Nigeria, Thriving Against All Odds? – By Arnold A. Alalibo

Posted by admin Arnold Alalibo, Columnists, NNP Columnists Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

By Arnold A. Alalibo | NNP | Sept. 23, 2012 – A country with diverse cultures, traditions and interests,
more than 140 million people, an oil producing giant with a land mass of 923,
768 sq km, Nigeria is indeed endowed with human and natural resources.

After attaining independence in 1960, the country with a
complexity of different administrations of both military and civilian, has had
her fair share of wars, riots, ethnic and religious rivalry.

Although, a creation of European ambitions 52 years after,
the country is yet to get to the peak of its potentials. Issues of insecurity,
unemployment and lack of political will, lack of faith in the various
institutions and sectors still plague the nation.

However, on the heels of current developments and
challenges, many are agitating for the sleeping giant to be awakened from its
deep slumber and reclaim its former glory.

For a classroom teacher at a privately-owned secondary
school, in Port Harcourt, Mrs Patience Nyekweru, there is every reason to be
thankful to God for keeping the nation intact in spite of the grave challenges
it faces. Nigeria has tried to thrive in the face of all odds.

“There is no way you can have a perfect situation in any
country. Nigeria has tried to develop, given the challenges of insecurity,
multi-ethnicity and multi-religion. The economic questions are enough to put
the nation under. Yet the country has been able to harmonise all these things
to make the stride even though we may feel that we’ve not developed as much as
we think we could have done,” Mrs Nyekweru said.

She attributed the nation’s setback to the incessant coups
that robbed it of many years of development.

“It did a lot in trying to stunt our rate of development
viv-a-vis other African countries or even other countries of the world like
Malaysia that we started at the same time with, but didn’t have as many coups
as we had,” Nyekweru added.

The secondary school teacher said the coups were responsible
for the lack of focus because “before then development in agriculture and solid
minerals were fast, but when we started having incessant coups they
disorganized a lot of things.

“The polity was so disorganized that we first started
picking bits and pieces, but I thank God that we now have what I can call
consistent democracy unlike what it was,” Nyekweru concluded.

A Port Harcourt-based journalist and publisher, Mr. Owuje
Harry, identified lack of commitment to agriculture as the bane of our ills. He
said attention should be diverted from
the oil sector to other sectors like agriculture to providefor the teeming
populace and also create employment for the youth.

He added that the agricultural sector, if properly
developed, would not only create staple food for the country, but would also
encourage foreign investors and provide other means of revenue generation
through trade and investment. According to him, the nation had a lot of
potentials, President Goodluck Jonathan should identify them and tap into them
for the development of the nation.

On the issue of constitution amendment, Harry said it was a
long and tortuous one, but was already in the review process. He said emphasis
should be placed on state creation to ensure equality in the number of states
in the six geo-political zones.

“If we are talking about equality there is need to have may
be equality of states in a zone. A situation whereby we have some with seven,
some five there is still need for us to push up the zones with less number of
states.

“What I mean is that a re-organisation of the geo-political
zones is necessary to bring parity among them. Each zone should have equal
representation in the senate, equal number of representatives in the House of
Representatives. But my concern is can the constitution be used to create
either states or local government councils without undergoing amendments?” Harry
querried.

A businessman, Mr. Christopher Hart, commended the thriving
peaceful relationship between the legislative and executive arms of government
and described it as harmonious. According to him, the robust relationship had
contributed greatly to the survival of the country in the visage of the current
challenges. He appealed to both arms of government to be steadfast in building
a strong, harmonious relationship based on love for Nigeria, patriotism,
respect and trust.

He said the relationship was capable of fostering faster
development instead of spending most of the time quarrelling which will delay
consideration of bills and assent to bills because it is only when you have a
peaceful atmosphere between the two arms that the nation will be able to
develop,” Hart stated.

He appealed to all Nigerians to be prayerful saying “all
these people that are bombing people, we have to continue praying for them to
have a change of mind. It is only through peace that we can achieve something
in this country, we can’t achieve anything through violence,” he admonished.

Some other Nigerians, however, believe that despite all the
problems trailing the nation’s democracy and unity, someday the country will
achieve its goal.

Mr Boma Kuro, a youth corps member said: “I think this is
just a trying time for Nigeria. I know a time will come when Nigeria will be
better because Nigeria of today cannot be compared to four years ago. The will
of the people has started to manifest, but we really want them to do more.

“Look at the election of times past, we could really tell
that the people’s will was not carried out, but in the last election we saw
that there was a bit of revolution in Nigeria where the masses stood up and
said this is what we want. I know that time will come when it will be the
people’s will that will be done”, Kuro asserted.

A civil servant, Veronica Amatoru, described Nigeria’s
situation as a trying moment. She was optimistic that it would soon fizzle out.

“These are trying moments for Nigeria and we believe that
with God all things are possible, so if we keep praying, and trying our best
humanly and economically, we will be able to put ourselves together and
organise ourselves to achieve what
Nigeria is meant to achieve.

“I don’t think we should give up despite the fact that so
many problems are coming. I believe that we are not losing hope. I personally
I’m not losing hope because I believe that God made Nigeria for a purpose and
we are really going to get there,” Amatoru assured.

Fifty-two years after its independence, some Nigerians have
expressed faith in the continuous existence of Nigeria. They believe the
country could still re-direct itself and re-gain its past glory.wp_posts