Why Nigeria has remained highly disunited and under developed

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR GREATNESS OF NATIONS

Writers and students of development are agreed that some factors  account more than others for the greatness of nations. Nigeria can equally be great if she learns  how to tie the ropes. Unfortunately  her elites seem to lack those  noble values, techniques and skills which help to promote national greatness. These include:

1. A) an enterprising, altruistic development oriented and unity conscious governing and managing elite, and a crop of good hands with skills and knowledge to execute programs for the progress and unity of the country,
2. B) active collective effort of citizens in unity and development,
3. C) able leadership, sound management of resources and good governance and Justice for all,
4. D) effective/judicious consequence management system and Justice for all,
5. E) respect for core values such as patriotism, hard work, integrity, morality, rule of law, tolerance especially of other views, ideas religious to mention a few,
6. F) maximum citizenry participation in the development process, and,
7. G) high level of mass literacy and education,

It is needless to say that in all these indices, Nigeria has been far below the bar. And that is why even though the country has been well blessed by nature with rich human and abundant material resources including minerals, she has remained poor, backward and disunited. And though blessed with much wealth and potentiality for greatness, its history has been characterized by long roll of disappointments and failures.

In short, largely due to poor governance, inept leadership, ineffective management  since independence and lack of knowledge of what it takes to build a great nation or better still, the lack of ability to do the needful for greatness, she has not been able to live up to the expectation of the founding fathers or dreams of the nationalists who struggled for and won independence from Britain on 1st October, 1960.  The country has been largely disunited and undeveloped.

TIME FOR PRACTICAL ACTION, NOT FOR HIGHFALUTIN  WORDS

Ordinarily, Nigeria should not be difficult to govern.  This is so because most of the citizens are uncritical in disposition and are  ready to cooperate  even their exploiters even to almost  a point of docility for a little share of the cake. They are hard working and intelligent people,  and can be readily counted among the “smartest” people in the world. As the author cited earlier observed, the country  possesses  “geniuses in all the fields of human endeavor” and is also blessed with vast rich deposits of mineral resources, fertile land for agriculture, a huge population for large market and many more. All she needs is just a little push forward in the right direction by her governing and managing elite.   This is the time for practical actions and not moments for highfalutin words.

However, rewarding actions had not been possible over time. The founding fathers did not lay solid  foundation for national unity and development. They did not project what Tatalo Alamu has called “unanimity of core values and shared Vision” for national greatness (The deflowering of Nigerian youth The Nation 23-9-2018). Man is learning and value- driven being. What the early leaders taught and bequeathed to their successors was “ethnic, religious, regional, cultural polarization” ( ibid ). In other words  they were not taught the right thing and so did not learn the  correct lessons in nation building including patriotism, nationalism, good governance. In a word, the ruling elite  have not been able to do  those things that account for the  wealth and greatness of nations till date.

Truly this  is no longer the time for highfalutin  words. Rather, it is time for wise, concrete practical actions given the  severity of   of the problems of moment . Thus this  essay is a wake up call on the Nigerian elites to do the needful for nation building, national development and unity of the country.  If the founding fathers laid the poor foundation, their successors simply fortified it  and have been unable to  deal with the problems that have prostrated the country over the ages. Highly uncreative and unimaginative in thoughts  and actions,  they have  followed  the ideas  and imbibed the values of the founding fathers till date to a fault. And thus  we have continued to hear 1914 amalgamation and its associated structure  being blamed for today’s problems as though time and history have been stagnant in Nigeria since after creation of the country.

Consequently,  based on facts of history and empirical evidences, this essay disagrees with those who blame poor structure, the 1914 amalgamation etc for the  disunity and under- development of the country today. Rather it points to inept leadership, mismanagement and bad governance as the causal factors against national unity and development in Nigeria. It examines a number of negative factors against national unity and development and holds  the Nigerian Governing and managing elites for  the appalling situation.

It calls on politicians not to bother themselves with issues of restructuring but rather focus on the context of the constitution especially chapter two in order to help produce a better Nigeria. The country is not bad or backward because of its present structure but because of the weakness of those responsible for the operation of the structure and the promotion of the development and unity of the country. Those who sought to leave the country, did not do so because they were brought together by the British or are under 36 states structure. Rather, they have sought to leave because of various acts of injustice, neglect, elite failure in leadership, management and governance of the country.

Generally the  Nigerian elites  have played very uninspiring role in nation- building since independence. It invites  them to positive efforts in nation- building through able leadership, effective management, good governance and justice and fair play for all citizens on equal basis.This is necessary  because the task of leading, promoting  managing national unity and development belongs to the elites who made vital decisions in the life of any community.  Rather than  doing this well, available evidence shows that the Nigerian elite took the country on the wrong road and preached falsehoods to justify their selfish actions. This largely explains why Nigeria has remained poor and disunited since independence .

REASONS FOR CONCERN  WITH  NATIONAL UNITY AND DEVELOPMENT

There are other reasons for concern with the poor state of national unity and development. According to a writer whose article was shared in  what’s App, though Nigeria has  “the smartest people”in arts, sciences, management etc making  their marks in different parts of the world, yet  she has remained a “mediocre nation”. To him “the correlates between  our gene-pool and national development are so diametrically opposed. We are becoming a failed state. We punch miserably below our weight in the hierarchy of world economics and politics.

None of our institutions is near top 500 in the world university league table. An estimated 50% of our people live in extreme poverty. Youth unemployment hovers around 45% ( 70% for the far north). The poverty is heartbreaking. Our per capita GDP is less than $3000 as compared to Singapore’s $55252. We have the worst road carnage in the world, with more than 20000 lost to road accidents annually. We wasted over $18 billion on the power sector and the people still live in darkness. The state government  are virtually bankrupt. It is only by investing in science, innovation and in our young people can we forge a better future”..