Nigeria at 61.

I asked a old pensioner this question. Why are we like this 61yrs after?

His answer..

You need to be here 59yrs ago! This place was a bush!

1. After 59 Years, we have at least a fairly looking city of Abuja. Note, Abuja was a thick forest 59yrs ago.

2. 59 yrs ago, we had only one university. The. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN. Today, we've 154 Universities just in 59yrs

3. 59yrs ago, we had less than 200 qualified Doctors in the whole country. 59YRS after, Unilag alone, produces 250 Doctors per annum.

4. In fact 30 yrs ago, Lekki Peninsula was a mangrove. Today, it ranks among the fastest developing estates in the world.

5. There was no Nigerian Pliot 59 yrs ago. Today, we have female Nigerian Pilots flying planes with international airlines.

6. The first African Nation to participate and win a Junior world Cup. We've won it 5 times. We have even won Olympics Gold medals in Football and High Jump.

7. The total National Income of the Nation was less than 1B USD 59yrs ago. All the so called Cotton, Groundnut pyramids, Cocoa etc generated less than 1B USD as at 1960. Today, Nigerias' FDI is 20B USD per annum. That's Progress we seemed not to measure.

8. ANPA - Association of Nigerian Physicians in Northern America, New York branch has 5000 Nigerian Doctors and Medical Professionals. 2nd highest ethnic group of Physicians in the United States and UK after India....that's progress in Intellectual Development.

9. Within 59yrs of corporate existence, we've produced a Nobel Prize Winner, A Pulitzer Award Winner, and other professional leaders of global repute

10. In 59yrs, we now do Renal Surgery, IVR, Organ Transplant, and some good scientific breakthroughs.

11. We have dropped fetishness and poor hygiene to an extent that Polio and to some extend diseases like Cholera leprosy, chicken pox, measles are on their way out or had been eradicated. We had dropped the number of children per woman from an average of 8 in 1960 to 3 -4 in 2019 due to girl child education.

13. We contribute about 5% of global fossil fuel. This had earned Billions of Dollars, though not properly managed but had kept our finances as a Nation.

14. We had fought the Civil War and recovered, we had survived about 5 Military regimes and survived, we had had 20yrs of uninterrupted democracy.

15. Most of us reading this post are living in a "Cement Building" wanna know how houses are built 59yrs ago,? Pay a visit to your granny's building in the "village"

16. There was a story that the Entire Northern Nigeria had less than 10 graduates as at 1959. The dearth of human capital was touted as the reason Sir Ahmadu Bello deferred independence to 1960 for fear of dominance of the fairly educated south. Check the number of graduates ABU alone produces per year as at 2019.

17. 1960, the Oba or Igwe or Emir of your village was a god! They even have power of lives! 2019 , you can take him to court if he infringes on your rights....!

18. Almost 2 Million Nigerians write JAMB per year. That's 2Million people that can at least read and write. Check the population of Nigerians that can read as at 1960.

19. How many Military Generals do we have 59yrs ago? How Many Naval Admirals? How many Airforce Commanders? How many Professors? How many Vice Chancellors , How many Military Bases, Banks? Bank Directors and Managers? SME Directors, Music Producers, World Class Singers and Composers, Authors, Doctors, Nurses, Engineers, Architects, Business Men and Women?.....etc......all we have then were itinerant subsistence farmers and the elites are village teachers isn't it?
The entire SW Nigeria had only one TV and One Radio Station as at 1960. Today, we've over 200 functional private radio & TV stations just within 59yrs

20. I think overall, we've tried as a Nation.

We've tried MAMSER, SAP, AGOA, NEPAD, VISION 2010, MDG, VISION 2020, MILITARY, PARLIAMENTARY, DEMOCRACY.!

In all, I think we've tried.

The bad side presently is the thieves we have. The looters who prefer to plunder the treasury, those who prefer to buy cars instead of paying their aides, those who are nepotic, the unfits in power, the moneybag godfathers, the visionless leaders, the selfish politicians, i think we could do better if we had had patriotic people running our affairs.

Yes we lacked purposeful leadership, since we've been able to factor this out, we could work on this area and have a better Nigeria to bequeath to our children.

To continue with the rundown, what we have now is systemic collapse from the leaders and followers.

Nigerians have been weaponized with fake news from the top to bottom and bottom to top.

The military have subordinated themselves to civil rule; no coups.

Insecurity, expensive political system. Very poor economy. Governors criss crossing the skies with charted aircrafts leaving their states to no one.

Crooks, looters and drug barons as politicians (political bandits).

Politicalization of civil service leading to mediocres heading the service, round pegs in square holes. Merit and competence discarded.

Our public institutions are poorly managed - public health facilities are consulting clinics, public educational institutions producing half baked graduates with no future. Agriculture, still in subsisting method.

Workers strikes all over the country. Government employees suffering while politicians feeding fat.

Judiciary in shambles - delay justice, allowing lawyers to get away with the antics of technicalities getting criminals free.

Don't forget another disaster called immunity clause!

Our security agents corrupted to serve as attacking dogs for the political class.

All these boils down to the elites/elders/retirees sitting on the fence and refusing to join the political train. Refusal to engage sitting governments honestly; local, state and federal.

Thirdly the clamoring for change should include complete overhaul of our political system to reflect our peculiarities like reducing cost of governance, number of political office holders and stop salaries for politicians to give way to sitting, accommodation and transport allowances only.

Also there is the need for complete new approach and orientation to politics. Politics should be looked as an act to serve and strengthen public institutions. Politics should not be a dumping ground for dullards who have no vision and gateway to harvest public funds.


*Good Morning all*

K

Of course these are gains from independence

But what is the quality of education from this institutions

What happened to our moral values in those 59years or so?

How much has been expended in those 59 years? Comparing our success to other countries who started at the same time as us

We have a whole lot of work to do, and if we are not ready to face it now, it will still wait for us in the future