What an awful time to be a Nigerian!(2)

Vanguard

12 February 2012

What an awful time to be a Nigerian!(2)

By Douglas Anele

Consequently, if measures are not taken expeditiously to cut down drastically the cost of governance, Nigeria would be bankrupt. That said, between 2008 and 2010, the most serious security challenge the country confronted was kidnapping by Niger Delta militants.

Of course inhabitants of Niger Delta have a valid case of criminal neglect and environmental degradation against government and oil companies, but this was overshadowed by the selfish interests of leaders of militant groups there.

As at the time late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government pacified the militants with a N60 billion amnesty programme, kidnapping had spread to the South-East and almost became an industry.

Now, the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, constitutes the most pressing security nightmare in the country. I have always argued that the federal government must deal with the Boko Haram threat from a position of strength not of weakness by putting the sect under relentless pressure.

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No matter how one looks at it, Nigeria is not a country one should be proud of for now, never mind the insincere hypocritical slogan “Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation.” If Nigerians, especially members of the ruling cabal, were good people, Nigeria would not have been the mess that it is today; if the country was a great nation indeed, the kind of indolent, corrupt, unimaginative and extra-selfish leadership that has dominated the portals of power would not have emerged.

To be candid, it is becoming increasingly clear that the amalgamation of 1914 might be a big mistake. But since nothing in history is completely inevitable, Nigerians may either get their acts together and create a solid nation or disintegrate into several nations. The future of Nigeria is pregnant with exciting and challenging possibilities, because as a people we have a rendezvous with history.