FEATURE ARTICLE

Erekata FamousWednesday, October 24, 2012
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Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State

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Forwarded by: Dr. FEMI AJAYI

NIGERIA AT 52: IS IT WORTH CELEBRATING?


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am happy for the nation on its 52nd independence anniversary. However, I have a mixture of feelings: Nigeria is a country where people's dreams can come through and where these dreams can perish or change- perhaps, because of influences around since this is a country where unimaginable can happen. Nigeria is a nation where some people remain happy, a nation where its government give tears to people everyday either through the insecurity of the state or through their personal ambitious plans. Nigerians can be happy today to some extent, that at least their country is becoming mature by "Age".

Nigeria is one of the most corrupt country both in Africa and world, it is an almost failed state, the giant of Africa now the ant of Africa. When I look at Nigeria and some other countries that gained independence in the 1950s and 1960s. I wonder whether we are growing or not, I wonder whether we are still in the colonial era or not, I wonder whether our future is bright or not and I wonder whether we are at our best at the moment e.g. India, Malaysia , Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore, Pakistan, and lately our own Ghana, have made great improvements. While Nigeria still suffer because of leadership qualities and economic crises.

However, Nigerians at home and in the diasporas should still or still has hope because of what the citizens of Nigeria are made of, Nigeria today are contributing to the growth of the world through their inventions from science to medicine, Technology to business, arts to leadership. These are those we refer to as Nigerians of the future. From the current global world, the future belongs to me whose ideals solve human problems who dream with open eyes but for the past 51 years the corruption of the Nigeria leaders has made it impossible for them to look at what Nigerians offer instead they are gaized too long at wealth. The transient glory of power had deceived many from the pursuit of noble causes thereby denying the country of the benefits of the fruits of their imamate talents. Nigerians who could be referred to as exception to the uninspiring way of life that has dragged the country to political and economic cul-de sac. They are great men and women who have made a difference. Their outstanding life give Nigeria pride among the country of nation. I call them Nigerians of the future, because to these kinds rest the hope of this most popular African country. We have people like professor Bwala, agent of hope to Parkinson disease and stroke patients, born in 1950 hail from Borno state, is the author of over 40 research publication in the field of neuology, a former deputy Vice-Chancellor (academics) of the university of Maiduguri. This man instead of seeking for political appointment in government house, he is doing research on the pattern of neurologic diseases at the hospital and the causes of stroke in the young (those who are less than 45 years). Many medical doctors look for government appointments instead he worked mostly in hospitals and medical departments.

Furthermore, another man who gives hope to Nigeria and Africa as a whole is Brino Gilbert from Edo state who invented a gadget counter collision Gadget(CCG) CCG device has the capacity to accidents on the road, air, sea, and rail. Gilbert who is a physicist has proved to be a man of industry, hard work and resilience. All his works has earned him numerous acclamations. Gilbert went on for 10 years seeking government attention for his research but government did not intervene because they are only concerned about their wellbeing and the present, they do not care about the future. We have other people that give Nigerians hope as we celebrate our 52nd independence anniversary, we have Deola Sagoe; New thinking in fashion, Abba Chedi Zabair; world renown pathogist, Dr Philip Emeagwali; world fastest calculator, Jalaru Aliyu ;authomobile designer, John Dabir; a new look at name-energy technology, Shehum Balami; the rocket inventor, all these people are from Nigeria but do we really know them or use them for the improvements of the country. Imagine if all these people where supported by the government what year are we going to be celebrating, yet we celebrate 52 years of immaturity, corruption, death roll, insecurity, poverty, high illiterate level.

What has the country offered the people within the past 51 years? Is it freedom from external affairs, power sharing among the elites, change in currency, bad governance, corruption, increase in death roll, as at September 2012 after the bauchi attack about 1,400 people has been killed of Boko Haram attack, insecurity or is it peace, poverty, development planning without implementation that leads to squandering of billions of naira's, poor growth, poor education facilities, religious fight, the poor becoming poorer or the rich becoming richer, bad sport facilities, I remember the 2012 Olympic games where 1.6 billion naira was used on preparation yet the poor athletes came home with no medal, increase in tears in different families, poor air transportation facilities, increase in Boko Haram attack, electricity, increase in petroleum price, fight for one seat by many candidates from different parties leading to shedding of innocent blood, all these are what the present Nigeria governance has offered its citizens for the past 51 years.

Let us look at the current ranking economically, Nigeria is ranked 99th in the world by the world economic forum, the outcome of the ranking, which is yearly exercise shows Nigeria has gone five places down the scale. Last year Nigeria's economy was ranked 94th in the world, this implies that the key indices necessary for economic development are deteriorating rather than improving. The recent economic meltdown is said to have taken its toll in many countries and Nigeria may have been hard hit by the aftershock of the global economic turbulence Nigeria's reversal of fortunes was deepened by weak institutional frameworks, security concern, high level of corruption especially in key government institutions, and by public officials and wasteful spending, for instance in the area of weak institution, Nigeria was ranked 102nd, insecurity(117th), corruption(122nd) and wasteful spending(120th), imagine the worst area in the ranking was at the primary education level which was ranked 132nd out of the 133 countries that were surveyed, Nigeria's state of infrastructure was described as appalling by report, it was ranked 127th, the consolation is that Nigeria's macroeconomic environment received a somewhat favorable rating, it was ranked20th. This is on the basis of what report called Nigeria's 'high national savings rate' and 'low national debt' Also, the market size was rated very highly at 42nd in the world. South Africa moved five places up, which shows that south Africa has improved drastically, terrifically economically. This also shows that Nigeria government has been doing more talking and less working or implementation of their plans.

However, Nigeria is 52, are we really 52?, are we really happy with the state after 51 years of independence?, or should we be colonized by the world leading countries?, should we fight to be separated to see whether we are going to grow individually instead of been one as a country?. However, there is still a lot of optimism in me that the time is near, the time when we will be celebrating a country as a nation that has gone through hard times and survived, we are will be celebrating soon if not soonest a country with pride, honour, success, good leaders, good security for its citizen, strong electricity, low poverty rate, high rate of educated people, because I believe and have faith that the future which we have been waiting for is near, because the people, leaders we are waiting for is among us, it is all about changing our mindset to a better one that will erase the present mindset which we have about governance presently that of corruption. I await that new mindset, that critical minded thinking person among the youth of this generation and not the next or another future generation.

Erekata Famous is a 200 Level student in the Political Science Department at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State

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