Alayo Adedapo

Nigeria at 57; How we got ourselves here
By: Adedapo Alayo
The story of any independent nation is just like that of a child who at the attainment of independence gets the freedom of managing and directing her own affairs. At 57, Nigeria has experienced a lot more than nations of it's age has experienced. The country has over the course of 57 years battled with military coups, civil war, terrorism, militancy, communal clashes, recession and corruption among others. All of which has overshadowed other notable good events and activities the country has witnessed as well as has left negative effects on her growth and development. Everyday, every week and every year during notable event like today's independence, discussion focused on analysing the progress of the country always has one conclusion; Bad governance. We however doesn't look at the fact that although our leaders should have done better, we the citizens also contributes to all these problems.
One of the numerous problem of Nigeria that can be attributed to most Nigerians is the lingering problem of poor leadership. We voted thim in and the mode of deciding which leader to vote for gives us those poor leaders. In Nigeria today, with few bags of rice, you can win a senatorial election. You don't even have to spend that much for a local councillor seat. I was at a polling centre during the last general election in 2015 and I was very surprised at the various illicit means different political parties are using to persuade people to vote for them. The one that shocked me the most is one particular party paying out #500 to anyone that votes for them. However, you have to show them your ballot paper clearly indicating you voted for them before collecting the money. Because of that little sum of money, a lot of people that day changed their mind to vote for the party just for a sum of money that can't even last them a day! The way we surrenders our power to elect good leaders continues to motivate our leaders to turn deaf ears to our plights because they are sure of cajoling us to vote for them even after achieving nothing in public office. So they spend their time in office looting public treasuries and plotting their next political move. To develop a nation, its leaders must be committed cause and be ready to perform. To have such leaders, we need to understand that we own the power to elect any leader we believe can do the job. We shouldn't get to suffer four years for incentives that can only last us four days.
Our extravagant way of living is another major problem for this country. Nigerians today show off by wasting huge sum of monies on unproductive things. Today, a Yoruba man spend more on a funeral or a wedding than they do on their business. An Igbo man spends his annual profits to show off in his village instead of reinvesting in his business. An Hausa man today sells a thousand rams and cows to cater for his dozen wives and kids back at home. We all spend more to be notice today than to be recognized tomorrow. We all technically walked our ourselves into the recession we just came out from. We only bothers about income because we want to spend and that is the main reason the rich will keep getting while the poor keeps getting poor. In order to make ourselves better and also improve our countries economy, we have to stop spending on unnecessary things. We have to start saving and investing.
Another major problem of our nation today which can be said to be as a result of its citizens attitudes is abandoning our values and ethics. The family today produce children who doesn't want to understand that patience is virtue. Children who doesn't believe you can only accumulate wealth by working. Most parents today refuses to inculcate in their wards accountability, integrity and dignity. These are our future leaders. These are the people we elect that doesn't feel accountable to us. These are the youths that take up arms to agitate for collection of salaries without working. None of our ethnic norms support corruption nor peace disruption. But we've all in the quest of making ends meet neglect properly educating our children to become respectable individuals in the society. In order to prevent future militancy and terrorism, we have to teach our children that its only in a peaceful society that a nation can developed. We need to start making our children respect all tribes and race. We need to start making them accountable at a very tender age for whatever is enstrusted with them. We need to start raising kids we can enstrust our nation with
Other self imposed problems include encouragement of corruption, hate speeches, unnecessary agitations, greediness, ethnicity, unpatriotic attitudes among others. Although the government hasn't done enough to lead us to a promise land, we should also constantly look at what we should do to make Nigeria a better place because if the attitude of the people doesn't change, their predicament is also not likely to change. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.