59-Year Old Nigeria In Perspective

Typically many Nigerians feel they have very little to celebrate about Nigeria at 59.

How Nigerians developed a new found culture of impatience, ingratitude to God and dreams of immediate prosperity is difficult to determine, but it is not unconnected to the discovery of oil in 1956 and they resultant influx of petrol dollars that transformed Nigeria from an agrarian economy to a sophisticated economy overnight without going through development stages.

Nigerians have since then, aided by foreign influence and a newfound consumerism that has no bounds, and shows no sign of abating, become one of the most demanding and most unimpressed people on earth.

Few Nigerians understand that Nigeria is not a rich country, a separate discussion from potential.

Nigerians are so sure of Nigeria’s unlimited resources that for instance if you mention going to space, every Nigerian will state that Nigeria could go to space immediately, except for its bumbling and kwarapt government.

As Nigerians complain and whine, they are blind to the extra-ordinary growth of Nigeria in terms of sheer infrastructure and the spread of development even to previously remote and inaccessible areas.

To put it in perspective, Nigeria has become so developed, there is no more land for pastorals to engage in unrestrained grazing like in the past.

Development has encroached over old cattle grazing routes, there is simply no land for open grazing, and fights over diminishing land and water resources are fights to the death, all evidence of the vast spread of development to desolate areas.

If colonialists returned to Nigeria in 2019, they would barely recognize bequeathed ancient structures and landmarks, they would find them all overshadowed and dominated by new and more impressive buildings and roads and new administrative centers dotting the landscape.

Granted, poor maintenance would make visiting colonialist less red faced, but they would still be awed at how Nigeria has transformed its cities to modern urban centers with all the trappings of sophistication including streetlights, and cars not bicycles, with personalized plates, wow.

As Nigeria laments poor infrastructure, they realities on ground of immediate benefit to them, and which should be obvious to them, beg to differ:

At Independence Nigeria inherited three regions and a capital at Enugu, Kaduna and Ibadan and Lagos respectively.

After independence, Nigeria created an additional region in 1964; Balkanized to 12 states in 1967 and continued to its present structure of 37 states each with their individual showcase capitals boasting new area codes, roads, banks, schools, electricity, and communications all which have brought development closer to the people.

Nigeria is also the second country in the world in the modern era to build a new capital city. Abuja an ultra-modern city was transformed from a barren desert in 1976 to become the official Federal capital in 1991. Now a beautiful showcase capital, Abuja is the envy of the world and a testament to the greatness of Nigeria.

Nigeria also created 774 local governments since independence; each with its own headquarters and police stations and schools at various stages of development brings governance ever more closer to the people.

Another overlooked metric is that at independence 1960 Nigeria had only two universities and a few secondary schools. Nigeria now has over 129 public, state, and private universities registered by the NUC and still counting.

Nigeria also has hundreds of colleges of education, polytechnics, including secondary school and private schools all of which have graduated thousands of students. Nigeria also has an NYSC program where it employs graduates for a whole year after graduation.

Until recently, before the demands of Nigerians became too overwhelming, education in Nigeria was free and world standard, but they quality eroded due to mass admission of Nigerians.

Nigeria is slowly introducing competitive fees even as citizens hurl a multitude of insults at its person, still, Nigeria graduates students with less debt than many other students throughout the rest of the world.

There is no area of human endeavor in Nigeria that has not seen geometric progression beyond the wildest imaginations of Nigerians prior to the influx of mind altering petrodollars, in terms communications, access to the internet, banking, and transportations including airports, trains, water taxies etc., or the expansion of housing they growth is shocking and should impress those paying attention.

Yes, obviously, a Nigeria needs to do a lot more, but what Nigerians fail to understand, is that Nigeria has grown so fast in such a short period to try to meet the demands of its implacable and ungrateful citizens it needs to slow down, stop expanding and instead focus on the upkeep of its infrastructure.

As Nigerian insult Nigeria, perhaps Nigeria should remove subsidies to make Nigerians pay for all the services they receive for free or at a subsidized rate, including for the epileptic electricity they receive sporadically, to be more appreciative, in spite and despite the multi-dimensional poverty and insecurity staring Nigerians in the face.

Multi-dimensional poverty faced by Nigerians comes from the newfound outrageous consumerism of individual Nigerians, can you imagine some Nigerians now own private jets and helicopters, which they try to bridge through criminality and not necessarily a failing of Nigeria, the state and country, at 59.

Incidentally, Nigeria exercises a lot of restraint in not turning Nigeria into a mass prison camp by not incarcerating Nigerians en-masse for their atrocious criminality across the board.

Compared to America, Nigeria has one of the lowest incarceration rates in the world, even as Nigeria struggles to maintain the law and order that Nigerians pretend they so desperately want, when in reality, they just want to be left alone to play cowboy and Indians in their version of a zoological republic.

God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria at 59 and God help its inconsiderate Nigerians appreciate the Nigeria they have.

By Terhemba Osuji