Worse still, for several years now, electricity generation has not been improved beyond 4,000 megawatts in a country of over 160 million in spite of the huge amount so far spent on electricity generation by successive governments.

Apart from these, issues of insecurity, ethnicity, religious intolerance and lack of trust among the people of the various zones of the country has pulled us back several decades from the race for industrialisation and development. Today, 100 years after the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates of Nigeria, we are still busy trying to resolve the challenges that come with it.

While the Nigerian government and its people, with all the God-given resources at their disposal, still live in confusion and hallucination, the country’s contemporaries have since left the club of third world countries to join the league of countries with buoyant economies devoid of corruption and technological backwardness.

It took Dubai just 20 years to attain such enviable status after its oil revenue first started to flow in 1969. The country is now a major destination for Nigerians. Cuba, apart from its development, is world-acclaimed with a near-perfect health system.

Singapore, a relatively younger country than Nigeria is the 14th largest exporter in the world, has the world’s 11th largest foreign reserves, has the world’s highest percentage of millionaires, with one out of every six households having at least one million US dollars in disposable wealth, and is the sixth best healthcare service provider in the world with the lowest infant mortality rate and a life expectancy of 80 for male and 85 for female, while Nigeria still battles with a life expectancy of between 45 and 47. It got independence in 1965, five years after Nigeria got hers.

Malaysia, a country that gained independence in 1957, understudied Nigeria in the 1970s and has been a success story since then. The country, with one of the best telecommunications services in the world, boasts of 13 Gigawatts of electricity generation capacity with 33 years of natural gas reserves, and 19 years of oil reserves.

Nigeria is only known for corruption encouraged by those in government with a President that tries to downplay the enormity of this challenge by calling it mere stealing. Rather than focus on challenges of the future, our leaders settle for mediocre performance in a country that boasts of being a consumer nation and nothing worthwhile to produce and export.

This grim situation cuts across all sectors: education, health, manufacturing, etc. If we are truly sincere with ourselves as a country, we would realise that there is nothing to celebrate, but that this 54th Independence anniversary should be a time to reflect on our past and decide on how to improve the appalling backwardness our country has been mired in by our leaders for decades.