Ralph Nwokike, Esq.
Every nation celebrates their independence anniversary for many reasons. Times like the Silver Jubilee or Golden Jubilee celebrations both mark the era of stock taking as to whether the Country has made or is making progress, whether the dreams of their founding fathers are pursued with the same dreams for justice, equity , equality and fairness, the hallmark of that journey. It is possible that as nations journey like children learning to walk on their own, there are possibilities of unpleasant happenstances, which demonstrates the strife to relearn certain skills and steps without committing much blunders. Nigeria at 50years seem to fall into the path of those nations wondering whether we were making progress towards greatness or rather stalled or retarded in the journey that we started in 1960.
However, in every society, the bad and good people live together during the journey to greatness and even at the time of the independence celebrations. The striking issue in many great minds is whether Nigeria has any reason to celebrate its golden jubilee, a question that the debaters probably would not provide us with any winner. If I may ask, are we celebrating the inglorious performances of our leaders and successive governments from 1960 through the current administration under President Jonathan E. Good-luck, or, the highest level of violent crimes in our society including lately kidnapping, unemployment, poor standard of education, official corruptions in high and low places, and/or, a total break down of law and order?. These abysmal failures in all aspects of our institutions and lives have no adjective or encyclopedia to qualify or describe the anomalies and its consequences on the psyche of the Nigerians.
In ancient time, most of the times, the good people have risen up against the bad ones or system to correct the bad trends and anomalies within that society. The French revolution was one of them. In Nigeria, since after independence, things have gone from good to worst, from one successive government to another. In all these, an average Nigerian has remained with the delusions that despite the bad government from generation to generation, that God is in control. Nigeria has risen from a rich country to an impoverished nation over a period of time in 50years. This event happened because Nigerians stood by and hoping on the divine intervention that one day, we shall get out of the quagmire as a nation. In all these, Nigeria is consistently and gradually nose diving into the abyss of retrogressive society every decade that passes by.
As a reminder, the optimism for self governing during our independence had no bounds for the hard works of our founding fathers. Their determinations for self rule led to many struggles in the hands of the Great Britain, the colonial Masters, as they are called. The entire infrastructures that remain working today in Nigeria, no doubt, are those that the British installed and left for us after we gained independence. Those ones that we invented or built by ourselves are at the dustbin of history of failures and broken system or lack of maintenance culture. Yes, they are broken and as good as non existent! When we look at Nigeria of the 21st Century, wouldn’t it be right to say that Nigeria would have been better of as a nation assuming we had waited for self rule until 1970 rather than 1960. There is no doubt to say, that we got our independence from Great Britain on a platter of GOLD without shedding much blood. The celebration of where we might be heading were full of anxiety and optimism, joy and hopes, pageantry, dreams and aspirations for the generation at the time and those to come after them.
It is hard to sit down to recount the progress that Nigeria has made as a nation since independence. Have we made any progress? Nigeria at 21st Century appears in tatters and pieces, gradually falling in places since after the Civil wars that lasted for three years. The drama and proclamation with the policy of the “three Rs”: Reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction were yet to define the Country’s unity and oneness. The failure to implement the “three Rs” since after the civil war is the repercussion and punishment that are staring the unity and progress of Nigeria on their faces. Since 1970, every successive government has been unable to follow and honestly implement this policy, the cornerstone that signaled the end of our disagreement and conflicts as a nation. At least, in our minds.Perhaps, that we are a group of people with one destiny. Given that we have not reconciled and have not attempted to, have given birth to the country that we have today- a dysfunctional one. The greatest mistake that a nation makes is not being truthful to themselves.
The question whether Nigerians have been rehabilitated- I mean the Igbos and the southern Nigeria, that suffered the disconnect, loss, abuse, destruction, neglect and all kinds of injustice, are milestones in our nation’s history. Although, it looked like the Igbos are the mostly affected and referred in term of this, the total lack of rehabilitation in Nigeria in all aspect of our lives and governance, especially the oil rich part of Nigeria, has given rise to the inequalities, injustice, anarchy, chaos and political tensions rocking the stability and unity of Nigeria. At 50 years of her independence, Nigeria is rather sitting on a time bomb, scheduled for a doomsday that would decimate the sovereignty of that nation. So, why celebrate the Golden Jubilee? Do we have anything golden to celebrate, if I may ask? The doomsday is getting closer each day that the injustice continued and lasted especially with the emergence of President Jonathan Good-luck as the Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. President Jonathan Good-luck appears to be the man that may have been sent but is yet to show that he would throw up a stone and puts his head to receive it. Would he give up on Nigeria and join the gang? Only Time Shall Tell.
Here comes the next big league in all this melodrama. That is, to what extent Nigeria has succeeded in reconstruction after the civil war. Nigeria’s reconstruction is nothing but a façade and a fallacy of successive governments that have no blue print. Even if they did, neither of them followed nor paid attention to the suffering of its citizens in the land of plenty. The consequences of what have not been reconstructed in Nigeria are enormous. The problems of Nigeria and where we are as a nation was not caused by aliens. Rather, they were caused by fellow Nigerians who had the opportunity to take the country to the apex level, but failed due to lack of vision and direction, propelled by lack of will and selfish aggrandizement. From the 1960s that lives were better than what we experience today, Nigerians have recluse to their faith with the divine hopes that God is in control. The problem with this belief is that God will not physically save Nigeria from heaven against corruption, bad leadership and myopic politicians, murderers, kidnappers and other marauders that make the Nigerian society a hell on earth.
A nation that has no direction but submitting to prophetic believe that when a system is in turmoil, that we should resort to prayers as the answers to everything, must be delusional, and perhaps, hallucinating . That is the progress we have made as a nation after independence. The truth to our delusions is that since independence, Nigeria has seen wastes and lack of visions from their leaders and did nothing about it. It looked like the wound is cancerous and cannot be treated anymore. As naive as majority of Nigerian have been in the last 50years, tells how worst that Nigeria’s absurdity at 50 has been and will continue up to 51years plus. I don't intend to pass judgment.
I would have joined the prayer warriors, if it has been demonstrated, just as in the Old Testament, that God is in control by sending that fire and brimstone to crush the bad people and the corrupt society that we inherited as Nigeria. Those days are gone when instant justice is delivered by God. We can only stand by and watch our leaders destroy the collective destiny of our people, or, that we do something or nothing about it.
Until Nigerians are able to come out of the shackles of their delusional state of minds that things will turn better on its own, rather than squaring up against corrupt politicians that deliver nothing except destruction of our collective future and taking us to the path of damnation and doom, only then can we realize the mistakes we have made. What am I saying? Haven’t we made enough of it for the past 50years? Otherwise, I would rather tell Nigerians to celebrate their pains of Golden Jubilee, the 50years of doom of lost hopes. We are simply a nation tormented with the delusions that God is in Control. I for one, I am not excited. I don’t know about you.
Writes from Seattle, Washington, USA.
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