|
Nigeria at 45: Success or Failure? By Muhammad Bashir Usman
Barely a week or so ago after the Nigerian community particularly that of the Northern geographical extraction has mourned the exit of its intellectual icon, Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman [may his soul rest in perfect peace, amen]it was yet celebrating the U-turn of another national jamboree called independence anniversary by which Nigeria was said to be forty-five uninterrupted years with political independence on Saturday, 1st October,2005.As usual, the mass media was roundly agog with perpetual fray and official euphoria trying to create in the process, a fake sort of impression that Nigeria has now become respectably great among the comity of nations in Africa and other continents of the world in general. A dream that is both funny and ridiculous to any responsible observer. Once more, the Nigerian leaders, though I don’t waste my useful time to watch them, have filled the air with deliberate lies and false promises of changing our lives for the better without even fear of God; his retribution and/ or fear of the day of judgment.
I seek to admit however like some other
fellow Nigerians, that there is virtually nothing to celebrate since the
concession of independence to the country by British colonial masters on 1st
October, 1960. No economic or political achievement has been seen in
Nigeria in the last forty-five years of political self-determination
except those recorded during our first Republic experiment when the nation
was being managed by national heroes who lived and died for the sole cause
of the nation. Let me cite a clear example of myself from the first place
here. I was born according to my father [who was on an annual sojourn to
the holy Land of
Beside me, many friends and associates including some relatives have been able to sample, some of whom are twenty or more years older than I am have all opined they have not seen any sign of positive development in the country from the attainment of independence in the 1960s to date. A few even preferred Nigeria being under the tutelage of colonial masters to being under the present crop of rulers that are both sadistic and unpatriotic to their country. This is not to talk of the old class that passed through the crisis of the first, second, third to this republic but who have heavily lamented the sorry state of Nigerian –nation from both economic and political point of view today.
Most lamentable however is the wanton and systematic destruction of the existing structures conceived and laid down by the first republic Samaritans.Rather than maintain, retain or even sustain as faithfully did the Ziks,Sardauna’s etc. of the first republic, who laid the solid foundation of what we call Nigeria today, the fourth republic predators seem to revel in selling off after neglecting for long time, Nigerian’s common patrimonies to their Western collaborators and conspirators alike in return for consolidatin g their grip on power here on the domestic front battle. More tears for the people of Kaduna state over the merciless, callous and reckless relocation of the Ahmadu Bello University [A.B.U.] teaching hospital soon from the state capital to Zaria by the duo of Kaduna state paramilitary government and Obasanjo’s pseudo-democratic administration. Their repetitive torrents of excuses--excuses that seem to portray the heroes of the first republic as having no foresight at the time of setting up the institutions [A.B.U.TEACHING HOSPITAL and other public sectors that are being privatized,commercialized or deregulated now in the shaky name of economic [or is it Soludorian as Kabir Mato would like to put it ?] reforms—notwithstanding.
I have to admit here, mindless of any official deceit, deception or tokenism that the oppressed masses of the country have no any cause for jubilation on this independence anniversary .On the other hand, it behoves us to mourn the perennial looting of our national treasury and the abandonment of agricultural sector by a rapacious circle of political class since the discovery of oil around 1970s in the Nigerian history. Beside these, there are a few other areas deserving national commemoration in the last thirty years which Nigerians seem to be forgetting on every independence anniversary. Here I reckon: Huge foreign indebtedness that has woefully characterized a post-independence Nigeria [the first Republic, Buhari’s and Murtala’s experiences being notable exceptions as usual]; humongous oil production revenue of about $3.60per barrel price in 1970/71 to $70 a month ago, the aggregate sum of which may not sound believable to the average mind should Nigeria’s daily oil production quota be summed up from 1971 to date but which is yet to make any positive impact on the nation’s economy; the grinding abyss of poverty[see my recent submission on poverty for full its projection];systemic balkanization of the masses along ethnic and religious lines; unprecedented medals of corruption from Transparency International and the World Bank per se, high international notoriety for our citizens where 419 is concerned, stinking moral decay and decadence that have engulfed us in the last twenty years. Sadly –inevitable to say at 45, Nigeria remains a failure and not at all success for its multiple communities both at home and in the diaspora.
From the foregoing therefore, they will curse resounding Allah ya isa if not Allah tsine to the present crop of political leaders should the Sardaunas, Ziks of yesterday be chanced to take a glancing view of Nigeria in its current decay, mess and structural economic predicament. Finally, as I rest my case here, it is quite alarming that our country is fast heading towards an apocalyptic calamity as a result of bad leadership by a rul ing minority. May God save Nigeria.
Muhammad Bashir Usman is based in Tudun Wada Kaduna and can be reached at :bashirsenior@yahoo.com
|