As a country, we have fought so hard to stay united and fulfilled since the past 60 years. Faced with more thnt 300 ethnic groups and three dormant ones; the igbo -southeast, the Yoruba –South-west and the Hausa in the North. It is easy to forget that we were separate entities before the British merged us all into one country. This has only led to bitterness, brutality and bickering. Today, Nigeria operates as federal system-with power concentrated at the centre and distributed among the 36 states and the capital Abuja.
Same power tussle has been as at today has also been there in history leading to the civil war of 1967-1970. Protest, violent conflict and war eventually by the Igbo to secede and form a new nation called Biafra just to foster INCLUSION, the ‘’federal character principle’’ which was enshrined in Nigeria’s 1979 constitution. It includes a provision for public institutions to reflect the ‘linguistics, ethnic, religious and geographical diversity’’.
How well have we fared in that regard? Leaders come and go from military regime to civilian democratic rule; the nation cannot boast of one effective and functional sector, is it education? Or Health Care or institutions? Or social services to mention the list
Apart from the fact that Nigeria lack quality education in terms of infrastructure and facilities, everything is politicized that it distorts the future of many Nigerians.
Nigeria has 13 million out of school children and the highest in the world according to UNICEF and more than 69% of them are in the north. As a result of this, the region has Nigeria’s lowest literacy rates, with some states recording just 8%. Yet the same region must still fill quota in public institutions-which is huge having a population of 90 million out of Nigeria’s 200 million and 19 states of 36 states plus Abuja totaling 20.
Health care system in Nigeria is very poor, I remember very well that it took COVID-19 pandemic to level out everyone to get help from our poorly equipped facilities and poorly paid dedicated medical personnel.
Our security is still a course for concern. The porosity is overwhelmingly frightening and has not improved after several years of agendarizing and re-agendarizing the security force every four years of election. Pheww…..
Unemployment rate has not received any conscious conscientious attention and we have recorded worst cases post COVID-19 pandemic.
Gender Inequality has resulted in so many economic quagmires due to our patriarchal structure of operation in public and private office. This has spiked violence against women and girls Women as well as discrimination against women in all spheres of operation. Women make up 49.4% of Nigeria’s population. Gender parity could grow Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) by USD 229bn of23% by 2025. Countries that have leveraged female leadership in politics and business have outperformed others.
Corruption is a word becoming so popular than Integrity all in the bid to kick it out. How about promoting integrity to fight corruption. Oxfam estimates that from 1960 to 2005, Nigerian public offices stole USD 21trn from the Nigeria Treasury.
Reports have it that a Nigerian lawmaker is mot only one of the highest paid n the world but has monthly earnings that can pay 475 Nigerians, the 30,000 Naira minimum wage. Yet many Nigerians earning that minimum wage are being owed many months of wages.
Our landscape is dotted with white elephant and unfinished projects which run into trillions of Naira. Also constructing a road in Nigeria costs at least two times more than the World Bank benchmark.
Our dear country is marked by weak politics characterized by weak policy, legal and regulatory environmental…
We can pause here, history has been repeating itself but men have failed to learn from history.
We hope to see a renewed, regenerated, revamped and restructured Nigeria in the next decade.
We hope young people will get interested in the field of decisions where every spoken word and action affect their generations and unborn generations. I hear that power is taken and not given.
Happy Independence Day
Ogechi Ikeh.
