Why Is Nigeria So Cursed?

 By DAN AMOR 

When the Union Jack (the British flag) was, at the glittering mews of the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on October 1, 1960, lowered for a free Nigeria’s green-white-green flag, gloriously fluttered in the sky by the breezy flurry of pride and ecstasy, it was a great moment pregnant with hope and expectation. The whole world had seen a newly independent Nigeria, a potential world power, only buried in the sands of time. Endowed with immense wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader in Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance. 

                        *President Buhari 

For, it was widely thought that the country was immune from the wasting diseases of tribalism, disunity and instability which remorselessly attacked so many other new African states. But when bursts of machine gun fire shattered the predawn calm of Lagos its erstwhile capital city in January 1966, it was now clear that Nigeria was no exception to Africa’s common post-independence experience.

During the following four years (1966-1970), the giant and ‘hope’ of Africa measured its full length in the dust. Two bloody military coups, a series of appalling massacres and a protracted and savage civil war which claimed over two million lives threatened to plunge the entire country into oblivion. 

India: Celebrating An Economic Giant At 73

By DAN AMOR

India has been celebrating since penultimate week its 73rd independence anniversary as a democratic nation having been juristically established on August 15, 1947 after several decades of British colonialism. But the great Indian nation did not begin only about seven decades ago. Rather, it is the proud beneficiary of several millennia of great and memorable history, culture and civilization. Indian independence movement began in 1857 spanning 90 years before achieving self rule in 1947. 

As the enterprising people of India celebrate their bold attempt at shaking off the yoke of British imperialism and economic strangulation, yours sincerely is pleased to join millions of people, nations and organizations all over the world to congratulate this wonderful and spicy nation on her march from poverty and despair to a position of preeminence, respect and pride. It would not be an overstatement to say that the transformation of India is not only a challenge to the sub-continent of Asia but has also provided a shining example for most other countries still battling with the vagaries of underdevelopment, militarism, poverty and corruption.

Nigeria: A Nation Of 200 Million Fools

By Dan Amor

When the Union Jack (the British flag) was, at the glittering mews of the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on October 1, 1960, lowered for a free Nigeria’s green-white-green flag, gloriously fluttered in the sky by the breezy flurry of pride and ecstasy, it was a great moment pregnant with hope and expectation. The whole world had seen a newly independent Nigeria, a potential world power, only buried in the sands of time.

*Buhari 

Endowed with immense wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader in Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance. For, it was widely thought that the country was immune from the wasting diseases of tribalism, disunity and instability which remorselessly attacked so many other new African states. But when bursts of machine gun fire shattered the predawn calm of Lagos its erstwhile capital city in January 1966, it was now clear that Nigeria was no exception to Africa’s common post-independence experience.