Today's Story; Nigerians rue 52 years of broken dreams

source; the punch.

Sad reflections hallmark Nigeria’s 52nd Independence anniversary from Britain, which holds on Monday, write ADEOLA BALOGUN, ’NONYE BEN-NWANKWO, BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA, and COMFORT OSEGHALE

Seasoned actor, Chief Femi Robinson, who used to appear in the popular television drama series, Village Headmaster, was just 20 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain on Oct. 1, 1960. Like many other youths of his time, he was excited and filled with the hope of a better and prosperous future.

On Independence Day, Robinson joined thousands of jubilant and enthusiastic young Nigerians at the Tafawa Balewa Square (known as the Race Course at the time) for a parade.

“We were all very young and pleased that we were going to be given a new flag. So we went marching. Many of us wanted to join the Nigeria Police Force, some of us wanted to continue with agriculture, but only a few were interested in becoming lawyers or politicians.

“That day, we sang the old national anthem, promising to remain united despite our diverse ethnic backgrounds. We were all singing like brothers. We never thought that one day we would aim guns at one another,” Robins recalls.

Now 72, Robinson thinks back to those days when the future looked bright and was full of promise for the young nation with nostalgia. He would have loved to be transported back in time to reconnect with those halcyon days.

The old man feels frustrated by the fact that all the shared dreams of a strong and virile nation and a golden future were broken many years later.

At independence, Robinson and his friends were optimistic that the political sagacity witnessed, especially in the South-West under the leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, would translate into a full-blown national agenda when Britain’s Union Jack was finally lowered.

He says, “We had great intellectuals like Anthony Enahoro who could stand up and demand independence from the British colonial government. And we were ready for the cultural and agricultural revolution  begun by Awolowo in the Western Region at the national level.

 “Unfortunately, today, we don’t have food to eat. In those days, food was plenty. We didn’t have to plant most of the food that we ate before they germinated. The soil was so fertile that when you ate mango and you threw away the seed, it would grow. What has happened now? The youths are not willing to engage in farming in the villages anymore. Everybody is running to the towns to look for money.

“I am not happy at all. What I dreamt of was the agricultural and cultural revolution that this country was witnessing at that time, which made me, a scientist, to switch over to culture only to discover that my culture has been destroyed. We don’t believe in our own craft anymore.”

Indeed, those who witnessed the country’s transition from a colony of Great Britain to a sovereign entity in 1960 have constantly lamented the changes that occurred in the country.

Many of these changes have deeply affected national unity by splitting the component ethnic groups along glaringly divisive fault lines. They have eroded shared values, installed a culture of corruption, deepened poverty, and eventually placed Nigeria at a crossroads at 52.

Superstitious as it may seem, Robinson thinks that the country’s fortunes might have dipped after the old national anthem was dropped by the then Federal Military Government for the present one.

 “I don’t know why it was changed. I think that is where the problem started. The Devil began to ask why our tongues should not differ. Eventually, we lost what South Africa has gained. Today, South Africa has overtaken Nigeria and nobody seems to be worried about it,” he says.

Robinson believes that despite the fact that Nigerians fought a regrettable Civil War, he believes the present crop of national leaders can steer the country out of its present situation, which he blames on the activities those that hate to see the people united and prosperous.

Using the Village Headmaster as an illustration, he says there were efforts to ensure that the rulers of the country, especially the military, did not neglect their responsibilities to the people.

He says the Village Headmaster, as did other popular TV sitcoms in the 1960s and ’70s, had an important role to play: to mirror the society and thereby contribute to the development of the country.

The old man says, “The cast of the Village Headmaster comprised actors and actresses that were intellectually sound. We always put the military rulers of the country on their toes. Unfortunately, they were not intellectually fit to comprehend the objectives of the drama series. So, they were afraid of the Village Headmaster and actually plotted to kill it.

“In the fictional Oja village, anybody that stole was ridiculed by a crowd who would take the thief to where he committed the crime and everybody in the village would be invited to come and ‘see’ the face of the thief.

“Have we been doing this to top-ranking government officials who have been robbing our country blind? No, we haven’t. This was one of the things that Village Headmaster was teaching at that time.

 “If those big thieves that the EFCC has accused of stealing public funds are made to face a large crowd in the open, amid drumming and singing of abusive songs after them, perhaps there would be no corruption in the society.”

 “We are growing old, nobody should expect the Village Headmaster to go on forever. Let the younger ones grow. Today, these little children should be telling themselves that it is wrong for us to receive bribes. The world is changing and so Nigeria should also change.

“Somebody wants to talk about stories for children on television and he is talking about story of the tortoise. Does the tortoise still live with us ? Is it a human being? Do children, for whom the story of the tortoise was invented in the first place, know what the animal symbolises? Why should we start educating today’s children with stories of the tortoise or the rabbit?

“There are more interesting things to talk about. For instance, we can ask why the best Nigerian athletes were not fielded at the London Olympic Games. See how Usain Bolt was beating everybody during the Games. It is because in Jamaica, they run on the beach. The Kenyans would beat you in long distance races because they have big fields where they pursue antelopes. Why are we not making use of this country’s large population?

“I am not happy that after 52 years of independence from the British, we allowed those who don’t know anything to take control of Nigeria.”

Without mincing words, Robinson describes Nigeria as a failed state.

“We have failed because we allowed the wall gecko to build on our cracked wall. Go to Ogun State today or any other state where they claim to be practising agriculture, they are bringing in Koreans, Chinese and Brazilians. Don’t these people have land in their own countries? Even South Africans are dominating the economy. Until we plaster the cracked wall and chase the wall gecko away, we won’t do anything right,” he says.

An investigation by VISTA shows that most Nigerians are not happy with the current state of the nation. The general perception is that every department of the society has failed to meet the expectations of the teeming masses since independence. Government institutions appear to be deeply enmeshed in corruption and corrupt practices.

What more, there is a glaring infrastructural decay: bad roads, irregular power supply, which have crippled the country’s capacity for production and caused a partial exodus of some companies to neighbouring countries, and a system that has not quite fulfilled the yearning of the people in terms of quality  services.

Although available statics indicate that there is a slight improvement in the standard of living in Nigeria since 2008, most people still live below poverty level across the country.

An anticipated hike in the official pump price of petrol in the country before the end of 2012 is expected to shoot up the cost of living in the country. Nigerians are bracing themselves for the hyper inflation that will most likely result from the increase. Already, food prices have gone up in most parts of the country, especially in large cities like Lagos and Abuja, by a significant margin.

Failing public healthcare system

A credit administration expert, Dr. Chris Onalo, says the Nigeria’s health sector is not as vibrant and reliable as it used to be 52 years years ago.

He blames the critical state of the health sector on successive governments, accusing the past and present leaders of the country of insensitivity to the plight of the average Nigerian.

 Onalo says the nation’s leadership has been insincere to the people and unwilling to fulfil their promises to provide basic health care for all.

He says that it is lamentable that government officials at all levels now seek medical attention abroad from the same facilities and services that the government failed to make available to the common people.

Onalo notes that the Federal Government ought to check the frequent strikes by  health workers and revamp the ailing public health sector. 

“The resources required by public health facilities to operate at their best are not sufficient and government is not committed. So, there is a noticeable and constant deterioration in the sector,” he says.

Onalo urges Nigerians to take their destinies into their own hands by staying healthy to avoid falling victim to terminal ailments to which Nigerian doctors have no answer.

Recalling the past when Nigerians ate plenty of fresh and natural food and stayed closer to nature, he says, “There may not have been major health institutions in those days, but the people were taken care of at the few that existed. People hardly fell sick because they rode on bicycles, which is a recommended form of exercise, and engaged in vigorous physical activities that kept the body and mind sound. Today, these things have been overtaken by technology.”

Also recalling her experience in the early days of Nigeria’s Independence, Dr. W.O. Fashola, says that schools used to have clinics, where the health needs of pupils were catered for.

As Nigeria clocks 52, Fashola recounts how the open drains in front of her parents’ house were kept clean and fumigated regularly such that mosquitoes were seldom a concern.

Fashola says, “We rarely had issues with mosquitoes and malaria, unlike what it is today. In those days, our husbands were not very rich so whenever we needed to have babies, we relied on the public health centres. I recall in 1969 when I had my first baby at Mercy Street Maternity.

“Many people used to be delivered of their babies there and that resulted in the tagging of children to avoid a mix up. That brought about the Yoruba saying, ‘E ma da omo po ni Mercy (Avoid the mixing of children in Mercy}.

“You had access to quality health delivery. We had sound and dedicated doctors such as Dr. Olu Asekun, Prof. Osagie, among others. We got free treatment and care there and the centre now became a children’s hospital. Much later, there came the Island Maternity Hospital. Those days, the place was so neat with good facilities.

“I remember that when one wanted to give birth at Island Maternity, one would feel like putting on the hospital’s night wear instead of a personal one. It was so good.”   

Insecurity

After independence, Nigerians continued to enjoy relative security. The crime rate was very low. In those days, most people were contented with what they earned and security men seemed committed to the task of maintaining law and order in the society.

Reminiscing on those peaceful days in Lagos, a retired banker, Mrs. Aisha Musa, says, “The culture and foundation laid by the British colonialists continued even after their departure. Nobody was scared of walking the streets at night, no matter how late. We would party till 1 am or 2 am without fear of harassment or robbery attacks.

“The only thing that the police did back then was to arrest people for fighting, burglary, fraud and stuff like that. There was nothing like police checkpoints on the roads and, perhaps, there were very few cases of policemen extorting money from motorists and other road users. There were very few cars on the roads in the first place.

“People were contented with what they had at the time. Armed robbery attacks almost never existed. We only had petty thefts and once you raised the alarm, the criminals would become scared and run away. Nobody was going about with arms.

“The problem of armed robbery actually began in the 1970s after the Nigerian Civil War and then continued right into the military era and became even worse. It was after the Civil War that arms got into the reach of civilians. The military era, which encouraged bribery, then made it worse as the police became corrupt during the period and gave out their guns to armed robbers for hire.  It was at this time that armed robbery attacks became part of the Nigerian society. 

“Armed robbers began to attack people on the roads, rob them of their cars and even attack them in their homes.  People became too scared to buy new cars and night life started to die in Lagos. Although the security of the 1960’s cannot be compared to these times, I believe over the years there have been much improvement in terms of securing lives and properties.

“I believe things are getting better though in Lagos in terms of security because most of these Area Boys were eventually employed and put into LASTMA and other agencies in Lagos. I believe if you want to tackle robbery, you have to make sure most of the youths are gainfully employed.”

A former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr. Frank Odita, notes that an assessment of the security situation in the country should be done with regard to all the changes that occurred after independence.

He says, “Many changes have taken place since independence. In the 1960s, crime was low because the population was not as large as it is now. The economy was good and there were jobs for everyone.

“At present, Nigeria is more populated than it used to be. This is the age of information technology. More Nigerians are becoming educated, but many others are still unemployed. So, there is bound to be a rise in crime. As long as jobs are not available, crime will continue to thrive.

“People can still walk the streets without fear, even with the threat of Boko Haram in the North, Nigeria is safe. This country consists of 36 states and Boko Haram operates in just a few states in the north where the residents have developed mechanisms to cope with the situation. I can tell you that some people in this country don’t feel there is insecurity because they have never been attacked by criminals. 

“Although the Nigeria Police is not really what it used to be before independence, we must remember that the rot in the police started during the era of military regimes. The police were neglected, ill-equipped and underfunded during that period. You will agree with me that the decay of many years cannot be cured in the twinkle of an eye.

“The present Inspector-General of Police,  Mohammed Abubakar, is a benefactor of the British system and he is doing everything possible to restore professionalism to the force with constant trainings and the removal of road blocks and checkpoints on our roads.

“The Nigeria Police is faring better under the civilian regime. More governments like Lagos State are funding the police, giving them allowances and equipping them with all the facilities they need to fight crime. This is something that ordinarily should have been taken care of by the Federal Government. On the whole, I believe we are going gradually going back to the way the society used to be in terms of security.”

Fallen standard of education

There appears to be a consensus that Nigeria’s educational system has not fared well over the last few decades. Nowadays, people do not just talk about the fallen standard of education in the country, they lament the rising costs of secondary and tertiary education.

Gone are the days when Nigerians used to enjoy free education, particularly at the primary and secondary levels. Corruption and the attendant proliferation of educational institutions, an indication that education has become a victim of brazen materialism and commercialisation, has seen effectively to this.

In the past, school teachers and their contemporaries in the universities and polytechnics took their jobs seriously and were accorded much respect by society. Unfortunately, matters have assumed a different dimension and the education sector is a shambles, 52 years after.

Many parents, such as Mr. Gabriel Udoh, have to work themselves to the bone to pay the fees demanded by the authorities of private educational institutions in the country nowadays. Even then, they have to contend with increasingly poor results from successive School Certificate and entrance examinations to universities.

Udoh blames the situation on corruption. In his opinion, this social ill gradually destroyed the education sector over the years.

Udoh says, “There are more schools than we used to have, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are all good. The public school system is in a state of total collapse, which is unfortunate because most of our leaders had their education via the public school system.

“Go to our public schools and see what is happening. Instead of dedicating school hours to their students, some of the teachers are busy running their businesses. There are no chairs in the classrooms, the roofs leak, and morale is low.

“Our universities are not left out. The same rot has permeated the federal and state owned universities. They are bereft of infrastructure and equipment. Lecturers now see their students as money making devices and now leverage on their positions to extort money from students.

“Nobody is sure of the quality of the degrees that university graduates are getting nowadays because it is now taken for granted that many of them buy their grades. Nobody is doing real studying anymore. There is also the problem of endless strikes in the education sector. In my opinion, we are not making much progress. Quality education in Nigeria is very much out of the reach of the poor.”

Wobbly entertainment industry

Although the entertainment industry in Nigeria has witnessed some positive changes in recent times, a former president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, Tee Mac Iselie, thinks there is plenty of room for improvement.

The seasoned musician says, “When I returned to Nigeria in 1970, the music industry was booming. We had night life in Nigeria. There weren’t so many TV stations as such, but people could go from one night club to another to relax. Musicians were touring the country and making money.

“But in 1983, when former Head of State, Gen. Buhari came into power, the prevailing insecurity in the country, poor economy, and poverty affected show business. Eventually, Nigerian entertainment got a big break.

“This turnaround happened just a few years ago. We started experiencing a little boom in the music industry. In fact, the entertainment industry witnessed a tremendous growth.

“However, something must be done to improve the industry. Our copyright system is not working. We need a strong union to regulate the interest of musicians. But we cannot take away the fact that the industry is on the right path. We need to spend more time in the recording studios and not be in a hurry to release a song. Then, Nigeria music industry will be among the leaders in the world,” he says.

Also, popular actor and co-anchor of the Gulder Ultimate Search reality TV show, Bob-Manuel Udokwu, says that despite the growth of Nollywood, some challenges facing the industry ought to be tackled to achieve better results.

“We still have some challenges. We should still go back to the drawing board and know that we can actually do better,” he says.

There is growing discontent, no doubt, among Nigerians across the various strata of the society. A Lagos-based businessman, Raymond Nwachukwu, who incidentally was born on Oct. 1, calls for collective action to change the “story of Nigeria.”

“We need a total socio political re-orientation. We must have leaders that are willing to call a spade a spade. Until the leadership deals with corruption, we won’t get it right. We hear of so many scandals and stealing but before you know it, everything would be swept under the carpet,” he says.

Another trader, who sells clothes at Aswani Market, Lagos, wonders why only the rich get richer in Nigeria.

“Our leaders have failed us. The poor man has no hope of survival. We blamed the military before, but since the civilians came to power, what have they done? I work hard. I have been selling at this market for years but things are not getting better. But you see our leaders amassing wealth and you wonder how just one person could steal such amounts of money. We are 52, but we still behave like we are five years,” he says.

And for Mama Biliki, a tomato seller in Oyingbo Market, the situation in the country will get better someday.

“I have not lost hope. We will get there someday. The only thing that is hindering our growth is lack of electricity. If we get that right, we will be on top,” she says.