(Article): NIGERIA AT 53 (@freshiyke)

As i sit down to write this piece, my thoughts are of Nigeria turning 53. The self-proclaimed 'Giant of Africa' has been free of the British empire for 53 years but yet no giant stride have been taken in her development.

    Nigeria as a country has survived over 100 years (1800-1900) of European exploitation and 60 years
( 1900-1960) of direct colonialism, 3 years (1967 - 1970) of civil war, almost 33 years of military rule and several ethnic and religious crises and yet we seem not to have learnt our lessons. we are still plagued by ethno-religious violence ( spear headed by by the Islamic sect known as boko-haram) . The question here is
have we learnt anything from our history ? There is a saying that its your past that moulds your future. In Nigeria's case i think this saying doesn't apply because it seems our past hasn't shaped our future. our leaders keep getting richer while the masses continue to wallow in poverty, religious violence continue to be the order of the day while some groups are trying to Islamise Nigeria. The different tribes in Nigeria are pushing for agenda's that only benefit them. The minorities are still being marginalized while the Igbo's are still being punished for their failed attempts to secede.

             The Debates surrounding the ability of Nigeria to survive as a country is still on even after 53 years of independence. There are some questions which are at the fore-front of this debate.

1- Did the British make a mistake in amalgamating the different ethnic groups into what we now know as Nigeria ?

2- Do tribalistic sentiments over-rule our better judgement in Nigeria 

3- Are we compatible ? 

        To share my own views in this ongoing debate i decided to be as objective as i could.

   To tackle the first question, i feel its too late for us to argue if the British made a mistake or not. Instead of praising or criticizing them for amalgamating us we should focus our time and energy on how best to make the different ethnic groups in Nigeria feel and act as one thereby pushing this country forward .

       To the second question do tribalistic sentiments over-rule our better judgement in Nigeria ? i feel that this is a correct assertion because the individuals in the various ethnic groups feel more loyal to their ethnic groups than their country Nigeria and this is worrying and dis-advantageous to the country. To solve this we need to promote the country values over ethnic values. We also need to make the country responsible to them so that they can in turn be responsible to Nigeria. 

        To Answer the third question, Are we compatible ? I think that every group of persons can be able to stay together if they are willing to make it work. In this vein i feel that if the different tribes are willing to make it work then Nigeria can be compatible. sure there would be some loss but the gains should be made to significantly outweigh the losses.         

     If the above three questions can be answered successfully then i feel that Nigeria has a shot at becoming the great country our fore-fathers ( Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe , Tafawa Balewa and co) fore saw .

  HAPPY INDEPENCE NIGERIA ------ It's high time that  we Nigerians stand together and not along tribal lines