Nigeria: Wake up
(Dotun Famoriyo and Peace Ajayi)
Today marks 60 years of independence in Nigeria history. A remembrance of the top of colonial rule. Each day to rather celebrate the victory of Nationalists who won the struggle for self-government to make sure we become masters of our own and have a “Nigerian Dream”.
Theses Nationalists within the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Chieftain Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to say a couple of, fought with their heart and might to make sure a Nigeria that’s truly one in name only an attitude, fasten alongside unity, equity, and justice. A nation where the law protects the rich and therefore the poor alike. A nation where citizens have the liberty to elect their leader who sees leadership as a chance to render selfless service to the state as an entire and not a chance to sap national bounties. A nation where the govt was of the people and for the people.
These nationalists didn’t fail in their mission, as they displayed commitments and selflessness in their service to upholding and realizing the vision of their fatherland, which was a noble cause. They made the primary post-independence Constitution, the 1963 Constitution, which modeled a workable structure that accommodated the interest of over 250 ethnic groups that formed parts of the Federation of Nigeria, a nation bound in freedom, peace, and unity.
Nigeria has indeed evolved within a span of 60 years. She has moved swiftly to pursuing a policy in Africa and therefore the rest f the planet. She was a founding member of the African Union, formerly referred to as the Organization of Africa Unity. The Ebola outbreak in Liberia which threatened to spread to Nigerian was quickly contained as Nigerian deployed 250 soldiers to handle things.
Also, Nigeria is essentially reputable for the assembly of premier Arts in Africa and therefore the world. Nigeria show business particularly Nollywood is taken into account the most important film industry know terms of output in Africa and arguably the third only behind Hollywood and Bollywood. The music Industry is additionally blazing the trail within the continent and across the world.
In the same vein, Nigeria has had her share of fundamental shortcoming, that has constantly challenged her development. a number of the challenges include Insecurity, corruption, and a deteriorating financial system.
Precisely in June 2020, a breakdown of the report released by Nigeria Mourn, a civil society organization, revealed that 309 deaths were attributed to brutality attack. While the amount of these killed by Boko Haram took an alarming turn, compared to the 27 death the previous month. The report shows that touch over 590 lives was lost to COVID-19 as of June, compared to the primary toll released in March, but a minimum of 731 lives was lost to insecurity in June alone in spite of the number of years and resources annually deployed to security in Nigeria.
Again, we’ve spike in police brutality as Nigerian police are suspected of getting administered 18- extrajudicial killings between March 30 and April 13, 2020, as Nigeria is gradually becoming a nation characterized by police abuse a purr violation of Human Rights.
In addition, the culture of corruption in Nigeria has been a significant problem that has crippled for the development of the state as autocracy is slowly replacing democracy. We see how gross misconduct is that the order of the day at election centers, where brutality and stealing of ballot boxes amongst other fraudulent activity take place in broad day light and no active measure has been put in situ to tackle these menace, meanwhile election is meant to be free and fair. Corrupt public officials are celebrated and accorded high position at the seat of state. This corruption is however rooted in small-scale engagement like schools, workplaces, and non-secular sectors also.
Moreso, consistent with the National Bureau Station of Nigeria 1 in 10 or quite 82.9 million Nigerians sleeps in poverty. before the pandemic, the amount of poor Nigerians was expected to extend by about 2 million largely thanks to the population, but thanks to the virus and lockdown measure unemployment has taken a high toll, making the likelihood of poverty rate increase to about 7 million.
As an annual ritual, within the morning of October 1st in Nigeria, the President of Nigeria delivers a speech to officially commence the Independence Day Celebration, then the flag is raised simultaneously with the singing of the anthem. this is often followed by a military parade because the national cake is cut at the Aso Rock Villa. Is Nigeria striving hard to persevere the labors of her heroes past, today shouldn’t be like every conventional 1st of October. There are real problems confronting the state and that they require appropriate measures. Today should be each day where our leaders mobilize citizens in an effort to require a stock of those aforementioned problems and offer practical solutions.
The government can begin by bringing structure like the Valid Nation-Wide Computerization System that might help identify the real system, taking a step in solving the difficulty of overpopulation. That way we might have a real figure of the population of the nation which might help appropriate resources accordingly also as keep tabs on illegal immigrants who prey on the resources of the state. this is able to not only alleviate poverty but increase the GDP of the state significantly as taxes are often monitored efficiently.
There should even be active legislations put in situ to deal with the problems of police brutality and insecurity also establishing stringent punishment for any official that violates the laws. The struggle for a far better Nigerian officially began once we got our independence and therefore the baton has been passed right down to generations. Now the onus lies on everybody to uphold these Nigerian Dream and make sure that our independence is actually preserved.
