By Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi
At independence in 1960, Nigeria ranked among potentially leading countries of the world. With her enormous endowments in human and natural resources, it was projected that the country should, within five decades or less, compete favourably with any among the former colonisers of Africa in Euro-America. But, 57 years down the line, Nigeria’s story has remained a tale of stunted growth and inexplicable underdevelopment.

Prof Biodun Ogunyemi

The first hurdle came with the abortion of Nigeria’s fledging republic by the military in 1966. This was followed by a thirty-month bloody civil war of 1967-1970. The long stretch of military dictatorship, with an interlude of civilian administration between 1979 and 1983, left the country with an avalanche of unresolved socio-cultural, economic and political issues by 1999. The evidence abounds all around in today’s Nigeria – collapse of family and community values; unbridled corruption and inordinate pursuit of material wealth; do-or-die politics; hues and cries over marginalization resonating in calls for “resource control”, “restructuring”, “true federalism”, confederation or outright secession; and many more!

Way back in the ’60s, Nigeria was classified with China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore as “developing countries.” But, if development is about qualitative and quantitative improvement in a people’s life, data from the yearly Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have shown that Nigeria is nowhere close any of her peers at independence.

Whereas Singapore, China, Malaysia, and India have since attained 96.8%, 96.4%, 94.6% and 72.1% literacy levels among their respective populations, Nigeria trails far behind with 59.6%. Wide gaps in unemployment rates are evident between these countries when compared to Nigeria. China, with the highest figure, has just 4.1% of her citizens living without gainful employment. In Malaysia, the unemployment rate is 3.5% while the rate in India is 3.4% and 2.2% in Singapore. With 13.9%, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to be one of the highest in the world. Concomitantly, life expectancy in the country is the lowest in her league. In Singapore, it is 85.00 years and, in China, life expectancy is 75.99 years. The average Malaysian is expected to live for 75.00 years while the Indian could aspire to carry on with life for 68.50 years and a Ghanaian also hopes to live for 66.60 years. However, it will take ‘divine grace’ for the Nigerian to live beyond the national average of 54.07 years.

Research has shown that vital statistics for Nigeria and countries in her league were comparative as at the 1960s and it may be correct to argue that the country lost its compass in the course of time. What actually went wrong? While some have attributed the problem to military incursion, others put the blame at the doorsteps of self-seeking politicians who created the fertile ground for the ‘adventurers in power.’ For those interested in foundational issues, Nigeria’s claim to nationhood has always been spurious; as they illustrate with the oft-quoted Obafemi Awolowo’s mere-geographical-expression epithet or what could be termed Lord Lugard’s marriage of inconvenience.  More recently, human rights activists have equally alluded to the role of a complacent and docile citizenry whose response to mis-governance in the country has been scandalously compromising.

All views considered, however, it is evidently clear that there were fundamental things other nation-states did that Nigeria failed to do. Most-modern states make conscious efforts to build unity out of diversity; as only a few are monolithic in the true sense of nations. A critical factor in building bridges across divides is visionary leadership.

For a visionary leader, education is the catalyst. The educated citizenry are an empowered people. Impactful education confers enlightenment that the people need to transform themselves and their environment. With education individuals become more cooperative and come to appreciating the maxim – I am because there are others. Educated people are not easy to sway, cheat or cajole. On the contrary, inadequate or lack of quality education denies people – young and old – access to life-enhancing opportunities and self-rediscovery and makes them vulnerable to the antics of insidious individuals and groups be they local or foreign. Indeed, it is not a mere coincidence that quality of life indices correlate perfectly with investment in public education across the globe. Why then should the Nigerian ruling class make Chapter 2 of the Constitution (1999, as amended), which specifies citizen-friendly educational, cultural, political and economic objectives within the context of a welfarist state, non-justiceable?

Nigeria needs to retrace her steps back to the path of people-oriented and endogenous development. This calls for a change of paradigm. Men and women of alternative ideas are needed to give the country a new sense of direction. No underdeveloped country that prides herself on borrowed lenses of the global capitalist institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank has ever brought lasting gains to her people. As Ana I. Eiras, a Senior Policy Analyst for International Economics in the Center for International Trade and Economics at The Heritage Foundation, wrote in a 2003 publication, “An examination of the record of IMF and World Bank performance in developing countries shows that, far from being the solution to global economic instability and poverty, these two international institutions are a major problem. For one thing, their lending practice deters growth because the money they loan removes incentives for governments to advance economic freedom, and breeds corruption. For these reasons, the vast majority of recipient countries have been unable to develop fully after depending on these institutions for over 40 years.”

Unfortunately, it appears Nigerian rulers have surrendered the country to the eternal control of IMF and World Bank since the General Ibrahim Babangida’s misadventure of 1986. Nigeria may be unable to free herself from this self-inflicted enslavement until the country gets the visionary leader of her dream. And, until that happens, the aspiration for a greater Nigeria may remain a mirage.