Prologue: A vision in distress

How Nigerians tin reconstruct Nigeria’s greatness successful the look of frustrating and competing socio-economic, cultural, spiritual and governmental hurdles.

By Jide Ajani, General Editor

The distress is real, not imagined! Sixty-five years aft independence, the imaginativeness of the country’s founding fathers person floundered exponentially. And Nigeria and Nigerians are the worst for it. Is it inactive imaginable to realise the imaginativeness of greatness that Nigerians erstwhile beheld? Can Nigeria beryllium large again?The reply is yes and no. Yes, due to the fact that a genuine rebirth and recourse to the basics of bully governance connected the portion of the leaders, and engagement of civic work tin engender a authorities of alteration and positivity.No, due to the fact that – and this is based connected modern realities confronting the federation – from what the eyes tin see, the assemblage connection and actions of the elites bash not suggest a trajectory that tin pb to a destination of advancement and prosperity.

Vision abandoned
This is truthful due to the fact that the foundational ideals upon which the federation was built were rapidly abandoned, occasioned by a dual mandate of conflicting satellite views and developmental paces, making a unified nationalist imaginativeness challenging to forge – the North of Nigeria, a predominantly Muslim, feudal nine built astir the Sokoto Caliphate, with a blimpish outlook and little vulnerability to Western education; the South, ethnically much divers with higher levels of Christian missionary activity, Western education, and a increasing people of professionals and civilian servants.

The founding fathers, specified arsenic Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, and Ahmadu Bello, initially championed pan-Nigerian ideals. However, they rapidly retreated into taste championing arsenic the superior mode of politics. Appointments, contracts, and improvement projects were allocated based connected taste and determination loyalties, alternatively than merit oregon nationalist interest. This established nepotism and tribalism arsenic the default operating strategy of the Nigerian state, crippling ratio and trust.

Corruption, subject regularisation and a prebendal state

The archetypal procreation of leaders became mired successful corruption and blatant predetermination rigging. The celebrated “Operation Wetie” successful the Western Region, wherever governmental thugs were utilized to intimidate opponents, and the blatantly rigged 1964 national predetermination demonstrated that the antiauthoritarian process was not a conveyance for achieving a nationalist vision, but a convulsive scramble for the spoils of office. Then came the subject coup of January 1966, perceived arsenic ethnically Igbo-dominated, and the bloody counter-coup of July 1966, followed by the pogroms against Igbos successful the North, which shattered immoderate remaining illusion of a unified Nigerian identity. The Civil War that followed was the eventual impervious that the imaginativeness of a united, large Nigeria had failed. The war’s bequest of trauma and the “victor-vanquished” mentality further poisoned nationalist politics.

The agelong play of subject regularisation (1966-1979, 1983-1999) proved catastrophic for achieving immoderate imaginativeness of greatness. The military, by its precise nature, operated wrong a bid structure. They systematically gutted the national system, stripping states and section governments of autonomy and concentrating powerfulness and lipid gross successful the hands of the national authorities successful Lagos (and aboriginal Abuja). This turned the conflict for the presidency into a do-or-die affair, the eventual prize for controlling nationalist wealth. This led to the entrenchment of corruption: Military rule, devoid of nationalist accountability, took corruption to a kleptocratic level. The “Oil Boom” of the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s became a missed accidental of historical proportions. Instead of investing petrodollars successful infrastructure and diversification, the regimes presided implicit an epoch of monolithic graft and achromatic elephant projects. This established a civilization successful which authorities resources were viewed arsenic a idiosyncratic treasury for the ruling clique. The effect of this was the demolition of the civic fabric, starring to the triumph of the incorrect values and preventing the integrated improvement of an engaged citizenry that could clasp leaders accountable to a nationalist vision. The civilians who person taken implicit since 1999 person not fared immoderate better.

Political scientist, Richard Joseph, erstwhile described Nigeria arsenic a “prebendal state,” wherever nationalist offices are treated arsenic prebends (personal benefits) ...