Nigeria celebrated its 58th independence anniversary last week. It was an occasion for the federal and state governments to roll out the drums and celebrate the day the Union Jack was lowered in Nigeria and the green- white – green flag of the newly-independent state of Nigeria was hoisted in
Lagos.
At Abuja, the nation’s capital, the country witnessed a big and colourful display of parades by military and para-military outfits in the country. This was in addition to the display of some military armaments such as 23 new war planes and home-made fast navy boats that were manufactured locally to combat oil thefts in the creeks in the southern part of the country. Also on display were military hardware that were meant to show the so-called might of the nation.
However, we know that Nigeria may be Africa’s largest economy; it has not arrived militarily because it does not have any armament industry and does not manufacture any major armament that could match that of Egypt or South Africa.
Many countries sent messages congratulating Nigeria on the occasion. To massage Nigeria’s ego, the U.S praised Nigeria on the occasion saying that Nigeria is an indispensable leader in Africa. It also praised Nigerians entrepreneurial spirit. The country may not have developed the way we wanted these 58 years, the fact that we have managed to remain a united country and aspiring to achieve more in economic growth and development are things to point to as our achievement.
How have we fared these 58 years especially when compared to countries that were at par with us in 1960? The simple truth is that we have performed poorly when put against the giant strides made by South Korea and Malaysia, two countries that were at par with us in development in 1960. Nigerians are excellent when it comes to diagnosing the country’s problems and in proffering solutions to the problems. But all policies aimed at ending such problems always fail during implementation.
In other words, implementation has been the undoing of Nigeria. Yet, without implementing the appropriate policies, we may not arrive at our Eldorado. Instead, we shall continue to beat about the bush lamenting our glorious past when the Naira was worth more than the dollar.
This is why some people have likened Nigeria to a giant who suddenly became crippled and is now trying to do those things that he ought to have done before he became crippled. The crippled giant will start fighting and blaming himself for not doing what he ought to have done at the right time.
There is no doubt that presidential democracy that we practice in Nigeria is very wasteful and expensive. It is also doubtful if our economy can sustain the kind of expensive politics that we are running. If that is the case, we must look for a way forward for the nation. That is why the strident calls for restructuring are appropriate at this point in time.
Is our current policing structure adequate to guarantee safety of lives and property? If the slow response of our police to address community clashes and security issues and their general lacklustre performance are anything to go by, we need more of community policing. The police as presently constituted cannot adequately police a country of about 200 million people with an Inspector General in Abuja dishing out orders and without him nothing can be done. Already, some aggrieved governors are asking for pure community policing so that the citizens of their states can be effectively covered by police security.
Is the current “feeding bottle economics” whereby state governments rely mostly on the federal government for the money needed to pay salaries and run their governments the best for Nigeria? It is certainly not. So, the country needs economic restructuring so that each state government can get more Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to run the administration of the state and whatever comes from the federal is additional to what the state generates
internally.
You may also have been told that the country is walking on the path of debts again as its external debt as at June 30, this year, stood at $22 billion. At the same time, the nation’s total local and foreign debt stock (federal government, FCT and states) stood at N22.38 trillion ($73.21 billion). Unfortunately, the government is behaving as if all is well with the nation’s economy. We are even told that there is nothing wrong in taking more debts as the nation has not reached its maximum level of
debt.
