Piqued by one too many sociopolitical and economic challenges that have troubled its corporate existence, some Nigerians have bemoaned the increasingly fractious state of the country on its 65th anniversary of independence.
While the past has left a sour taste in the mouths of many, more disconcerting are the missteps of today and the attendant existential dread that offer little or no hope for the years ahead.
Notably, the promise of nationhood that inspired optimism in 1960 has been repeatedly tested by the politics of exclusion, uneven development, insecurity, weak institutions and a decrepit system.
At the heart of the challenge is poor governance, insecurity, and deepening ethno-regional rivalry, where political contests are framed less around ideas than around identity.
For many who spoke with The Guardian, including the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chekwas Okorie; Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Adewole Adebayo; Professor of Law, Olu Oyedokun; former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr Yemi Farounbi; National President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr Bitrus Pogu; President of NASFAT, Dr Ayodeji Abdulwahid Abdulrauf, and National Publicity Secretary of Ijaw National Congress (INC), Ezonebi Oyakemeagbegha, Nigeria is far from the country of dreams.
Okorie: Nigeria’s problems are foundational, structural
The APGA Chairman, Okorie, reminisced that the Nigerian dilemma was foundational, traceable to the founding fathers – Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa and Obafemi Awolowo – and their lack of consensus on how best to move the country forward, coupled with several missteps in the last 65 years of self-rule.
Explaining why the country appears more divided today, Okorie said that although the civil war ended on the battlefield, divisive policies persisted.
“Deliberate measures were taken to abandon the coastal seaports, while the ones in the South-West were allowed to flourish. This forced the Igbos to drift to Lagos for business. Many emigrated, while those who remained continued to face hostility from the Nigerian government.
“Looking at policies again, the same government that talked about reconciliation carved Nigeria into 774 local governments and gave the North-West alone 188 local governments, while the South-East was given the least with 95 local government areas.
“These local government areas remain factors in revenue allocation in Nigeria till today. Land mass, which never featured in our revenue allocation when it was derivation-based, also began to feature in revenue allocation—and you know the enormous land mass in the North. They did all these deliberately to ensure that the revenue that came to the Southeast continued to make it impossible for the place to grow and develop like other areas.”
Okorie emphasised the need to restructure the country, review the revenue allocation formula, and devolve power to give states or geopolitical zones the latitude to develop independently. He noted that approximately 65 items were included in the Exclusive List, which is reserved for the Federal Government to regulate.
“So, the way out is to liberalise these states, put Nigeria where the states should be. Allow the federating units to develop on their own; let the people regain their sovereignty by electing leaders, rather than having leaders appointed from outside the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), who then write results and impose them on the people. Additionally, stop appointing governors from outside.
“My fear is that this country may not survive at the rate we are going. The reason is that even in the military, police, and all the paramilitary, complaints abound that Igbo people no longer come to take up their quota. That does not bode well for Nigeria, as the people have withdrawn without anyone campaigning for them to do so. They have seen that participating in Nigerian affairs sends a bad signal.”
Adewole: Nigerians are more united, but for poor leadership albatross
The SDP chieftain, Adebayo, disagreed that Nigeria is divided. He asserts, on the contrary, that the country is more united now than it was at the time of independence.
He noted that despite the challenges facing the country, Nigerians share a common identity and sense of belonging. He attributed the perception of disengagement and disunity to social media and the lack of strong, exemplary leadership.
Adebayo attributed the country’s challenges to poor leadership and lack of accountability, stating that strong leadership is needed to guide the nation and promote unity.
The former presidential candidate stressed the need for leaders to show faith in one another and work towards promoting peace and progress, emphasising the importance of good leadership, ethics, accountability, patriotism, sacrifice, tolerance, and forbearance in achieving national unity and progress.
“Our fault lines are basically poor leadership, which is also bringing about poor followership. Both poor leadership and poor followership are feeding each other, much like a topical depression that feeds itself into a cyclone, a storm building up. Once we address good leadership, that’s the biggest danger removed—sheep without shepherds wandering around the field. It looks like we are not united, but the truth is that we have not got strong leadership to give us direction,” he said.
Oyedokun: False federalism hurdles innovation, progress
Blaming the woes affecting Nigeria’s unity on centralisation of power, Professor of Law, Olu Oyedokun, said: “We are too centralised and operating, in practice, a unitary state. This has hampered innovation, enterprise, and development, encouraging the fast-growing states to remain static while awaiting the slow-moving states.”
He said the federal system, which gave states a bit of autonomy for development and innovation, was the glue. But when the military adventurists imposed a unitary system, the bonds of progress and unity loosened.
“Lack of stable governance—we have oscillated between civilian and military rule and focused on unitary rather than a federation.
“That the country disintegrates or is relegated to underdevelopment. Implement a genuine federal constitution granting the states autonomy.”
Farounbi: We need empathetic leadership
Dr Farounbi reckoned that the zeal and enthusiasm generated by independence provided a camouflage cover, giving Nigeria a semblance of unity.
“Of course, there was the issue of political greed, political intolerance, and love of political power, not for corporate national interests but for massaging personal or ethnic egos. All of these manifested themselves in the creation of the Midwest Region, the total neglect of minority agitations, as reflected in the 1957 report, the determined effort to cripple Awolowo and his Action Group, and the determined effort to manipulate electoral results in 1964 and 1965. All these resulted in the Tiv riots, Operation wet e, the military intervention of January 1966, Aguiyi Ironsi’s Unification Decree, the riots of May 29, 1966, in the North, the Arab vengeance of July 29, 1966, and the eventual Civil War.
“All these are nation-threatening evidence of a lack of national cohesion, mutual respect, understanding, and national dignity. Because they have faded into history, there is a tendency to glamorise our yesterday.”
He said factionalisation and fractionalisation of Nigeria worsened with the destruction of its economic architecture and the pauperisation of the people, with some 132 million persons said to be multidimensionally poor.
“Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world. The economy that was once the largest in Africa has become the 4th or 5th largest. The economy, which once grew at 11-12 per cent, now wobbles at 3 per cent, to the chest-beating applause of the economy’s managers. Corruption, banditry, terrorism, and inflation have become the defining characteristics of our economy, and in some cases, have become industries.
“In the midst of all these, leadership at all levels lives ostentatiously, oblivious of the agony of the people. On possible solutions, Farounbi said, “Governance must reflect the desire to serve…to sacrifice…to share the agony of the people. Political recruitment must reflect merit, vision, competency, and character…not just control of money, political muscle, and thuggery. There must be a strengthening of the federating units in a people-centred restructuring that will come from a people’s Constitution.”
Another Professor, Taofiq Olaide, of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), was of the view that religion and ethnicity have not only divided the country but have also created tension.
He stated that both the military and political elites exploited these fault lines to govern the country. According to him, the feeling of being marginalised arose as a result of the division. Olaide posited that those who felt marginalised began to agitate for resource control, which eventually evolved into separatist movements clamouring for secession.
Head of the Department of Theatre and Media Arts at FUOYE, Dr Mike Adeoye, some of the early unifying factors included the nationalist movement that struggled for the country’s independence among its different ethnic groups.
He added that the military dealt a mortal blow to the country’s unity by imposing a unitary system of government without taking cognisance of the country’s diversity. He added that efforts to foster unity through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have only been partially successful.
Pogu: It’s time to return to the 1963 Constitution, system of government
MBF President, Pogu, also reiterated the need to restructure the country, specifically seeking a return to the 1963 Independence Constitution with a parliamentary system of government in place.
Pogu expressed disappointment that Nigeria has not fared well since it attained independence, especially when compared with its peers like Brazil, which is now a leading industrialised country in the world.
Blaming bad governance for the backwardness of the country, he said it is unfortunate that Nigerians are at the receiving end of the menace of kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, and other forms of criminality across the country.
He said: “Celebrating Independence Day is something worth doing, and it involves retrospection. That is, we need to look back at what we were, then see where we are, and look forward with anticipation for something better. So, in that regard, I can say clearly that, yes, we need to make comparisons with nations that gained independence about the same time we got ours.”
President of NASFAT, Dr Abdulrauf, said the problems are not merely political or economic, but a deep-seated crisis of identity and unity that challenges the very notion of a ‘Nigerian citizen.’
He said: “Today, Nigeria is deeply fractured. Tribal, religious, and regional loyalties overwhelmingly take precedence over national interests, a trend that undermines all potential for progress. The country’s pervasive issues—corruption, insecurity, and economic instability—are seen as mere symptoms of this lack of collective will.
“In the real sense of the word, as used in Nigeria, every Nigerian is a citizen of his or her tribe, not Nigeria,” he asserts. This profound sectionalism means resources are wasted and growth opportunities missed, as citizens and stakeholders fail to align their goals.”
On the way out, he said, “Nigeria, despite its oil wealth, has long been flagged as vulnerable. As far back as 2007, it was ranked the 17th most likely to fail out of 148 countries studied, with primary concerns being uneven economic development, failure to address group grievances, and a perceived lack of government legitimacy.”
Abdulrauf calls for a radical shift in governance, arguing that the failure of leaders to address systemic risks like election fraud, terrorism, and armed banditry has massively deepened public apathy.
He urged the country to move towards an epistocratic system of governance, where leadership is based on demonstrable knowledge and competence, and “the votes of politically informed citizens should count more than the less informed.”
To achieve this, he proposes a three-part policy: “Elevated Standards for Leaders, Integrated Civic Education, and Empower Local NGOs: NGOs should be supported to promote civic education, define citizenship, and create a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities to foster value positions essential for an effective democracy.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Ezonebi Oyakemeagbegha, identified regional politics as the major factor driving disunity, adding that national institutions have grown weak and are now often exploited as tools by political leaders.
He further noted that complaints of marginalisation are growing across the country. “The South-South region continues to cry out over marginalisation, and the same is true for the South-East and South-West. Virtually all regions are raising similar concerns, which call for urgent attention. There is danger ahead, and mistrust among the regions is increasing.”
Oyakemeagbegha said that while political campaigns often focus on infrastructure, they have become dominated by regional interests and ethics. “Over time, the unifying factors in our country have weakened. There was once mutual respect among regions, and development was more evenly distributed. No region felt superior, and political positions were shared equitably. Leaders had a clear focus, and there was little politics of bitterness,” he noted.
The INC spokesperson stressed that rebuilding trust in Nigeria requires a comprehensive restructuring of the country, including a constitutional review. “I strongly advocate for a system where resources generated by each state are primarily managed locally, with a portion contributed to the federal government. This approach could help restore citizens’ confidence in Nigeria,” he added.
