Nigeria’s 40-year development window

THE 40-year window between 1980 and 2010 in the history of Nigeria presents a good study in observations of mental and physical developments that the nation has undergone. I am a keen observer of this period because I can recall 1980 and I can project into 2020.

Over this period, physical infrastructure deteriorated badly across all segments of the country and what we have now are rusty hulks of once-polished and functional landmarks.

On the mental advance front, it is still a little bit sad to notice another great North-South divide.

Over this 40-year period, parents from the southern half of Nigeria invested enthusiasm and resources in education whilst the same cannot be said of the Northern half of Nigeria.

This investment in education has transformed the perception of the young segment of the population of Southern Nigeria because these young ones are more optimistic and forward-looking than their parents and grandparents before them. Basically, they are all primed to transform Nigeria if the opportunity beckons.

On the northern half of Nigeria, the young ones over there are still staid, laid-back,  and held back by a system that glorifies early marriages, alternative education, intolerance, and improbable projections regarding the future. It is as if Northern Nigeria is the antimatter of Southern Nigeria.

To make matters worse for Northern Nigeria, this region is facing unmitigated migration by hordes of Nigeriens who push daily across the physically and culturally blurred border separating Nigeria from Niger.

These Nigerien hordes are determined to be the most uncivilised people and the poorest people on earth because of their far-off landlocked, arid geography and because of the prevailing culture that has held them back these past centuries.