Nigerians across the world remembered yesterday as the 62 years of independence of their country from Britain. For many, there is nothing to cheer as Nigeria has remained a toddler, unable to meet her basic needs at her age.
Within this period of self-rule, the country has gone through different stages, surviving a bloody civil war in which over one million Nigerians’ lives were lost and several decades of military rule.
Since independence, Nigeria has also witnessed different types of leaders who have moved the country from one stage to the other- positively and negatively. Opinions are divided on their performance while in office.
There is the general assumption among observers that with so much promise and opportunity, leadership at state and local government levels has not delivered on its constitutional responsibilities.
This could be seen in the failure of basic service delivery on education, health, water and sanitation have not reached millions of Nigerians, especially women and girls.
Having ruled the country for two terms of eight years, Nigeria’s 62nd independence celebration was the last for incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
This year’s independence celebration came amidst the poor state of the economy, rising inflation, unemployment and rising spate of insecurity.
Across the country, there is a general feeling among the majority of Nigerians that at 62, the country has failed to attain its potential.
A recent report has established that about 78 percent of Nigerians were unhappy and in a state of despondency due to poor living conditions and general state of affairs in the country.
With widespread insecurity top on the list of issues giving grave concern to citizens, inability to meet basic needs and unemployment completed the three biggest challenges unsettling Nigerians, according to the report from the Africa Polling Institute (API) released for the month of July 2022.
Meanwhile, as the nation gets drawn into the frenzy of politicking ahead of the 2023 general election, expectations are high among the citizenry that a new wave of leaders that would be elected may change the narrative and offer the much anticipated good governance.
Thus, there is the feeling among the citizenry that it is extremely important for the nation’s tiers of government to work in the direction of infrastructure and economic development to stimulate growth and quality of life.
The country needs to work on basic amenities and services such as water, roads, electricity, housing, health facilities, drains, street lights, playgrounds, and transport among others are still insufficient.
In a country of 200 million people, the federal government, states and local councils face the herculean task of ensuring that citizens enjoy democracy.
It’s believed that no country can progress if it fails to adequately cater for the youths. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), unemployment in the last quarter has risen astronomically.
Although the country is trying to consolidate and deepen democracy since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999 when the military handed over power back to civilians after 26 years, the general feeling among Nigerians is that there is little to cheer.
Several experts have pointed out ways and what the country can do to overcome its woes, but despite efforts little progress has been achieved by successive administrations in recent decades.
Ayo Olutokun, professor of political science, said one of the major problems facing Nigeria is the style of government, stressing that the country seems to be practising a unitary system of democracy, while there are residues of the long years of military rule in today’s civilian democracy.
“Well, in terms of evolution, the nation appears to be shedding the toga of unitarism and jackboot politics at least for now,” Olutokun said.
Olutokun advised that the country return back to federalism or what some people call true federalism, noting that power should be devolved to the federating units, federal, state and local governments.
“Many have called for this over time because Britain, which is a unitary nation, embraced power devolution. If unitary states are reaping the benefits of devolution, why not Nigeria?
“The council flats that you hear about in the UK are built by local governments and that system works far better than our own councils. Also, their police are decentralised and they are effective. The same is true in several parts of Europe,” he added.
Similarly, Omobolaji Oshinowo, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said at 62 years, the country is sliding back on a reverse gear rather than going forward.
Oshinowo noted that there was the need for leaders to find a lasting solution to the nation’s woes to save the country from imminent collapse.
“The only hope is that the people get it right this time around in the coming elections. Since 1999 to date we have been experiencing democracy and still waiting for the dividends of democracy to be shown in our lives and nation.
“Our shine has been taken from us by disastrous leaders we have been unfortunate to have in the past and present. Corruption, nepotism, religious extremism and acts of unpatriotic citizens have dragged our country back.
“We have conducted experiments with the democratic freedom we have enjoyed and hopefully with the way things are going now in Nigeria I want to believe we have gotten a solution for our problems otherwise we will keep on running in circles until the decline of the entity called Nigeria.”
