Opinion
Nigeria @60: The Shame Of A Country That Burnt Her Bridges
Nigeria celebrates its 60 independence anniversary today, as a people, a polity and as an independent entity whether or not it is a flag and anthem expression. Come to think of it, 54 years in the life of a man, no less so, a country is such a long time long enough to take stock at 54. Nigeria is still waddling or toddling and by choice.
The result today, is that we are increasingly encouraged to have faith in our doubts about the future of the country. The direct outcome of the quandary is that our will to stay together is challenged I can say without any error of judgement that the bane of this country of noblemen and women, was, and is, the political class these people are, by definition, conditioned to act in predetermined ways, to react or respond to situations, primarily created by them, and always out of narrow-mindedness.
Politicians in Nigeria, are in military uniform or civilian garbs and have both held the country, by the scruff of the neck.
A short six years into our independence, achieved without bloodshed the military struck, and all hell was let loose on virgin land, with promises of the good life. Let the truth be told; the country was awash with world-beaters.
Dick Tiger and Hogan Bassey, were world boxing champions, in the middle and featherweight categories. A relatively unknown Chinua Achebe. Wrote and published his award-winning things fall apart at age 28. in 1958, just as Wole Soyinka, an iconoclast, made his mark in his late 20s. The incredible list of world beaters of Nigerian extraction is endless.
How she has gabbled off her boundless gifts and potentials, continues to boggle the mind. The rot has got to a dizzying height, that it makes total nonsense to appear to live straight.
While other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill, in Nigeria. It is a lot little better practised now than on the morning of October 1, 1960. when the British grudgingly allowed us to go. The country struck oil in 1958 or so at oloibiri, in today’s Bayelsa state. The petrol-dollar boom of the 70s gave rise to the melancholy of the 2000s and beyond.
The country is bereft of ideas, with the result that not everything that counts can be counted, and it is not everything that can be counted that counts. We are a long way from where we should, and nothing right now indicates we are progressing, or trying to make things work, we are regressing. The future is bleak and uninspiring. No prospect. The confidence and hope of the citizenry are at an all-time low. Absolutely nothing to celebrate. It should be a day of collective introspection and retrospection.
Our founding fathers and past heroes will wince and squirm in their graves when they see what the country they fight relentlessly to emancipate from colonial rule and build has become.
A Country that held so many promises at independence— gleefully forging a sense of nationhood, savouring its freedom—has now become a pariah nation, leaving its unmistakable mark on every negative index. It all began 6 years after independence. Jan 15. And from then on everything went down the hill.
Those who have the privilege of being around when the country had some semblance of vision, value and true leadership. They enjoyed everything, the pecks and goodness the country afforded them. The country was working to some extent then, or so it seemed. They found their ways to power, and they destroy everything. Everything. They are still very much around. No altruism or compassion. No sense of purpose. Service to the people does not exist in their playbook. They want to loot and amass wealth they don’t need. Their level of greed and avarice bugs the mind and confounds the soul. We are ruled by poor people with money. They have all the money, but yet they are poor. Poor people with money. They are poor in value, character, duty, empathy, love and compassion. They are akin to what Karl Marx described as “primitive accumulator of wealth” wealth without cost. They are still very much around. The jackals and hyenas. King of the North and the feudal lord of the South. The country is at the crossroads, never mind what die-in-the-wool apologists, disguised as nationalists, want us to believe.
Nigeria has burnt bridges she built and which we built for her. The stigma of belonging to the country or being associated with her is a yoke.
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