Nigeria at 61, Greatness Still Within Reach

Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress conveys his convictions on Nigeria’s bright future

On October 1, 1960, the Union Jack flag of the British Empire was lowered and replaced with the Green and White flag, designed by Taiwo Akinwumi at Independence Square in Lagos. Princess Alexandra of Kent, the official representative of Queen Elizabeth of England handed over Nigeria’s symbol of independence to the nation’s first Indigenous speaker of Parliament, Jaja Nwachukwu.

Though since 1955, Indigenous leaders had governed the three regional governments of Nigeria, leading to greater economic and social transformation than almost a century of colonial rule delivered, it was on October 1, 1960 that power was transferred at the centre to an indigenously composed Parliament.
The hope and optimism of that season was eloquently captured by the first elected Prime Minister of Nigeria, Tafawa Balewa who spoke better English than most British, “I promise you we shall not fail for want of determination and we come to this task better equipped than many,” Tafawa Balewa’s velvet voice rang.

The Prime Minister’s speech was not an empty boast. Within five years of limited self-government, the black Indigenous rulers of Nigeria had built more educational institutions, hospitals, industries; created jobs than the British rulers did in about 100 years of colonial rule. Production of vaccines to cope with outbreak of diseases was not a challenge for them as they continued to maintain the Yaba Vaccine Production Centre that not only served Nigeria but many African countries as well. Nigeria had a prosperous economy diversified and comparable to her peers, like Malaysia and Thailand, as well as a comparable Per Capital Income.

All those momentum of greatness were punctured by a tragic military coup in January 1966 led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. Balewa and other leaders were killed leading to two counter coups, lacking in political management skills, the military in government succeeded in plunging the country into a civil war, distorted the country’s federalism and mismanaged the economy in its adventure in politics which, save for five years of civil rule (between 1979 and 1983) lasted till 1999.

Since the return to democracy, the nation has struggled to shake off the ruinous effects of prolonged military rule that temporarily suspended the momentum of development recorded from 1955-1966.
The telecommunications sector has expanded but the country has seen the near death of industrialization. A highly educated Nigerian diaspora community of the nation has emerged, which contributed over USD26 billion in 2019 in remittances, one billion US dollars more than receipt from oil, Nigeria’s major export. While the country’s citizens abroad are becoming increasingly more educated, there is growing illiteracy at home to an extent the country is recording up to 10 million out-of-school children according to UNICEF figures.

At the security front, Nigeria is facing new challenges proving tough for a country that has once been a helper to sister African countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Congo in achieving stability and peace.
The challenges of the country are surmountable. The nation’s polity needs to reconnect to the ideological and moral rectitude that galvanised development between 1955-1966, updating them based on modern precepts and new realities.

Politics has to be driven by developmental issues of economics, access to health and education, plans for industrialization, security, jobs, reform of decaying ethical and social values, political accountability as well as inclusiveness. Greater patriotism, tolerance maturity and political accommodation are necessary such as exhibited by political leaders of the Independence era, who despite relatively youthful ages were able to resolve complex divisive issues in the national interest by working out political compromises.

The promise of Nigeria’s greatness is within reach, it is still the nation with the biggest economy in Africa, a 2015 PWC forecast based on GDP projection predicts Nigeria could be the 14th largest economy in the world by 2050 ahead of Spain, Canada, Italy, Portugal and many European nations. We can surpass the projection if we quickly overcome our internal divisions, fix electricity distribution, the weakest link in the electricity sector, focus more on industrialization and emerging cyber market where Nigeria has the advantage of being the 6th largest user (country) of internet users in the world and participate more as content creator. We can make regulations of infrastructure investment more investor-friendly. We can afford a bit more decentralisation in policing to states and local government as well as other areas of control over economic activities that can galvanise production, resolve quickly divisive issues such as who should collect VAT and how it should be shared. Our nation’s future is more brighter than bleak, we just need to get some things under control; right now.

*Olawepo-Hashim is a businessman and
former presidential candidate