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Nigeria at 60 is a milestone we ought to celebrate. At least, we are still together, even if struggling to prove that we are truly an independent nation. Perhaps, this point was driven home by the choice of ‘Togetherness’ as the theme of this year’s celebration.
Our country presents an interesting paradox. Rich in resources but poor in development; the largest economy in Africa by GDP, yet deficient in infrastructure and social services. We have the largest concentration of talents on the continent by virtue of our population but because we are so badly governed, we are moving slowly to the destination of failed states.
The founding fathers of our great nation never envisaged that Nigeria, at 60, would still be crawling and trying to find its feet, while peer nations in Asia and Africa have graduated into developed economies. What has held us back is total failure of leadership and foolish followership.
What’s at stake today in this country is how to secure our nation, feed our people and provide social services at affordable cost. We need to energise and inspire our youth, provide quality leadership, get things done, unite our bitterly divided populace and create the enabling environment for productive enterprise.
Big problems, you might say. Truly, very big problems indeed. But big problems demand big, bold solutions, not tokenism. If 80 per cent of our people are living below the poverty line, we are in big danger. The solutions for all the structural and fundamental socio-economic, political problems must be far-reaching.
We need impact-driven leadership that affects everyone living in this country. To fix all the fault lines, government across the nation must be ready for inclusive, transparent and highly focused, result-oriented governance.
The political class must disengage itself from the divine-and-rule tactics that it frequently deploys to stay in power, and function by the standard rules of decent, service-driven democratic governance with the goal of liberating the people from poverty, ignorance and disease. The goal of our ruling elite should be how to shift the paradigm and quickly lift the people out of poverty within a reasonable and realistic time frame.
What we should be seeing is developmental timelines that seek to revamp all dysfunctional infrastructures, basic social amenities within four or five years of high-voltage activities involving millions of our youth. It is not enough to set a goal of giving jobs to 200,000 youth in 774 local government councils. What’s that going to achieve?
We need nationwide projects in agriculture, education, health, road construction, housing, security services that target 100 million youths. That’s something to talk about. The federal, state and local governments should work out massive works projects that could dramatically modernize this nation.
All we need do is to reprioritise our public spending away from feeding the fat cats in the bureaucracy, legislative houses and MDAs, to the rebuilding and expansion of all the dilapidated public infrastructures nationwide.
Every Nigerian anywhere they live in this country would feel the impact of governance, if we turn our vast nation into a gargantuan construction site. If wastes are cut, financial leakages blocked, and corruption checked, billions of naira would be freed up for real development.
For our independence to make meaning, we should turn the economic tide dramatically. From being an import-dependent economy, we should be exporting agricultural and industrial products to ECOWAS and other African countries, who import from Asia and Europe. A well-developed Nigeria with cheap, quality products would be more attractive to African countries.
We have some unique natural advantages. We have vast, arable land in the north; we have seaports, airports, vibrant financial services sector, a fairly developed ICT community, strong media, large population, big markets, strategic location of our nation in the heart of Africa, et cetera. What else can we ask for? Our youth are tech savvy, highly intelligent and intellectually aggressive. Our entertainment industry is the most creative in Africa, with Nollywood being the third largest producer of movies in the world after Hollywood (USA) and Bollywood (India).
Hey, Nigeria arise! At 60, we are still crawling. I say to our youth, stand up and run; if possible, run and hit the ground running. The youth should seize the initiative from our failed leadership by setting an agenda. Instead of relying on government, we should turn the tide of development by making this nation private sector-driven. All the developed economies in the world are private sector-driven. That’s the reality.
Now, the leaders. What Nigerians expect in the next 40 years before our centenary as an independent country to emerge as Africa’s leading industrial nation with the strongest, most efficient and functional public institutions, governed by the highest democratic standards.
We should not be talking today about Muslim-Muslim ticket, or Christian-Muslim ticket in the selection of our leaders. We should jettison such archaic concepts as federal character and go for merit in selecting public servants like we do in sports. There have been times in the past when Enugu Rangers (Igbo) or IICC Shooting Stars (Yoruba) football clubs produced 90 per cent of the players for our national football teams, and nobody worried about ethnic or southern domination. Most of our Super Eagles players are from the Igbo-speaking areas and nobody is bothered.
I want to see that feeling extended to every other aspect of our national life.
Happy Anniversary!
Weekend Spice: No man can make you what you don’t want to be
– Matthew Ashimolowo
Ok folks, let’s do it again next week. Stay safe. COVID-19 is real. Be motivated.
•Ayodeji is an author, rights activist, pastor and life coach. He can be reached on [email protected] and 09059243004 (SMS & WhatsApp only)
