Celebrating Nigeria at 63

Nigeria, our Nigeria

A land of rich heritage

Are stories not told of you?

You, who was so named after Niger river running through

You, who has over 521 languages and 1150 dialects

Is this you at 63?

Nigeria, our Nigeria

A land of rich natural resources

Are stories not told of you?

You, the largest economy in the continent

You, the largest oil and gas producer in Africa

Is this you at 63?

Nigeria, our Nigeria

A land of rich vegetation

Are stories not told of you?

You, which extends from the far north where there is almost no rain

You, which extends to the lush green forest of the southwest

Is this you at 63?

Nigeria, our Nigeria

A land of rich food and culture

Are stories not told of you?

You, whose jollof rice in the mouth is an explosion of goodness

You, whose songs have reverberated the airwaves globally

Is this you at 63?

Nigeria, our Nigeria

A land of rich human resources

Are stories not told of you?

You, which is home to 225,006,397 people

You, where talents and strengths abide

Is this you at 63?

The 63rd Independence Day is here, bringing with it, feelings of happiness and unhappiness, hope and despair, boldness and fear, certainty and uncertainty, about our great country, Nigeria. As we celebrate, we must also have sober reflections on what we have inherited from the past, the gains and pains in the present, and what to preserve and pass on to future generations. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Nigeria reached US$ 477.39 billion in 2022, is estimated to amount to US$915.63 billion in 2028, and currently ranked 30th of the major economies in the world. The country is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank, and has been identified as a regional power in Africa, a middle power in international affairs and an emerging global power. It is also listed among the Next 11 (N-11) countries, which have emerging markets that could potentially become some of the world’s largest economies.

Nigeria’s prospects are enhanced by its strategic location, which enables it take advantage of booming demand across Africa and other parts of the developing world. Add to that the large and growing population, and an entrepreneurial spirit, and the future looks bright. In a previous article titled ‘Now that Nigeria is 55!’, published on October 1, 2015 in The Nation newspapers, I pointed out that Nigeria is bedeviled by a plethora of challenges. Sadly, eight years after, these challenges persist. Despite the abundance of human, material and natural resources, social services are pitiably bad and economic facilities are weak. The educational system is in assorted crises of infrastructural decay, neglect, waste of resources, and substandard conditions of service.

Similarly, poor funding and mismanagement have characterised the healthcare service delivery system at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Oil extraction, production and subsidy have been mismanaged, negatively politicised and corrupted, to the detriment of other sectors. The agriculture sector, which contributes 25% of Nigeria’s GDP and accounts for 48% of the labour force, is underdeveloped due to gross neglect and poor policy administration. The sector’s growth rate over the last five years averaged just 4%. Solid minerals, which exist in abundance, have also been neglected or abandoned. Lastly, social and protective security are perennially threatened at the individual and societal levels. In this new dispensation in Nigeria, to tap into the country’s potential and ensure that the next decade of growth brings sharp reductions in poverty, to “let the poor breath”, reforms aimed at increasing productivity, raising incomes, and delivering essential services like adequate security, electricity, good road network, health care and education more efficiently must be pursued.

In the agriculture sector, the government could pursue land title reforms aimed at opening more farmlands without deforestation; expand the use of fertilizer and modified grains, mechanised equipment and technological know-how, soft loans for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), and support a market-driven shift to more profitable crops, at the local government and state levels. In many urban and semi-urban areas, productivity suffers from a high degree of informal employment, sometimes, even by major corporations. This keeps too many Nigerians in low-skill, low-paying jobs and deprives the economy of the dynamism that competitive SMEs create. The beneficial and/or detrimental use of social media technology in Nigeria demonstrates that hands-on skills abound, and tapping into the talent pool of Nigerian youths can keep many a “lazy Nigerian youth” off the streets.

To make it easier to do business in Nigeria, it may be necessary to streamline processes for registering and running a legal business and, together with aid agencies and the private sector, increase investment in infrastructure. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) will also need to intensify the fight against endemic corruption. Finally, to promote inclusive growth, essential to relieving human suffering and mitigating social, ethnic, religious and political tensions, the FGN must endeavour to improve public service delivery dramatically. It is hoped that the experts, some appointed as coordinating ministers in their various fields, will bring about the required changes we so earnestly desire.

As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu urges Nigerians in the diaspora to return home, the various “push” and “pull” factors responsible for their actions and decisions to “japa” need to be identified and addressed. These include declining economic conditions, career projection, exhaustion, mainly by professionals, the quest for a secured future for their children, and lingering security issues, among others. The star-studded song by veteran Nigerian musicians, “Nigeria yi ti gbogbo wa ni, koma gbodo baje, tori kosi bomiran ti a le lo, aajo o le da bi ile, ejeka so wo po ka fi mo sokan, gbe e ke mi gbe,” when translated into English, means “Nigeria is ours and only Nigerians can build and celebrate the country, we should not allow her degenerate because we have no other home, we all need to play our parts and do things right”. It is on this note that I say, happy Independence Day, Nigeria!

Dr. Adenubi, an Associate Professor and Veterinarian, is a columnist with FarmingFarmersFarms, bukiadenubi@gmail.com