Nigeria : A Nation Yet With Unfulfilled Pledge

The functionalist behavioral scientists presented the evolution of human society by drawing an analogy between human organism and societal entity. They viewed human and social organism as a system in which their parts work interrelated and interdependently to maintain a healthy whole. While human entity consists of systems such as the nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system; the social organism (Society) comprises institutions like economy, education, family, government, religion as its system. 

Human entity also progressed from infancy to adolescence, and to adulthood, while society or a nation passes through progressional chain such as; hunting and gathering, horticultural, agrarian to the level of industrial society. The foregoing means that a nation like Nigeria with approximately 200 million inhabitants in an area of 920,000 km2 (360,000 sq mi) is subjected to growth just as a living organism.

It is yet hard to conclude that the expectations and dreams of Nigerian citizens , except few privileged ones , have been fulfilled, in spite of Nigeria’s 59 year existence as an independent nation. Is Nigeria still a fool at 59? Will it be a fool forever? Because a popular adage echoes that “a fool at 40 is a fool forever”. Though, life span of a country may be longer than that of a man, yet if a man cannot attain his appropriate position at age 59, he is likely to be considered a failed human. Even, as the ‘Giant of Africa’, can Nigeria nationale hope for a better Nigeria?

Looking around, Nigerians daily see signs of hopelessness, retardation and backwardness which are antithetic to ” to life more abundance “, the slogan when Nigeria was granted a sovereign status in the 1960s by the then British Empire. It is only when a tongue is kept in the mouth that what has been displayed in Nigeria for fifty nine years (59) would be described as development.

Food prices keep rising, cost of living including accommodation skyrocketing, cost of education rising, yet yearly failure in exams and low quality outputs is the order of the day. Petroleum products prices keep rising from N11 per litre in 1994 to N145 per litre in 2019, yet state of infrastructure in Nigeria is deplorable, crimes and hostilities, the militant groups in the Niger Delta, Kidnappers and Bokoharam in the North among others, have assumed different dimensions in the land. The latter seems to be a reaction to injustice, which the leaders have allowed to permeate the land.

According to development experts, indices such as industrialization, Gross National Product (GNP), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Capital Accumulation, Massive Investment in ICT like NigComsat and the newly launched one (s) ; even democracy, among others, cannot be used as yardsticks for growth or development.

Far back in 1969, it was Dudley Seers, a British economist who specialised in development economics that said the questions to ask about state’s development are : What has been happening to poverty and hunger? What has been happening to unemployment? What has been happening to inequality? “If all three of these have declined from high levels, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. If one or two of these problems have been growing worse, especially if all three have, it would be strange to call the result ‘development’, even if per capita income had doubled”, Seers concluded.

Premising on the conclusion of Seers, it is neither out of place nor over statement to conclude that Nigeria is far from development. If the nation is far from development, then, what is the root cause? Many causes can be adduced but chief and basic among them is LEADERSHIP.

Bad or ineffective leadership, including political and business leaders who run the nation’s economy, has been identified as the treat to sincere development in Nigeria and liberation of the Nigerian majority from poverty, hunger, homelessness and discomfort in its various manifestations. It is germane, not to deceive ourselves, to state that the type , the quality of person (s) put at the helm of affairs will determine the extent of progress recorded in the areas of socio – political, economic and human development, peace and tranquility that pervade a society.

With all these infuriating challenges, conspiracy of enslavement and pauperization by the imperialists in the corridors of power from the North to South, and West to East, when will that pledge and dream be fulfilled? May be at this juncture, Nigerian leaders should be reminded of the lines in the nation’s pledge which they have always forgotten.

“I pledge to Nigeria my country; to be faithful, loyal and honest

To serve Nigeria with all my strength, to defend her unity….” Nigerian leaders , have you been faithful, loyal and honest with your fellow Nigerians? Have you been serving Nigerians with all your strength? Have you been defending the unity of your immediate constituencies, the country at large?

All these nagging questions require resolute answers