Recently, I saw this quote somewhere, “There are two tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want; the other is getting it.” How apt for Nigeria at 48, I thought.

When the nationalists and the nation’s founding fathers like Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Tafawa Balewa were fighting for the independence in the 1950s, what picture of Nigeria’s future did they have in their minds? What was the Nigeria of their dreams? Where did they think we were going as a young nation, and what propelled them to fight tenaciously for the nation’s independence?

That they were able to achieve it without blood-flow as was the case in Kenya and South Africa points to something about those nationalists. It attests to their intellect, diplomacy, tact and, of course, the humaneness of the colonial masters.

To have fought tenaciously for the independence and achieved it is commendable, but what has become of us since then? What are the things that we can readily point to as having done well since October 1, 1960?

Take the civil service in the pre-independence era as an example; civil servants were cultured, hard working, ethical, and exuded a great sense of discipline. Reading through the memoirs of the set of Nigerians who worked under the white colonial masters then, we see a dedicated corps of people who were fiercely proud of being called civil servants. One could see a work force that was satisfied with the living wages they were being paid at that time. It would have been considered beyond their dignity asking for bribes to supplement their pay, unlike these days when collecting bribes is not even a discreet thing anymore. Nowadays, people obtain chieftaincy titles in their communities even when it is obvious that a kobo of the wealth they flaunt was not gotten honestly. Under colonial rule, our leaders could not embezzle so many billions with impunity as they do now.

But is it only in the civil service that we have experienced a culture of deterioration? No. Almost everything we have embarked on since the time we have been left on our own has been jeopardized, abused, misused or destroyed. In terms of governance, Nigeria has not done satisfactorily well. At 48, the country is still in search of a man who will be genuinely interested in building the nation; a servant leader in the true sense of the word (and not one called so as a matter of mere sloganeering). The nation still needs a leader with a vision and not agenda or stop gap, knee jerk, palliative measure approach to governance and administrative issues.

Nigeria is in dire need of someone who will not only recognise the problems and give political speeches to assuage flaring tempers but a leader who will himself pick up the shovel and begin to put one building block on another. Then, fellow Nigerians would rightly gauge his seriousness and willingness at nation building and readily follow.



http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20081001381253


I kind of imagined what it would have been like if we had achieved independence say in 1980 instead of 1960. Would our fortune had been different? I'm tempted to accept that it would have been better, but well what do you think?

South Africa is a good example of what Nigeria would have been like if Independence had been delayed.

So many things has happened over the years. In my opinion, independence was a good oppurtunity for us to proove that we can do it ourselves, Singaporeans got their independance after we got ours and their nation today is a testimony that they made good use of the oppurtunity.

On another angle maybe we were not fully prepared for it when we got it, just wondering aloud.

Are you prepared now?
Methinks that we are even worst now than when we were given independence.