For the greater part of my lifetime, I have been fed with this rhetoric of Nigeria being the Giant of Africa, a Nation with great potential! However, the more I grow older and wiser and continue to analyze this country, the more I realize that Nigeria is far from being a great country. The definition of a great country may vary slightly from one person to the other, but I expect all the definitions to contain some of the same ingredients. I expect to hear that a great country is one that protects its citizens, where the political system is relatively stable, one that provides quality education and healthcare to its people, one where basic infrastructure such as water supply, electricity, an efficient transport system are available and work, whether or not they are provided by the private or public sector and one where the rule of law reigns and citizens can find redress in the law courts.
Unfortunately, all of these things are currently not ingredients of the Nigerian state. Roads, water, healthcare, education, security, access to justice and electricity (to mention a few) are not readily available to the majority of Nigerians. Maybe they once were, but no more.
The recent shunning of Nigeria by the President of the United States of America and the scathing remarks of the US Secretary of State, Mrs Hilary Clinton, on her recent visit to Nigeria show just how far down the rungs of greatness Nigeria has fallen. The sad part of all of this is that those in government have not realized that Nigeria is longer great, if it ever was. I would rather posit that Nigeria was never really great or a giant, she was just once rich, but even that wealth is no more. With a ballooning population of about 150 million people, its much vaunted oil wealth is but a drop in the ocean when calculated in per capita terms.
We continue to beat our chests and boast of the being the 12th largest producer of crude oil, 8th largest exporter of the product and the largest in Africa. But have any of the top functionaries at the Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Petroleum stopped to re-calculate those statistics? If they have, they will probably discover that Angola has swiftly relegated Nigeria to the 2nd largest producer and exporter of crude oil on the African continent. And the way other countries are attracting investment whilst Nigeria looses out on investment, it may not be long before we slip further to the 3rd and possibly 4th. What a tragedy!
Whilst South Africa is preparing to host the soccer world in 2010 and has already successfully staged the Confederations Cup, beaming high quality signals to the world, we are struggling to host the U-17 championships and fighting in-house about whether AIT or NTA has been given the broadcast rights, when FIFA is just a phone call or an e-mail away. Most Nigerians know more about the World Cup holding in South Africa in a year’s time than they do about a competition holding in their own backyard in 2 months time. Such is the shoddy way we do things.
Is Nigeria a great Nation? All things considered, my answer to that is far from it! And the sooner those in Aso rock and Abuja realize this and begin to take urgent steps to remedy the situation, the better.
