Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary provided an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on the task of nation building; the dreams, challenges and missed opportunities. As expected, many highly-placed individuals, especially politicians used the anniversary to send goodwill messages to fellow countrymen and women. It is a time to motivate millions of citizens who are overwhelmed and demoralised as a result of decades of bad leadership. For 65 years, citizens have survived on hope and promises. Yet the going gets tougher.

Last week, President Bola Tinubu delivered another message of hope. He said the country had turned the corner and from now on, things shall begin to go well. He highlighted the humble, but sincere beginnings in the 1960s, when what was available were latent abilities and the determination of the founding fathers to lay a solid foundation for the country.

Nigerians were determined to build a homeland that is rich and peaceful. All the energies and ideas that were trapped in colonialism found expressions in the developmental agenda unleashed by the leaders.

Yes, it was a modest beginning, but by no means trivial. As stated by the President, in his anniversary address, there were only 120 secondary schools with a student population of about 130,000. There are now more than 23,000 secondary schools. There were only the University of Ibadan and Yaba College of Technology in 1960. Now there are 274 universities, 183 polytechnics and 236 colleges of education, a significant surge in growth.

The same growth is replicated across the sectors, the President asserted. So, Nigerians have reasons to celebrate, he charged! At the same time, we must not become complacent. Nigeria could have become far richer and greater if the ideals promoted by the forefathers were not abandoned. Nigeria needn’t become the poverty capital of the world if the advancement in education were translated to real development. Nigerians shouldn’t become importers of every household item, including safety-match, tooth-pick and combs from India and China.

The surge in growth in healthcare could have saved the country the $2.39 billion expended on medical tourism in 2024 or the $3.6 billion spent yearly during the Buhari years, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.There are world class tertiary health facilities in the country that have become consulting clinics, simply because yearly allocation to the health sector is not significant for teaching hospitals to remain world class. Electricity supply to UCH (Ibadan), for example, has been cut for months because the institution can no longer pay commercial rates charged by a Distribution Company. The Distribution Company itself has entered receivership because of unpaid loans sourced by the original owners to procure the license.

Whereas it is true there is a surge in healthcare growth, it is also true that public tertiary health institutions no longer have the capacity to do complex diagnosis. Patients are directed to private health laboratories, not for lack of knowledge, but there is no upgrade of the system, due to poor funding. For those who are out there, apart from government rhetoric, the Nigerian system needs urgent retooling, not self-adulation over mediocre efforts.

Without a doubt, there is expansion in numbers. It is growth with liabilities because the decades of expansion are not matched with commensurate planning. The regional governments in 1960 began with development plans that were committed to until 1966, when the military intervened.There is a population expansion but it is not matched with planning.

A country that is reluctant to conduct regular census will have difficulty planning for the next generation. Many developments plans are just on paper and others abandoned after consultants have been paid. If Nigeria is to become a relevant global player, leaders must translate anniversary speeches into action plans to motivate citizens to the next level, not a platform to romance mediocre performance.

For President Tinubu to claim “we have not strayed too far from the lofty dreams of our forebears” is not correct. We have abandoned their blueprint. This generation and the ones before have strayed very far from what the founding fathers intended. Towards independence, the leaders were confronted with certain realities: the fact that what was best for the country was a federal system in theory and practice, giving themultiplicity of tribes and diversities.

They were also mindful that the socio-economic situation in the country required that the regions grew according to their natural capacities. The regional governments they designed was more accountable as the leaders were among the people and knew what they wanted. They did not pretend that unity was to be decreed from the centre, rather than they envisaged national cohesion from regional stability.

Today, in applying the unitary tactics adopted by the military, the central government is struggling to remain federal. It is a system that robs some to pay others, without even acknowledging it. The system has weakened pristine productive capacities of erstwhile regions, as the 36 states and Abuja were not designed to be productive. Whereas the regions survived on their own, today’s state governments cannot even pay salaries that is already allocated from Abuja. This military-imposed structure must be revisited.

Insecurity in the country has become hydra-headed and difficult to contain. President Tinubu did not dwell much on it in the anniversary address. That’s understandable, because there is nothing to embellish in that sector and the data is not good. He said officers and men are working tirelessly to make the country safe and they are winning. Yes, security agencies are working tirelessly, but they (we) are not winning yet. Perhaps, because the diagnosis and the treatment do not align, yet trillions of naira have been wasted while insecurity spreads.

Recall that the regional governments at independence were mandated to deal with internal security by their constitutions. But today’s Federal Government is stretched and burdened with both internal and external security tasks and is unable to secure remote communities in far-flung geo-political areas.

Sometimes, even the state capitals, including the Federal Capital are not safe. States have advocated for state police, which is a component of a federal system. It is hoped that lawmakers will do the needful so that states can police their communities. Not that it would be easy, but that’s the way it was designed originally.

President Tinubu also needs to be reminded that in the last 10 years, insurgency has spread from Borno State to other parts of the North. Kwara State and Kogi appear to be the current theatres of operation. Plateau and Benue States are simmering. Terrorism and banditry must be tackled headlong, but government must show political will to do that.

Around 2013 and 2014, remember that insecurity was politicised as it became a campaign material between the government of Goodluck Jonathan and the fledgling All Progressives Congress (APC). The opposition at the time thought it had solution to the insurgency and blamed Jonathan for being clueless to allow the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction take place.

They said General Buhari was the solution to the uprising and forced everybody to agree. But the Buhari years were a disaster as far as insecurity is concerned. This is what Tinubu has inherited and he must find a lasting solution to it, not on paper. Lasting solution might require a revisit of the roles played by the political class that mismanaged Boko Haram when it was in its infancy.

There should be accountability on the part of the political authorities that were affiliated in one way or the other to Mohammed Yusuf, the slain leader of the movement. The records are there if government decides to dig into the immediate cause of the trouble. It is easy now to blame socio-economic misery and climate change for an insurgency that was originally sectarian and has remained largely so, with a large dose of criminality. The implication for that misdiagnosis is the wrong treatment that has wasted thousands of lives and trillions of hard-earned naira.Without peace and stability, no economic reform will make sense.

President Tinubu, for the umpteenth time lamented that his government inherited a near-collapsed economy caused by decades of fiscal policy distortions. That’s why it took him 30 years to prepare for the Presidency. In the attempt to correct the distortions, he has unleashed hardship on the people. It’s been two years of economic misery that does not need further explanation. The people are the ones to say when the country has turned a corner, not government.

The statistics of growth that government alone is privy to are not felt by the people. When a bag of cement sells for N5,000, the people will hail the government for the turn-around. When petrol sells for N500 per litre, citizens will recommend Tinubu for promotion to the next level of Hope Delivered. When locally produced rice sells for N30,000 per bag, it would be clear to all that the reforms are performing. When electricity is no longer a luxury item, and is affordable and available, then it will be clear that government means well.

This government does not need to use every podium as opportunity to campaign for 2027. The occasion of the 65th independence anniversary is a time for sober reflection and honest confession. We cannot discuss independence without touching on the debilitating corruption that has ravaged the country for decades.The perception now is that Abacha’s monumental loot may well be child’s play compared to the sleaze by the political class since 1999.

Let Mr President publish the report of Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuedeh committee that probed fuel subsidy scam (under President Jonathan). Let President Tinubu publish the report of the Senate investigation of NDDC, when Senate President Godswill Akpabio was the Minister of Niger Delta. Let Mr President publish the full report of Jim Obazee’s investigation of the CBN under Emefiele. Let the Presidency not protect cabinet members who own houses in Florida or wherever.

Let every Independence Anniversary be worth the sweat and blood of the founding fathers. Let’s run the country with the seriousness and sincerity they demonstrated. Nigeria can do far better!

QUOTE

We must not become complacent. Nigeria could have become far richer and greater if the ideals promoted by the forefathers were not abandoned. Nigeria needn’t become the poverty capital of the world if the advancement in education were translated to real development. Nigerians shouldn’t become importers of every household item, including safety-match, tooth-pick and combs from India and China.