SIR: Nigeria at 55 is bedevilled by a plethora of challenges. Despite the abundance of human, material and natural resources, basic infrastructure and social services are pitiably bad; economic facilities are weak; the educational system apart from being a poor social service, lacks quality, proper orientation and quantity; healthcare delivery system at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels destroys rather than saves lives; agriculture, the highest contributor to GDP at 40 percent and the highest employer of labour at 60 percent is underdeveloped due to neglect and poor policy administration.
The extraction, production and sale of oil and gas have been mismanaged, negatively politicized and corrupted; there is phenomenal corruption at the level of politics and governance; solid minerals which exist in abundance have been neglected or abandoned; ethics and values which are the moral guides and glue of a society have crashed to a level of negative transcendentalism, normlessness and criminality; peace, social and protective security are perennially threatened at the societal and individual levels; there is religious fanaticism and intolerance.
As we celebrate, we must have sober reflections on the way forward. Nigeria’s prospects are enhanced by its strategic location, which will enable it to take advantage of booming demand across Africa and other parts of the developing world. Add to that a large and growing population and an entrepreneurial spirit, and the future looks bright. In order to unleash this potential and ensure that the next decade of growth brings sharp reductions in poverty, Nigeria’s leaders must pursue reforms aimed at increasing productivity, raising incomes, and delivering essential services like electricity, good road network, health care and education more efficiently. The government could pursue land title reforms aimed at opening more farmland without deforestation; expand the use of fertilizer and mechanized equipment; and support a market-driven shift to more profitable crops.
In urban areas, productivity suffers from a high degree of informal employment, sometimes even by major corporations. This keeps too many Nigerians in low-skill, low-paying jobs and deprives the economy of the dynamism that competitive small and medium-size enterprises create. The spate of internet start-ups that have emerged in Nigeria demonstrates that the skills are there, and tapping Nigeria’s diaspora can augment that talent pool. To make it easier to do business in Nigeria, the government also will need to streamline processes for registering and running a legal business and, together with aid agencies and the private sector, increase investment in infrastructure. It will also need to intensify its fight against endemic corruption, which represents a tax on all businesses. Finally, to promote inclusive growth – essential to relieving human suffering and mitigating social and political tensions – Nigeria must improve public service delivery dramatically.
In this new dispensation in Nigeria, when weighed against existing realities, our president and any other human for that matter stands little or no chance of giving Nigerians the country of our dreams, in just four years. It is high time, each person, from the head and first child in every household, the class captain in primary schools, the senior prefects, student union leaders, youth corpers, religious leaders, ethnic rulers, the counsellors, governors, ministers and indeed everyone, home and abroad raised his or her head up high, beat his chest and lift our nation high. With nearly one in six Africans being a Nigerian, we are indeed the giant of Africa. Nigeria is ours and only Nigerians can build and celebrate the country, if we all play our parts and do things right. Arise; salute our nation, Nigeria at 55!
- Dr. Bukola Adenubi,
University of Pretoria,
South Africa.