y attention has been drawn to a recent rejoinder article written by one Joseph Ike and published on Nigeriaworld.com on 11/4/2009 in respect of an earlier article posted on the same website by Alphonsus Nwadike and entitled as Ignorance of world history, the failure of Nigerian socio-political critics. Sincerely speaking, the rejoinder written by Joseph Ike is quite of out of touch from the realities of a good critical assessment. That rejoinder is more or less an ad hominem write-up, aimed at personal attacks, instead of addressing the issues raised by Nwadike in his said mother article. Again, it does not seem to me that Mr. Joseph Ike carefully read Mr. Nwadike's article and understood its purport.

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Nigeria got her independence in 1960, having only one fully-fledged university, very few secondary schools, no college of technology, polytechnic, no college of agriculture, no professional institutions, like Nigerian law school, very few health institutions, no research institutions, no supreme court, fewer lower courts, and very few multi-national companies etc. Today, Nigeria is dotted with many of these institutions, boasting of about fifty universities, countless number of secondary schools and a legion of health centers and institutions. At independence, Nigeria had very few professionals, such as medical practitioners, nurses, lawyers, judges, engineers, dentists, lab technologists, pharmacists, bankers, pilots, accountants, architects etc, but today Nigeria has produced millions of these practitioners who have been serving the professional needs of the Nigerian people since 1960. I wonder if it is a true assessment of Nigerian situation and constructive criticism for a Nigerian socio-political critic to say that Nigeria has not made any progress since independence. I believe, instead of Mr.Joseph Ike to address this question, he went into irrelevancies and name-calling.

Furthermore, at independence, Nigeria had only three regions with Ibadan, Kaduna, and Enugu as their headquarters, but today Nigeria had thirty-six states, having thirty-six state capitals. At independence, such Nigerian cities as Lagos, Ibadan, Akure, Abeokuta, Enugu, Portharcourt, Aba, kano, calabar, kano, Yenagoa, Warri, Asaba, Kaduna, Umuahia, Owerri, Ikot-Ekpene, Lokoja, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Makurdi, Abuja, Sokoto, Benin city etc had little or no social infrastructure, but today they have witnessed a lot of development and have worn far better looks than they had at the onset of Nigerian independence. Is it then a true critical appraisal of Nigeria for a Nigerian developmental critic to describe Nigeria as a country that has made no progress since its independence? I believe, it is not. Many Nigerians may like to know from Joseph Ike and his ilk if Asaba in Delta State of Nigeria, for instance, is worse in infrastructural development now than she was in 1960?

Moreover, there are many Nigerian developmental critics who have described Nigeria as Sodom and Gomorrah because of her political corruption. Some have also described Nigeria as a country where there is no road, no electricity, no water, no school or university, no hospital, and security. There is no country under the sun that has no political corruption, including the developed nations, and there is no country which has achieved national greatness without passing through turbulent times and dilapidated infrastructural status. All political revolutions in human history were ignited by the political corruption and ineptitude of the pre-existing social systems, operated by constituted human authorities. Today, for instance, the former president of France, Jacques Chirac, is facing a corruption charge, and the former prime minister of Israel, Ehud olmert, is having a corruption charge against him. In the USA,China, Italy, Canada, Russia etc, many government officials have had and continue to have corruption charges. If corruption is a societal ill which is not peculiar to Nigeria, I wonder if a social critic in Nigeria is right to see Nigeria as Sodom and Gomorrah on that ground. Mr. Ike failed to resolve this issue; he went into unnecessary ad homenems. Many Nigerian social values are far better than what exists in most developed countries. In many advanced nations, the institutions of marriage and family have been destroyed and thrown to the dogs; human procreation is mostly based on widespread fornication, prostitution, adultery, and incest, and homosexuality has become a norm instead of an abomination. If Nigeria is Sodom and Gomorrah, I wonder how one can describe those developed countries with more astronomical decay in moral values. If Nigeria is described as Sodom and Gomorrah or hell, I wonder if our social critics would expect a reasonable foreign company to invest in Nigeria, so that Nigerian teeming graduates could have better and more employment opportunities. This, in my view, is one of the good points in Nwadike's article in which he called Nigerian developmental critics to order, and which was not addressed by Joseph Ike in his said rejoinder.

Again, the reading public may like to know from Mr. Joseph Ike if it is true that in Nigeria, there are no roads, no hospitals, schools or universities, as some of the Nigerian developmental critics have maintained. Telling a lie in the name of social criticism is dangerous and damaging to the individual image of all members of any society. For instance, last year, one of my friends from Nigeria, called John, bought a motor vehicle here in Chicago, Illinois, USA with the intention of shipping it to Nigeria for his private use. When, an American white lady who was bethroted to him learnt of this development, she became annoyed and later asked him, " why do you plan to send this good truck to Nigeria where many people say there are no roads?" I was palpably astonished at this question and later I asked her, " madam which people say that there are no roads in Nigeria?" She told her fiance, John, and me that she got the information, reading Nigerian news and articles written by Nigerians on the internet. Every effort my friend and I made to convince her that there are roads in Nigeria ended in fiasco. She still thinks that we were trying to deceive her; for that reason, her relationship with my friend, John, has become shaky and sour. Social criticism is no criticism if its target is to destroy a country instead of building it. Mr. Joseph Ike has failed to understand that freedom of expression is not a blank check for Nigerians to write any trash against Nigeria on the pretext of trying to reform Nigerian government. Many inhuman treatments meted against Nigerians abroad by the citizens of their host countries today are caused by the negative impressions created in the minds of their foreign counter-parts about Nigeria and her citizens by unconstructive Nigerian critics.

Mr. Ike travelled to Nigeria recently from Rwanda, and his journey from Lagos to Asaba took several hours because of many police check-points and bad Lagos-Asaba road, according to him. Because of this experience, Mr. Ike concluded that all roads in Nigeria are in disrepair, and he saw the mounting of the numerous check-points as unreasonable. He forgot to understand that serious problems demand serious solutions, and that those police check-points may help in curbing the recent upsurge in the activities of armed robbers and kidnappers in Nigeria. He failed to travel to other cities in Nigeria to see if all their roads are worse now than when he left Nigeria for his Rwanda. I wonder why a person who lives in Rwanda could have the pride and boldness to condemn Nigerian developmental status when Rwanda, Somalia, and Haiti are rated by international agencies as the world's poorest nations. It is a pity that Nigeria has become a punching back for every Dick and Harry who masquerades as a social critic for Nigeria, including even Nigerians who cannot successfully organise their personal lives, let alone their immediate families. Many Nigerians who live abroad can hardly believe that Nigeria is making any progress in infrastructural development until they see her well-equipped in the standards of the advanced nations, and many of them have refused to learn that Nigeria is rated by most of the international agenciest as one of the world's current fastest- growing economies.

Furthermore, I can remember that in the said article written by Mr. Nwadike, he made the following statements:

"How can a true social crusader for Nigerian development believe that the USA, Japan, UK, Germany, Russia, Italy, and other industrialized nations achieved their developmental strides in fifty years of their nationhood when history is full of the authentic dates and times of major world inventions, without which modern human civilization and development wouldn't have been possible? According to history, the following statements of fact are indisputable:

1. The first flying machines, which ushered in the manufacture of airplanes, were invented in 1905 by Wright brothers

2. The first full-scale working rail-way steam locomotive was built by Trevithick in 1804.

3. The first successful steam rail-way in the USA was South Carolina railroad, inaugurated in 1830.

4. The first automobile vehicle, with internal combustion engine, was built by Gottieb Daimler and Maybach in 1889.

5. Turing's machine, the theoretical precursor to modern computers, was invented in 1936 by Alan Turing.

6. Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the first digital computer, was built in 1945 by John Mauchly and J. Presper.

7. The first electric light and incandescent light bulb, which ushered in the manufacture of electric generators, wires, appliances, and all modern electric equipment, were invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison.

8. The first television set/device was invented in 1927 by Philo Farnswworth.

9. The first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.

10. The first bicycle was invented by Kirpatrick Macmillan in 1839.

11. The first pneumatic tire/tyre, which occasioned the construction of concrete/macadamized roads, was built in 1845 by Thompson Williams.

12. The first refrigerator, called an ether ice machine, was constructed in 1834 by Jacob Perkins.

13. The first antiseptic was made in 1847 by Ignaz Semmelwers.

14. The first telegraph was invented in 1837 by Samuel Morse.

15. The first matches were invented by John walker in 1827.

16. The first typewriter was built in 1829 by W.A. Burt.

17. The first sewing machine was constructed in 1830 by Barthelemy Thimonnier.

18. The first patented radio set/system was invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1896."

In my view, Mr. Joseph Ike did not challenge any of the above facts stated by Mr. Nwadike in his said article. If the above facts are taken as true, it then stands to reason that it is a lie and dishonesty for any Nigerian developmental critic to inform the world that advanced nations realized their socio-infrastructural greatness in fifty years. Additionally, if the facts are correct, it implies that Nigeria at forty-nine is developing at a faster rate than the now advanced countries. Instead of Mr. Ike to address these issues for public enlightenment, he descended to unwarranted ad hominems and ad baculums, which are the pitfalls of any sound reasoning and logic. The said Nwadike's article, to my mind and perhaps many other Nigerians, is very illuminating and perceptive.

In the light of the above arguments, I hereby advise Mr. Joseph Ike that he should always read articles thoroughly well before posting his rejoinders. Ike and his co-social critics of Nigeria ought to realize that at this time of our national life, Nigeria is developing country and not an advanced nation, where everything appears to be okay. Nigerians generally should know that destructive social criticism is a toxin to Nigerian development. Our social critics must not be given a blank check, less they would cut off our noses to spite our faces. I seem to believe that the main reason for which many Nigerians travel overseas nowadays is to gain a vintage point from where they would be launching unconsidered attacks against Nigeria, the country that brought them up, instead of to try and acquire technical skills which Nigeria badly needs for sustained development. In any circumstance, Nigerians should always pray to God to give them the serenity to accept what they cannot change, the courage to change what they can, and the wisdom to know the difference between salutary, constructive, beneficial social criticisms and damaging, evil-doing socio-political opposition. I agree with Mr. Nwadike that Nigeria is not Sodom and Gomorrah, and that she has made tremendous developmental strides since 1960, though we still have a long way to go in national development.