I join other Nigerians to celebrate the anniversary of our independence as a country. Exactly 55 years ago, our founding fathers succeeded in putting paid to the almighty supremacy of the British colonial rule by fighting for the collective independence of what we will later celebrate as a country. All the sweats and painstaking efforts that went into the journey to liberty and freedom are already an open secret and may it not go in vain. This prayer is already being answered in bits as we are no longer where we used to be.
We have come through thick and thin, we have come through crises that should naturally disintegrate us, we have come through all kinds of unimaginable and unspeakable situations; yet these situations made us stronger instead of permanently tearing us apart. However, our country is yet to fully maximize the potentials she has; she prefers to be a sleeping giant instead of a gallant black nation where prosperity should be a commonplace, but this will be a matter for another day. The crux of this piece is to drive home the supposed gains of independence, as it were.
For the records, independence means freedom from control, influence, support or the likes. The irony that is obtainable in our country is that we are only experiencing independence in terms of 55 years of freedom only. I personally believe that to the ordinary Nigerian on the streets, independence should mean equality irrespective of financial class.
To the unemployed Nigerian, independence should mean a gainful employment that can engage his creative abilities and also add value to the chain. To the market woman at Idumota in Lagos, independence should mean an environment conducive for business that can encourage sales and growth. To the civil servant, independence should mean improved remunerations and proper value for hard work and not repaying diligence with unbearable insults. To the farmer in Maiduguri, the best way to explain independence to him is to have a good road network so that his farm yields will not perish with him. Even to the unborn child in my pregnant neighbour’s tummy, independence would mean to have a prosperous Nigeria where opportunities abound and life is moderately comfortable. All of these and many more are non-existent or scarcely available in our country and that feeling naturally kills the excitement that should come with the independence celebration.
We cannot shy away from the obvious truth that our country is not where it desires to be. This I think is not because of geographic disadvantage, neither because of tribal differences; definitely not because of our increasing population nor any of the natural or man-made disasters. Our country is where she is because of poor or bad political and economical structures or institutions if you like. Virtually all our challenges as a country (security, economic and developmental, etc) are politically generated, most of which are motivated by not doing the right things. Our representatives in power pride themselves in doing the wrong things, parents choose to spare the rod when their wards do wrong things, civil servants consider it smart to cheat the government, and the society celebrates people who carry wrong symbols as glaring signs on their foreheads. It is an endless list and that it is the ugly situation we have found ourselves in.
However, even though the country has become a direct irony of what it should be; in many ways, our country still remains the envy of so many other countries, even the west. We lack almost nothing in terms of resources and we have been blessed so much so that it is not unsafe to say that God is a Nigerian. From Lagos to Jos, Okene to Ikot-Ekpene, Abuja down to Kwara, there are mineral resources scattered across our country in commercial quantities. In intellectual capacity, we do not have a shortage either; and several other ways that are better imagined than described. What then could be wrong with us as a country? The bitter truth is that we are not doing the right thing at the right time. We can only say Nigeria is truly independent if we begin to do the right thing at the right time.
Having identified the root cause of our challenges, I wish that Nigerians will use the occasion of this independence celebration to begin to take decisions about doing the right thing and especially at the right time; because if the right thing becomes the order of the day, we would have solved more than half of our challenges. More importantly, we will be realizing the dreams of our founding fathers.
Happy Independence, Nigeria.
Moses Ihiabe
