The plight of millions of Nigerians can not be over emphasized. Only a privileged few have been fortunate to live in comfort in an era where globalization and cutting edge technologies have made life easier. With the numerical strength and abundant resources present in Nigeria we expect that the standard of living for most Nigerians should have considerably improved in this 21st century. While one is not oblivious of the fact that poverty and underdevelopment still abound in various parts of the world, one is never the less shocked at the slow pace of progress we have made in the last forty nine years since independence. The stark reality is that we have retrogressed in many aspects of our nationhood. While we celebrated ten years of uninterrupted democracy this year for the first time, thus giving us confidence that we now have a professional military who will never again incur into politics no matter the guise or temptation, we must be prompt to assert that our leaders still have a long way to turn things around and make Nigeria a great nation of every one's dream.

At independence, our founding fathers had high aspirations and visions for this giant of Africa. If their visions had been translated into reality, by now we will not be talking about the ultra-hydra headed problems confronting us. I would not have written on this subject matter. Over the years, the visions of our founding fathers became blurred and one day we woke up to find a country with a lost vision. More disheartening is the fact that generations of Nigerians were later born in a country that either had no vision or had a misdirected vision. When liberals, radicals and other great minds fought to ensure we retrace our steps back to the right track,, many of them paid dearly, at the price of their liberties and even with their lives most times. Like a typical harvest time, we are now reaping the fruits of our ugly investments. Kidnapping, hijacking , terrorism et al used to be mere dictionary words or words we read in novels and hear when we watched foreign movies, suddenly these words not only seem to be home grown, they have gradually but steadily found a parking lot in our national sphere. At forty nine, Nigeria may not be as old as most developed nations like the U.S.A., the U.K., France, Canada, Germany, China etc but at forty nine we are not far from countries like India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Egypt and even Ghana. But when we compare our selves with the later set of countries, what is the analysis of variance between Nigeria and these countries?

In Nigeria, patriotism is synonymous with sycophancy and blind support for the government of the day. Once a voice is raised in defense of the truth but against the powers of the day, such voice is tagged unpatriotic. Yet, we can only forge ahead if we have a vibrant civil society, opposition and unpartisan voices.

Over the years various governments have made different promises to the people that have remained largely unfulfilled. We are not supposed to be talking of basic education in this age. We ought not to be witnessing the level of infrastructural decay at this stage of our nationhood .What of the rate of brain drain and capital flight? Babangida promised all for all by the year 1990.Abacha came with vision 2010. Obasanjo midwifed the home grown NEEDS. We hear more than we have ever seen. The incumbent has now come with his 7 points agenda en route vision 20:2020. Aside from the fact that his surname has 7 alphabets, Nigerians seem unable to integrate or articulate these 7 points even after two years have passed. Beautiful speeches alone can not translate into meaningful development for the people. It is not enough for us to talk. We must act the talk. Government seems to be abdicating her roles daily except that of sharing the national cake. The successive governments have all cried that government alone can not fund education. Government alone can not provide jobs. Government alone can not provide health facilities; government can not subsidize petroleum products or fertilizer, and government can no longer build or even maintain roads. What then can our dear government do if they can't do anything? If the government still insists they can't do the roles governments everywhere else in the world are known for, at least our government should provide infrastructure and security to allow private businesses and entrepreneurship to thrive.

Forty nine years is a critical age in the life of any individual, organization or country. This is because it is only a year short of the golden age of fifty. The way things stand now we cannot say hip not to talk of shouting hurray! What we have witnessed in the past forty nine years is a Nigeria which subsidizes corruption. The Nigerian leadership has the impudicity unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Our elites are galoots. Nigeria has galvanized her people to specialize in various crimes and hunger. Nigeria is being balkanized on all fronts due to inepitudeness. The only way to stop us from being fools at fifty is our ability to evaluate the progress and failures of these past forty nine years. We must take immediate steps to correct the ills that bedevil us since 1960 while geometrically consolidating on the areas of progress. We must strive to turn the lost vision of this great nation and rediscover our path towards greatness. We must change the disappointments on the faces and hearts of millions of our suffering population into a vision of glory and reality. The first step towards this noble goal is to renew the hope of a people long abused by corruption and the failure of leadership. If only we can renew this faith of our people in a redefined nation we all can be proud to call our own, then we have learnt from our past misdeeds. Unfortunately if we miss this chance again, then we may attain the golden age of fifty next year with wooden legs. I pray this will not be our fate. Amen

CredoWorld- Media

http://credoworld.blogspot.com/

Robot  # 1 | 30.09.2009 02:16

...Read the full article.