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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Nigeria at 44
TODAY is Nigeria's Independence Day and as is usual on such anniversaries the individual nay, the social collective, takes stock of past achievements, present challenges and future prospects.
Appraising Nigeria at 44 is, however, a depressing exercise: a catalogue of woes, of lost opportunities, of wasted resources, of failed leadership, and the lamentations of a people desperately seeking relief from the suffocating tyranny of poverty, political oppression and underdevelopment.
At independence in 1960 Nigerians marched into the future with pride and hope, with faith and trust in their leaders. Even when the ruling elite betrayed the people's trust, Nigerians rekindled it with every change of government and did the same when the current government came to power in 1999. However, five years into the current administration, the nation is in despair; a sense of hopelessness and helplessness permeates the land. Nigerians are singing songs of lamentation all year round, rebellion is in the air, and people cannot but ask: whither Nigeria?
The government appears impervious to the people's cries as evidenced by the recent increase in the price of fuel by almost 25 per cent. The rise in fuel price has heated the polity and thrown the economy off-balance. It has demonstrated the government's utter insensitivity and contempt for the people. The government justifies its policy as part of deregulation, but fails to repair the nation's refineries in spite of expending about $800 million on the exercise.
Now labour has given notice of a national strike; militants in the Niger Delta have pledged to launch a rebellion against the state on Independence Day; and the National Council of State has advised the President to crush all rebellion. The situation is, to say the least, very scary and if the Independence Day is of any benefit at all it is that it offers an opportunity for sober reflection on the state of the nation.
Rebellion against the state is not restricted to the Niger Delta. Talibans have emerged in Borno State and have already launched attacks against police stations. Ethnic militias abound across the country. There is currently a state of emergency in Plateau State resulting from the fratricidal conflicts between various ethnic groups. There is in fact a convergence of dissidence across the country. In the last one year thousands of Nigerians have been killed in various parts of the country as a result of ethnic and religious conflicts. It is however quite clear that these conflicts cannot be dissociated from the general economic situation in the country. Poverty provides a good breeding ground for conflict and is the single most important factor connecting the various conflicts and rebellions in the country. But the government would rather crush the rebellions instead of tackling the underlying factors, political and economic, that breed the dissent.
The political factors are quite clear and are echoed in the cries of marginalisation coming from the various ethnic and geo-political groupings in the country. There is a consensus across the firmament that the nation is moving in the wrong direction; that things are getting worse in all aspects of our social, economic and political life. Nigerians appear to have reached a consensus that the current arrangement has failed woefully; that there is a need to redefine the fundamental basis of our association; that the nation's survival depends on creating a new federation based on equity and symmetry among the various component groups. This is the thinking behind the call for a National Conference. Only the government appears to think otherwise and is not in sync with the national mood. The government has turned a deaf ear to the people's call and is carrying on as if all is well.
Can the government perceive despair and despondency in the air? Does the government recognise that a nation in despair, a people without hope, cannot make progress? What is the purpose of government, if not to advance the well-being of the people? Why is the government refusing to listen to its own citizens? Is the government not worried about the low level of legitimacy it has with the people? It ought to concern the government that its policies are perceived to be oppressive, anti-people and protective only of the interests of those in the corridors of power; that the people feel alienated from their rulers.
How can the people celebrate independence when their hospitals are worse than consulting clinics? How can they rejoice when hospital workers go on strike for months because government will not pay their entitlements; when premature babies die in incubators for lack of power? How can they have hope in a country which denies their children good education, or employment? How can they believe in a country which places the very basic essentials of life beyond their reach? How can they trust a ruling elite which flaunts its ill-gotten wealth in their faces with so much contempt? How can they trust a government which ignores their concerns, and pursues policies that pauperise them?
Nigerians are worse off this year than they were last year. In fact the standard of living in the country has been on the decline for years. Things appear to get worse with every passing day, from one independence anniversary to another. There is poverty in the land, and according to the government's own statistics more than 70 per cent of our people live below the poverty line. Nigerians are now divided into two mutually exclusive classes: the rich ruling class, and the poor. There is no middle class, what existed as the middle class has been pauperised by bad government policies and merged with the poor.
The rich look down with contempt on the poor, use them as cannon fodder or storm troopers in their intra-class competition for power, and ignore them until their services are needed again. The poor look at the rich with envy, curse them, and pray for divine intervention to save them from their oppressors. Corruption has eaten deep into the nation's social fabric. In fact it has become a national ethos and a pastime. It permeates all facets of our national life, without exception. There is no greater indictment of the nation's security services than the disappearance of a whole ship from the nation's shores.
Nigeria occupies a unique position in Africa. With a quarter of the sub-Saharan African population and endowed with abundant human and material resources, Nigeria's destiny is to be the catalyst to the development of the continent. Nigeria ought to be the symbol of African achievement and the pride of the black race. Nigeria, in collaboration with South Africa, ought to serve as growth poles for the continent's development and the guarantor of the security of the African people.
Unfortunately, Nigeria has not lived up to the expectations of its destiny. Nigerians, and indeed all concerned Africans, are bound to ask, where did the nation get it wrong? How could a country endowed with the means to provide "life more abundant" for all its citizens remain one of the poorest countries in the world? The tragedy of misrule, of failed leadership, has diminished the advantages offered by the nation's abundant human and material resources.
Amidst these catalogue of woes the Nigerian people, through their resilience, their hardwork, offer the nation an opportunity for redemption. In the face of adversity, of bad governance, Nigerians remain a sincere and patriotic people, committed to their country and eternally hopeful that it will eventually find the true path to its destiny. Nigerians have demonstrated their desire to talk to each other across the ethnic and geopolitical divide. They have brought honour and glory to the nation in their various callings. They know what their country's problems are and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to build a strong and virile nation. This is perhaps the main good news that the people can crow about on this occasion. Nigeria has been sustained more by the heroism of its people than the leadership that is offered by the ruling elite.
As the nation celebrates its 44th independence anniversary, the government owes the people a duty to listen to them, feel their pulse and their pain, and bridge the gulf separating it from its own citizens. It should apologise for disregarding the people as it has so often done. And it should commit itself afresh to run a listening administration, that does not pretend to know the people�s interest more than the people themselves. These times call for sober reflection, not for wining and dining or wastage of our scarce national resources in exotic state banquets. It is of the utmost urgency for the government to reconnect with the people's aspirations. That is the only way the country can realise its destiny.
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