NIGERIA: 61 YEARS OF PATCHY NATIONHOOD

As Nigeria celebrates its 61st independence anniversary, it appears that the country has made little noticeable progress over the years, while taking long strides towards an obnoxious obsession with retrogression.

Like the subject of child no one really wants at a meeting of estranged couples, whenever Nigeria is dialed into any discourse, nerves fray and tempers flare. At the mention of Nigeria, there is always the palpable sense of a stand-off between the camps of those who want Nigeria to continue as one undivided entity and those who want the country divided into different parts.

The arguments for and against Nigeria`s continuation as a single entity are as numerous as they are ferocious. Proponents of one Nigeria point to the diversity. They say that the different ethnic groups that make up the country are able to bring their different diverse gifts to the table to ensure that Nigeria can always throw a banquet.

The opponents of Nigeria`s continuation as a single entity point to what they call a famine of progress since Nigeria attained independence in 1960.They say that for all its many gifts, Nigeria has remained painfully poor.

As Nigeria celebrates its 61st independence anniversary, it is an opportunity to reflect on what has gone wrong with Nigeria and what could be done to redeem its battered image. It was always going to be difficult. Perhaps, Lord Lugard, the much-vilified arrowhead of Nigeria`s amalgamation did not envision the stormy waters the country would sink into not long after his seemingly historic masterstroke. If he did, he was most mischievous to have ignored the warning signs. If he did not, then he betrayed remarkably poor vision.

In any case, so many years down the line, Lord`s Lugard`s vision of one united Nigeria has badly faltered leaving fault lines that stretch from Sokoto to Sapele, fault lines which now threaten to break up the country.

While sections of the country feel marginalized, other sections feel threatened by the agitations spewing from other sections like a deadly volcano. The net effect is a country on pins and needles where ethnic and religious loyalties trump the trappings of patriotism.

Ask many Nigerians what the problem is and they will tell you it is a leadership problem. It is hard to debate that because from the lowly councilor in the remotest ward in Nigeria`s farthest state to the presidency in Abuja, Nigerians feel a sense of abandonment by the leadership of the country. There has been the lingering feeling that Nigeria`s electoral system is too compromised to allow the right people assume the mantle of leadership.

Many Nigerians are passive about Nigeria and its affairs. Many Nigerians do not believe that anything good can come out of the entity called Nigeria. As a result, apathy ensues and endures, fueled in no small part by the recurring unwillingness of successive Nigerian administrations to arrest the country`s slide into obscurity.

As Nigeria celebrates a 61st, what can be done to redeem the country and its image? It is a difficult ask and a difficult task because the country is long gone in slump. However, baby steps could be taken, more in hope than in expectation.

For starters, the sectional agitations threatening to rip the country apart must be addressed with urgency. The most serious agitation seems to be coming from Nigeria`s southeast where the echoes of the Nigerian Civil War resound in IPOB`s frantic efforts to attain an independent country of Biafra.

The IPOB`s agitation for independence gained fresh impetus after President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015.The agitations have not been helped by the iron fist with which his administration has so far treated the issue. It remains to be seen whether the sledge hammer successfully kill the fly.

Agitations for secession has also roiled into Nigeria`s south-west, helped in no small part by the insistence of the Yoruba people that the country should be properly restructured. The long running grievances of the long-suffering people of the Niger Delta are also well documented. The peace that now pervades the Niger Delta is a peace of the graveyard.

Then there is the Nigeria`s north which is going up in flames. Boko Haram terrorists and savage bandits have joined forces to ensure that children there cannot freely go to school without fear of abduction.

The government`s response has been tepid to say the least, an oscillation between nonchalance and incompetence. Then there is the painful phenomenon of corruption, long recognized as Nigeria`s Achilles heel. Corruption like a malignant cancer has eaten deep into the Nigerian system leaving in its wake a devastating failure of public infrastructure and public confidence in the government.

The situation has become so bad that every Nigerian is assumed and expected to be corrupt. A culture of kickbacks and sharp corners has been ingrained into the Nigerian system to such an extent that it has become an accepted way of life. The result is the chilling state of comatose development that has befallen the country.

As Nigeria celebrates its 61st Independence anniversary, Nigerians dream of the heady days when they can stand shoulder to shoulder on the world stage with citizens of countries where things work. Until then, those in positions of authority must put their noses to the grinding stone for the sake of the country. It is only by doing that the country can attain the heights its lowliest citizens so desperately crave.

Kene Obiezu,

Abuja