NIGERIA celebrated her 44th independence anniversary yesterday with President Olusegun Obasanjo thanking his fellow compatriots for their belief in their country, and admitting that “we have been through rough and tough times.”
When on October 1, 1960, the green-white-green flag of Nigeria was hoisted as the Union Jack was lowered, the nationalists had lofty dreams. So did the ordinary mortals. Everyone looked forward to a country with full of promises and potentials for unrivalled greatness in the African continent. And so did the colonialists who were withdrawing wish us.
Without doubts, there have been many gains of nationhood, and probably more pains. Thus, the man at the helm of affairs pleads with those he governs to be “patient” with the hard times.
As he said in yesterday’s independence broadcast, “there is a time in the history of every nation for reflection, forgiveness, unity and collective rededication to a positive future. We have been through a lot but let us look inwards.”
Indeed, where did Nigeria lose the dream? What can be done to turn things around? What hopes are there for Nigeria and her nationals? In this independence package, we spoke to elder statesmen, men who should know, and they offered their views as captured below.
Alhaji Tanko Yakassai,
Elder statesman and First Republic politician:
Nigeria is 44 years but it has not all been tales of woes. It is a fact that we have not got a lot of things right. For instance, we have achieved relative stability in our democracy after several failed attempts. The image of Nigeria outside has improved. The deregulation of certain areas of the economy has brought about improvement. But in areas like ethnic and religious harmony, we are yet to achieve the desired peace. Though that does not mean that countries that have witnessed more advancement don’t experience these things occasionally.
We have not faired well in areas like education, health, roads, electricity, and other public institutions.
The economy as at the time this regime met it was down and still remained that way for the greater part of this dispensation. But the economic reform agenda of this government is creating some impact in the system. Look at what is happening in the banks today. The new capitalisation policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is a product of the reform policy of this regime and I know that it may help to stabilise the banks. I want to believe that if we had had this kind of reforms in the last 44 years, we would have experienced a lot of positive development.
Forty four years is quite some time, but it is still not enough for anybody to think that so much have been achieved. What I think we need now is to re-assess our strategies as a nation and pursue those policies and programmes that have long and short term gestation period.
Major-Gen Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd) Ex-military governor of old Western Nigeria
I am not pleased at all that things are still the way they are in this country after all these years. We have not made progress the way some other countries who had independence the same time as Nigeria has progressed. I blame this situation much on our attitude as a people towards our country. It is true that we are a nation of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, but there are other countries, very many of them, where the population and diversity of her people are more than that of ours, yet they have made quantum progress.
The Almighty God has blessed us with all the necessary natural endowments like oil and other solid minerals, but how well have we used all these for the good of our nation and our citizens? That is the real question. Ours is a nation where our God-given resources have become the source of our problem. For instance, the oil we have is at the root of our inter-ethnic and national problems.
The people of the Niger Delta, the oil producing states in particular, have been saying that they are the producers of the oil wealth, yet, they get nothing in return. To me, they are not just getting anything but rather, they are not getting enough, and I think it is one problem that should be addressed. A lot of things, a lot of violence have occurred in the oil producing Niger Delta and people have been killed because of this problem.
The other day, I read in the newspapers that a certain leader of a youth gang in the area called one Dokubo (Asari) is threatening to blow up oil installations in the Delta area to press home his point which is that they want greater share of the oil wealth. There could be a point there, but violence is certainly not the best way to approach such things.
So, I believe that if the right thing is done in that area by the government, the level of discontent may not be as high as it is now. The same thing happens with all the other ethnic militias like the MASSOB, OPC and Arewa Peoples Congress. These are people who seem to be protesting the injustices and anomalies in this system.
As elders of this country, we have a duty to lay a solid foundation for these young ones so that our society can be better. And if at 44 years, we are still having all these ethnic and religious problems like what they have in Plateau State, and we are still having economic problems at this level we have them now in spite of the efforts of this government to revive the economy through its economic reforms, then we must go back to the drawing board.
Nigeria is too big as a nation in Africa to have emergencies. If we do, it will affect other nations in the continent. So, I will plead with the leaders of this country and the citizens as well to join hands so that we can have a greater country. This responsibility is a collective one. That is the only way we can make amends.
Chief Christian Onoh
Former governor, old Anambra State
Forty-four years in the life of any nation is such a long period that you would expect tremendous advancement of that country. But Nigeria cannot claim to have attained advancement in anything positive except in the negative. It surprises me though that 44 years after, we are having a civilian government but not what you can really call a true democracy. When I say true democracy, I mean a democracy where the will of the people actually prevails.
The leadership has been essentially responsible for this, just as the
citizens can be blamed for allowing things to degenerate to this level. It does appear to me that we are living in a country where people don’t even know their rights 44 years after. It is also painful that we are in a country where at 44 years, the leadership does not even know its responsibility to the citizens. That is why I used the word failure. We have collectively failed ourselves and this nation. There is nothing working in every socio-political and economic aspect of this country 44 after.
There is yet no clear-cut economic and political agenda for the country. The so-called Vision 2010 of General Abacha’s era must have been kept somewhere to gather dust. Now, we are talking about economic reforms and people are beginning to wonder whether this one would work. I believe that 44 years can be enough time for us to begin to get our acts together.
We must begin to think about this country very seriously. We must begin to think of how to restore proper democracy to our people.
We must begin to put in place a workable and enduring national agenda for the country. We must begin to think of how we can work for the peace of the nation and her unity. All these ethnic and religious crises we are having is because we have refused to address all the problems confronting this country once and for all.
Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye
Elder statesman and First Republic politician:
Nigeria is 44 years old? That’s interesting. That’s long enough in the life of any individual or nation to have made significant progress. But is that the case with our country? Answer me, young man. Well, I believe that in 44 years, we have not really achieved much. Part of our problem is that we’ve been under military rule and the army mismanaged a lot of things.
But the politicians have not helped matters either. Frankly, my opinion is that military rule was a big setback to this country in the last 44 years. Had the army not intervened in the governance of this country, we would have advanced more than this. In any young democracy, there are periods of political and economic gestations in which case, that nation experiences a lot of troubles and tribulations in the collective attempt to get things right. Mistakes are made and quickly corrected.
If that country is blessed with sufficient visionary, dynamic and goal-oriented leadership, the country will easily and quickly overcome her teething problems and the rate of development will be accelerated. But if the country is saddled with leadership that lacks goal and vision, such country will remain in problem.
At the dawn of independence in 1960, Nigeria had leaders who were nationalists in their dispositions, in their thoughts and deeds. They fought for the independence, so they had clear vision of where they wanted this country to be. I agree that there were a few political disagreements here and there at that time, but it was not something to cause a total derailment of the nation.
Then the army intervened and things spinned out of hand. The young army officers seemed to be more ambitious about making a career in government than really developing the country and her economy. Today, we are paying the price of that negligence. So, talking about Nigeria not achieving much in the last 44 years, it is evident. The infrastructure like roads, electricity and others are in very bad shape. In Port Harcourt here, we have not been having regular electricity supply. The roads are just impassable.
In fact, I am told that most of the roads in the South South zone here where the wealth of this country is produced is nothing to write home about. The same thing obtains in the South East of Igbo-speaking people and in some other places across this country. We hear all these things on the radio and television and we read about them in the newspapers.
The public health institutions have totally collapsed. It is either the doctors or nurses are on strike or it’s other health workers. The educational institutions have also collapsed just like the economy. In fact, everything is upside down now. But since the beginning of this democracy, things have not really improved the way they should. To me, that is the challenge the Obasanjo government has. I hear they are doing reforms but I am an old man now, so I can’t really understand what is going on.
All I want to say is that this country can be put on a sound footing if a conscious effort is made by the government. 44 years are long enough a period for things to work out for the better. We can’t be going on this way for only God knows how long. Other countries where development has taken place, at 44, they had really gone a long way. Most importantly, we need democratic stability to change the pace of things in this country. This is one fundamental thing we must do.
