The nation NIGERIA clocks 53 today amidst several uncertainties, woes, grievances and a slim but useful hope.
Read this EXPOSITORY piece........................
October 1, 1960 was a day Tanko Yakassai, a former special adviser to President Shehu Shagari would never forget in a hurry. He was one of the privileged Nigerians that attended the independence party at the State House, Marina, Lagos, hosted by Sir James Robertson, who had just ended his tour of duty in country as the governor general of the former colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. At 35, then, Yakassai was very hopeful about the future of the young independent Nigeria and he actively participated in politics at the time to bring about a new Nigeria. “I belonged to a political party called the Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU. I was at different times publicity secretary and general secretary of the party. I was also one of the founding fathers of the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1961,” the Kano-based elder statesman told the magazine last week. But 53 years after, Yakassai is very much disappointed about the way things have turned for the country. He captured his feelings very aptly in the following words: “Countries like Singapore and Malaysia became independent around the same time with Nigeria. But today, they are far ahead of us because we did not stick consistently to running the country on a democratic basis. If democracy had been nurtured and allowed to take root in the country, it would have been a question of competition on the basis of ideas and programmes, not a fierce struggle to grab power at all costs.”
Nnaemeka Amechina, a Lagos-based legal practitioner, is also disillusioned about the inequality, lack of social justice and discrimination prevalent in the society today. He is particularly sad about the varying cut-off marks for admission into public universities in the country, which give students from a certain part of the country better chances of admission and the issue of state of origin generally that invariably crops up in all facets of life in the country. He is particularly concerned that “the country is actually struggling to remain together as one because of the problems of inequality and wrong polity that engenders these inequalities. It is only when there are equal opportunities that everybody can feel committed to the union.”
Indeed, as Nigeria celebrates its 53rd independence anniversary, it is very evident there is much apprehension and dissatisfaction in the land. In the words of Tade Makun, lecturer, Department of Engineering, Offa Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, “There is palpable anger and frustration. In a land so blessed, it is a great irony that whereas a few, very few, are living prodigally on our common patrimony the vast, indeterminate majority are subjected to the punishing pains of poverty in the midst of plenty!” Nigerians are getting increasingly exasperated about their country, particularly over the parlous state of the economy and how it is impacting on their daily lives. Year after year, the economy has been posting impressive growth rates, according to government officials, but this has not been impacting positively on their lives.
With current unemployment rate at 23.9 per cent and unemployed youth population put at 20.3 million, Nigeria has been living on the edge for the past five years. A report compiled in December 2008 by the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, stated as of then that the country generated about 4.5 million new entrants into the labour market annually. The figure, it said, was made up of one million people out of the school system, 2.2 million primary school leavers not proceeding to secondary school, one million secondary school leavers not proceeding to the tertiary level and 300,000 tertiary graduates finding no placement anywhere for productivity. Another survey by the Federal Ministry of Education put the yearly graduate turnover at over 600,000. Even at that, the official statistical presentation is nothing compared to the reality of the situation.
It has been generally acknowledged that unemployment is one of the most critical problems facing Nigeria. The years of corruption, civil war, military rule, and mismanagement have hindered economic growth of the country, which is otherwise endowed with diverse and abundant resources, both human and material. Years of negligence and adverse policies have led to the under-utilisation of the country’s resources. Most basic amenities and infrastructure are grossly inadequate. In most cases, these are in advanced stages of decay. “From roads, to education, to health care, to power supply, to security, the story is the same across the land: Citizens are left to cater to these various needs by their personal resources,” Makun regretted.
With this state of affairs, the energy of the growing army of unemployed youths is being channelled to crime and other anti-social activities. Many observers have described the youth unemployment situation as a bomb waiting to explode. Indeed, the situation has been blamed for the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency, ethnic and sectarian violence, armed robbery and the rise in the spate of kidnappings round the country. According to a report published recently in The Economist magazine, Nigeria had the most kidnap attempts in the world within the first half of 2013, accounting for 26 per cent of all such recorded incidents globally. Mexico was second with 10 per cent, while Pakistan was ranked third with seven per cent of recorded incidents of kidnapping within the period. While progress in curbing violence has been appallingly slow, the road to the next general elections in 2015 continues to be laden with mantraps. Apart from terrorism and other violent crimes, geo-political power contest, particularly within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, is a major threat to the country’s existence as a nation.
How did the country arrive at this sorry pass? Monday Ubani, chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja chapter, Lagos, after reading a recent book written by Olusegun Adeniyi, the former spokesman of late President Umaru Yar'Adua titled: Politics, Power and Death, has come to the inescapable conclusion that issue troubling Nigeria are too many and would therefore require several approaches to tackle them effectively. “To start with, there was no foundation laid for this nation. The British were driven away and they left in a hurry and in our bid to take over their position and the country, no serious thought was spared for the foundation of the country,” he argued. As a result, he added, symptoms of a poorly planned country manifested early after the flag independence, which culminated into an unnecessary civil war that caused lives and materials. “The country has never been a sane country after the pogrom and civil war. The military leaders who took over went on a stealing spree surpassed by the civilian bureaucrats and politicians. Selfish, thieving and morally bankrupt leaders have actually been the bane of Nigeria,” he noted.
Makun is categorical in his submission that the reason for Nigeria’s failure to attain true greatness, in spite of its potential, is absence of a national vision, coupled with the depressing selfishness and greed of the ruling elite. Rather than build on what the whites left behind, Ubani argued further, “Our successive leaders have destroyed and stolen almost all the resources of the country.” He continues: “Today Nigerians are more divided than ever due to bad governance, corruption, ethnicity and religious bigotry. At the age of 53, Nigeria remains shamefully a toddler. Embarrassing, very embarrassing!”
To Yakassai, there are a lot of factors responsible for this. One of the factors, he reiterated, is the fact that successive leaders have not been able to run the country on a democratic basis for a long time after independence. The result, he argued, was that most of the development programmes fashioned by the country’s founding fathers as a way of uplifting the wellbeing of the people were jettisoned midway. For instance, he said the administration of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the first prime minister of Nigeria, started with about five or six of such programmes. “He conceived the idea of restructuring Kainji Dam in three phases, for the purpose of power generation and irrigation. Since he was killed in the coup d’état, successive leaders did not implement the programme of restructuring Kainji Dam; they were not even able to complete the first phase,” he said, adding: “If the three phases had been completed, enough power would have been generated for the industrialisation of the country.” In the area of transportation, Balewa, he said conceived the idea of extending the railway system to all parts of the country; from Jos to Bauchi, Gombe and Borno. Apart from the first phase, from Jos to Maiduguri, the octogenarian noted that all the other components of the railway extension project, which would have connected parts of the South-west to the South-east and the South-south, were abandoned after the coup in 1966. “There was also the idea of dredging the River Niger to accommodate ocean-going vessels and thereby make the transport of goods and persons cheaper through the waterways. Since his demise, that idea has been abandoned.”
Yakassai also noted that politicians see elections merely as an opportunity to grab power, instead of one of providing service to the people. “It is unfortunate that in our democracy we spend much of the time fighting who should run for an office, rather than allowing the ideas and programmes of the aspirants to determine who gets the ticket,” he added. For instance, he said Nigeria has about five or six political parties today, “but if you look closely you’ll find that there is no marked difference between Party A and Party B and so on, in terms of ideology and programmes.”
“You will find out that what is happening in one party is equally happening in the other parties. Take the issue of local government elections, for instance. Almost all the parties are averse to holding elections when due. When they do hold such elections, the party in power employs everything at its disposal to put its men in power in all the local governments, irrespective of the strength of the opposition”, he explained.
Felix Morka, executive director, Socio-Economic Rights and Action Centre, SERAC, agrees with Yakassai, when he said people with selfish interest are running the country. “Their interest is merely to build up their personal wealth, and use such wealth to get more political power and with their political power to expand their personal wealth,” he noted.
In line with Ubani and Yakassai’s positions, one of the things that have destroyed productivity and the healthy rivalry that existed among the regions that constituted the federating units following independence in 1960 was basically the change in revenue sharing formula at the outset of the war in 1967. This was a politically expedient policy that was introduced then to accumulate more funds at the centre to prosecute the civil war. Back then every region had its own plans for generating revenue internally via agriculture and other activities. Today, in contrast, most of the 36 states that were created subsequently are almost solely dependent on oil money that is distributed by the central government. With the present situation of things, that widespread desire that propelled the federating units to be as productive and self-sufficient as possible no longer exists.
To reverse the trend, almost all the respondents agree that there is need to discuss and come up with a fresh road map for the country. Should that be through a sovereign national conference, SNC? Tony Momoh, journalist, lawyer turned politician, argues that the country is currently a sovereign entity and as such a ‘SNC’ would not be necessary. He agrees however that, “there are so many things that we need to discuss, such as the need to restructure our presidential system. We need to start thinking of going back to the era of regions, instead of the one central government that we are operating, and yet spending so much of our resources in recurrent expenditures.” To redress the situation the former minister of information wants Nigeria to return to the parliamentary system of government. In the opinion of Amechina, a major way forward is for the country to have a people’s constitution, “since all the constitutions we are operating in this country, particularly 1979 and 1999, have more to do with the military.”
Makun’s submission: “Let there be a conference of the ethnic nationalities to help fashion out a national agenda as a basis of our continued existence. Then, let Nigeria focus on wealth creation (across the regions) as opposed to the current craze of consumptive and wasteful inequity known as cake sharing that has caused great distress to the component parts. Let there be justice and sincere rule of law. Let the political elite show exemplary lifestyle in sacrifice and self-discipline. Let there be radical electoral reforms and sanctity of the voter’s right that makes sovereignty to lie with the people, and not with the elected elite.”
Morka however does not believe a national conference is the answer. “All these call for national conference is diversionary, how many sovereign national conference were held in Egypt, Tunisia, or India and all other part of the world where people have risen up to the challenge of oppression?” he asked rhetorically. So what should be done? He said, “We need to focus on the main issue, which is the failure of our government to govern effectively and provide basic amenities like electricity, good roads, health care and so on.”
Credits: TELL
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