Those who say Nigeria hasn’t progressed should go back to 60s – Abdullahi Adamu
BY KENNETH EZE, TIMOTHY AGBOR, MAYOWA SAMUEL, AGNES NWORIE, EMMANUEL SAMUEL AND JACOB BRIGHT
As Nigeria marks 61 years of independence on Friday, notable Nigerians have expressed mixed feelings over what could have been achieved these past six decades. While some believe that any form of celebration is misplaced and amounts to celebrating failure because of the nation’s wasted opportunities since independence, others argue that Nigeria has moved forward in the last 61 years and the progress must be acknowledged and celebrated.
Renowned legal practitioner, Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, regretted that the nation was still on a long route to beginning a journey of discovery, opportunities, economic development and political cohesion.
“I think we have yet to get there and what I think we need to do is for major stakeholders to be involved in making our political leaders accountable,” he said.
The legal luminary warned that Nigeria should not be in this dire and difficult situation for long because it would not help to have the type of poverty in Northern Nigeria.
“It’s the poverty in Northern Nigeria that helps to drive Boko Haram because if people were gainfully employed, nobody would be employed by Boko Haram. Boko Haram is able to recruit because of the issue of poverty and if every Nigerian had access to basic economic tools, then clearly, we will not be in that kind of position and wherever that leader will come out from is a big question,” he stressed.
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, for instance, believes that Nigeria ought to have built a nation in 61 years, but said up till today, nation building had become a mirage.
To him, the only thing he can see are wasted opportunities and dashed hopes; a nation grappling with failure of leadership, where nothing is working.
He pointed out that the challenges facing Nigeria were well-managed during the first republic.
He said, “Our problems started with the introduction of the military in politics. I believe that we have to move our politics away from that of military mentality and operate democracy the way it’s supposed to be done. Right now, those in power, from 1999 to date, have successfully been ruining democracy to the extent that they have obliterated elections in our political parties.
“In other words, internal democracy has been stiffened by them and it is because internal democracy has been stiffened that we are suffering from all sorts of problems. The casualty is internal democracy and it is a principal contradiction of our policy and since its obliteration, you will notice that everything done by our political parties have been done arbitrarily and arbitrariness cannot be the methodology we should use to operate our democracy because it is destroying the country.”
Also, a former Governor of old Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has decried the decay reportedly recorded in Nigeria since independence 61 years ago.
The elder statesman noted with pain that the country had, rather than join its contemporaries to develop, chosen a place among the poverty stricken nations of the world that were not near it in terms of natural and human endowments.
“I could not have imagined that things can get this bad, with comprehensive and massive degeneration, all round. Is it insecurity? Blood is flowing every minute and the life of man seems to equate that of rats. Is it the economy? The exchange rate of naira to the dollar tells much of the story. Is it the welfare of the people? The state of the impassable roads and astronomically high food prices tell the story,” he lamented.
Ezeife noted that the country had lost it all in the areas of peace and economic development, saying, “The peace of the nation? We have never had such acrimony as has become the order of the day, these days. Some years back, I said that Nigeria had taken giant steps backwards.
“Today, there is no way a person who knew Nigeria before the coup, when the World Bank stated that parts of Nigeria were growing faster than the rest of the world, can recognise today’s Nigeria, acclaimed to be the poverty capital of the world.”
Regretting the level of degeneration the country has been enmeshed in, the elder statesman noted that the most disappointing misfortune the country was facing at moment “is the dearth of conscience among the citizens.”
He said, “The French will say, ‘Quel Damage!’ The most disappointing misfortune in today’s Nigeria is the dearth of conscience, which has given rise to comprehensive and unmitigated corruption.
“A gem of a country designed by God for unmatched greatness as a super power is, by man’s mess up, turned to be among the poorest countries in the world.”
Blaming the perceived messy state of the country on “rotten” politics and politicians, the vocal elder statesman went spiritual and counselled Nigerians to keep hope alive.
“But, fellow Nigerians, don’t give up hope. Man cannot forever mess up God’s design. The will of God must prevail. God will give us a coalition that will usher in the new Nigeria and it will be goodbye to rotten politics and political parties,” he said.
Chidi Ajaegbu, former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, also regretted that Nigeria had failed to meet expectations, virtually as regards all key indicators, and in all ramifications.
On how to solve the problems facing Nigeria, Ajaegbu suggested that the country should be restructured and the constitution changed.
The former ICAN chief noted, “I am not saying that will solve the problems, because it is still the same people that are going to be in the restructured entity, but at least, it then reduces the blame game. Your resources are in your hands, why are your leaders not using them to develop your own side of the country? I think that’s really the first step because you can’t continue with what is happening when people feel entitled to national resources and then take the money, knowing that there are unequal standards for each opportunity, including education.
“The level of injustice in the country is unprecedented, it’s like a fairytale. It’s not real. It’s not something the human mind can think is happening, so it cannot be a sustainable model.”
The late former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, shortly before his demise on September 19, in an emailed interview to The Point, had warned that managing an economy was not a dog’s breakfast.
He had said, “Leaders often face daunting challenges. Ultimately, public finance is about being able to balance the books. This requires courage and guts. It is a foolhardy government that tries to live above its means. Every administration must cut its cloth according to its actual size.
“Economic science has shown that markets remain the best mechanisms for running national economies on a rational basis. So, I am all in favour of a fair, market-based price for oil. The so-called “oil subsidy” has largely been a pernicious and unhealthy scam. We need to phase it out. But let it be done within a transparent framework.”
Senator Anthony Agbo who represented Ebonyi North senatorial district in the National Assembly in 2007, also said past leaders had failed the country.
He noted that lack of patriotism was the major reason for separatist agitations in the country and urged all to make sacrifices for its progress.
“No sensible person is fulfilled about the situation of things in Nigeria. Almost everybody is feeling disappointed. The problems did not actually start today. The situations we find ourselves today have been building up over the years through successive regimes and it just got to a climax under the current dispensation. Nigeria has been an unfortunate country. A country so much blessed by God with numerous human and natural resources, but unfortunately the country has been run like a nation without citizens,” Agbo said.
Similarly, a former Commissioner of Information in Ebonyi State, Abia Onyeike, alleged that Nigerian leaders had employed religion as an instrument to impoverish citizens.
“I think I am very disappointed at the turn of events in Nigeria. Most Nigerians are quite frustrated at Nigeria’s chequered history. Yes, look at the level of terrorism, violence and banditry ravaging the land.
These are the symptoms of a failed state. The Nigerian federation is chaotic and crisis-ridden. It is an artificial federation made up of people who do not share any common destiny. Nigeria is a nation of divided people. People are killed and murdered in their dozens every day in Nigeria and nothing happens. It is a lawless society built by leaders who are short-sighted and unpatriotic. They have employed religion as instrument of impoverishing millions of the masses because of their inordinate ambition to continue to suppress the people and to hold them in bondage ad they nurture and build their empire state where there is no justice, equity and other basic human freedom.”
“Nigeria has retarded and retrogressed rapidly in the last few years because of the ascendancy of certain elements who are the promoters of ethnic supremacist ideology and fanatical purveyors of religious terrorism. The Lugardian state may be seeing its last days,” he claimed.
However, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, former governor of Nasarawa State, said those who argued that Nigeria had nothing to celebrate at 61 must go back to the 1970s and see how far the nation had come.
He said there were more road networks across the country and that a journey that took about four days in the 60s and 70s now takes less than a day, even though the roads are not in top shape.
“How many airports (international and domestic) did Nigeria have in 1960 when it became an independent nation? How many trunk ‘A’ roads? How many universities? How many general, teaching or specialists hospitals? How many primary and secondary schools? What was even the population of Nigerians then and what is it today?” he asked.
“The lists of such infrastructural progressions at both the federal and state levels, are endless, meaning that in terms of progress, growth and development, the country is very much on course,” the senator representing Nasarawa West in the National Assembly said.
However, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the former governor of Nasarawa State, said those who argue that Nigeria has nothing to celebrate for its 61 years of independence must go back to the 1970s and see how far we have come.
He said there are more road networks across the country and that a journey that took about four days in the 60s and 70s now takes less than a day, even though the roads are not in top shape.
“How many airports (international and domestic) did Nigeria have in 1960 when it became an independent nation? How many trunk ‘A’ roads? How many universities? How many general, teaching or specialists hospitals? How many primary and secondary schools? What was even the population of Nigerians then and what is it today?
“The lists of such infrastructural progressions at both the federal and state levels, are endless, meaning that in terms of progress, growth and development, the country is very much on course,” the senator representing Nasarawa West in the National Assembly said.
