Ndoma-Egba: Nigeria’s Survival a Miracle

Bassey Inyang in Calabar 

The Leader of the 7th Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, has said it was a miracle that Nigeria was still together as a nation despite the ups and downs she has gone through.

He spoke on Nigeria’s 65th independence anniversary, when the executives of the Cross River State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by its Chairman, Comrade Archibong Bassey, paid him a courtesy visit at his home in Calabar, weekend.

Ndoma-Egba said, “65 years in the life of a human being is a very long time because at 65, if you are not a grandparent yet. You should be close to being a grandparent. At 65, you should have retired from what you are doing except you are in academics. Because in academics, they now retire at 70. 

“At 65, essentially, as a human being, you should have achieved  everything you would have to achieve, or you would have given up trying to achieve those things. But for a nation, 65 years is a very short time in the life of a nation.”

Ndoma-Egba who is the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti in Ekiti State, said even as short as the time is, “we have had these, heavily packed experiences. A cocktail of experiences. I am still in my sixties. 

“Even though I will be exiting my sixties in a couple of months, I have seen colonial rule. I saw the fight for independence. I saw independence. I saw a future of hope when everybody was hopeful. Everything was just moving.”

Recalling some aspects of Nigeria’s history, Ndoma-Egba said, “And then, the economy of the then Eastern region of Nigeria was one of the fastest growing economy in the world, not just in Africa, in the world. Then we saw our first coup in 1966. 

“Then we saw several other coups. Then we saw a civil war, we saw three regions become four regions. Then 12 states, 19 states, 31 and 36 states. Then there was a time when our problem was not money, but how to spend it. 

“We moved from there to a time when money now became a problem. When we entered the university, you went abroad only if you didn’t find space in a Nigerian university. That means you were not good enough for a Nigerian university….

“It has been a cocktail of experiences that ordinarily should make or create mental health problems for an individual. I mean, if you had all these experiences in one lifetime. Because elsewhere your great-grandfather would tell you of the fight for independence. 

“Your grandfather would tell you of the fight of the civil war. Your father would tell you how they had so much money. But in our own case, all of these experiences, generational, cross-generational experiences, are packed together. 

“So it’s a miracle that we are still seen as a nation. It’s a major achievement that in spite of these, contradictory experiences, we are still one, we are still one nation with nobody, forget all these miscreants who don’t know what they are saying, that they want another country. 

“But there is no sane Nigerian today that is advocating the breakup of Nigeria, and that is a major achievement in spite of ourselves and challenges.”