52 YEARS OF NATIONHOOD: THE SCORE CARD.

On 1^st October 1960, the bell of independence rang on the door step of Nigeria and her republic was thrown to her dorm-room window in 1963, at this time our beloved founding fathers dreamt and felt that the people has come of age to control her resources and take absolute control of running the government of her nation, hence, the British government, our colonial masters was asked to leave and never come back. Whether or not our leaders developed a blueprint to run one of Africa’s most populous nation, handed over to them to manage.

From the then Prime Minister, Late Mallam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who crippled the nation, to military rulership which further delayed our development. Nigeria arrived at democratic government with military officers turning into civilian and mounting the leadership as Presidents.

In complete honesty, evaluating how far “Nigeria” has come from the autonomous stage to this moment is a complete insult to every well meaning Nigerians and truly, how free is Nigeria from extraneous bodies? When the Westerners are still directly or indirectly dictating to our leaders on what to do and what not to do, a typical example to this fact is when the British government through there Prime Minister, David Cameron, instructed our President to legalize gay marriage in Nigeria against everything we believe, a country with superior values and norms, great tradition and culture. What about our natural resources? The Europeans and Americans still have an undisturbed access to our natural resources, our leaders keep entering into agreement and establishing bi-lateral relationship without reading between the lines on the contract papers or maybe they are doing it for there own selfish reasons which back fires on the populace. Take Nigeria and Julius Berger, or Nigeria and Shell Corporation for example, you do the math.

Few people mostly from the government has argued that Nigeria should be giving credit for what she has accomplished, there point being that America did not get to where they are in 52 years and they also use these popular lazy slogan meant for failed leaders “Rome was not built in a day”. Lets compare Nigeria at 52 to a man at 52, a man who have spent more than half a century should have accomplished all there is to accomplish in life, what he will be doing at that age is devising a means to sustain his success and add to his achievement not learning how to crawl when he should be running.

The true rating of Nigeria from her independent day to date is very disturbing, wandering whether to rate it on a yearly basis or rate her by sector, or rate Nigeria by her government from inception is still very confusing.

Nigeria at 52, corruption is at its peak, leaders steal from the coffers of the government with impunity, Chief Executive Officers and Director Generals in all levels of government and private organizations squander money like is going out of existence and are celebrated by the same government.

Nigeria at 52, the government developed grammatical construct for covering robbery committed by them, phrases like, misappropriation of fund, money laundering, and embezzlement of fund are used, except when an ordinary person is involved, the full length and breadth of the mouth is used in calling the word armed robber.

Nigeria at 52, unemployment ravaging the nation, the youth totally not engaged, violence thriving like a wide fire, strike from all facets of the government and private organizations, people being relieved of there jobs without reasonable explanation, hunger at most homes in the country.

Nigeria at 52, Boko Haram insurgencies getting out of hand, security of lives and property now in individual hands no longer the problem of the government who swore an oath to protect lives and properties of her citizens, Churches and Mosques not safe for worship – introduction of security gadgets in the church premises, issues of kidnapping no longer seen as a crime but as a means of livelihood, it is now a business.

Nigeria at 52, environmental hazards, floods taking over peoples home, rendering thousands homeless etc. In our 52 years of separate existence, so many questions are sill left unanswered.

One question for our leaders to answer is, if we are privileged to live long enough to see a new generation, what difference would you have made to change their lives? This is an opportunity for you to answer these question. Congratulation Nigerians.