Nigeria, a middling giant at 54

Each of these is important and both are a necessity. A nation celebrates its independence when there is empirical evidence of infrastructure development, and general to needs by society. Matters have been made easy by clear definitions of basic yet lofty such needs as millennium development goals. Yet of fundamental significance is the existence of […]

Each of these is important and both are a necessity. A nation celebrates its independence when there is empirical evidence of infrastructure development, and general to needs by society. Matters have been made easy by clear definitions of basic yet lofty such needs as millennium development goals. Yet of fundamental significance is the existence of equally developing support institutions and structures, seen functioning effectively. In the checks and balances that they foist, governance regimes are rendered strong and effective to the benefit of all. Continuity and sustenance is then guaranteed. These include the Legislature, Judiciary, Law Enforcement Agents, Customs and Immigration, whose poor performance accounts for the insurgency and indeed, the failing democracy.
With this in mind, celebrating Nigeria at 54 presented for me, smiles that were neither from the heart nor quite in my face. May be because my mind was preoccupied by the war on the ongoing insurgency, and the terrifying thought that Boko Haram could add the whole of Adamawa to its conquered territory. My anxieties were not helped by claims by the Defence Headquarters on gains against insurgents that ran contrary to what locals were reporting. In the midst of all this, the past week witnessed quite not so modest self adulation from the Government as it listed its indicators of achievements, naming them as reasons for which we should celebrate. No one seemed ashamed or perturbed that for the past 4 years, Nigeria has been held to ransom by insurgents and unable to celebrate the National Day in the open with the necessary fanfare. It has had to be in sober reflection, whatever that means, and no matter how nothing has ever come out of our sober reflection. In all directions that you looked however sober your reflection, the narrative is of unmitigated failure as sectoral development optimum is not being achieved.
The one reason we cannot have genuine celebrations is our leadership deficit in comparison to emerging African democracies none of which is “our age mate”. We have a President who has not been able to dare the tides of competition, to allow for the laid down process of clean and clear internal democracy. We have not been given the benefit of the President engaging his contemporaries around the country and affirming his successes, responding to criticisms, taking flack from hopefuls within his party and replying. Instead, we have ethnic and religious attack dogs, tigers, and lions that talk every wrong thing about one another and never a word on national questions. While a necessary learning curve has been dodged, the nation has been robbed of an insight into the quality of those who would aspire to lead in the future were this lively democratic process allowed to play out. In America Obama did it. He went to the party to seek re-nomination. It was fierce and full of rancour. But Obama won the nomination, with lessons learnt. As simple as it looks, this process marks a signpost of political maturity. This, Obama did. If Goodluck did it as well, as the running political advert claims, would it not have been worth celebrating? This to me is a deficit.
Is this deficit made compensated by the goodness of Goodluck – through what the government calls his Transformation Agenda achievements? What about the cost of the transformation agenda? Would Ghana, Cameroon, or even emerging Republic of Sudan buy the agenda at the same price? How can we have answers to the many questions without the Agenda being debated by the stakeholders of the Agenda in the Peoples Democratic Party? Democrats in the US debated aspects of Obama’s transformation agenda particularly Obamacare?
Matters are made worse by the sheepish political class, and a populace rendered helplessly gullible by hunger and deprivation. First by the National Executive Committee of the ruling party met and decided that the President had been honoured with an automatic ticket. This was echoed a few days later by the members of the National Working Committee and Board of Trustees of the People’s Democratic Party. Now a triumphant President Goodluck Jonathan is proudly beating his chest and saying that he has the right of refusal. No one is raising an eyebrow to highlight what the constitution says about the process through which a Presidential nominee can emerge, but at age 54, Nigeria should have been way above this political act naïveté. The nation cannot then be ruled by the best brain that way. To me, this is more fundamental than anything else.
At 54, we do not seem to have a viable opposition. After working so hard to collapse the small political parties into the All Progressives Congress, it appears that the opposition has splintered on the issue of the Presidential ticket given the tacit stands of Tinubu, who leads the South West in the marriage, and General Muhammadu Buhari, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the co-husbands from the North. Alas, here is a golden opportunity, as mooted by Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed in a recent interview, saying that these three should focus on the nation’s future freed from the clutches of the PDP, and not on their personal ambitions to rule. The general feeling is that the trio of Tinubu, Buhari, and Atiku should offer the nation a breath of fresh air via much younger alternatives in the opposition.
Bedevilled still by mundane issues that were apparent at the birth of the nation, what was there to celebrate? At 54, we may have seen developments in some serious minded State Governments where we notice significant paradigm shifts in available infrastructure, but overall, the success is in bogus figures and semantics. On the ground the story is a far cry. Private economies have blossomed, personal real estates litter the urban landscapes, but for the poor, housing, healthcare, employment and income, remain severely critical factors. The local farmer still tills his soil the peasant way, and supports the rudimentary local food industry, but life for him is a living on the edge of a precipice because of the unbearable cost of housing, electricity, health needs, commuting, and even the education of his children.
At 54, Nigeria has lost its status of the Giant of Africa, what with lost territory to insurgents who seize and hold, and carve out “caliphates”. In one month it has lost first $9.3m dollars, and then another $5.7 to South Africa through crude efforts to acquire arms – methods that lend themselves to undermining of our national pride and security. We do not stand tall. Instead we stand dwarfed in arrested development by insecurity, corruption and incompetence.