Nigeria @ 54: Not yet an anniversary with cheers

Nigeria has become and the danger of imminent explosion if prompt actions are not taken to diffuse the situation and to generally lower the political and social temperature. Dear readers, in this Nigeria’s independence anniversary piece, I do not intend to sugar-coat any issue as I will be boldly frank. I intend to call a […]

Nigeria has become and the danger of imminent explosion if prompt actions are not taken to diffuse the situation and to generally lower the political and social temperature.
Dear readers, in this Nigeria’s independence anniversary piece, I do not intend to sugar-coat any issue as I will be boldly frank. I intend to call a spade a spade, because I have long disqualified myself from the Operation Fool the Nation (OFN) Club.
 Occasions for celebration do not call for revelry but introspection and projection. Thus, it shall be with Nigeria as we roll out the drums, cymbals and flutes to celebrate this anniversary. Any form of introspection will confirm that Nigeria’s history has been a long one of missed opportunities. At 54, Nigeria has remained a giant of unexploited potentials.
It has narrowly missed disintegration more than once and has exhibited a disposition towards self-destruction at many points along its history. Its capacity to threaten itself and risk destruction surprises even its enemies, opponents and competitors.
This anniversary surely reminds us of promises fulfilled and unfulfilled. You look back and see the years stretching back, all 54 of them. Then you look around you and see jagged pieces of broken promises all over the country. The once promising nation has become a bewildered country despised by nations unfit to tie its shoe lace.
In 1960, Nigeria was a democratic toddler. We started off with the parliamentary system of government, which though worked for Britain with the unfailing precision of a Swiss clock, failed to work for Nigeria. Within five years, it crumbled like a cook book cake and Nigerians found themselves searching under the rubble of the events of January 15, 1966. And the presidential system we copied from America has been so badly bastardised that even the Americans can hardly recognise it.
54 years after, we are still wobbling, and in between is a vast stretch of spectacular wreckage teaming with tyrants, false messiahs, frustrated redeemers, aborted dreams, abandoned road-maps, man-made topographies of hell on earth and assorted cannibals and carrion feeders feasting on the remains of a black project.
In all sectors of human endeavour, Nigeria seems to be in dire need of regeneration. Political instability has not only continued to be the albatross for development, the crises that have trailed our national life pose a sordid source of discomfort. There seems to be a complete lack of capacity by the state to stick to its social contract of guaranteeing the lives of the citizenry in all ramifications. The attendant lack of faith in the country is demonstrated in the people’s penchant to cut corners to survive the harsh weather of life.
More appalling is the realisation that there is no end in sight to this bewildering drift in spite of remarkable political re-engineering and social re-orientation.
Today, corruption and indiscipline have attained a disturbing dimension that no matter what people say or write about it, all you get is a deafening you-can-go-to-hell silence! Jesus Christ spoke of how difficult it is for the head of a camel to pass through the eyes of the needle. Inasmuch as this is true, in Nigeria, even if an elephant carries a hippopotamus on its back, it can easily pass through the eyes of the needle. Here, giant camels of corruption easily pass through the eyes of the needle with ease. Sadly, government’s anti-graft campaigns have been long on platitudes, but miserably short in implementation.
It is unfortunate that after 54 years of independence, our economy has collapsed, just as we experience dilapidated infrastructure, social strife and general feeling of insecurity. Education is in the throes of death.  And the future of the nation is quite bleak.
With a political class that has lost its vision, if it ever had any, a judiciary that has been brow-beaten into impotence and a traditional institution that has become a historical calamity, Nigeria is a shamble of failed institutions.
The legislature, which is supposed to be the real symbol of democracy, has been pocketed by the executive. It has been castrated by the sycophancy of its leadership. While the executive beats the drum of misplaced ethics, the legislature regretfully sways to it with nifty bootlicking steps. Sadly, each step resounds with a revolting echo of retrogression.
Falsehood and deceit have become lucrative while evil is returned unopposed. It is increasingly becoming difficult to winnow the chaff of lies from the grains of truth in Nigeria today. Patriotism is long dead and interred. Loyalty is first and foremost to self, then ethnic nationality, in that order.
This reinforces the fact that the Nigerian project is built on quicksand. The emphasis has been on extravagant display of religious symbolism and other worldliness and rituals, with hardly any wholesome impact on the socio-economic behaviour in the society.
Most public officials attend Juma’at prayers on Fridays and sing Hallelujah on Sundays, but continue to bleed their country dry with utter mindlessness. Nigerians dream big and steal big.
This is utterly reprehensible. The pertinent question to ask is: How did Nigeria find herself in the vice grip of these despicable elements-the intellectual dinosaurs and impervious ideologues? Great politicians of blessed memory like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello etc, wouldn’t have approved of the sort of mindless opportunism that drives our current politicians.
It is therefore clear that the nation’s 54th independence remains largely an anniversary without cheers; it is devoid of the traditional clicking of glasses. Happy birthday Nigeria!
Ochela, a media consultant is based in Abuja.