Reversing The Ugly Trend Of Nigeria’s Certain Uncertainties -By Clement Uwayah

There has been a long existing trend in Nigeria that seemed to have featured and outlived every successive governments, and that is the fact that the only certainty is uncertainties with respect to the hopes and expectations of the citizens. Almost all regimes in the history of our existence as a nation, and especially our post-independence experience, reveals this trend as somewhat our attribute, and this clearly depicts and justifies my earlier impression and commentary that Nigeria is a country of unending paradoxes. A paradox is a statement that may seem contradictory but can be true (or at least make sense). So, our certain uncertainties is sure in various aspects: for instance, it is certain that security is uncertain, food security uncertain, education uncertain, and one can go on and on.

It is arguably doubtful that we could boast of any truistic claim with respect to fulfilled programs, promises and policies from, or by any past government till date. Governance in our beloved country, Nigeria, has always been characterized by mere rhetoric, beautifully scripted speeches, eloquences and high-pitched notes conveying hopes that end up without achieving desired results. Nigerians have so constantly been heartbroken because hope deferred makes the heart sick. In our case, it is even not of hope deferred, but of hope repeatedly dashed, with the consequences of pushing the citizens to a state of complete reckless abandonment.

A chronicling of our historical antecedents as a nation reveals very bitter tales that gives credence to the wanton incidences of the certainty of uncertainties with respect to governmental policies. Several insinuations, and perhaps proven theories even support the thinking that our Colonial Masters did not mean well for us. Their national leadership portrayal was ab initio tilted and faulty, gave room for a sectional `birthright-thinkism` in that regard, and thus created palpable suspicion against mutual, beneficial coexistence. The arrangement seemed to have created room against the better hands, and therefore, we were never taken above mediocrity in governance. Notwithstanding the section of origin of our leaders, the various governmental inclinations had always seemed like a vehicle in motion without movements, with the drivers ever looking confused and failing to steer as expected, yet hardly ever willing to let go of such leadership positions.

Our successive governments or regimes have had inclinations that adjudged them to be one of very `certain uncertainties`, and that is seen in all sectors. It is certain for instance, that no matter how laudable a program embarked on by a previous regime, the new one somehow jettisons it. The craze to be associated with and/or known as an initiator of a new program, policy or project runs in our blood. Even when there is no basis for changes or adjustments to such programs, the least would be to change the name, just to connote or convey newness and therefore confer originality to the present regime. This clearly shows why our country is littered with various abandoned projects, some of which relevance remains undoubtful.

A historical review of Nigeria’s agricultural development journey since the post-colonial era would help us understand that our various governmental regimes are highly inconsistent with programs and policies, and hence always typical cases of certain uncertainties. Almost every regime since independence had one program or the other towards putting the country in great stead, agriculturally. The non-continuity of existing programs and policies tended to have undermined the importance of such programs, and hence failed to achieve desired goals. Christian Love (Feb, 2020) in his Foreign Direct Investment review publication on “Impact Of Selected Agricultural Policies And Intervention Programs In Nigeria – 1960 Till Date”, revealed quite a lot.

In that review, between 1976 till date, we have had multiple agricultural development policies and intervention programs, but each year tended to have drawn us further apart from the realization of food sustenance, sustainability, and security. Some of the policies from then till date include: River-Basin Development Authority (RBDA) and Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) – 1976, Green Revolution Program (GRP) – 1980, Agricultural Development Program (ADP) – 1989. In the same vein and within this same period, we had several Agency Intervention Programs, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Directorate of Food, Road and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI), Better Life Program (BLP) for Rural Women, Family Support Program (FSP) / Family Economic Advancement Program (FEAP), National Fadama Development Project (NFDP), National Employment Empowerment Development Strategies (NEEDS), which was replicated at the state levels as SEEDS, National Special Program on Food Security (NSPFS), Root and Tubers Expansion Program, and Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). All of these, as well coined and attractive as they seemed failed to lift us above, as envisaged and more painfully from our chequered historical antecedents of crude farming by well over 60 percent of the farming population of the country.

It remains a clear case, that had the above laudable programs been sustained and built on, the country would have been a food basket of the World, but our paradoxical certain uncertainties nature caught us and kept us perpetually underperforming and underdelivering. Truth remains (as rightly posited by Christian Love), that while it cannot be said that the programs and policies were not vibrant enough for agricultural transformation, lack of continuity and eagerness to be identified with a named policy intervention by a successive government in our country has been the bane of the much desired rural and agricultural development and transformation to guarantee self-sufficiency in food and fibre. This is the same scenario in the other sectors of the Nigerian state; inconsistency and non-continuity of programs and policies. X-ray our educational, housing, health, transportation, and other policies to discover that we somehow always planned to fail, as we never failed to plan.

The effects of our current state as a nation of certain uncertainties is mind bulging. It has kept us perpetually retarded and unable to advance to the next level, whereas our contemporaries on the same trajectory years ago had long transformed and left us behind. It is laughable that our assessment and recognition as a developing nation several decades ago may now have changed to that of an undeveloped one. Even at that, the level of criminality, insecurity, social, political, and economic vices makes it now also almost a failed state, if not already a failed state. To come out of this ugly trend, everyone needs a change of style. While the heap of blames will always be on government and the leaders of the day, it must also be emphasized here that the followers have not done better. As a matter of fact, the posturing, desires and inclinations of the followers have all but aided or pushed the leaders further into the unexpected. The expectations of followers or the governed must be nationalistic and futuristic and not so personal and immediate.

Compromises that derail our future growth and development must be extricated from our bloodstreams and systems. Almost everyone is now guiltless of certain absurdities that have caged us as a nation because the insinuations that “those waiting to steal from our commonwealth are far more than those already stealing or have stolen” seems to be undeniable by the dawn of each new day. No nation can overcome its challenges when everyone hopes to be in the bandwagon. To reposition the nation will require that we learn to serve sacrificially, without taking advantages of our offices and positions to unnecessarily enrich selves, especially to the detriment of the people being served, and at the expense of national progress.

Mr Uwayah writes from Benin City, Nigeria