Too Long On The List Of The Least -By Kene Obiezu

No sooner had President Muhammadu Buhari made a long-desired ascent to Aso Rock in 2015 than the focus turned fully and forcefully on the pace of his government. When it took him six months to put together a cabinet of expired eggheads, his detractors including many drawn from the vanquished Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) immediately had a stick with which to beat him.

His frequent foreign trips in the early days of his administration also became a worry as it soon became apparent that his health was failing. In fact, there were a couple of protests in the United Kingdom on some of the occasions he went abroad for medical treatment.

Three days after a  fiercely  contested and even more fiercely disputed presidential elections, the President is on the move again this time to Qatar. The occasion is the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LCDs). Mr Buhari was invited to the conference by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The conference will be attended by world leaders, the private sector, civil society groups and youth organizations. It aims to share development ideas and mobilize political will, solidarity, actions and solutions to transform the LDCs, by finding sustainable solutions to poverty, food insecurity, hunger and weak or non-existent infrastructure. The conference will also address inadequate healthcare facilities and climate change in LCDs as they struggle to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

As the world as one continues to confront global challenges, meeting over common goals and to achieve common grounds has become common place. What is achieved by such meetings is another thing however as many countries send their representatives with preconceived notions especially on the most contentious of issues.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy and democracy. It also has the distinction of being the most populous Black country on earth. But it would appear that the bigger the country, the bigger its problems.

In sixty-three years of being an independent country, the last twenty-four of which have been spent as a democracy, Nigeria has been plagued by all sorts of problems. The biggest issues used to be poverty and corruption. In recent years, insecurity, driven by terrorism and secession, has also been thrown into the mix to leave the country hard-pressed on all sides. It is easy then to see why Nigeria has remained rooted to the spot of poverty and relatively global insignificance in spite of its many prodigious gifts.

For it is easier to attend global conferences  using taxpayer’s money than to confront the fact that Nigeria has no business being a developing country not  to talk of a least developed one.

With everything that Nigeria has been blessed with in terms of human and natural resources, it should be placed quite high on the least of the world’s most developed countries. Yet, the country finds itself  languishing on the list of least developed countries which  even less gifted countries find beneath their station.

The  quest to put Nigeria on the path of sustainable global and international development has proven itself beyond many administrations. It has defied every lethargic solution deployed by successive governments in Nigeria. With President Muhammadu Buhari counting months before he hands over power, the current situation of the country proves that the challenge of  charting the right course for the country  has consumed the best efforts and experts of his administration.

With the way and manner in which the recent presidential election was conducted, and the illegitimacy with which many  Nigerians would perceive the incoming government if nothing changes, the signs are not good that Nigeria will escape the slump of underdevelopment anytime soon.

If this holds, Nigeria’s place at such ignominious conferences will be pegged down for many years.

Kene Obiezu.

Twitter@kenobiezu