By Boma Nwuke
Nigeria is celebrating 60 years of freedom from colonial rule today.,The celebration though organised to be low-key for reasons obviously adduced and understandably given as the Covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown, has been greeted with mixed feelings by Nigerians in and outside of the country.
At 60, Nigeria has seen 6 decades, marking years of economic glut and lack, tears of separatist civi war, military incursions, civil rule and terrrorism.
On October 1,1960 , Nigeria gained independence from Britain.Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was made the Prime Minister leading a coalition government with a parliamentary structure.
In October 1963, three years after, Nigeria became a republic where the people and their representatives were granted the much advocated supreme power to either make their nation better or mar it. Thus Nigeria became known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe as the first President.The British Union Jack was lowered and replaced with the Green White Green flag.
It was the final signpost of freedom. A period of regeneration.A new constitution was handed over to the new nation having a weak federal structure with three almost autonomous regions- Western, Eastern and Northern. Competition among regions was healthy and the regions rather than depending on the center for monthly dividends,gave royalties to the federal government from the income they generated from cash crops.
Agriculture was the main stay of Nigeria’s economy . There was the groundnut pyramid , Cotton, Beniseed and Tin from the North,. there was coal and oil palm economy of the East while Cocoa and taxes accruing from the lagos port made the economy of the West .
With duties and cocoa, thousands were given free education in the West With groundnut tin and cotton,business flourished in the North. With coal and oil economy, the East,was structurally and materially defined and developed.
And then the enemy of progress struck , ignited the fire of hate against the spirit of brotherhood in the midst of diverse tongue ,tribe and resources leading to three years of civil war whose wounds refused to heal and relics difficult to wear away.
The regional arrangement was replaced by then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon who created12 states in 1967, paving the way for more state creatjon by Murtala Muhammad( deceased) in 1976, General Ibrahim Babangida, between 1987& 1991 and Late General Sani Abacha in 1996 bringing the states to 36.
With earnings in crude oil coming in high, there was total neglect of Agriculture and other income generating sectors that were not crude oil based and states were encouraged to collect their share of the national cake every month without corresponding income generations by their states to beef up their economic bases and provide most basic things for their people.
The crude oil that contributed to making us a giant had continued to be a blessing for a few and a detriment to over 90 percent of the population who in no fault of theirs live in abject poverty,groan under insecurity and take solace in God.
At 60, Nigeria should be fully grown not by word of mouth but by leaps and bounds.By now, the country should have been courted as a developed nation and not the other way round where wrong policies and bad leadership over the years have created high levels of unemployment and instituted poor living conditions making citizens to migrate to other countries.
And some who do not have the means to go elsewhere for greener pastures become easy targets of manipulation by criminal elements.
There is the saying that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop And from what is happening in the country, there is no reason to doubt that an idle mind is indeed the devil’s enterprise that produces crime and criminality that have proven very difficult to control.
Such were Militancy in the South South though drastically reduced, agitated for better life from crude oil deposits in their backyard,IPOB (proscribed) with separatist agenda,Baddoo in Lagos (outllaws,) Boko Haram terrorists- anti- establishment, with intentions to foist Islamic doctrines on Nigeria as well bandits who commit all manner of crimes from cattle rustling to killing and raping.
Today, exactly 60 years of nationhood, the resources that should launch us to be the giant we ought to be are still there but they have not been translated to rapidly turn the fortunes around.
Sadly,our nation is dwarfed in many fronts.First is corruption.Corruption index is very high. It robs the country of development funds and made it to lose value for money in terms of whatever we want to do for development.
By the time we make budgets or make capital outlays for development, it is frittered away thus leaving very little for capital projects . This is affecting our ability to deliver on our national developmental goals .
Again ,our inability to meet the development targets that our potentials are supposed to take us to, stagnate our growth.
Today, we are celebrating 60th anniversary as a nation,yet the indices of development are not felt. The British bequeathed a country with sane infrastructure in Transportation, Electricity,Roads and we are forced to ask where are they?
Under colonial rule ,there were railways linking South to North , From Lagos to areas like Kaura Namoda, Makurdi, Nguru to evacuate products and ease movement which became moribund a few years after due to lack of maintenance and lack of political will to build Infrastructures that really serve the interest of the people..
Today,we struggle with generating electricity.So much money had been pumped into making electricity a problem of the past but not anytime soon as we generate less than 7000 megawatts of electricity, at least some level of improvement of what we use to have.
As of now,we do not have a clearer direction of where the country is headed. With over 100 ethnic groups,we have not been able to agree on a consensus on how we can move forward.
The fact that at 60, we are talking about disintegration, where people are saying they no longer want to be part of the country shows that there is a lot of misgivings and governments,,past and present, have not been able to address that by engendering a source of consensus and encouraging a sense of belonging by all the tribes.
As said, in terms of indices of development,we are far behind. Electricity is low,which is not good for a country that produces hydrocarbons.,Our irrigation system is in tatters,so are our Infrastructures.These are the dominant features of a country that should be a giant.
The resources that should make us a giant are there because we have a lot of resources and a population that is full of resourcefulness in terms of creativity and productivity.
Every Nigerian is somebody who is a goal getter and if you put him in other climes he excels but he has not been able to replicate that in his own country so there must be something wrong.
The fact that we have to go to places like Ghana, for schooling, suggest that we are not making progress in making schools back home a safe haven for learning.
In all,we are both a giant and a dwarf. A giant in terms of resource endowment and our ability to generate a lot of economic activities and also in terms of our great potentials but that has not been translated into reality . Our inability to engender a sense of consensus among ethnic groups. Our inability to develop key areas which countries and citizens expect us to do, very much makes us a dwarf.
A lot of countries are felicific about our 60th anniversary including the British Monarch ,Her Majesty, Oueen Elizabeth 11, wishing us to be happy and prosperous.However, deep down ,many Nigerians are not happy.Not because of the goodwill message by the Queen,but because of the economic situation of the country and the desire to leap from the clutches of poverty which is only in the shadows of the people.
Let us move from where we are to where we want to be that truly brings out the “giant “in us.
To ignore this noble call would mean we are very happy of the stagnation and are comfortable wearing the toga of a “dwarf’.
Happy Independence day Anniversary
