AS Nigeria clocks 63, it seems the only source of consolation is the fact that it is not under a military junta. This is so because civilian rule has left much to be desired. The majority of Nigerians have become familiar with recurring challenges that successive governments have not been able to address for over six decades of independence. As a result, Nigerians continue to suffer from unfulfilled aspirations, uncertain future and hopelessness. It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Poverty, extreme inequality, insecurity, high and rising youth unemployment and huge infrastructure deficit define the Nigerian social and physical milieu.
At independence in 1960, Nigeria was one of the most promising new states that came out of colonial rule in Africa. Indeed, it was described as the giant of Africa. During the first few years shortly after independence, it broke new grounds. The economy, which previously relied on the export of agricultural produce, began to benefit from the export of crude oil. The economy grew rapidly, education was progressively expanded at all levels, and roads and communication networks were constructed far beyond what was inherited from colonial rule. Hydroelectric dams and secondary industries and automobile assembly plants were built. But these did not ward off political crisis.
By 1966, democracy was toppled in a bloody coup by the military. The military rule led to a 30-month civil war. The oil boom in the 1970s helped Nigeria to recover rapidly from its civil war and carry out rapid industrialisation. Many manufacturing industries sprang up and the economy experienced rapid growth, about eight percent per year, that made Nigeria, by 1980, the largest economy in Africa. The growth, however, was not sustained. The country experienced food shortages in the 1970s and 1980s, which necessitated the importation of food. Poverty became widespread. Now, Nigerians live under the collapse of even basic infrastructure and social services. Nigeria’s debts have continued to mount. Like in the 1980s, external borrowing and subsidies on fuel prices feature in every debate about the precarious economy and its lack of diversification to sustain development.
In his independence speech, President Bola Tinubu acknowledged that forging a nation based on principles of peace and progress, common prosperity and harmony, tolerance and justice had been a significant challenge. Indeed, the recent removal of subsidy and devaluation of the naira have reduced the purchasing power of the average Nigerian and thrown millions of them into abject poverty. It is clear that the current government is not apprised of the gravity of the adverse consequences of these policies. The president has promised to enhance the federal minimum wage by paying N25,000 per month for the next six months to the average low-grade worker. In addition, he emphasised that his government had “embarked on several public sector reforms to stabilise the economy, direct fiscal and monetary policy to fight inflation, encourage production, ensure the security of lives and property.” Has the president estimated that all these policies will arrest inflation and achieve results in six months when the N25,000 payment to low grade workers will end? If in the first four months of his administration banditry, kidnapping and crime have continued to increase, how does he hope to dispel the discontent and the dark cloud of hopelessness that looms on the horizon of the independence celebrations?
There is an urgent need to move the country away from the precipice towards unity, security and stability. This cannot be achieved by unrealistic poverty wages and salaries that shrink the market by taking essential services and commodities beyond the reach of average Nigerians. Public sector and other poverty wage earners will cope by taking advantage of their positions to augment income, thereby deepening rent seeking and non-responsiveness by the government and eroding commitment to the common good. Yet, to build a successful society and nation, there must be a deliberate effort by the government to promote equity, justice, the rule of law and accountability. Central to these principles is the imperative of reducing inequality and fighting corruption. On these two important variables, the government has been mute.
Similarly, Nigeria’s political elite have failed to take up the responsibility of reducing inequality and addressing corruption. Rather than sacrificing on behalf of the communities that make up Nigeria, they have embarked on primitive accumulation; they have preyed on the resources of the state for individual profit and aggrandizement. They have instituted predatory governance at every level. This has been demonstrated by the speed with which President Tinubu allocated funds to the National Assembly and the judiciary while dithering on addressing the plight of the average Nigerians. This approach will further delegitimise the state and erode patriotism. It cannot renew the hope of Nigerians. Rather, it will further dampen it.
We believe that it is not too late for the government to rethink some of its policies. They are akin to the structural adjustment policies that failed in the 1990s. The president must restrategise and return the country to the path of growth and development by taking the opportunity of the independence anniversary to reflect on the unenviable and precarious state of the country and begin to work to change the narrative and herald a return to progress, away from the dog-eat-dog, cake-sharing competition and predatory approach to governance. The requirements are not prohibitive or unattainable.
A big and multi-ethnic federation like Nigeria ought to rest on a decentralised design that enables the constitutive units to compete around productive activities. The structure of the federation should enable the harnessing of the varying potentials of the constitutive units in the various sectors based on the rule of law, equity and justice, value for hard work, and innovations which are the true basis of development. This is the concrete change of perspective and perception that should guide reflection as Nigeria moves on from the celebration of its 63rd independence.
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