Nigeria will mark 55 years of independence from British colonial rule tomorrow, October 1, 2015.
As is the tradition in the country, the date affords us another opportunity to review the state of the country and how far the expectations that informed the agitation for independence from Britain in the 1950s have been met.
If Nigeria were to be a man, he would, at 55, be expected to be mature, accomplished, established and actively thinking of the legacies that he would bequeath to his children. At 55, he would have been seen to have managed the affairs of his life effectively to the admiration of his children and laid a solid foundation on which they can build a great future. That man would be expected to have gone beyond the perennial search for daily bread for himself and his dependants. Instead of giving his children fish to eat, he would have taught them how to fish and they would be able to stand tall, strong, confident and able to compete and stand their ground in an increasingly competitive world.
This scenario is obviously not that of the Nigerian state. Instead of stability and a sense of assurance, the country has for several decades now remained in a flux, with most of our national problems unresolved. Ravaging insecurity, dilapidated infrastructure, epileptic electricity supply, unemployment and a comatose economy have formed a five-pronged alliance against ordinary Nigerians and the people can only heave and sigh under their yoke.
Promises by the nation’s past leaders to change the Nigerian story for the better have often collapsed like a badly-stacked pack of cards. It would seem that we have tried out all the options but are yet to get the right answers to our national questions.
The new Muhammadu Buhari government, therefore, appears a last ditch option to solve some of these problems and the nation would be better off backing it to seek out solutions to these problems so that the country can move forward, and not backward. It is either that the people support it to succeed, or goad it into failure. Either way, it is the people that will either enjoy the gains of the success, or suffer the pains of the failure.
It is high time Nigerians began to think more of the country than their individual desires because when the country is well run, the roads are good, there is employment and stable electricity, it is the people themselves who will enjoy it. All these things go beyond the state of origin of any minister of commissioner, or the village of the special adviser to the governor. Facts of the Nigerian experience have shown that these primordial sentiments will not solve the nation’s problems.
For instance, it is doubtful if the many years that our brothers in the Northern part of the country were in power have had a significant effect on the lives of ordinary citizens of the region.. For the many long years, the story that has emerged is that of neglect of the economic, social and educational lives of the people.
The road to Otuoke, the hometown of the immediate past president of the country, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, remains dilapidated and the community has no pipe borne water. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was president for eight years, but the road to Otta, until the last days of his administration remained perpetually under rehabilitation, while traffic gridlocks remained a daylight nightmare for the people using it.
What then are we saying? As Nigeria celebrates its 55th independence anniversary tomorrow, the time has come to place the interest of the country above all else. This is the time, as has often been said, for all hands to be on deck in the effort to make Nigeria the kind of country that we all want. As an old popular television commercial once put it, let the teacher teach well, while the commissioner sees to the assignment that has been given to him. Let the farmers grow their crops well and our leaders lead the nation to prosperity.
It is not enough to continually complain about the state of affairs in the country or join the anti-government bandwagon. The elections have been won and lost, yet many Nigerians are still fighting tooth and nail as if the election is yet to hold, as if the government is an adversary from another planet.
For me, this is the time to eschew cynicism and wish the country well. It is the time for every citizen to subscribe to the popular advice that we ask what we can do individually to make Nigeria better, and not how we can bring our government down. In the final analysis, succeed or fail, it is the ordinary citizens who have nowhere to run to who will bear the impact. I congratulate Nigerians on this anniversary and wish all levels of government well in their efforts to build a great country where every man can earn a reasonable living and sleep with his two eyes closed. The challenges facing the country are just too serious to leave room for shenanigans and distractive politics.
We expect the president’s nominees for ministerial posts to be named today. My advice is that they hit the ground running so that the task of transforming the country as promised by the Muhammadu Buhari government can begin in earnest.
Source: SunNews
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