independence anniversary will reach a climax in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. Nigerians can expect, on that day, to listen to long boring speeches on the nation’s huge potentials and how the present government is set to fulfill the promise of the Nigerian Dream.

Nigerians have, up till now, not witnessed any independence celebration in which they did not received series of promises on the nation’s long-awaited glorious future and the efforts of incumbent administrations to bring them to pass. The problem has always been with implementation, as the promises appear to fizzle out as soon as they escape the lips of our leaders.

Unfortunately, long and fruitless waiting for fulfillment of promises makes the heart weary. These are certainly not my words. You will find statements to that effect in the Bible, but the situation aptly depicts many Nigerians’ attitude to assurances from the nation’s leaders. Our leaders always promise us the moon and the star, but the questions on the lips of ordinary Nigerians are:

When shall we be in a position to eat three “square” meals a day? How shall we give our children the best of education and wherewithal shall we and these children be gainfully employed? When will stable electricity supply become reality rather than a pipe dream, and when will we stop having to go abroad for medical treatment? When, indeed, will Nigeria be self sufficient in food production?

As the nation’s leaders celebrate the nation’s independence in Abuja on Saturday, we, the people will find ourselves asking one another these questions once again, as we have been doing in past years.

The older ones among us will recall the decades gone by when celebration of independence had so much cheer, with flags, exercise books and other little gifts distributed to pupils during “assembly” time in primary schools. The nation’s 51st independence anniversary is yet another opportunity to reassess our nationhood, to think of what might have been, and to individually resolve afresh how we can rekindle the hope of those days and launch a better way forward for our country.

Although the Federal Government has planned a low-key celebration compared to last year’s 50th Independence Anniversary, which gulped several billions of Naira, it is still important to consider our 51-year journey to see how the nation can truly be put back on course.

I do not think we need to awaken our dead past leaders to know that this is not their dream for the nation prior to independence in 1960. We have not reached that place of comfort where we can proudly hold up our heads as a strong, prosperous and independent nation. We are not on course in our quest to become one of the 20 leading nations of the world by the year 2020 (Vision 20-20-20). Our health, education and other human development indices are tumbling down the slope.

These are all critical issues on the centre stage of national discourse. Nigeria is turning 51 at a very difficult time in our national history. Insecurity, which has been continuously rearing its ugly head via bombings, kidnapping and armed robberies for some years now, appears to have taken a permanent seat in the country. The dastardly bombing in Abuja as the 50th anniversary celebration was drawing to a close at the Eagle Square, Abuja, last year set a bad tone for the nation that has been worsening since then. Since that embarrassing incident which killed about ten people, bomb attacks and killings appear to have become a legitimate way for disgruntled people to bring their grievances to the attention of the government.

Since that time, bombings and other security threats have been replicated at the Mogadishu Barracks in Abuja, the Police Force Headquarters also in the city, Borno and Plateau States, and the latest attack on the United Nations office building in Abuja which claimed 23 lives.

With the wave of insecurity, it is no wonder that this celebration is devoid of the usual pomp that attends independence anniversary celebrations in Nigeria.

On Monday, the Assistant Director, Press, to the Minister of Interior, Theodore Jackson, said the plans for the anniversary celebration, which are usually released weeks to the D-Day, have been put on hold. Reporters, as at Monday were unable to get details of the events, even as ambassadors who are usually invited to such celebrations said they were yet to get invites.

With the bombing near Eagle Square, venue of last year’s celebration, and the UN office incident, invited guests may be wary over this year’s celebration. Apart from economic considerations, insecurity is also a good reason to reduce the scale of the celebration.
Instead, it should encourage the government to look at various aspects of governance to determine whether Nigeria as a nation is on the path that leads to greatness. This assignment is best done looking at the critical areas such as education, health, employment, power, energy and other areas of development.

There is no doubt that Nigeria has not been able to fulfill the expectations of many of our people. Fifty-one years after independence, we are yet to get many sectors of the nation right. Universities are under-funded, and there is a dearth of both equipment and teaching personnel. At the secondary school level, poor results of public examinations have continued to raise concerns on the quality of teaching taking place in the schools. Health services are in the doldrums, with most of those who can afford to travel outside the country doing so to receive basic medical treatment.

For 51 years now, Nigerians have been reading of plans to make adequate power supply available to the people but this has not been done. This has negatively affected everything, from employment generation to quality of life. Instead of a respite, we have now been told we will start paying more for electricity from now.

Nigeria is an oil-rich country, yet we live on imported refined petroleum products. We pay through our noses for diesel and kerosene, yet pay lip service to getting our refineries back on full stream.
This anniversary should therefore be an occasion for sober reflection. It should be for introspection and projections on how to get out of the present problems. President Goodluck Jonathan, the man that we elected to lead the nation to the Promised Land, recently celebrated 100 days in office during which different ministries regaled the people with their list of achievements.

The president, on this eve of the nation’s 51st anniversary has also been quick to defend his style of governance. He told journalists, at an interdenominational service to mark the nations 51st independence anniversary at the National Christian Centre, Abuja, on Sunday, that he does not have to be a lion or General to change Nigeria.

He identified people who frustrate his administration as Goliaths, while juxtaposing what he called America’s Barack Obama’s commendation of his style, with Nigerians’ criticisms. In essence, the president has said he will not be harried into taking any decisions, but will work at his own chosen pace to solve Nigeria’s problems.

He has asked for prayers for God to use him to change Nigeria for the better. Waxing lyrical, he prayed that all Goliaths frustrating the development of the country would have their foreheads exposed for the stone of David.
By these statements, I believe the president is trying to pre-empt those who may want to use the occasion of this anniversary to latch on to what has been perceived as his inability to tackle the nation’s problems with the decisiveness they require, to castigate him. He, obviously, does not want the celebration to be another occasion for lamentations and criticism of his administration.

The problems of Nigeria, however, go beyond criticisms and lamentations. The nation has had more than enough of these over the years. The challenge now is for all hands to be on deck to address identified problems. This problem is no longer about what can the president do to change the situation, but what can we all do. That is the question Nigerians should ask themselves as the nation turns 51 on Saturday. The challenge is for all hands to be on deck in the quest for solutions to the problems. There is no doubt that Nigerians expect more dynamism from the president if the aforementioned problems are to be solved. He needs to provide the leadership and the people will follow.

So far, we have had series of promises on employment generation, food imports substitution, electricity generation, health, education and diversification of the economy. What has been missing is the bite to bring the plans to reality.

This anniversary, therefore, offers the president another opportunity to review his activities. Let him not feel self-satisfied with the so-called commendations from America. Nigerians actually know better where the shoe pinches than Obama who is enjoying the best of America. We expect more decisive action on the nation’s problems so that subsequent independence anniversary celebrations will offer more to cheer.


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/opinion/2011/sept/28/opinion-28-09-2011-001.html

So the time has come again? Wasnt it just like yest when we were spending N50m on bags of rice? Anywaz sha. . . .