Nigeria, we belive in...

Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe are just two of the many legendary writers from Nigeria. Soyinka and Achebe have written quite a lot of books and articles about subjects ranging from the colonial legacy to the “failure of Nigeria”.

 Being the largest country in the African continent with an estimated population of 150 millions and huge oil resources, Nigeria should have been the “success story” from the outset. 

The country has rather attracted the attention of the world for all bad and wrong reasons: the Biafra war in the 1960s, numerous military coups and dictatorship, tension between different groups that claim sectarian and religious affinity like Boko Haram, Niger Delta and so on. One wonders what has gone wrong with Nigeria with so much potential but nothing to show for it.

The monumental failure of Nigeria as a nation-state is beyond anyone´s doubt. The state has not lived up to its  missions of creating a climate of peace/security, prosperity, development, democracy, national identity by providing equal rights and opportunities for all citizens of the nation, no matter sex, ethnicity ,etc. The question is whether the state of Nigeria has ever had the will, ambition and aspiration to realize its full potential. I doubt it.

It is probably as the political scientist Claude Ake once wrote: it is not so much about failure because genuine democracy and development has never even been on the agenda at all. The resources of the state have been embezzled by most of the leaders after independence. The politics of the belly has been the order of the day. 

Corruption has also been endemic in all sectors of the Nigerian society. A country that is so rich in oil resources continues to import refined oil from other countries despite the millions of barrels of crude oil that leaves Nigeria´s shore on a daily basis. 

The disenchantment and disfranchisement of the population has been exasperated even more by the lack of any fair distribution of wealth along the years. The sense of belonging on the basis of citizenship has never existed. People identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims, Christians, Igbos, Yorubas, and Hausas, etc. 

The current president with the funny name Good Luck Jonathan seems to be trying to consolidate the power of the state in order to provide basic human needs for its citizens. His wife is called patience and this fellow really needs all luck and patience on earth to finally change things in Nigeria for the better. I want to see a Nigeria that we all can believe in and look up to in the African Continent because South Africa is betraying humanity us as usual. 

 The Nigerian economy has started moving into the right direction and many exiled Nigerians are returning home as never before as they eventually see some lights in the tunnel. Boko Haram remains to be the greatest threat for now but widespread unemployment and poverty are the most dangerous ones not only for Nigeria but for the whole world.