Nigeria’s Unity: A 64-Year-Old Lie

 By Charles Okoh

Nigeria was 64 last Tuesday. On that day in 1960, expec­tations were high and the country’s founding fathers had lofty dreams about a nation that was destined for the top with all the resources, both natural and human. However, 64 years later, it has been a dashed dream thus far.

In 64 years, leadership has com­pletely failed the nation. Myopia and greed have left us in the middle of nowhere like a ship in the sea with incompetent crew and no compass.

You would think that given our present realities we would have learnt a lesson or two but, no, we are repeatedly making the same mistakes and hoping for a different outcome.

We have not been able to see be­yond greed and selfishness and yet to come to terms with the reality that we need to sit down and decide with introspection what is best to do to address and recalibrate or redesign the current structure of this union called Nigeria.

Nigeria is a country with sever­al disgruntled nations held togeth­er through deceit and falsehood where the laws have failed, institu­tions completely incapacitated and obscured.

Except those who have chosen to live in denial, everyone knows that we are not headed in the right direction but we all seem helpless and unwilling to take the bull by the horns and speak truth to ourselves.

Yes, 68 years together is an achievement that is worthy of cel­ebration, especially given the draw­backs caused by a debilitating civil war, religious and ethnic clashes, turbulent leadership, insecurity, crooked electoral processes, in­creasing state of hopelessness and joblessness, activities of armed gangs, a looting political class and vast majority of youths roaming the streets aimlessly, dilapidated institu­tions and infrastructure, etc.

See why we have to thank God? How many societies have gone through these and are still together? But that is where it ends.

Are we going to spend the next 68 years the same way? Nigeria is better together but certainly not on the same terms and conditions we currently find ourselves. It is not working and something needs to be done to address these anomalies and fast too.

To pretend that all is well is to live in self deceit and denial.

So, which way Nigeria?

Thankfully, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Independence Day address last Tuesday, identified some of these problems that have hampered our development and march towards building that united, egalitarian and prosperous Nigeria that our founding fathers dreamt of at Independence.

But it remains to be seen how ready he is to go the whole hog. This is so because all our Independence Day broadcasts since after 1960 have been very long in such promises and expectations but abysmally falling short and hopeless in delivery.

On President Tinubu’s broadcast, he will be held accountable for all promises made and assessed based on his ability to deliver on those promises.

Whereas he may be given the benefit of the doubt concerning the poor state of the economy and some wrong choices he may have made so far, because there is no turnkey solu­tion for the entire system, but his ability to admit errors and correct them will go a long way to helping him achieve success.

This will completely set him apart from his predecessor who stuck to his gun and remained aloof while the entire country was on fire. Sorry, he did more than that. At least, there was that iconic photograph captured while picking his teeth.

President Tinubu conceded that his economic policies have visited severe pains on the masses and promised that there was light at the end of the tunnel. That expression again! Everything has remained in the tunnel and we seem stranded in there since Independence.

But, let’s keep hope alive.

Even though some of these mea­sures have pushed inflation to a multi-decade high of 33.4 per cent in July this year, before falling mar­ginally to 32.15 per cent in August, his policies too have seen a vast ma­jority of the population falling below the poverty line, but he expressed the commitment of his administration to finding long-term solutions to the problems, noting that the economy was already turning the corner.

He has about three years more for some of these measures taken to manifest and prove sceptics wrong.

However, I completely disagree with the president that since after our bitter civil war Nigeria has learned to embrace its diversity and manage its differences better. If any­thing this is the greatest threat to the country’s unity today. The political class has used this to further fracture an already imperiled national unity and consciousness.

We have not addressed the imbal­ance in the distribution of resourc­es and appointments in all national institutions which in themselves should have advanced and cemented the efforts towards a united Nigeria.

The cries of marginalisation and neglect by some sections of the coun­try are real and genuine. Papering over them is not the solution but a conscious and deliberate attempt to address them is urgently required.

On security President Tinubu de­serves some commendation thus far.

He has also promised to eliminate all the threats of Boko Haram, ban­ditry, kidnapping for ransom, and the scourge of all forms of violent extremism.

His claim that within one year, his government has eliminated Boko Haram and bandit commanders fast­er than ever, cannot be contested. What he has achieved in one year, Buhari could not in eight years of fighting insecurity, because Tinubu clearly has no dog in this race.

So kudos must go to him and our brilliant and gallant troops who were all the while encumbered by the narrow mindedness of Buhari’s leadership.

Also worthy of note in his broad­cast, is Tinubu’s promise to convoke a 30-day dialogue to empower our young people to participate actively in nation-building by ensuring that their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives.

Such policy solutions, he said, will address the issues such as education, employment, innovation, security, and social justice.

What is not clear is the modalities for this conference and selection of delegates. Will it still be another way of rewarding party members and their cronies or will it be open to all irrespective of political persuasions and affiliations, tribes or religious beliefs? Is it another way of saying thank you to party loyalists?

So, as we celebrated another In­dependence Day, last Tuesday, when will we be ready to address the im­balance, the miscarriage of justice, primitive looting of public treasury, the unequal distribution of oppor­tunities, the deep-seated mutual and mistrust between ethnic nationali­ties?

Are we ready to address the prob­lems arising from the dilapidated state of infrastructure, poor gover­nance, cronyism, tribalism, nepo­tism, religious bigotry and failed institutions?

How ready are we to make our electoral process electronic and deepen the adoption of technology and eliminate manual intervention to make it less fractional, less con­tentious and more transparent as it obtains everywhere?

The answers to these questions and more would tell the state of our preparedness or not to build that united and indivisible nation of our dreams and that of our founding fa­thers and our generations unborn.

May God help us.

*Okoh is a commentator on public issues