Nigeria At Forty-Five

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Written by: Miriam Ikunaiye

At thirty man suspects himself a fool; knows it at forty, and reforms his plan. Forty-years of independence have slipped into history and Nigerians are left with ghost of happy days. More than a quarter-century after the ‘oil boom,’ the ‘Udoji era’ and the Yakubu Gowon’s ‘dancing with Queen;’ Nigeria has drifted into abject poverty. Nothing much has happened in respect to equality of human conditions, education and industrialization. Compared to the hay days, Nigeria is more backward economically, educationally and technologically.

The Bingo Politics

The old Politics has taken the back seat; the Nigerian modern politics has nothing to do with the defense of the weak or the interest of the public. Instead, politics as we used to know it has slowly evolved into "Bingo politics -play to hit jackpot," with slim odd of losing. Nigerian corrupt officials take advantage of their positions to loot public funds and launder funds into offshore financial institutions. This monstrous culture of corruption and mismanagement gulps about 40 percent of Nigeria's annual income.

No wonder College graduates have no jobs waiting for them right after they graduate -dumb corrupt officials forgot to reinvest in the country that fed them fat. How does one encourage a Nigerian youth to dream when there is no precedent set for such action. The tone of thought and feeling and the direction of will, induced by extreme poverty affect the common ideals of the next generation and as a result make them worse than those of the present.

Reasons for Concern

The country tagged the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest in the world, averaging 2.5 million barrels per day, yet its citizens earns less than one dollar a day, 75 percent lives in abject poverty and life expectancy at its lowest.

The lack of concrete objective on mechanized farming has led to disequilibrium of expanding population growth and supply of food; hence children wallow in hunger. It is unacceptable for a child to go to bed hungry in a nation that has such unprecedented natural wealth.

In the epoch of early democracy, it is particularly important for the authority to establish concrete economic facts to proceed not from abstract postulates but from concrete realities, in order to advance steadily.

Emigration has skyrocketed; exodus of Nigerians in search of political and economic refuge; most, intellects and professionals of whose services are vital or essential to Nigeria's development.

Revisiting Biafra

The continuous divisive ethnic politics may once again prove tragic if there is no timely intervention. The trouble in Niger Delta is a perfect reminder of what irrupted into Biafra war in 1966, in which an estimated 1 million to 3 million Ibos died, including other tribes –war is ugly. As a democratic nation ethnic concern must be addressed with all due respect; anything less will be a despite of citizenry. Moreover, to achieve national unity ethnic conflict resolution policies must be prioritized since unity can not be achieved through force.

Moral questions

It is a crime against humanity to intentionally impoverish a country’s people. Why is a little boy of six, who is crippled by polio has to crawl with his bare skin on the tarred road from Barnawa to sabo (about 5 miles) market to beg for pennies in order to survive? Why, in Abuja, an eight-month pregnant woman kicked by her husband on the stomach collapsed and died but the husband was never called for questioning because he is said to be a police officer? Why is there no state or federal funding in place to assist college students financially, which, out of hunger they have to go on 010 feeding style –skip breakfast, eats lunch and skip diner. Why are workers and teachers not being paid salaries months in a roll? What happened to the pension of the honorable civil servants? Why are the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer? Why is there contempt for human rights? Why are more people willing to do a disservice to their only nation?

A lesson to all Nigerian Policy Makers

One thing is certain; the underlying pattern of an individual's life at any particular time or an individual's life structure is shaped in part by the social and physical environment. Therefore, attention better be paid to poverty alleviation, health crisis and socio-economic impact or else, anarchistic society is under way and the impact will exempt neither the rich nor the policy-makers.