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By Chris Ekpenyong

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria’s independence ushered in a new era of great promises. 

Perhaps the most significant indicator of these 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 it is today.

The country has gone through the colonial experience, experimented with parliamentary democracy, survived a civil war and fallen in and out of the iron fist of military adventurists.

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 rescued from 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?

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. We have been having leaders who leave no lasting impression and no worthy legacies. They leave the country worse than they met it.

A deep reflection on where we are comes with broken hearts, extreme poverty, hunger, unemployment, unprecedented inequality and disease.

 61 years after independence, the latest National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, data shows that Nigerians are poorer now than ever.  The poverty rate has moved from 15 per cent in 1960 to 50 per cent in 202, 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 teeming 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 sacked.

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

A critical and very pathetic example is the Ajaokuta 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 a 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 combined capacity to employ not less than 100, 000 people. Today, Nigeria imports yearly over N400bn ($1.2 billion) worth of paper due to an extremely weak local paper output because 90 per cent of papers used to produce newspapers and books in the country are imported.

This is because 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 the same Ibadan was producing brake pads and discs. Dunlop in Lagos and Michelin in Port Harcourt were big 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 in 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 Nigerian Airways which was about the biggest carrier in Africa at that time. Today, that industry is dead.

Nepotism has eaten deep into the fabric of the nation. Today, we have heads of government and agencies from one ethnic group. But it was not so in the beginning.

 I remember when we had shared interests and shared views. There was a time all the leaders of this country came together and agreed that Alhaji Tafawa Balewa becomes the Head of Government. And he appointed a minority from the south, Sir Okotie Eboh as Minister of Finance.

We also had Louis Edet, another minority as the first Inspector General of Police. But today, you rarely find such.

At 61 we should be looking for more lines that join us together than things that further divide us.

At 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 at 61 is in Psalm 7 vs. 9, which says “Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end.”

Happy 61st birthday, Nigeria.

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

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