EDITORIAL: Nigeria at 64: A banner with many stains

Indeed, the anniversary was a sobering moment, a reality check as it were, for both those in authority and the citizenry.

Each independence anniversary presents an opportunity for deep reflections on Nigeria’s journey so far. As such, the 64th event on 1st October was held amid staidness, except in the forecourt of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where the President Bola Tinubu, state officials and foreign dignitaries gathered for the usual ritual of parades by members of the Guards Bridges, performance of cultural troupes, among other exhibitions.

For the larger Nigerian society, gone were the animations of days of yore that involved carnivals, exuberant fireworks, flaunting of the green-white-green national flag in private and commercial vehicles, ecstatic exchanges of “happy independence anniversary” salutations among folks and the glaring cheerful mood at every nook and cranny of our cities.

The reason for these faded tapestries is not far-fetched: things have fallen apart, in the inimitable words of the late writer, Chinua Achebe. President Bola Tinubu inadvertently conceded this fact, when his government decided to make the event low-key; as it also did on 1 October, 2023.

Indeed, the anniversary was a sobering moment, a reality check as it were, for both those in authority and the citizenry. Undoubtedly, all are in one accord that Nigeria at 64 is like an individual at the crossroads. It isn’t the political entity that came alive in 1960, with high optimism and great potential, and looked upon as a beacon for the rest of Africa and the black race. Put in context, there has been a stark betrayal of the ideals and vision of the country’s founding forebears by succeeding generations of vile and visionless leaders.

The upshots, therefore, are dashed hopes for most Nigerians, lives of deprivation, abject poverty, over 20 million out-of-school children according to UNESCO’s 2022 data, high maternal and child mortality rates, the collapse of public schools and primary healthcare delivery. Also, state capture by the corrupt and affluent political elite, and a judiciary which the rich go to do their shopping, as one Senior Advocate of Nigeria, cynically put it.

Nigeria has been boiling as a result of this grim national landscape. The ogres manifest daily in unrelenting kidnappings for ransom, banditry, armed robbery, insurgency, mass-murders by killer-herdsmen, and the millions living in IDPs camps. Therefore, there is a sense in which the country could be said to be like a ship that has lost its compass.

It is for this reason, perhaps, that President Tinubu and the political elite cocooned themselves in the Aso Rock presidential villa for the ceremony, instead of it being held at Eagle Square, the usual venue for such occasions in Abuja. The asymmetric disposition to the event was put in bold relief with the public protests of the #EndBadGovernance and RevolutionNow groups in Lagos, Ondo, Abuja, Kano and other places, over the worsening cost of living crisis triggered by Tinubu’s earlier twin policies of fuel subsidy removal and floatation of the naira. The ravages of hunger, poverty and insecurity, as things are, seem to be the democratisation in the land, though of a perverse variety.

The founding forebears of Nigeria conceived it as a republican state; an egalitarian society with a strong foundation for its agrarian economic evolution and industrialisation. Industrial estates in Ikeja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kaduna; quality education, hard work and dignity of labour, were early imprints. The groundnut pyramids in the Northern region, cocoa in the West and palm produce in the Eastern region aggregated to sustain the economic developments in the First Republic. These seminal economic footprints have been wiped out by subsequent irresponsible leadership.

From being the leading global producer of cocoa in the 1960s, attention was shifted to crude oil and agriculture began to receive the short shrift. Thus, the seed of a major economic crisis was sown. The new oil boom, sooner than later, gave birth to the monster of corruption, such that the biggest and most thriving industry in Nigeria today is the brazen looting of the treasury by public office holders at all levels of government, without consequences.

The situation is so bizarre that for about three decades, a major OPEC member cannot refine petroleum products locally, but finds solace in its importation from countries that don’t even produce oil. Billions of dollars are therefore siphoned yearly from this scandalous enterprise. As a result, vested interests in and out of government have not allowed the country’s four refineries to function, despite over $25 billions of public funds sunk into their turnaround maintenance.

Port Harcourt refinery, with a 200,000 barrels-per-day capacity, which this administration said would begin fuel production last December, after its touted mechanical completion of repairs, has had seven shifts in dates of commencement. A total of $1.5 billion has been injected into it. The independence anniversary was marked with fuel scarcity across the country, with petrol selling above N1,000 per litre in most parts of the country.

The utmost tragic part of it all is that nobody is held to account for this lack of accountability in the management of the country’s oil resources. Mr President, this does not call for patience from the citizenry or the youths. Imagine the expenditure of $25 billion on the maintenance of these refineries without any positive outcome over the years. Yet, the newer 650,000 b/d Dangote Refinery was built with $19.5 billion in less than 10 years.

The looting of the public treasury and crude oil theft are binding constraints to development. The #EndBadGovernance protesters are calling on Tinubu to take the gauntlet against the masterminds of these acts of sabotage against Nigeria, reverse the N1,019 per litre pump price of fuel, properly fund education, and release political detainees, among other demands.

Amidst echoes of the independence anniversary, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) chairman, Adamu Aliyu, disclosed that the agency recovered N13 billion diverted in September alone. His EFCC counterpart, Ola Olukoyede, had said in July that, “If you see some case files, you will weep” while wondering how “we are still surviving” as a country. Patently, too many rogues in public offices have stained the green-white-green flag, which is our national banner.

As it is so evident, some former governors steal over N100 billion and go to court to obtain perpetual injunctions against their arrest, investigation or even invitation by law enforcement agencies, whilst others stonewall their prosecutions through many shenanigans by their lawyers and the courts.

No nation has survived without extricating itself from this morass. Regrettably, we have not seen any strong indication just yet, of the government’s willingness to deal with the scourge squarely. Solving these complaints do not require a 30-day presidential youth conference, as Tinubu asked for in his broadcast. Many youths and other professionals flood foreign embassies daily, seeking visas to emigrate because jobs and other opportunities are lacking in the country, so that they cannot actualise their dreams.

Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 1990 was $653, while that of China was $347. As of 2022, the reversal was mind boggling, with $2,202 for Nigeria, as against China’s $12,814, according to StatiSense. Instructively, China has become Nigeria’s benefactor in a binge of credits for suspect economic development projects. This negative turnaround is empirical evidence of the poverty of leadership for which not only our youths, but all right-thinking Nigerians, are righteously up in arms against.

A crude oil producing nation that cannot refine the product locally, where human lives are no longer sacrosanct; the corrupt purchase justice; and impunity reigns, cannot be “a nation that resonates with pride, dignity and shared success,” as Tinubu enthused in his 1 October broadcast. Sadly, the opposite of his homily of sorts, is what has been savaging Nigeria. Indeed, with leadership tragedies, for too long, “our mistakes have been allowed to follow us into the future.”