Nigeria At 62: A Renewed Hope Amid Hunger, Insecurity and Chaos – By Emmanuel Azubuike
On October 1, 1960, Nigerians present at the Lagos Race Course, now known as the Tafawa Balewa Square, and those who were able to watch from home, must have had a beatific moment as trumpets blared and Nigerians, as an independent nation, sang “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”, the country’s national anthem from 1960 until 1978.
The palpable joy that must have enveloped the citizens as the nation as they prepare to take full responsibility for the affairs of their country cannot be underestimated. Picturing what the atmosphere must have been at the arena, I stand to assume that across the country, hopes beamed as the young and promising country, with a population of about 45 million people as of the time of independence, became a sovereign nation after nearly 80 years of colonial rule.
It was a tumultuous journey to freedom!
There were genuine reasons to be optimistic about the future of the new nation. The discovery of Crude oil in commercial quantity just four years earlier, in 1956, as the country was agitating for self-government, was enough to believe that the nation was kicking off on a path of prosperity. It will not be out of place to say the nation did show signs of prosperity.
In addition to the revenue the proceeds of oil were to add to the nation’s economy, the fertile land of Nigeria, with an arable land of about 82 million hectares, contributed immensely to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While the 1953 ethnic clash between Northerners and Southerners in Kano, caused by political tension, might have signalled the ethnic intolerance that was to come in the future, the country was relatively peaceful. The nation was on course to be the giant of Africa, the pride of the black race.
However, six years after independence, as the euphoria of a new nation was gradually fading away, Nigerians faced the realities of self-rule. The citizens soon started to groan about the corruption of politicians who, a few years ago, were chronicled ‘saviours’. The military staged a coup in a hasty move to plug the nation off corrupt politicians, and the first Republic ended on January 15, 1966. The young country slowly slid into a disastrous civil war. After the war that took the lives of an estimated three million people, the mistrust among the various ethnic group grew despite the post-war slogan of ‘No Victor, No Vanquish’. More so was that the first coup birthed a new trend in Nigeria where the military saw itself as a saviour that could step in and savage the numerous ills plaguing the nation. For over 30 years, uniformed men presided over the country’s affairs.
While Nigeria appears to have outgrown the era of forceful takeover of government by the military as we’ve seen the spike in military coups in some African countries in recent times, the over three decades of military rule which put political activities on hiatus, and years of misrule since the return to democracy since 1999, appeared to have moulded Nigerians into an apolitical state, more or less as self-defence against disappointments.
The 2015 election brought a ray of hope that energised many electorates. The hope stemmed out of the confidence many Nigerians, especially the young voters, had in Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military general and presidential candidate of the newly-formed All Progressives Congress (APC), a coalition of four opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria People Party (ANPP), and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
The widespread loss of confidence in the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration’s ability to effectively fight insecurity and corruption further led many young Nigerians to believe Buhari had a fix-all remedy to Nigeria’s challenges. Despite his past history of disregard for rule of law, many Nigerians desperate for a change in leadership conferred a messianic status on Buhari without subjecting his plans and credentials to scrutiny.
With a winning percentage of 53.96 and with a disappointing voter turnout of 43%, Buhari made history in Nigeria as the first candidate to win against an incumbent President.
However, after Buhari’s disappointing seven-year rule, that has led to rising unemployment which stood at 33.3% according to the National Bureau, a year-on-year rise in inflation at (19.6% as of July 2022), insecurity and kidnapping for ransom across the country, young Nigerians are reigniting their hope to right the wrong of 2015 and get it right in the 2023 election.
Nigeria at 62 : A staggering show of hope by the youth amid unemployment
Unsurprisingly, a much more significant momentum and political enthusiasm is sweeping across the country, majorly led by young Nigerians who are the major victims of police brutality, rising unemployment, insecurity and an ailing economy.
Part of this renewed hope could be traced to the October 2020 EndSARS protest against police brutality and extrajudicial killings by a now disbanded police unit – the special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
This renewed political awakening is backed by commendable actions from the energised populace. They are not just leading online campaigns and sensitisation ahead of the 2023 election, they are walking the talk by registering to vote and taking their campaign offline, just like the EndSARS protest.
When the Independent National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) ended voter registration on July 31, 2022, out of 12.29 million new registrants that completed their registration, over 71% (8.78 million) were youths between the ages of 18-34. Of this figure, 4.5 million that completed their registration identified as students, while 50.6% of the newly registered voters who completed both their online and physical registration are women.
While some have advised that care should be taken in accepting the candidacy whom this hope and energy is tilted towards, citing lessons from 2015, I stand to argue that the situation is not only different, but the measurable track records of even the three leading presidential candidates; Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are not comparable to that of President Muhammadu Buhari who plunged Nigeria into recession in 1984 when he was Head of State and repeated it as a democratic president.
It is safe to say that Nigeria at 62 has failed its young citizens. From education to health care to infrastructure, the country is on a gradual collapse, no matter how much we resent the word ‘collapse.’ Frankly, it is not all gloom, at least not with the hope that has recently filtered into the country, lighting the faces of market women, street vendors, and plumbers. They have chosen to believe that they can live better and safer with the right leader. Their hope is not unfounded, and their desire to see a working Nigeria they can proudly call home can not be wished away.
On February 23, 2023, Nigerians will elect a new President that will govern the country for the next four years. Though hopes are high, it is not certain that whoever they decide to make their leader will solve the nation’s problems within the next four years or even eight years. Where there is high hope, disappointment lurks near. But I believe Nigerians are beginning to let their hopes, not their hurts, shape their future. And that, to me, is commendable.
