Nigeria At 65: A Nation And Its Promise Denied

Sixty-five years of independence. That’s agelong capable for a kid to person grown aged and omniscient and for a state to person settled into its ain skin. Yet Nigeria, connected her 65th day today, inactive feels similar a federation suspended betwixt committedness and disappointment.

The grounds is uneven—brutally so. From the ceremonial First Republic nether Nnamdi Azikiwe to the convulsive ruptures of subject coups, from the civilian warfare that tore the state isolated to the tentative steps backmost to ideology successful 1979, and past again successful 1999—Nigeria’s past is littered with starts and stops. The Fourth Republic has lasted the longest, but stableness connected insubstantial hasn’t automatically translated into advancement connected the streets.

Consider powerfulness supply. Six and a fractional decades aft independence, Nigeria inactive cannot consistently make and administer beyond 5,000 megawatts—barely capable for a medium-sized city, fto unsocial Africa’s astir populous nation. Billions of naira person been poured into the sector, yet generators stay the unofficial sustainable powerfulness source.

Even worse is insecurity. Between 2006 and 2021, implicit 169,000 Nigerians mislaid their lives to violence, whether from Boko Haram, banditry, farmer–herder clashes, oregon state-sanctioned abuses. To enactment it starkly, much radical person died from insecurity successful the past 2 decades than the full decease toll of the Nigerian Civil War. That’s not conscionable a statistic—it’s a scar.

And past the elections. For each the speech of reforms and technology, escaped and just polls stay much of an aspiration than a reality. Every rhythm brings renewed anticipation and ends with acquainted stories: vote-buying, intimidation, and endless tribunal battles.

But thing has eroded Nigeria’s imaginable much than corruption. By 2012, it was estimated that the state had mislaid implicit $400 cardinal to graft since independence. That’s wealth that could person built railways, schools, hospitals, and factories—gone into backstage pockets instead. Every different problem—power, insecurity, poverty—feeds disconnected this one.

Yet this day occurs erstwhile reasons for cautious optimism coexist with morganatic concerns. Nigeria’s originative industries person achieved planetary recognition, with Nollywood films and Afrobeats euphony reaching planetary audiences antecedently unimaginable. From Davido, Wizkid, Burna Boy selling retired stadiums successful Europe to Nollywood titles landing connected planetary streaming platforms, civilization has go 1 of Nigeria’s strongest exports.

The exertion assemblage tells a akin story. Nigeria has produced unicorn companies that predominate Africa’s fiscal exertion landscape. Young entrepreneurs successful Lagos and Abuja are creating payments, lending, and logistics tools that rival what Silicon Valley churns out.

Nigerians successful diaspora—the doctors successful the UK, the engineers successful the US, the academics shaping argumentation worldwide—it’s wide the occupation has ne'er been Nigerian talent. The occupation is the nonaccomplishment of systems astatine location to nurture, reward, and clasp that talent.

The demographic dividend of a young, progressively educated colonisation represents Nigeria’s top plus and perchance its astir important liability. With implicit 60 per cent of the colonisation nether 25, Nigeria has the quality resources to thrust accelerated development.

But younker unemployment and underemployment person near millions restless, with crime, fraud, and emigration offering tempting flight routes. The aforesaid vigor that fuels tech start-ups and originative brilliance tin besides destabilise the federation if near untapped.

Opportunities beryllium beyond our borders. Regional integration done institutions similar the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) provides Nigeria with platforms to lead.

The country’s sheer marketplace size, taste weight, and diplomatic clout mean that if Africa integrates effectively, Nigeria stands to payment much than most. But erstwhile again, the bottleneck is internal—poor governance, anemic infrastructure, and an unstable information situation that support the state from maximising these opportunities.

So we get astatine 65 years with a premix of hard truths and stubborn hope. Hard truths, due to the fact that there’s nary denying the failures—corruption that has hollowed retired the state, insecurity that keeps children retired of school, powerfulness shortages that strangle concern growth, elections that trial the patience of citizens. Hope, due to the fact that Nigeria’s taste energy, youthful population, and entrepreneurial spark beryllium that the earthy materials for greatness are inactive intact.

This paper refuses to constitute Nigeria disconnected due to the fact that the people’s tone remains unbroken contempt it all. Nigerians excel erstwhile they leave, innovate nether pressure, and find ways to thrive adjacent successful hostil...