By Uche Okohu
“To serve Nigeria with all my strength; to defend her unity; And uphold her honor and glory” These rhythmic words usually roll off the lips of many Nigerians whenever the annual celebration of Nigerian Independence Day is being held in memory of our past leaders or heroes who fought for the freedom of our great country from the British colonialists; a feat that was achieved on October 1, 1960 when Nigeria proclaimed her Independence from British rule.
Many years before and after Nigeria gained her Independence and Republican status, our future seemed bright and promising with the likes of Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, and others at the helm of affairs, who had a good vision for this great country. Though there was a jostle for leadership position, our leaders back then believed they were laying a platform for the youths to be “leaders of tomorrow”.
Nigeria have had different political leaders both in the immediate post-colonial era and the military era but since Nigeria independence to democracy till date, we have had no youth below the age of 40years in leadership positions instead it have been recycling of past leaders, men who are older than the country itself.
Nigeria, a country with its population growing rate at 3.2% is presently estimated to have 190.8million people that are projected to increase to about 402 million in 2050; with the youths between the age grade of 18-40 years constituting the major percentage of Nigeria population.
With this percentage of youth above, the country is expected to be very productive and be amongst the leaders of the world but we are ranked among the poor and developing countries despite our mocking status as ‘the giant of Africa’.
With all these premises, the question of what the youths are doing readily comes to mind. The youths are the unemployed youngsters who are tagged as lazy by our president who is doing nothing or less to address the issue of unemployment that is increasing at an alarming rate.
Even though the youths are lazy as they are branded, what is put in place for them to show their talents and skills. The youths complain about their unemployment, what giant efforts have the leaders made to address this problem, the people complain about the economy going from bad to worse, what has been done to alleviate it.
Leadership is the inherent ability to rule, to manage the affairs of a particular place;It has to do with keeping abreast of the evolution of the world. Nigeria is not in tally with this evolution rather we are still revelling in the past with our ‘out dated, primeval and historic mentality’. We like to emulate the western world due to their advancements, but we do not emulate them well; especially their attitude towards leadership.
Let us emulate the likes of France, New Zealand, Ireland or even Korea and the others in terms of quality leadership and bring our dear country to its supposed position globally. We ought to have achieved greater heights and grow past being regional giants to become at least close to being a giant of the world.
59 years after the national flag was hoisted in celebration of Nigeria’s independence, we should evaluate the journey so far and ask ourselves these questions; what is our achievements, How much difference is there between now and then, Are there developments, if yes to what extent. Though, Nigeria celebrates her Independence annually, it is more of “In-dependence”; do we really have an independence from our colonial masters or are we in-dependence on our colonial masters, the Europeans.
Co-existence is known to be a feature of a geographical entity which we possess as a country, but ours is slowly becoming dominance. We are influenced by the western world that it is seems like we are stylishly being sold into slavery again. Despite the fact that we are richly blessed with enough human and natural resources which are meant to be used for our growth and development as a country, the resources are not effectively and efficiently utilized while the development is stagnant.
Instead, these resources are being controlled by a few who are using it to their interest and not public interest, while the country is in debt making it seem like we suffer from generational poverty.
Where did it all go wrong, who is at fault; the leadership or those being led. Where are the youths who are believed to be the leaders of tomorrow, what is the interest of the youths in leadership positions, when would that “tomorrow” come? These questions should be answered if the country wants to experience the expected growth, let our tomorrow come by starting today.
This is a clarion call for the evaluation of our achievements and progress.
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