When Nigeria attained independence from Britain in 1960, many people had a lot of hope. Sixty-five years after, the country is still crawling. It is piteous and lamentable that as an adult, the country has not made commensurate progress with the age. Most of the countries that started this journey with Nigeria, especially Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, have left her behind.
The military interrupted the First Republic in 1966. Events following the military intervention led to the civil war that lasted between 1967 and 1970. About three million people perished in that war. Nevertheless, it is a plus for Nigeria that despite this major challenge, the country is still together. Some other countries that had the same challenge never emerged out of it.
Commendably, Nigeria has achieved 26 years of unbroken democracy. People now have more freedom to express their opinions on issues affecting the country. But there are still some attempts to curtail this freedom. Most times, government hides under the cybercrime law to oppress citizens.
Poor leadership is one of the major challenges the country is facing. Most leaders are corrupt and self-centred. Rather than build sustainable, viable projects, many of them cherish wasting resources on frivolous items. Though more roads and bridges have been built, most of them were built at inflated cost. Former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, once described Nigeria as being fantastically corrupt.
The basic things that define a country on development trajectory are lacking in Nigeria. Education, for instance, is not given its pride of place. Over 18 million Nigerian children are out of school. Various staff unions in the universities, like the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), frequently go on strike to press home their demands for better welfare and better facilities in schools.
Our health sector is also bleeding. Public hospitals lack the basic equipment needed for diagnosis and treatment of even minor ailments. Nigeria happens to be one of the few countries their leaders travel abroad for medical care. Annually, Nigeria reportedly spends between $1billion and $1.6billion on medical tourism. This is shameful.
Sadly, Nigeria’s annual health budget hovers between four and six per cent. Health professionals in Nigeria routinely go on strike as a result of poor working conditions. It is estimated that over 60 per cent of Nigerian doctors work abroad. In the past five years, over 16,000 of them are estimated to have left Nigeria.
It is a sad development that we are still ranked with such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq among the most terrorized countries in the world. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its 2024 Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, reported that 614,937 people were killed in Nigeria between May 2023 and April 2024.
Nigeria has become a butt of jokes abroad. In some countries, some of our citizens are usually harassed, molested or even killed. Last July, some Ghanaians embarked on protests, demanding that Nigerians should leave their country. In South Africa, many Nigerians have been victims of xenophobic attacks.
On the economic front, Nigeria still has a long way to go. In the early 1960s, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy. Later, crude oil became the major foreign exchange earner for the country. According to the statistics released recently by the NBS, oil contributed 4.05 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2025, up from the 3.51 per cent in the second quarter of 2024.
Nevertheless, the non-oil sector is not doing badly. It accounted for 95.95 per cent of the overall share of the real GDP in the second quarter of 2025. Agriculture, trade, the services sector, construction, energy-related services and real estate are the driving force in the non-oil sector growth.
It is worthy to note that the 4.23 per cent year-on-year growth of the GDP in the second quarter of 2025 has not translated into a better life for the majority of the people. Poverty and hunger are endemic. Unemployment is high. The purchasing power is very low as inflation has eaten deep into the income of the majority of the people. The GDP per capita dropped significantly from $2,019.66 in 2020 to $835.49 as of December 2024.
Exchange rate has ballooned from about N21.89 to a dollar in 1999 to over N1,500 to a dollar today. Already, many companies have shut down operations. From 8.01 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, the manufacturing share of the GDP dropped to 7.81 per cent in the second quarter of 2025. This is not good for a country desirous of exporting processed goods. If leaders give Nigerians 24-hour electricity and adequate infrastructure, the country will transform.
It is unfortunate that our nation-building process has taken too long. We need to decide whether we still want this country or not. The leadership of the country should try to douse tension arising from the cry of marginalization in some parts of the country, especially the South-East. This will go a long way in addressing the agitations for self-determination by some groups.
There is urgent need to have a truly independent electoral umpire and a transparent and credible electoral system. If citizens’ votes can be made to count, bad leaders will sit up, knowing that if they don’t measure up, they will be voted out of office.
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