Nigeria @ 59: A country’s achieved potentialities, the unattained as national question

Six days ago, Nigeria attained 59 years as an independent country. Stakeholders are doing an appraisal of the country’s trajectory in relation to the lot of other countries within its age bracket. There are prospects, there are damning verdicts, write KUNLE ODEREMI and STEPHEN GBADAMOSI.

 

IT may not necessarily be a sheer coincidence that Nigeria and China have October 1 as their Independence Day. But the 2019 celebrations of the commemorative date in the annals of both countries were instructive, notwithstanding the number of years between them as independent nations. While China marked her ascendancy to the 70 years club, Nigeria trailed the Asian country by 11 years only.

Whereas Nigerian leaders rolled out the red carpet and drums to gyrate that Nigeria clocked 59 years as an independent nation from the British colonial masters while contending with inadequate electricity generation and distribution to power its industries and for domestic consumption, their Chinese counterparts in Beijing used occasion of the 70th independence Day of the Asian country to showcase the new supersonic nuclear missiles their country had produced to further accentuate the high-tech military hardware of their nation. According

to reports, the new missile is capable of penetrating all existing anti-ballistic missile armour positioned by the all-powerful United States and its European allies. The import of the approach of the Chinese leadership to celebrate the day is that such events are not for merriment alone but as a veritable opportunity to tell the rest of the world how far the country and its people have fared in all spheres of human development and confirm the place of strategic thinking and

action by serious nations.  By the success of the latest military technology, President Xi Jinping of China boasted that, “There is no force that can shake the status of this great nation. No force can stop the Chinese people and the Chinese nation forging ahead.”

There is also a parallel between Nigeria and India, which marks its Independence Day on August 15 of every year on the basis of fulfilled dreams and missed opportunities. Once grouped as a non-aligned nation with Nigeria during the years of intense cold war between US and the defunct Union of Soviet Union (USSR) now Russia, India has since broken into the elite league of developed nations. Through visionary leadership, India has dwarfed Nigeria in the real sector and in the area of research and technology, such that products from that country

ranging from automobile to domestic items now flood the Nigerian market. Yet, India’s ethnic heterogeneity is also almost the same as Nigeria’s multi-ethnic configuration.

In terms of population, India is more endowed than Nigeria. Worldometers, relying on UN data of 2019, puts India’s population at 1,366,417,754 people. Despite that figure being about seven times Nigeria’s population, India has not allowed its huge population to be a burden; rather, it has made a better use of its vast human resources.

Various reports have said that since the start of the 21st Century, the annual average GDP growth of India has been about six to seven per cent. Besides, from 2014 to 2019, India has been recorded as one of the world’s fastest growing major economies. It has, in the process, surpassed China in terms of growth rate.

In the case of Nigeria, FocusEconomics, in a September 17 report, claimed that; “annual growth eased further in Q2, due to weaker dynamics in the non-oil segment of the economy which expanded at the slowest clip in a year. Agricultural output growth nearly halved on softer crop production, while declining activity in the trade and financial services industries largely led the services sector to expand only modestly.

“On the bright side, however, the vital oil-industry rebounded in Q2 – largely the result of higher output compared to last year – after it had contracted for four consecutive quarters. Looking ahead, lending to the private sector remained upbeat in July, while the PMI jumped to an over one-year high in August, both boding well for overall business activity in Q3.

“Meanwhile, in politics, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated his cabinet members in late-August, nearly three months after being sworn in for the top job. The long-awaited move was well received by local markets and raised hopes for a stronger reform drive to revive growth.”

According to the report, Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 2015 was $2,736.

In 2017, it plummeted to $1,974.

Conversely, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “on a per capita income basis, India ranked 142nd by GDP (nominal) and 119th by GDP Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per capita in 2018. From independence in 1947 until 1991, successive governments promoted protectionist economic policies with extensive state intervention and regulation; the end of the Cold War and an acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 led to the adoption of a broad programme of economic

liberalisation.”

India’s GDP in that 2018 was $10.505.2 billion, while its GDP per capita stood at $7,874.

Like Nigeria, about 70 per cent of the population of India lives in the rural area, with their major occupation being agriculture. According to Wikipedia, the country ranks second globally in food and agricultural production, while its agricultural exports were in excess of $38.5 billion.

Countries like Brazil in Latin America, Malaysia and indeed the four Asian Tigers have also left Nigeria behind in all economic indices and development data, as well as other vital benchmark for growth and development. The story of the four Asian Tigers is particularly curious when compared to the Nigerian scenario since 1960 when it gained independence from Britain. Described as Asian Tigers because of their high-growth economies, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and

Taiwan now rank among the world’s wealthiest nations through pragmatic actions spurred by the conscious planning, determination and dedication of their elite class since the 1960s. These countries have become great global players in the financial, manufacturing of automobile and electronic components sectors, as well as in information technology. This is in spite of the fact that South Korea,

for example, was regarded as among the poorest countries in Africa and Asia in the 1960s because of its per capita gross domestic product.

The country was able to turn things around within 40 years, with reports that as of today, South Korea has a total GDP of US$2 trillion and a per capita GDP of more than $39,434, with a growth rate of 3.1 per cent.

Nations like Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia have also broken the yoke of Third world nations. Grouped as the “Tiger Cub Economies,” The four countries have maintained a steady rise in the manufacturing sector, deployment of modern technology and agriculture.

Goods from those countries form the bulk of Nigeria’s import with the huge strain of Nigeria’s scarce resources, including import bill.

Cyprus, Malaysia, Kuwait, Guyana and Oman became independent in 1963, 1960, 1966, and 1962 respectively. Each of these counties cannot be said to be doing badly in all human development indices. Ditto Trinidad and Tobago, which became a sovereign state from the United Kingdom in 1962.

In Africa, Cameroon secured its independence on January 1, 1960 from France after a bitter armed struggle. Camerooon was followed by the Republic of Togo on April 27, 1960; then Madagascar on June 26, 1960, while the Democratic Republic of Congo became independent on June 30, 1960  before Somalia followed suit on July 1, 1960the list of the countries that fall into the bracket includes the Republic of Benin on August 1, 1960; Niger (August 3); Burkina Faso (August 5); Ivory Coast (August 7); Chad (August 11); Central African Republic (August 13); Republic of the Congo  (August 15) Gabon (August 17); Senegal (August 20); Mali (September 22); Nigeria (October 1) and Mauritania  on

November 28, 1960 making it the 17th African country that became in dependent within the year.

Algeria, which had independence about two years after Nigeria, although from France, is rated as the third country with highest living standard in Africa, according to 2018 Human Development Index (HDI) recorded in United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report.

Seychelles, which got independence around 16 years after Nigeria, in 1976, according to HDI, tops the pack in high living standards, followed by Mauritius which got liberation eight years after Nigeria. Both got independence from Britain, like Nigeria.

According to the HDI, even, Tunisia with 0.735; Botswana with 0.717; Libya, with 0.706; and Gabon with 0.702, top Nigeria on the continent in levels of standard of living.

But then, economists have contended that other variables, like population and GDP per capita contribute to the status of these nations and their citizens. While Nigeria’s population peaked on the continent at 200,963,599 people, according to www.worldometers.info account on the basis of 2019 United Nations (UN) records, Algeria’s population stands at 43,053,054. Far less is recorded for Mauritius and Seychelles. Yet, these figures have a lot to do with any country’s GDP. Economists say the GDP is the value of the products and services exported by a country per each active member of its population at the given time, contending that apart from the volume of population, the activeness and productivity of the population, coupled with their economic capabilities are also factors that contribute to the state of living of the average citizens.

Cameroon is also ahead Nigeria in the ranking. With a population of 25,876,380 people, certainly, it has a smaller economy than Nigeria. But the records show that human livelihood in the French-speaking African country is better than that of Nigeria.

Rwanda, which also attained independence two years after, has been through a devastating civil war in the course of its nationhood, just like Nigeria had. But it enjoys a more encouraging GDP than Nigeria, though with a population of 15 million people and a smaller economy.

 

Nigeria: A country of nations and huge potentialities

Of the 17 African countries, Nigeria boasts of more human and natural endowments. It has the largest population of more than 200 million citizens. The World Bank rates Nigeria as the largest in Africa. It controls the economy of the West African sub-region. But unlike China, India and Indonesia, Nigeria, the big brother of Africa, has not been able to utilise its huge human population to maximum economic use to trigger prosperity since independence. Instead, what should be a greater factor and catalyst for growth and development has become a pain and stifle growth as evident in poverty, social vices and illiteracy.

Today, there is pervasive anguish and frustration across the land. Mutual suspicion, bigotry, schism, despondency and conflicts of frightening dimensions reign in the land. Death has suddenly become cheap because of insurgency, banditry, militancy, kidnapping, abduction, and other forms of criminal tendencies which have invariably created a climate of fear in virtually all the nooks and

crannies of the country. Like a ship on the high sea caught in a most violent tempest, the nation is trapped in the sea of economic and political squall, stuttering and staggering like a habitual drunk.

From the era of the three Rs (Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction), post civil war, to the season of Green Revolution and later Operation Feed the Nation, down to a seven-point agenda  before a Transformation Agenda, then to Change and now Next Level, successive governments have never lacked in the art of coining fantastic economic nomenclature and idiosyncrasies.  But the question is, where, when, why and how did Nigeria get things wrong, despite its abundant human and natural resources? Why have successive governments failed to rescue the ship of the country from its systemic sail into abyss? What is the road the country has consistently and flagrantly refused to follow, the veritable path to greater heights, abundance, and nationhood, after the collapse of the First Republic on January 15, 1966?

Reverend Joseph Hayab, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State, believes that the predicament of the country remains a rude shock, lamenting the ignoble retrogression that has been its lot since independence in 1960 while the huge success that was recorded pre-independence by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and others had paled into insignificance.

He found it incomprehensible that Nigeria’s peers have since left it behind because of missed opportunities. Hayab said: “The countries that are supposed our contemporaries took resources from our country years ago and they developed them, and

today, they are far ahead of us. The things we borrowed or got from them are dead here. Can we really say that our leaders have been patriotic to see our country grow? No, they are not.”

A former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi; and a former governor of Oyo State, Chief Rashidi Ladoja, are among other senior citizens that a deeply worried by the precarious condition of the country.

Chief Ladoja in particular was totally pissed off that Nigeria could be groping in the dark 53 years after independence.

“I am disappointed that we are where we are, where we can’t feed ourselves. We can’t ensure quality education for our children again. We can’t be proud to be where our equals are. When you go out and see what Dubai is now, you go to the Asian Tiger countries, you will ask your question, why? We know that all of us have problems. I think maybe something must be wrong somewhere. There is nothing to celebrate,” he said.

Professor Akinyemi was no less bewildered by the vicious cycle the country was going through over the years.

“What we are confronted with is the nightmare of the prospect of a failed state. Where did we go astray? When did the rain start to fall on our heads? One factor stands out: Failure of Leadership. I make bold to assert that no Nigerian leader has ever put the interests of Nigeria above sectional or personal interests. It is as if no leader believes in a Nigerian future that is worth investing in. The British colonial authority, who should have been neutral in mediating the competing

interests of the Nigerian nationalities, was at its perfidious, duplicitous and immoral best. So bad is the record that Britain has banned access to two of its colonial files for the next 50 years.

“Post-independence, no farsighted leadership would have embarked on the ruinous declaration of emergency in the Western region in 1962 or the jailing of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1963. No farsighted leader would conceive of and implement policies that are patently discriminatory against other parts to the benefit of only one part or the benefit of one’s own financial pockets,” Professor Alkinyemi said.

 

Nigeria’s untapped resources

Whereas there were various policies and programmes initiated by successive administrations to explore the potentials in the ICT sector, most of those initiatives soon went into oblivion, shortly after they were launched with blitz. According to experts, while the country has failed to either steal, copy or adapt modern technologies from economically advanced nations, its annual importation of IT solutions use is estimated at more than $2 billion. Yet, even countries that hitherto lacked expertise on ICT have succeeded in harnessing the sector to reposition their nations.

A former deputy governor in Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, cited a few instances to buttress the point: “The development that has taken place in that desert land (Saudi Arabia) and what they have done with their oil money is incredible. I also passed through Dubai, the same place I went to about 15 years ago that was a desert; it has taken off.

“Nigeria is yet to take its rightful place among the comity of nations. I wonder how our leaders, especially those who wield political offices, can be proud of themselves with the way this country is. I imagine how any political leaders in this country can be proud of the way we are. We rejoice in mediocrity and there is no

vision; poor execution of budgets and our politicians take pride in grandstanding with nothing much to show for it. If they build one airport it is like they have built the entire nation.”

On his part, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, took a swipe at the political class for lacking discipline, especially in frustrating internal democracy in political parties. He said a lot of them think that democracy is a license to do as they wish with the resources of the people.

He recalled that, “In 1999, Nigeria decided to accept democracy, a system within which its leaders should be recruited. Unfortunately, not everybody understands this democracy. Twenty years after we started, we have still not begun to see the kind of changes that democracy ought to have brought to us and this is because people at the highest level have been playing at it to the extent that today,

there is virtually no election in our political parties and in the absence of election, we are talking about dictatorship, arbitrariness or authoritarian rule.”

A lecturer at the Depart of Political Science of the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, Dr Jasper Uche, also bemoaned the quagmire Nigeria has found itself in. He noted that: “Nigeria had a great promise, but the faulty foundation of injustice, impunity and scant regard for its pool of talents is its greatest undoing. More often than not, those with the pedigree of excellence and cutting-edge

initiatives are hounded as endangered species. This gave rise to the emergence of mediocres, wheeler-dealers and ethnic jingoists in public affairs. They politicised every aspect of our national life. Politics has become ‘the only game in town.’” Uche said lack of vision, political will and policy inconsistency derailed the country.

Therefore, he noted that; “today, South Korea is not only into automobiles manufacturing, but also one of the largest exporters of steel in the world. Our education system suffered serious neglect under anti-intellectual leaderships. No Nigerian university is among the best 800 in the world. The health sector became comatose.

“In the 1960s, Saudi Royal family used to visit UCH, Ibadan, for medicare. But today, our people spend so much for medical tourism abroad.”

A legal luminary, Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, is also miffed by the dire strait Nigeria found itself over the years, stressing that, “we can’t be operating this kind of system and expect things to work.”

Accordingly, he said Nigeria ought to be returned to a federation, in order to rediscover it.

His words: “Let’s face it; Nigeria is a federation only in name. Nigeria is the only federation in the world without state police. Even the unitary state of Britain has so many police formations. There are over 3,000 police formations in the United States of America. Even universities have their own registered police recognised by law; so also the communities.

In fact, people feel at home more with the

federal police than state police. You will prefer to be arrested by the federal police to being arrested by the state police in the United States. Take the case of motor licensing and number plate for example, they are not uniform in the US. Nigeria is the only country where we centralise licensing authority. It doesn’t work that way.”

On how the country derailed, the senior advocate said: “We got it wrong from the type of leadership we had. One, the military came and derailed Nigeria. Don’t forget that this part of the country, the West, had television before France.

“Some of you might not know this; we were far ahead of Singapore. We were exporting palm produce to Malaysia then. There was a groundnut pyramid in the North. There was massive cultivation of palm produce in the East. So, the whole world looked up to Nigeria, but the military came and destroyed everything and since then, things have never been the same with Nigeria. That was where we got it wrong.”

As a panacea, he said: “We have to go back to our former way of life with some modifications. Most of the newfound freedoms of some states now will not allow them to go back to the new regionalism thing. There should be a form of restructuring. God, Himself has restructured this country for us. Look at the map of Nigeria: River Niger and River Benue are in the North. The natural division is there; linguistic division is there. Nigeria is not a nation; it’s a country of many nationalities.”