We are not "49 years old". People have been living in Nigeria as long as they have lived anywhere else in the world. The colonial interlude lasted 100 years in Lagos (the Lagos Colony was declared in 1860), decades less elsewhere; but a drop in the bucket that represents thousands of years of Nigerian history.
We did regain self-government 49 years ago, finally ridding ourselves of the British yoke.
We have done some things in that time, some good, some bad, and (contrary to colo-mental orthodoxy) the country is better than it was in 1960. We have more schools, more hospitals, more roads, more television, radio, internet ... more everything.
In the areas where we have stagnated, the colonial era was not "better". There was no electricity in my ancestral home town back then, and there is none now. The difference is people in the town didn't think they deserved it back then, so never complained about it. Now that they know, they are disappointed that we have failed to electrify the country in the last 49 years.
The rail system was better back then (and we do need to fix our rail system as a matter of pan-Nigerian urgency), but the transport links and interconnectivity of the country are better now than the were then. In the old days, different parts of the country might as well have been "over the seven mountains and the seven seas" -- a fact that would come to haunt us in the 1950s as we sprinted to independence as a single country comprised of people who still knew way too little about each other, and were thus far too likely to settle for the safety of backing someone they knew, someone who looked like them, talked their language and shared their religion, rather than take the risk on giving political power over themselves to "the great unknown".
Today, there is still a degree of miseducation and misunderstanding between various regions of the country, but there is so much migration, traveling, inter-state commerce and other connections. Indeed, in the past, ALL of our Big Men aligned themselves into ethno-regional blocs, and used these blocs to bargain (and fight) for a share of the patronage spoils to chop, so much so we ended up in Civil War. By contrast, starting in the 1970s, and reaching its zenith with the Peoples Democratic Party (and with the so-called Mega-Party plan to unite all Big Men who are not already planning to decamp to the PDP), the Big Men evolved, and now form massive, national, pan-Nigerian blocs to unite vast numbers of venal, thieving Big Men for the purpose of dividing the patronage spoils with minimal rancour. The old ethno-relgious bogeymen still exist, but they have long since been marginalized from real power.
With all that said, the last 49 years are ... well ... it could have been different, better. It should have been different, and MUCH better.
We have under-performed severely.
Think of it this way.
South Africa has a bigger economy, bigger per capita income, much larger budget, generates so much more electricity, etc. The also have a much smaller population than we do, something like 33% of our likely population.
And all these things they have, these things they have more of than we do, are insufficient for their population.
A country that has MORE than Nigeria is struggling to provide for a population that is only 33% of ours. Even if our economy grew rapidly enough to be the same size as the South African economy of today, we still wouldn't have enough for one-third of our population, much less all of us.
This is how far we are from where we should be. And the nonsense that has been our political, economic and social discourse/actions over the last 49 years is squarely to blame.
We must do better.
We have to do better.
Happy Independence Day. At least our fate is in our hands, and we don't have to ask permission from some foreign power before we do whatever we decide to do in our own country. This is our right ... but it is also a responsibility. Let us face up to our responsibilities.
Gani Fawinhinmi died recently, and all over Nigeria people were effusive with their praise. If they liked him so much, why didn't they fight for him? Why is it that when we see people fighting for change, we just watch them as if it was football on television? As if all we have to do is cheer like fans from the privacy of our homes? As if we have no responsibility to get out there on the field and participate in the match. We must work together in defence when those who wish to harm Nigeria attack our interests. We must be the midfield, agressively tackling the issues we have thus far refused to face. And we must be the strikers, taking the fight to the enemies of Nigerian progress, overcoming their defense, and powering the ball home to victory, to Nigeria's victory over the issues we have refused to tackle.
Our fate is in our hands.
We are free, self-governing people.
We are "Independent".
We are the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Happy Independence Day.
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