In October 1960, our long-awaited messiah came dressed in a green and white apparel.
The citizens of Nigeria heralded its triumphant entry with rejoicing and jubilations, spreading out their hopes, prospects and dreams for it to be trod on. A new dawn had come in the country after all and what need was there to hold back old visions? They all were sacrificed at the altar of this new dawn.
From the first indigenous leadership of Nnamdi Azikiwe, the country began to thrive.
The messiah began turning over tables of corruption in the country while keeping the odds and end gotten in this process. In less than no time, we earned ourselves a new name: ‘Giants of Africa’.
We began building our country instantaneously, ignoring the foundation. It did not take long before we realised we had only built on sand: when the wind of misunderstanding, greed and avarice blew our country began to crumble.
Misunderstandings birthed division and our envisioned-tower of Babel—our visions and aspirations for the country was left uncompleted.
The Igbos under the messiahship of Major Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, saw Nigeria as a condescension. They had felt superior, leading to a clamor for self-determination.
The Nigeria civil war broke out soon after. It was a tale of two elephants fighting. The Nigerian soldiers combatted the Biafra guerrillas, and what little progress had been made in the country was obliterated or abandoned.
Meanwhile, decades after this needless war, the Nigerian economy still crawls. In Nigeria, people who mange to eat two meals per day, the first and last sometimes variants of a common food, ‘Garri’, make up the average citizens.
Unemployment rate accrues, birthing a national vice and plague called Yahoo-Yahoo or 419 (Internet Fraud) commonly referred to as a form of self-employment.
The price of materially everything, including a sachet of water, which the indigent could easily afford has skyrocketed over the years.
Today, necessities are optional. Talk about clothing: the vulnerable populace can no longer afford the bend-down-and-select (thrift) market prices, families are now compelled to eat once a day, or in worst cases, go on an unavoidable fasting with no prayers, people drink water from unclean dugwells, hastily sunk boreholes and even directly from water bodies where sewage are disposed.
Our increasing susceptibility to ailments, sickness and death isn’t surprising at all. I believe if there were an award for a country which defies the physics theory of gravity, it would be Nigeria, for when prices go up,they never come down.
It is quite obvious that when the country needed the government the most, they vanished. Our government have become as morning mists that only become visible with the approaching of an election.
During Elections in Nigeria, placards carrying a thousand and one promises of improving the country and her states decorate and infiltrate streets, neighborhoods and roads.
The Esaus gather, deliberating on souvenirs to be given to the people in order to collect their votes. Boreholes are sunk, communities are given free and clean water, school-children are given books, and importantly, rice is generally distributed as a prelude to what good the government would effect when the election is won.
Sadly, once these are declared winners, the project for a better Nigeria is halted indefinitely.
This, however explains the overwhelming numbers of muddy streets and potholed roads. An electoral candidate once promised stable electricity supply if he emerged the winner. He was sworn into power; we suffered power outages. Citizens have lost hope in the government and the country.
It was commonplace to see Nigerians rejoicing and hopeful as the period of an election approaches. They believed a change in government was a steppingstone to a better economy, the new sawn long promised;that was decades ago.
The masses have now grown a mutuallethargy towards politics as people no longer vote with the prospect of an improved governance; they do it to fulfil all righteousness.
Intellectuals, literatis and business acumens who are supposed to contribute to the national growth and development of the country’s economy flee the country at the slightest opportunity they get.
It is now evident that if obtaining visas becomes free, only shadows and bones would be left in the country.
There is no gainsaying that repetitive input yields monotonous results.
The government and others in power have long concerned themselves more with wealth accumulation and personal aggrandizement at the expense of peace and stability in the country, to extent that the most regrettable vices in other Nations have become standard practice in Nigeria. For instance, the popular case of the abducted Chibok Girls has been swept under-the carpet of forlorn promises to bring them back.
In actual fact, although it happened some 9 years back, it has become a history that would be retold to coming generations. If all that piques our interest in Nigeria is wealth amassment, then we shall continue to swim in poverty and debt, never reaching the shore of wealth and plenitude, and our new dawn will only be an abstract idea, never becoming a reality.
Evidence Adjarho is a writer that can be reached on evidenceadjarho@gmail.com
Mirabel Silas