Nigeria: a pod with many seeds
We confidently give this type of response because we are aware of, and do deeply appreciate, the many good things God has blessed us with. We realise that Nigeria is not a country that can be dismissed with a wave of the hand just because so far she has not quite been able to fully […]
We confidently give this type of response because we are aware of, and do deeply appreciate, the many good things God has blessed us with. We realise that Nigeria is not a country that can be dismissed with a wave of the hand just because so far she has not quite been able to fully harness her many and varied resources to become great. For those who can see, however, Nigeria has a vast potential to become one of the leading nations on earth. It is very much in order to see hope in your potential even if you have not yet actualised that potential.
What are the ingredients that can help to make a nation great and what are some of them that Nigeria have that gives some of us such great hope that our own country will sooner or later be numbered among the great nations on earth?
There are five main factors that can help propel a nation to greatness: the quality and number of the citizens of the country, its geography, the number and or quality of its resources endowment, the quality of its leadership and the will, entrepreneurial acumen and creative ingenuity of the people of that given country.
It is clear from the above listed that Nigeria has every cause to celebrate because its future greatness is assured as it possesses a good number of the ingredients necessary for a country’s greatness.
One of Nigeria’s greatest assets is the number and quality of its citizens. Nigeria is not just a vast country with adequate space to do whatever she wants to do in terms of development, she can also boast of the millions of well trained people in all fields of human endeavour. We have some of the best doctors, best engineers, best scientists and other professionals in the world. Once we find the key to mobilising this vast array of professionals to play a key role in the development process, we will truly be on our way to greatness.
It has been proven by countries like Japan and Singapore that the potential greatness of a nation does not necessarily lie in the abundance of natural resources in her land but more importantly in the quality of the thinking and work ethics of their leadership and citizenry alike. It has since been realised that the human resources are even more invaluable than the natural ones. And Nigeria has a super abundance of human resources. This should give us hope about the present and future greatness of our country.
One of the things that some Nigerians look at and feel not too confident about the present and future of their country is that ours is a mono-cultural economy; an economy that is dependent on our major revenue earner, and in our case it is crude oil. We have just decided to tap only one of the many minerals that God has graciously given to us. There are several still untapped lying in the bosom of the earth. We certainly have no cause to despair.
But apart from this quality and number of the population of our country for which we have every cause to celebrate, we also have the other ingredient which is important for the rapid development of a country. Ours is not a barren country but one bestowed with enormous natural resources to make for a luxuriant and buoyant economy. We can count up to ten resources that if properly explored and exploited will make Nigeria one of the 20 strongest economies of the world. We have crude oil which is today our highest revenue earner.We also have so many solid mineral resources such as uranium, gold, limestone, tantalite, marble and granite. We have gas and bitumen. Our forest resources are also a treasure whose potential has not been fully tapped. What of our vast agricultural lands? It is estimated that out of the large swathe of arable land for agriculture in Nigeria, about 75 per cent of it is not under cultivation. This also should give us hope that when a “green army” is deployed to till our fertile lands, we shall become self-sufficient in food production. Nigeria is a pod with many fruitful seeds. If we choose to close our eyes to the oil resource, we have several sources of wealth that can sustain us.
In fact, one thing that even counts greatest in our favour is the sheer resourcefulness of the average Nigerian. We must count it as one of our endowments that we do not have a citizenry that is laid back or apathetic but a vibrant and resourceful one that sees opportunities in every situation and has the fertile mind to explore and exploit any good opportunity for personal and community good. Grateful to God should be a nation that can boast of that kind of citizens.
Even geography favours us. We are not some landlocked corner of the earth as is the sad fate of some nations of the world. The cause of our commerce and social interaction is greatly served by the Atlantic Ocean and the many important rivers that pass through our country. We equally have a variety of climatic conditions favourable for the cultivation of a vast array of food and cash crops. Does a nation so generously blessed have any cause not to celebrate fifty years of her independence? Some of us think not. Let us therefore click glasses and say fifty happy cheers to Nigeria, our great fatherland.
Eniola Abudu, a commentator, lives at 98B Abacha Road, Mararaba, Nassarawa State