NIGERIA AT 52

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By October 1, 2012, Nigeria will be 52 years of Age. And of course, Nigerian Government will  celebrate it in their usual manner where enormous sum of money from our commonwealth is wasted for simply put, NO JUST CAUSE. Nigeria started with some other countries like Brazil,
Malaysia, India and so on. The question we will always ask is this: Which way are we going? Are we going forward or backward? The answer to this compelling question is this: We are retrogressing at a fast pace.  There are some indices that could be used to adjudge a country's progression.

1. Human Development

2. Education

3. Gross Domestic Products

4. Infrastructural development among others.

Nigeria has failed abysmally in all these indices. It is in a country like ours that one will read Electrical Engineering  and if the person is lucky, he or she will end up being marketing Executive in a Bank or  even Fast Food. When something like this happens, what you will end up having is brain drain. I remember my undergraduate days. The stress, academic input, reading till day break and at the end of the day, you will be a marketer with an incommensurate pay. In effect, Nigerians are suffering from Brain Drain. If you go to Indian Embassy in Walter Carrington crescent Victoria Island, the number of applicants there is always overwhelming. I want to categorically say without mincing words that 97% of the applicants are applying for visas to India simply to get medical assistance. Invariably, it means that our medical students and our hospitals are nothing to write home about. That explains why our politicians seek medical help abroad for even headache.

Our Education is at its lowest ebb. There has been mass failure in WAEC, NECO, JAMB and other entrance examinations. What explanation can we give to this? There is unprecedented decadence in our educational institutions.Most of our teachers are not qualified to teach because it is what you have that you will give to somebody. Another area that we are found wanting is Research and Development (R&D). This is the backbone of development in the western countries. In abroad, if an institution notices that a certain candidate has a promising future, they will rather request the student to go into research or higher degree having seen the stuff in him or her. They will be willing to pay the student some grants.

GDP measures growth rate of an economy. Nigeria GDP is in regressive manner. Please read more on http://www.tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-growth.  Why is it so? Nigeria is purely an import dependent economy. We do not produce anything. Some people will say we produce crude oil but I want to tell you that If really we are serious in this country, we will not just produce crude oil but refine it to add value to its worth. In other words, Nigeria needs  petrochemical industries. I remember when president Jonathan was doing campaign in 2011, he saw the need for many petrochemical Industries and promised to build same once elected. However, is there any sign in the offing that such is in the master plan of this administration? The figures that NBS always publishes are questionable because we are not growing in the real sense. How can we say we growing without any positive  impact on the life of a common man. I will also want to draw your attention on the effects of market forces on our naira. Viratually everything including toothpick is imported because we cannot produce it. You cannot import with local currency therefore the pressure on Naira is enormous. In this month of July, 2012, IMF advised Nigeria government to allow market forces to determine the value of naira. In effect, they felt that CBN is spending a lot of money just to save naira without which Naira will experience a free fall.

Then another critical area is Infrastructure- Power sector. Power crises in worse now than ever. Are we growing or are we diminishing. Power crises alone has caused Nigeria unquantifiable amount of Naira. I remember those days when we first had electricity. There used be more power supply than now. So many companies like Dunlop, Michelin have left the shores of this blessed country for other countries that have better business climate. Some of us who are conversant of the word 'BRICS' Brasil, India, China and South Africa. We started with them. What is happening today? They have all gone ahead of us in everything you can think of. Even Malaysia too. Our oils are being imported from Malaysia. The Paradox here is that we were the people that supplied them with the palm oil sample  at NIFOR Benin City. What a nation! 

In summary, what are we celebrating at 52? Nothing! we are just celebrating forced togetherness. Many will tell you' thank God Nigeria is still one'  but at the expense of who? People are dying daily, paying the supreme price of being together and our leaders are not thinking twice about their bad governance. They have failed us and this has been the root cause of our age long problem. Unless they retrace their steps, this house may fall on all of us.

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