Introduction

That Nigerians and other peoples of African-descent are collectively faced with immense problems is not exactly global news. What would be news, at least from my perspective, is a true self-understanding of our condition and the fundamental reasons behind them. This is an indispensable requirement towards appreciating the nature and size of the task necessary to confront those problems. This post begins to explain the reasons presented in the last one for the hitherto “unassailable” developmental challenges confronting Nigerians/Africans.

As a preface let me be clear that this is not to excuse the culpability of those who forced themselves on the African psyche over many centuries. Neither is this some attempt at self-flagellation or a guilt-trip. My intent is to focus on those barriers that, whether self- or other-imposed, must be scaled to escape the bands that hold us from deserved greatness as a people. Of all peoples, the African has suffered the most, but has remained resilient in the face of it all. However, our only hope lies in moving beyond resilience towards taking control of our destiny. This is undeniably difficult for a single human being even with all opportunities and resources available to him/her. As such, it is immeasurably difficult for the heterogeneous, yet singular, Nigerian collective. Thus, we must suffer no illusions.


#11. Lack of Proper Acceptance of our Current Situation

The above is my choice for the #11 reason not because it is the least important, but because it is the starting point. What I refer to by acceptance of our current situation is not just the constant, including by this author, highlight of what is not going right with Nigeria and Africa. The reference is to a factual, impassioned evaluation of our well-being as Nigerians and Africans, relative to the rest of the world or to an ideal. The fact is that the African in general lags behind other nation groups in almost all objective measures of human endeavor. The use of the phrase "objective measures" connotes some statistical underpinnings for this comparative evaluation. And there are such statistics available. Take a look at the below from the Worldbank (for year 2007). The numbers on top of the columns represent world ranks for the four listed countries based on the size of their economies:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 1 20 10
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nigeria USA Indonesia Brazil
-----Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19) 126  42  40  89 
------------------------------------ Fertility rate, total (births per woman) 5  2  2  2 
--------------------------- GNI per capita, PPP (current international $) 1760  45840  3570  9270 
--------- Immunization, measles (% of children ages 12-23 months) 62  93  80  99 
------------------------------------------- Inflation, GDP deflator (annual %) 5  3  11  4 
------------------------------------- Life expectancy at birth, total (years) 47  78  71  72 
---------------- Market capitalization of listed companies (% of GDP) 52  145  49  104 
---------------------------------------------- Merchandise trade (% of GDP) 57  23  49  22 
-------------------------------------------- Military expenditure (% of GDP) 1  4  1  2 
------------------------Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) 27  85  36  63 
------------------------------------------Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000) 189  8  31  22 
------------------------------------ Net barter terms of trade (2000 = 100) 168  97  105  108 
-----------------------------------------------Population growth (annual %) 2  1  1  1 
--------------- Prevalence of HIV, total (% of population ages 15-49) 3  1  0  1 

Although, the statistics are obvious it remains difficult both at the individual, leadership and collective level for us to accept the facts. A possible reason for this is that some confuse understanding and accepting this situation with "degrading our race". I do not believe this at all. If you fall in a hole, you would have to first accept that you had fallen in the hole, no matter who you are or under what circumstances, before you get a clear idea of what must be done to get yourself out.

This simple realization seems to escape us all, but more so those who serve as our leaders. When those who have managed to collect the statistics and paid attention to it tell our leaders the level of malnutrition, poverty and disease in our land those leaders, out of “national pride” respond with rhetoric that feed and cure no one. They may have personal reasons to carry on such denial, but this only digs a deeper hole for us all. If they feel the need to deny these "external statistics" then where are the verifiable ones they have being collecting? Otherwise, how else can the goal of becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020 be touted by our leaders as a vision? Has it occurred to them that Indonesia is today's 20th largest world economy? Have they taken a look at the above statistics for Indonesia? How can that represent a vision, except for those borrowing it? Still, do they realize how far away we are from this "vision", and more importantly that no nation is waiting for us to catch up with her? Do they realize that our approach over the last 40 years has being taking us in the opposite direction to progress? Do they also have a plan for raising our life expectancy from 47 years to above 70 years in the next 11 years? Look at the large difference between the fertility/mortality rate between Nigeria and the other three nations? The answer is that we simply do not allow our consciousness to accept the grim facts: things are wrong in Nigeria, and things are going from bad to worse, and most of all that this condition is not acceptable and MUST change. A firm grasp of these sorry facts is our first motivation for what MUST be achieved. If each and every Nigerian is well-informed on these facts, we would not have a President who promised to tackle power supply in Nigeria by declaring an emergency within his first 100 days in office yet, almost 700 days into his Presidency is still promising to declare that same emergency. Another case in point, the Senate President was quoted as saying that we owe no apologies to victims of 419. This is simply flogging a straw man as if it can be more dead. The 419 issue is not about apologies to diffuse victims, but what the facts of 419 and other detestable things we are now labeled with is doing to Nigerian reputation both at the individual and national levels. We need to be in command of the facts, and face up to the task that may be needed if we do not like the image we see in the mirror, but first we must learn to look in the mirror.

'Debo