Between 1960 and now, Nigeria has passed through different stages of social, economic, and political change. One thing that has however remained consistent through the vicissitudes of our national history is the harsh consequences of the fatal decisions we the Nigerian people, as well as our greedy leaders, have made up to this moment.
Ever since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999, we the Nigerian people have been trapped in a catastrophic cycle of deeply entrenched elite conspiracy that has so far made our national development very difficult to achieve.
On the one hand, I believe that the men and women of unequaled consciousness amongst us will agree that the 16 years of trusting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to bring succour to the suffering people of Nigeria brought us nothing but acute suffering and unthinkable looting of our commonwealth.
And on the other hand, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was elected on a widespread opinion that succour had finally found the suffering people of our nation, has equally proven to be inefficient, confused, abusive, delusional, haughty, and disrespectful.
If there is at all anything to learn from our nation’s contemporary history on political developments, it is simply the fact that our current political representatives are not the solution that our nation badly requires at this time. It is known to every fact-loving person that recent developments have been absolutely unfavorable to the common people of our nation, including me.
Unemployment has now hit the second highest of all time at 18.8 per cent. In the same vein, the total unemployment and underemployment rate has gone up from 37.2 per cent. to 40 per cent. Youth Unemployment has risen to 33.1 per cent and 20.2 per cent. for those aged below 25 and 35 respectively.
Many of our women have no jobs to support their family and instead of accelerating, the economy has continued to decelerate. As if these are not enough, the Fulani herdsmen crisis has continued to grow unabatedly, just as the Boko Haram insurgents have unceasingly, almost on a daily basis carried out brutal attacks on those the current administration has described as “soft-targets”.
The number of beggars on the streets is increasing by the day whilst the rate of suicide is uncontrollably on the surge.
Sadly, corruption has also become a legal tender. No doubt, Nigeria has now become synonymous with the apothegm ‘one-day-one-problem’.
At the receiving end of these heart-wrenching developments are the common people of our nation and the youths in whose hands lie the present and future of our nation.
These developments cannot be wished away as mere coincidence.They point to the stark absence of visionary and competent leadership in our nation. It is therefore important that those who constitute the larger chunk of Nigeria’s population – the youths, step up to the plate to bring Nigeria out of this exacerbating state of underdevelopment.
Meanwhile, let me quickly state that the woes that the Nigerian people are faced with today are not antithetical to the woes of our ancestors under the colonial masters.
Adebayo Raphael
raphaeladebayo@ymail.com
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