By Senator Chris Ekpenyong

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria’s Independence ushered in a new era of great promises. Perhaps the most significant indicator of this early promises was for a bright future which could be found in the progress recorded in some sectors.

For instance in 1962, Nigeria introduced a national development plan which was to last till 1968 . The focus of this plan was on three key areas, investment, industrialization and education. Undoubtedly, this was an ambitious plan for any government that sincerely wanted to succeed. During this period every region had a great comparative advantage of certain commodities it had chosen to make its own

Looking back, Nigeria has come through thick and thin to where she is today. The country has gone through colonial experience, experimented with parliamentary democracy, survived a civil war, fallen in and out of the iron fist of military adventurists, stumbled back on the path of democracy, this time, the presidential system.

It took the collective resolve of most Nigerians, irrespective of religion, ethnic group or geopolitical zone, and the blood and tears of some patriots before the ship of state was wrested out of the stronghold of military rule.

But the question to ask is: Why is the glass still half full and half empty after 61years? Why has Nigeria remained in this miserable state despite the early signs of a bright future post independence? There are no quick answers to these questions.

Ever since after the civil war, Nigeria has never been as polarized as it is today. As many concerned Nigerians have said, it is largely due to poor leadership, leaders who leave no lasting impression, no worthy legacies. They leave the country worse than the met it

A deep reflection on where we are now comes with broken hearts, extreme poverty, hunger, unemployment, unprecedented inequality and disease. 61 years after independence, latest NBS data shows that Nigerians are poorer now than ever, poverty rate has moved from 15% in 1960 to 50% in 2021 which is the main cause of the high level of insecurity in the country

It is so unfortunate that we allowed critical sectors of the economy that would have employed and occupied our teaming youths to go comatose.

We had some notable industries at one point or the other in this country that constituted a great source of employment to our youths. Most of those companies spanning across various sectors of the economy have folded up today and their workers laid off.

Some of them have even been permanently delisted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the CAC.

A critical and very pathetic example is the Ajakuta steel company in Kogi State, established in 1979, with the capacity to create over 600,000 jobs when fully operational. But due to corruption and poor management, the steel company collapsed with only few workers presently left on the ground.

By 1986, the nation had three pulp and paper mills — the Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC), Oku-Iboku, Akwa Ibom State; the National Paper Manufacturing Company (NPMC), Iwopin, Ogun State; and the Nigeria Paper Mill (NPM), Jebba, Kwara State.

Those mills which are now dead had the combine capacity to employ not less than 100, 000 people. Today, Nigeria imports each year over N400bn ($1.2 billion) worth of paper due to an extremely weak local paper output because 90 percent of papers used to produce newspapers and books in the country are imported.

This is due to the fact that the nation has no forest that has pulpwood (which is used to make paper) in sufficient quantities to meet the demands of the paper industry
What about the Volkswagen assembly plants in Lagos, the Peugeot assembly plant at Kaduna, Leyland in Ibadan and ANAMCO in Enugu that produced our buses and trucks then.

Steyr at Bauchi was producing our Agricultural tractors and Exide in Ibadan producing the batteries, not just for Nigeria but for the entire West African sub-region. Recall that Isoglass and TSG in Ibadan were producing windshields while Ferodo in same Ibadan was producing brake pads and discs.

Dunlop in Lagos and Michelin in Port Harcourt held swear in the manufacturing of tyres using raw materials from our rubber plantations located in Ogun, Rivers and Cross River State. We had Radio and television sets being assembled in Ibadan by Sanyo while refrigerators, freezers and Air conditioners were produced by Thermocool and Debo within Nigeria.

The clothes we wore then were also produced from the UNTL textile mills in Kaduna and Chellarams in Lagos with raw materials from our locally planted cotton.

Another damning case is that of the Nigerian Airways which was about the biggest carrier in Africa at that time. Today, that industry in dead.

Nepotism has eaten deep into the fabrics of the nation, today you have heads of government and agency from one ethnic group but at the beginning it was not so, I remember when we had shared interest and shared views, they was a time all the leaders of this country came together and agreed for alhaji tafawa balewa to be the head of government and he appointed a minority from the south, Sir Okotie Ebo as minister of finance, we also had Louis edet another minority as the first inspector general of police but today you rarely find such. @61 we should be looking for more lines that joins us together than things that further divides us

@61, we should be doing better and living better because a man at 61 and has nothing to show is a failure, my prayer for Nigeria@61 is in paslm 7 vs 9 which says Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end

Happy 61 birthday Nigeria.

*Ekpenyong, a former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, represents Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District in the Senate.