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Nigeria at
44: Still ageing without growing
By Dan Amor
With
the 1960s, we had entered a new phase of the history of Africa and its struggle
for freedom and progress. The turn of that decade saw the majority of the
countries of our continent joining the small group of countries that had re-conquered
the right of national independence and popular participation in national life.
During the sixties, the day that Africa in its totality would have completely
made good its escape from direct domination could already be glimpsed in spite
of tragedies such as the bestiality in apartheid South Africa or the insane
stubbornness of Portugal. But, Nigeria, the self-acclaimed giant of Africa is
44 years today as an independent country. Yet the trouble with Nigeria right
now is that independence has failed to make any meaningful impact on the
people. Consequently, there is an obvious absence of enthusiasm due, perhaps,
to the widespread disillusionment in the land.
At independence, everything seemed to have been prepared for the young
state: a rich territory with abundant natural resources and a large population
necessary for economic productivity. More importantly, the country inherited a
political system that had been tested and found to be viable in several other
climes with similar set of circumstances. It was, therefore, not an accident
that Nigeria entered into nationhood with a democratic system of government
based largely on the Westminster model. The hope then was that with a
functional political system and a vibrant population, the stage was now set for
the evolution of an African super power. Quite tragically, the Nigerian state
has not only failed to live up to this monumental expectation, it has also
forgotten its roots as a child of colonial circumstances. In the past 44 years
the whole world had watched with trepidation as we squandered our enormous
fortunes and opportunities for greatness while pursuing shadows.
In fact, our collective sense of humiliation stretched to its limits in
1994, when South Africa, once held in contempt and isolation on account of its
oppressive apartheid system, zoomed onto the hallowed path of democratic
transformation swapping its former position with Nigeria which had hitherto
been at the forefront of the struggle for majority rule and democracy in that
country. Recently, President Thabo Mbaki of South Africa was here at the
Nigerian Institute of International Affair in Lagos to teach us the rudiments
of democracy. Yet the buccaneers who call themselves our national leaders do
not care any hoot whether we are democratizing or not. And, because of their
shameless display of irresponsibility, the only raw material which is in high
supply in the country today is tension, and the thick cloud of violence has
already gathered. Even the ruling class� pretence to some decency in the
conduct of public life has evaporated, and moral decadence has become second
nature to operators of the system.
Economically, the situation if far worse. Agricultural production has
declined markedly, and the food import bill has tripled as the nation now
relies solely on oil. Well over seventy per cent of factories in the country
have been closed down thereby making the country a ready market for the dumping
of all sorts of sub-standard goods from Europe and Asia. Nigeria now imports
fuel despite its reckoning as the sixth largest exporter of crude oil in the
world. The country has become debt � ridden, with huge, though it is now clear,
largely fictitious debts of over $30bn as the Naira exchanges 140 to the
dollar. In short, the economy has no impact on the life of the average Nigerian.
Yet, anyone with even the slightest familiarity with the history of the country
since independence must wonder and worry, that today, those who presided over the
wrecking of our national treasury into their private pockets, are walking our
streets as free men and women and still wish to continue to dominate the
political scene with impunity.
At forty-four, instead of Nigeria to exude the characteristics of a
responsible adult, she is caught in her infancy. Rather than for her to command
the robustness and idealism of youth, which get moderated with old age, Nigeria
seems to remain in diapers and to relish in her excesses. The whole scenario is
unwholesome: social infrastructure are in a state of decay; institutions are in
ruin. The economy, which was once vibrant, is comatose and despondency has
begun to set in. To underscore this, the United Nations Development Programme,
using what it refers to as scientific benchmarks, has classified Nigeria in the
lowest human development index, meaning one of the poorest countries in the
world where the leadership does not care whether the people survive or not.
Also, an independent organisation known as Transparency International has only recently
paraphrased Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in the world. By
whatever yardsticks, it could not have been otherwise.
For instance, here is a country that produces an average of 2.5 million
barrels of crude oil daily and an annual budget of approximately N1 trillion
and which has even declared excess revenue of about N400bn in the current
appropriation year. Yet thousands of Nigerians trudge the streets without jobs
and the communal bonds that once held the various nationalities together have
been rendered taut by the pressure of annihilating poverty. Nigerians now keep
a feeding regime that skips meals in spite of the fact that the country is
blessed with luxuriant resources and a robust people.
But, looking back at 44years of our flag independence, it can never be
difficult to finger where the cause lies in our collective failure to make progress
from where British colonialists left us in 1960. The antecedents and the
present magnitude of our woes clearly bear a repetition that leadership, the
right calibre
of Nigerians to point to, and lead us to the path of progress, has been the
bane. From 1966when they came to power till the present time, the military have
continued to see themselves as our conquerors who must lord it over us. Until
we put up a formidable struggle to liberate ourselves from the shackles of
these arrogant, bloodthirsty monsters, this internal colonialism will continue
and Nigeria may remain a toddler even at 50.
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