Nigeria@59: A nation of broken visions


Nigeria@59: A nation of broken visions

 
JUST one more year and Nigeria will clock 60 as an independent nation. Looking at the figures that bespeak the level of our underdevelopment, and the dooming atmosphere that envelopes the nation and her citizenry, there are very few reasons for Nigerians to be proud of their independence.

First, let’s look at a few critical metrics which all point in the negative direction. Nigeria ranks 144 out of 180 countries in the Transparency International, TI, 2018 Corruption Perception Index, CPI. In the same year, Nigeria came 88th out of 133 countries in the World Justice Project, WJP, Rule of Law Index and achieved the damning status of becoming the “Poverty Capital of the World.” According to the World Poverty Clock, created by Vienna-based World Data Lab, 91.16 million of the country’s 198 million people were living below a dollar a day (extreme poverty) as of February 13, 2019.

In the educational front, Nigeria is also the country with the highest number of out-of-school children (13.2 million), with dilapidated educational infrastructure, which forces the same ruling class that cannot rule to send their children to schools in other countries that are properly governed. The same thing applies to the health sector and, again, the rulers of the country hop abroad to fix their health problems despite a hugely-funded State House Clinic that cannot fix common malaria.

With a largely oil-based economy projected to exceed $600billion in 2020, Nigeria is rated as the largest economy (by GDP) in Africa, yet poverty and lack of opportunities have forced hundreds of thousands of Nigerians to migrate to countries in Europe, America, Asia and other African countries where they are targeted for xenophobic attacks.

Within the country, the security system has nearly collapsed, with Islamic terrorism, banditry, armed herdsmen genocidal killings, kidnapping, violent robberies, piracy and cultism tearing at the nation’s fabric. It is tales of woe galore.

The twin vectors


The bad shape of the country has nothing to do with a lack of planning or visioning. Nigeria has perhaps the largest number of development plans in the world, but we are unable and unwilling to follow through any of them. Just as we have a legion of abandoned projects, we also possess an armada of abandoned visions and development plans.

Experts have identified two main reasons for our failure to implement our plans. The first is the faulty constitutional foundation. The second is the crabs in the basket syndrome.

Experts have identified two main reasons for our failure to implement our plans. The first is the faulty constitutional foundation. The second is the crabs in the basket syndrome.
During the First Republic, the four-region federation worked perfectly. It was the period when Nigeria competed favourably at the global level in almost every sector, especially agriculture, industrialisation, education and rudimentary technology.

Rudimentary technology


Each of the Regions engaged in a fierce healthy competition. The Northern Region was an agricultural behemoth, with its Groundnut Pyramids and built the largest indigenous university, the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU. The Western Region, the educational pacesetter, built the first skyscraper (Cocoa House), first television station and offered free education to millions of its youth.

The East emerged as the fastest industrialising economy in the Third World in 1964, with the prospects of becoming the economic superpower in Africa with its rich oilfields, if not for the 30-month Civil War that changed everything.
After the war, General Yakubu Gowon ran a benevolent dictatorship for nine years with Development Plans that focused mainly on nationwide infrastructure. The steady pace of development came to a halt when the 1979 Constitution that was the extension of centralised military command was grafted into the civilian rule. With the powers of the Federation concentrated at the centre, the country became dependent, consumption-based and no longer competitive.

The miniaturised states no longer possessed the powers of the former Regions which were the metabolic action stations and production workshops of the Federation in the First Republic. Every month, the states and local governments go plate-in-hand to Abuja to collect their quota from the Federation Government-controlled Federation Account.

Unfortunately, the 1999 Constitution was a mere rehash of the 1979 centralised Federal Constitution, which was created in such a way that it could not be amended to decentralise our federalism due to the fact that it serves the interests of a privileged section to the detriment of others. As long as this Constitution remains, the Federation may not be restructured, and the failure in the system cannot be halted.

Apart from the faulty foundation, there is the case of “crab in a basket” mentality among the ruling class. Every crab in the basket wants to climb out but pulls down those already climbing out. Eventually, no one climbs out. While other countries build on the efforts or legacies of preceding governments, our rulers tend to jettison the efforts of their predecessors.

Every new government, whether civilian or military, sees the immediate past government as corrupt and evil. They end up being worse. Visions are set, work starts, but once a new government comes in the rulers discard the visions of their predecessors and launch their own which another regime also jettisons.

Corruption and sectional greed ensure that public resources end up in private pockets.

Bleak future


Unfortunately, the outlook for the future is very bleak. All efforts to reset the faulty foundation of the country (through restructuring) are vehemently resisted by those who feel they and their region would lose out. The resource base of the country continues to shrink and poverty continues to balloon, manifesting in violent crimes and terrorism. Yet those holding the reins of power refuse to accommodate any life-saving paradigm shift.

Today, we are no longer talking about strengthening the unity of the people of Nigeria. We are seeing a new definition of Nigeria that must condone and accommodate the influx of strange, armed and hostile ethnic foreigners, who insolently boast that Nigeria belongs to them.

The independence that our founding fathers fought for has all but lost its meaning

WISDOM YARD TV NEWS


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