Naija @56, What Have We Achieved?

Our Flag Of Pride

Nigeria celebrates her Independence today. Today marks our 56th year of existence as a nation. One would think that at 56 a lot of improvements and changes would have been felt by her citizens in such a long time but the reverse has been the case.

Nigeria has struggled to live up to the hype of being the Giant of Africa as almost every aspect of our lives reveals cracks of lack of preparedness on our parts to rule and govern ourselves. We have had about fourteen different Presidents both military and civilian but almost each has his own leopardic spot similar to the other in some ways. Hunger and frustration has been the slogan of our country and Nigeria seems out of shape. Everyone in the country from the oldest to the sucking baby in a mothers arm is disappointed that we have not really reached our potentials and one identifiable reason is that we were in a hurry to gain Independence from our colonial masters.

Nigerian Culture

Our founding fathers meant well for us when they demanded that,we be let to rule ourselves after almost a hundred and Fifty years of colonial rule. The main idea behind the desperation for independence stemmed from the opinion that the British our colonial masters were here to extract us and drain us. Most of them may have seen colonialism as slavery and so in an attempt to salvage her citizens they fought for a freedom that would have been better off if delayed for about two decades. Yes it may be true that our resources were exploited and harnessed and some of it sent abroad. But the same people encouraged agriculture and food production. The emphasis on agriculture helped in the provision of raw materials for better growth and development.  

Nigerian Coat Of Arms

The Britons built our power stations and ensured that we had electricity, our railways were well functioning and telephone lines were active. They built schools and educational systems that groomed our Wole Soyinka's and Chinua Achebe's. Let aside the aspect of infrastructure, the rule of law under our own ruler ship has been shambolic as impunity is the common thing even for the common man. The leaders are the worst when it comes to keeping the laws and the law enforcement agencies are continually blinded by kickbacks. Our elections have never been free and fair and we still have so many of them being inconclusive even
till this day. The whole nation is disorganised and confused no wonder the music lord Idris Abdulkareem sang in an infamous song '' Nigeria Jagaga''. It hurts to hear, but everyone honest who has listened to it would understand his pain and cry out.



The People of Nigeria

We asked for what we couldn’t handle, what we weren't prepared for and when we take reference from a country like South Africa that held back for more years, the difference is glaring and obvious to our commonest senses. South Africa and Namibia can boast of sky scrapper akin to France, Germany, England and any European country you can think of. They have organised systems that works perfectly and they showed that when they hosted the world in the 2010 world Cup. Would FIFA have trusted Nigeria the same way?

Just recently a 99 year old man who witnessed the colonial rule lamented that it ended too soon, his testimony was that there was no discrimination and nepotism then, salaries were paid on time and life was more organised than now.

We often slam the Britons for their exploitation but it was an exploitation worth our own good, worth our own transformation. Our colonial masters raised us to a standard we would never have reached if we governed ourselves and by the looks of things we can clearly see that even today, we seem unprepared, ill ready to muster courage over our problems and challenges, we may perhaps say we didn't learn enough.

Nigerian Currency, Naira

 Our apprenticeship was half baked and we need to be tamed once again. It may be hard for us to admit that we have ran out of depth and that our problems are bigger than us but the reality is that Nigeria is still in need of RECOLONIALISM even after 56 years of being Independent.

By Soibi Nemieboka