Senate President, Senator David Mark on Tuesday sharply disagreed with Senator Uche Chukwumerije over the latter’s assertion that Nigeria is a failed state.
Mark noted that contrary to Chukwumerije’s declaration the country has a lot of things to be proud of.
Chukwumerije had in his contribution to a motion entitled “Congratulations to Nigeria and Nigerians on her 52nd Independent Anniversary” described Nigeria as a either a failed state or on the verge of failure.
The motion was sponsored by Senator Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North East) and 108 others.
Enang said in his lead debate that the Senate should noted that on Monday, October 1, Nigeria marked her 52nd Independence Anniversary, having attained Independence from Britain on October 1, 1960.
He further noted that “steadily and gradually in Nigeria , the nation is developing its domestic production capacity as an Independent nation”.
He urged the Senate to resolve to congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan and the people of Nigeria on the 52nd Independence anniversary of Nigeria .
In his contribution Chwukwumerije said: “I want to draw attention to the scanty way the mover of the motion summarized the achievements of the nation before moving on to congratulations.
“That scanty way in itself says a lot.
“In three dry sentences he summarized what he saw as Nigeria ’s achievements. In saying that I want to draw attention to what we can say in a more blunt way.
“Before putting it in a more blunt way let me first refer to the very first speaker here, Senator Abaribe (Enyinnaya) who used the analogy of a human being who is 52 years old and gave the impression of someone that has gone beyond even maturity.
“But I think he is being very generous to Nigeria . To make my point on this I want to draw the attention of my colleagues to a general view of international affairs.
“In Turkey , it took General Atatuk only 21 years to transform Turkey from a feudal state to highly modernized state that has remained till today.
“South-East Asia countries, it took them 30 years to move from undeveloped ex-British colonies to what they are today, Asia Tigers.
“One of them took our own palm produce and turned it into an export market.
“It took South Korea 18 years to move from a very dependent country to one of the world’s top today.
“It took China exactly 48 years to move from a slum status derided by the West as the begging bowl of Asia to a super power.
“Taking the development of this country into considering for the last 52 years, you will come to understand why I said the first speaker was being very generous when he compared us with a 52 year old human being.
“If a country that took ordinary palm nuts from us some years back has turned it into its main export product, how will you describe the country from which it was taken that is today importing all those things.
“I can only describe that country in one word: that Nigeria is either a failed state or on the verge of being a failed state.
“You will agree with me that a country that cannot meet the basic expectations of her people has failed in every way in meeting the basis of a social contract.
“So we must start therefore by accepting that objective reality that as of today Nigeria is a failed state or nearly a failed state.
“But it has tremendous potential to move to something. I believe that Nigeria is a sleeping giant.
“All the vital signals around the corporate body politics of Nigeria indicate that Nigeria is going to move into the top of regional power in Africa and a formidable regional power in the world.
“I therefore say that as we are moving towards that we have to be able to look back as they say in African proverb and ask ourselves from where the rain started beating us in order to be able to correct ourselves to be able to realize the fullness of this potential ahead of us.
“I just want to draw attention to two issues. One: I don’t know of any country in the world that moves forward by following a path that leads to mediocrity and failure.
“A country that has to move forward must aim at excellence, aim at healthy competition.
“I think one of the greatest difficulties facing this country, one of the greatest anti-growth handicaps facing this country is what we call Federal Character and the second thing is the issue of corruption.”
But Mark disagreed completely with Chukwumerije.
The Senate President noted that rather than describe the country as a failed state, Nigerians should congratulate themselves for still being one united nation “that one alone is an achievement.”
He said, “There is no gain saying that we are not where we would love to be, certainly, we are not there but that is not to say that we have not made progress at all.
“We have made some considerable achievement and for that, we need to show gratitude to God.
“We need to pray and work, not just pray, prayer alone will not solve the problem we need to combine both of them.
“More than anything else, we need the political will to take our policies to logical conclusions either at the executive level or legislative level, whether it is at the federal, state or local government levels.
“Unless we are determined to politically pursue the decision we have taken that are of benefit to this country, we will still be where we are in another 20, 30 years because the political will is lacking in so many areas.
“I do not agree that Nigeria is a failed state; we are not on the way to being a failed state either.
“We may not have done well but to say we are a failed state is going the extreme of it and I disagree completely with that in my candid opinion.
“We have challenges, there is no doubt about that but I believe that with political will, we will meet those challenges.
“It is at every level. Most times, when we are going on the road and there is traffic, people will drive by the foot path, is that a failure of leadership?
“Every Nigerian has something to do. When people do the wrong thing and they are not caught and dealt with according to the law, they continue to do it.
“At every level, we must know that we have leadership role to play.
“When things begin to go wrong, we must have the courage to speak out before it gets too far.” Mark stated.
