Nigeria @ 57

DAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS Sunday 1 October, 2017

Facts are the lifeblood of Journalism

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NIGERIA AT 57 (B)

by Dauda Awwal Nigeria 57 years ago was a country whose value system was high and respected, people appreciated the dignity of labour but the problem of leadership and politics. Nigeria during the colonial era was a country where people have affinity

for worthy cause, corruption was very low, our British colonial master made Nigerians to appreciate the value of Spartan discipline regardless of tribe and religion.

After the independence to the present system, all those values had vanished due to bad leadership, tribalism, allotropicity and nepotism. Nigerian military leaders and civilian leaders seized the opportunity to steal public funds and enrich themselves.

The Nigerian politicians has failed Nigerians, Nigeria is a great nation, poor human rights, extra judicial killings, illegal detention, rape of female detainees and abridgment of electoral of electoral right.

Nigeria has natural resources more than many nations of the world, she is a member of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Due to bad leadership and corrupt top

government officials, many of her citizens cannot afford three square meals in a day! Nigeria is at the very bottom ladder of development.

It is very important to look at the yesterday, today and take a peep into the future. There are many challenges the building Nigeria as a nation, there are countless graduates better off of 1960 graduates, but no job for them to survive, this led to crimes in the country, we have challenges on security, energy, education, road, if government doing nothing on all the challenges facing the nation, then the future of Nigeria will be bleak.

In 1960, the nationalists ruled the nation with truly selfless personalities, they loved the country genuinely, people like

Nnamdi Azikwe, Herbert Macaulay, Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna Ahmade Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro.

People came after them disappointed the nation in critical areas like education, security, health, road, energy, water supply.

Nigeria’s economy is in serious crisis and the crisis can only be resolved if government is committed to resolve it.

Nigeria is a great nation, Nigeria has a very larger land area covering 923,768 Square Kilometers. This land area is double the size of France four times larger than either Ghana or Great Britain and twenty times larger than Togo. There are about 150 Million people which is ten times more than all Ghanaians twice the population of Britain or France.

Educationally, Nigeria has many educated people, so many primary and secondary schools and several higher institutions like Polytechnics, Colleges of Basic Studies and over sixty universities, Nigeria has more universities than Great Britain and France. There are estimated ten million university trained professional, the largest best trained, most acquisitive black cities in the world,

in fact, Nigeria is not only the giant of

African, but God’s own country in African.

Geographically, Nigeria has sea to the South, forest in the Southern region, savannah in the middle belt and Sahara to north, there are long rivers, Niger and Benue flowing up North to the southern, sea water and has other smaller rivers and

streams, there are swampy areas, sandy areas, hills and high plateaus and mountains.

In 1960, South Korea and Nigeria were at similar level of economic development, thirty years later, South Korea had become the 13th most industrialized nation in the world and Nigeria had become the world’s 13th poorest nation. Malaysia went to Nigeria in 1960 and took palm seedlings, today it is the largest exporter of palm oil. were

agricultural

based

In 1972, Nigeria and Indonesia economy

and

had

common

characteristics. Nigeria economy was S11 billion, Indonesia US $12 Billion. In 1995, Indonesia had gone up to US $202 Billion, while Nigeria was US $28.7 Billion.

Today, the level of corruption in the public sector increased and as Geoffrey Cackier asserts.

Nigeria is the only country we have we must therefore solve our problem ourselves, we must lay a very solid foundation for the growths of Democracy. This is a time of hard work to bring comfort democracy.

Nation’s energy needs to being met by petrol and diesel generators. Nigeria needs to generate at 280,000 megawatts of electricity. the total generation in Nigeria today amounts to 1,000 MWs, former late president Umar Yar’Adua tried 9-10,000 MWs, the project sets up 12 power station, 102 transmission lines, 22 transformers rather than to fund the projects, his administration went on a wild goose chases. He spent $7.2 billion i.e. 1.051 trillion without fruitful result.

Can one thousand megawatts meet the demand of one hundred and forty million people?

Canada 33 million population generates 108.533MWs, South Africa 44 million generates 80,000 MWs, Kenya 31 million generates 22,000 MWs, Morocco 34 million generates 3,592 MWs, Finland 5.2 million generates 12,078 MWs, Egypt 81 million generates 14,250 MWs. Ghana celebrated a decade of uninterrupted power supply while Nigeria is wallowing in the horror of darkness.

According to Abraham Lincoln, he described democracy as government of people by the people for the people, we can say democracy cannot be sustainable without transparency, accountability, respect for human rights, constitutionalism and the rule of law, free press, fearless judiciary and true legislative people of Nigeria have been thrown into a vast sea of excrement with their hands and feel tightly chained together and left to suffocate and drown, it's like the country has been cursed by some divine power to wallow forever in abject poverty with rich potential, killings, kidnappings and terrorism, the present situation in Nigeria demand a new evangelism.

Nigeria has joined the list of the most dangerous countries to live around the world, Nigerian problem lies on knowledge without character, right without responsibility, politics without principles, worship without fear of Almighty God, leadership without the qualities of leadership, empty promises from Nigerian politicians.

In Nigeria, politicians have become power drunk and trespassed all the political rules laid down by the rules, this led to political crisis and controversial census figures and highly rigged 1964 general election led to the military coup of January 15 1966, many politicians lost their lives, the problem continue since then till present day.

I wish Nigerians success and Nigeria. Happy 57 Independence!