President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
By Abdulwarees Solanke
As Nigeria clocks 63 as an independent nation, the pertinent question we need to ask ourselves is: ‘When Is A Nation A Nation?’
As a new dawn rises, we are at another milestone on our journey to nationhood. As auspicious as the day marking 63 of our political independence is, we need to do a critical evaluation of our progress so as to remind ourselves that the Nigerian Project is yet to mature.
Certain schools of thought believe Nigeria is not a nation. Some think we are a failed nation. But I see prospects in our being as a nation.
After all, a nation remains a nation when it is able to sustain its existence or being in terms of sovereignty and identity, and when it is able to meet the existential needs of its citizens and constituents.
A nation will only be able to maintain its respect and position in the comity of other nations when it has a guarantee of prosperity and stability that gives room for growth and development (in human and material assets /capital).
Furthermore, a nation can only be considered developed when it possesses all the indices, the instruments and frameworks that suggest decent and quality standard of living of the citizenry, in which case, they are not threatened by poverty, disease and other features associated with underdevelopment such as illiteracy and poor access to water and health facilities, corruption and political instability.
Where do we stand in Nigeria today? Where do we want to be in the future? Can we sustain or improve our present status? What are our strengths and opportunities? What are the weaknesses and challenges of Nigeria of the future?
The Millennium Development Goals, a framework of eight goals (signed in 2000) that all the28/9, 00:17 192 UN member states agreed to achieve by Year 2015 and its successor 17 Sustainable Development Goals should serve as our frame of reference, even if we are yet to score excellently.
These goals serve as a benchmark for development policy for all countries, especially those of the Third World and other societies in transition who are still grappling with poverty, disease, illiteracy, and high maternal and child mortality, gender disparities in education and employment, intense environmental degradation and are also substantially de-linked from global economic opportunities.
Despite our limitless potentials and opportunities, our tragedy in Nigeria is that we are still constrained by political immaturity and corruption. Our diversity of peoples, culture ethnicity and religion which should have been converted to opportunities for development, celebration and international recognition is now mostly used as weapon of destabilization. Democracy, which is succeeding as a working system of government in many other countries, is unfortunately still crude and exploitative in Nigeria.
Not just the structure or system of government is weakened Nigeria by this national malaise, the public service, the economy and the value system are also suffering this compromise. So the insecurity and erosion of public morality that are pervasive in Nigeria calls for concern because commitment to national ideals and integrity are of secondary consideration to the average citizen who views the nation with disdain desperation.
In this national misfortune, we often come up with different elaborate and ambitious plans and agenda, which in most instances never went beyond the short-term implementation stage before we introduce a fresh one to rubbish whatever progress we have made. So, we are often derided, even by less endowed nation, as a country of abandoned projects and unattained vision and goals.
If our current efforts at reform and restructuring must lead us to an Eldorado, we must get to terms with some realities, the first of which is a guarantee of visionary leadership in our leadership recruitment process and the production of committed professional and dynamic successor-generation our public sector. Secondly, there is the need for national re-orientation and awareness that the seemingly free national wealth of oil cannot last forever, so the need for us to unlock ourselves from the oil dependence syndrome.
Thirdly, we must guard against the cultural disorientation and conflict that globalization, modernization and technology are inflicting on our mentality. Finally, we must intensify efforts at crafting and sustaining a national philosophy built on integrity, justice and public welfare.
The thrust in all these is that Nigeria of the future must have transparency, accountability, responsibility and integrity in leadership as our national core values. There is also the need to inject dynamism and competition in our public domain now festering with crass political and economic opportunism. There is also a demand for more public deliberation and stakeholders’ involvement and participation in our public policy processes.
Certainly, every nation desirous of development has a responsibility to preserve the values which gives it vitality and essence of existence. But it must also be able to re-invent those cultural elements and practices that are capable of holding it down from global relevance and competitiveness.
There is an imperative for Nigeria today to examine the various dimensions of her national cultural practices that are dysfunctional to the attainment of the lofty vision of nationhood as the nation clocks 63 and marches further in her development strides. Despite her internal crises, beauty is that so many stakeholders in the Nigerian project are working assiduously to sustain the spirit of the Nigerian nation. In these efforts are hopes of our being a true nation.
Abdulwarees Solanke is the
Deputy Director/Head,,
Strategic Planning & Corporate Development Department at the
Voice of Nigeria
Corporate Headquarters
Wuse Abuja
(korewarith@yahoo.com
08090585723)
