Today, independent Nigeria is 61 years old from October 1st 1960. Nigeria became the protectorate of British colonial masters in 1901 as an aftermath of the Berlin conference of 1884-1885 which heralded a major European effort that partitioned African territories for eventual colonization.
Nigeria like other African countries had its own share of gains and losses from colonialism. The latter being massive the evacuation of Nigeria’s rich natural resources for the development of England is partly responsible for the underdevelopment of Nigeria 61 years after independence.
In fact, Nigeria and indeed other African nations were no less developed before the coming of the British to its shores as Professor Walter Rodney succinctly argued.
Our great nationalists such as Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardaunan Sokoto, Sir Abubakar Tafwabalewa, Nnamdi Zik, Anthony Enahoro, Malam Sa’adu Zungur and Chief Obafemi Awolowo seeing how British colonial masters continue to wacked our God-given natural resources to their advantage, staged a united front that eventually forced the British to surrender to the indigenous forces to take our rightful place as Nigerians leading Nigeria.
These national idols worked tirelessly to plant the seeds of a progressive Nigeria that will progress for the benefit of all. Their landmark achievement is not just confined to securing independence for Nigeria on the pages of newspapers and other avenues, but also human and capital development.
One will appreciate the noble contributions of these national icons the more when one look at how things are being run now after their sacrifices for self-government.
Nigeria derailed from the path of purposeful progress since the event of January 15th 1966 which planted and promoted the seeds of hatred, disaffection and disunity among Nigerians and ended up in a bloody 30 months civil war. We are yet to squarely overcome these challenges to properly face questions of national development and cohesion. It is sad to note that we still live with the carryover of the spiral effects of that unfaithful event.
The explosion of Nigeria’s uniform men from the fence of their barracks into the political and administrative scenes did not help matters just as instead of solving corruption, the sole reason for military intervention, it exacerbated it except Murtalic regime.
Hence, 61 years after independence, Nigeria is still talking about basic necessities of life like food, security, education, health and roads, despite the oil boom of 1970 which culminated in a wasteful Udoji spree at a time when countries of our equal with the same colonial antecedent have advanced beyond this level. India and Brazil are classical examples for us to learn and see how we got it wrong.
Disgustfully, Nigeria’s 22 years of uninterrupted democracy offer nothing to write home about in the annals of development. Those elected to Nigeria’s seat of power in a period spanning two decades, failed to lower their sights to correct the mistakes made since the actualization of self-government 61 years ago thereby adding to the country’s woes.
Unless the present generation of Nigeria’s leaders and citizens realised the fact that our power is in our diversity and independence is a means to actualize our full potentials as a nation and unit against powers of neocolonialism, we will continue to be languishing in basic problems of human life when humanity advanced leaving us behind.
Kamal, is a Bauchi based journalist and can be reached via +2348059589057 (WhatsApp Only)
