The challenges of Nigeria in the race for excellence -By Usman Musa

Our beloved country since independence has been facing unspeakable challenges that have crippled the country’s rate of development. Although its pillars have been shaken, Nigeria still remains resilient hitherto. These aggravations have made the outlook of the country to be bleak.

Accordingly, the citizen’s idiosyncrasy has been disrupted and in turn making them become pessimistic, hopeless, and to be living without an iota of hope, especially our youth, that remain an indispensable building block of the nation. These difficulties that the country is wrestling with encompass, but not limited to regionalism, sentimentalism, terrorism, banditry, militancy, poverty, poor infrastructure, corruption, unemployment, and other detriments to the fabric of our society.

After a decade of independence, during the mid-1970s, a dark impulse of regionalism had spurred the Biafran war that stamped an indelible ordeal in the minds of Nigerians. Innocent children have suffered its calamitous pangs in the southeastern part of the country. But this was drastically subdued by the military regime of Yakubu Gowon at that time. The remains of the aftereffects of this scenario are still witnessed physically, politically, and psychologically. Recently, the notional Biafran concept has been festering. This is threatening the unity of this nation. We are better off as a single nation. Instead of observing the things that divide us, we should rather look at those uniting us. We should direct our effort towards building a united prosperous nation.

In this same line, the importance of shunning unjustified and barbaric ethnic, tribal, and religious sentiments cannot be overemphasized for an accelerated peaceful and harmonious coexistence of a vastly diverse nation like Nigeria. These bigotries remain a major handicap that must be blighted if progress is needed. As such, we need to overhaul our mentality so that we can march towards greatness.
Going back to home, Southern Kaduna has been crippled with crisis to the extent that foreign investors have been deterred from investing in the region. This is the chief cause of leaving many mineral resources to abound in the region untapped. Consequently rendering the region to be in destitution. This has also affected states like Jos, Taraba, and some southern parts of the country. By effectively tackling this social problem, our nation will be in an upward trajectory and be really prepared for contributing to the global arena. Abating conflict of any form will help us in escaping avoidable toils that have been suffered by many countries as a result of this disgusting egregious behavior.

Moreover, The exploration and exploitation of mineral resources abound in many parts of this country will lead to an immense increase in the Gross Domestic Product of the country’s GDP, which will consequently boost the economic potential of the nation. But alas, ethnoreligious conflicts impairing some regions serve as a strong metallic barrier which only high tolerance can melt it. For our future, we need to grow beyond this and see each other through the lens of Ubuntu philosophy, a South African philosophy that propagates the unity of humankind as one.

In my dream, I see a Nigeria that is free from all these impediments that render it behind international benchmarks in terms of development and advancement. When this is achieved, anticipate a Nigeria, where any citizen can dwell, slave, and establish an enterprise in any region of the country irrespective of his social identity.

Equally important is the issue of our educational system. The importance of revamping our educational system is of utmost importance. This serves as a crucial approach towards curbing the outrageous menaces in our society. Nigeria’s standards in this facet are far behind the international benchmarks. We should have a renewed focus that will revolutionize the system of education into a modern one. Discard or upgrade of antiquated facilities in laboratories and workshops of schools and vocational institutions will do wonders in the educational sector. Because this will fuel more understanding of the concept on part of students, and thus producing students that will be self-employed and consequently boost our economic sector. The system should be redressed to enliven creativity and innovation in students.

In the same fashion, the number of out-of-school children and youth should be reduced. Because a staggering statistics released by United Nations Children’s Fund have it that one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. What are we preparing to effectively deal with this problem?

Moral and discipline should be woven into the fabric of our educational system. Sexual harassment perpetrated by libidinous and promiscuous lecturers is an issue of high concern, especially in our tertiary institutions. Alas, this is coming from the custodians of our educational sector.

The practical solution to this is inspiriting into our future leaders a sense of patriotism and honesty. Improving our education will shift in a salient way all indices of our country’s development. If this is realized, Nigeria’s advancement will be a dream come true.

Another noteworthy aspect is our Leadership. Our 59 years of leadership have been a combination of the good and bad since independence, with the latter having a predominant influence. Corruption is popular among our leaders and their subjects as well. This is a terrible vice that weakens the fabric of any society no how matter strong it appears. Corruption has fostered insecurity, terrorism, a dearth of infrastructural system, epileptic power supply, a moribund educational system, and election rigging.
The advancement of the country has been retarded in many facets by corruption. Related to this, the misappropriation of funds and resources by government officials has been debilitating the ordeals existing in Nigeria. For instance, money meant for funding the operations of the Nigerian army has been siphoned in the past few years by some custodians of public security. what an inhumane act! As a result, the Northeastern region of the country has been scourged destructively. Among the fatal repercussions insecurity sustained by corruption is that huge amount of lives have been lost, Schools have been destroyed, and several communities have been internally displaced. Abject poverty remains an indelible expression marked by insecurity in this region hitherto. The way forward is that we should include zealous and honest youth In our Leadership structure. Because when these set of energetic citizens are sidelined, they choose vicious alternatives. We create opportunities that negativities thrive on. Unemployment should be mitigated by the creation of jobs and active engagement of the youth in the political arena.

Youth engagement in politics is a pivotal solution that will cast away many challenges that darken the Nigerian atmosphere. If the youth are locked out of the country’s management, they will become an increasingly disruptive force.

Sadly, the immediate past recession was an avoidable circumstance, if only the leaders have diversified funds on different prospective economic sectors. One of these prospective sectors is the agricultural sector. Many do not know that Nigeria has the capacity of feeding the whole of Africa according to an Ecobank boss, Mr. Ade Ayeyemi. Nowadays staple crops prices have been inflating due to this kind of carelessness. A sheer amount of investment in agriculture will mitigate the existing unemployment that is prevalent among the youth of this country to a drastic level. Unemployment is driving our youth towards cybercrime at an international level that tarnishes the image of this country.

Furthermore, the condition of our health sector over the years has been moribund. As intermittent strikes of healthcare professionals are recurrent headlines of our newspapers. The importance of an effective health sector to a nation’s affluence cannot be overemphasized, because World Health Organization asserts that better health is central to human happiness and well being. We should change this debilitating condition by acquiring robust and functional health facilities that are up to date. Malaria, infant, and maternal mortality are all challenges hovering around this sector. Covid-19 pandemic has plainly demonstrated how unprepared we are for peculiar health challenges.

Additionally, oil spill and gas flaring plaguing the Niger Delta region has become the chief cause of environmental pollution, poverty, and militancy in this region. Militants have vandalized many government resources, but the Late Umaru Musa Yar Adua’s administration had adroitly tackled it.

Finally, the miasma of kidnapping and banditry continues to wreak havoc on this country. The government has not been successful in dealing with this. As a result, foreign investors are avoiding this country presently. Because National security attracts them, whereas its dearth drives them away. With this appalling condition, can we sustain the nationhood of this country? Our celebrated Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has warned in the past few days that Nigeria is on brink of collapse due to the failure of the government to curb these challenges. How close is what he said is to the reality? We all need to ponder over his words because many events that are precursors to this are manifest. The only solution remaining is putting forth corrective and precautionary measures as we celebrate this memorable day.