This Article was first Published in the September - December 2023 Edition of the GROW Journal.
It has been re-edited to fit the current needs.
Author:
David Dungji Chinke
ISSN: 2141 - 9507
Published in Nigeria
© 2024 by Engraved in Gold Media Enterprises
+2348065721408
Jos, Plateau State Nigeria
AMIDST THE GOVERNMENTAL CRISIS: COMMUNITY GOES WITHOUT SAYING
Growing up in urban Nigeria, one could not help but understand that human beings lived in community settings, they often worked together to ensure that peace, security and social amenities were available to all. In Nigeria, it was peculiar then that issues which involved damage to public infrastructure or absence of electricity or water were handled in community – except an individual volunteered to help for the good of all. Ordinarily one member of the community would be selected to go to the national electricity company then called NEPA (National Electrical Power Authority) or the Water Board to lay a complain on the absence of power or water in the particular district or locality. On security matters the community would send a delegation to the police or decide in a meeting of all members of the community to engage the services of local “yan banga” or a private security company (if the police claim to be under staffed).
These were situations where community was specifically alluded to, so as to solve a particular problem. On the general scale, community was something that was taken for granted… it was expected that people tried to be friendly and neighborly. On Christmas days members of the community often shared food with one another notwithstanding differences in denomination – on this point my family was often notoriously marked for our refusal to accept such food because of our peculiar church denomination – which was highly skeptical on the celebration of Christmas. We also attended church on a Saturday and thus often stood out. These were the first indications to me as a person that being different in a community of people usually caused slight upheavals. Many people were willing to ignore this difference though as even the few Muslims in our small community in Jos, Nigeria, were greeted every Christmas morning with Christmas food. They in turn made sure they brought food to our door steps every Salah day.
Neighbors disagreed with one another on a few issues sometimes based on these religious and sometimes cultural differences but it was never elevated to the point that people exchanged blows or took up extreme measures on their own neighbors. People worked in different places and maintained rules for their own individual households and others respected those rules. If a child or youth was caught stealing, the issues were handled within the households with a view to ensure it never repeated itself, on a few occasions when it got to the police, it was still handled in the same way by the police officers – with community and neighborliness in mind. Community – Goes without saying.
It is recently that I began to encounter certain allusions to community that got me a bit concerned. This was for the very reason that there was too much mention of the concept. I felt that the issues really involved went beyond the ordinary popular understanding of the term community. I then began to notice certain activities around the community that proved my anxiety - not all was well. Security problems began to rear their ugly heads. Community meetings began to be called all over my small home city – Jos – for alertness and readiness in case of any attacks by hoodlums or armed men in the night. These occurrences had become frequent in the surrounding villages and had led to the wiping out of whole villages close to the capital city and such continue up till date. These were a series of events that began with the September 7th 2001 crises which led to bloodletting between Muslims and Christians in Jos.
My concern though is that I am unsure if the sudden excitement about community (which I will not be wrong to say has hit an all time high) is directly related to these security problems alone or may have other origins. The reason is because allusions to community have begun to encompass issues which not only impinge on human freedoms but encompassing simple issues like family relationships which were hitherto taken for granted, freedom of enterprise, earning and human rights in general. Gradually as the years passed it has become normal for people to ask or demand that others join with them to deny another human being of these basic human rights. Of course ways and means have been devised to communicate such wants and demands of the so called community. The evils which were hitherto blamed for the allusion to community have not abated in themselves but the only difference is that other things are being blamed for such upheavals.
Increasingly it has become normal for someone to die for no reason, (including public assassinations or attempts at assassinations). Theft without any serious investigation by the police and lack of accountability among public officers.
Sometimes I ask myself; how did we get here? But when I look back into my memories I can easily answer these questions. It started with people going to NEPA or the water Board with money in hand contributed by members of the community to encourage the NEPA staff to come and conduct repairs on electricity problems of the community. It was usually claimed that if an application was forwarded to the government for intervention it would never come through due to low budget provisions and bureaucratic loopholes. The government/NEPA often responded by blaming it on the refusal of some costumers to pay their NEPA bills or water rates.
During this period it was a common occurrence for the electricity company staff to suddenly appear with an outrageous bill and post it on a metered house ignoring the perfectly working meter. While many were not metered. This led to the recent upgrade of all customers serviced by the NEPA now PHCN to prepaid meters. Just last month the PHCN which is a conglomerate of many smaller companies announced a new price hike for the so called Band A costumers. For me it was a shocker, since they had just increased the tariff in January without any announcements, and this was among a series in gradual increments which totaled about four different times within the last three years. It simply became apparent to me that they were up to their old tricks. Loss in revenue to large corporations, unmetered individuals and community groups who prefer to pay without having installed meters are a usual cause of such sudden victimization by the NEPA and PHCN authorities, who find themselves often helpless against such organized groups often backed by powerful government officials. Inadvertently and unjustly passing on the buck to other paying customers.
This state of affairs affected many other government agencies and parastatals. It became a norm to tip government officials to do the job they were paid to do even when the usual receipted levy was still collected. Cases of clear bribery with large sums of money became an issue on the news that the government had to deal with. The hardest hit sector in instances of bribery was the educational sector when parents were accused of bribing lower cadre staff to add their children’s names in admission lists into prestigious schools and in order to pass the JAMB examinations. Government contracts and diversion of budgeted resources were part of this emerging trend. Governments’ response to this was to stop funding the public education sector and encourage private individuals to take up education at the primary and secondary levels.
Come to think of it, as I write this article I am suddenly reminded that the education sector is one whose privatization has taken the most natural process and a life of its own. Nevertheless nobody has ever dared to ask how it started… I leave that to your analytic minds. Government on its part had many things to deal with and allowed but some of us actually observed how it really developed, it was not an easy process and many of the new generation schools were closely monitored by government with the eye of enforcing lower fees and higher standards.
It was to my mind the success of some of these private educational ventures that encouraged the military governments of those years to consider the privatization and deregulation of many public institutions. Back to the topic of discussion – corruption created the situation we see today which we struggle to manage. Community is no more taken for granted and has become a tool for the so-called majority to suppress and feed off the inability of a few within themselves. At this time a faulty immigration and faulty border security encouraged mass immigration into Nigeria, and emigration out from the land boarders illegally. Government response to this was the ECOWAS trade agreements with its neighbors. This underlying corruption led to folding up of many public and privately owned manufacturing industries which inadvertently led to increased importation and fall in GDP. It was at this point that government insisted on privatizing its public infrastructure and deregulating the downstream petroleum sector.
While many organizations then like the Nigerian Labour Congress insisted that the real problem was corruption, it was clear that the sources of corruption were known to be the publicly touted solutions to such corruption and thus Nigerian Leaders were not convinced – The Educational sector and the Civil Service itself.
Nigerian leaders like Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and Olusegun Obasonjo shared then a similar policy thrust which was to lean towards religion instead for solutions (many of them owned the private schools anyway) and also to accept the recommendations of the western nations that Democracy was indeed the solution to bad governance and corruption. Those who did not agree to this were Sani Abacha and Mohamadu buhari. While Mohammadu Buhari was bold enough to pursue early in Nigerian history a war on corruption and indiscipline, Sani Abacha was not that bold and settled for a more monarchial brand of totalitarianism (entrenching what is perceived as corruption as his sole right and monarchial privilege) which was responsible for abruptly ending his reign. Many believe that if Buhari had been allowed to continue with his then policies, he would have succeeded, flanked by his lieutenant then, general Idiagbon.
In order to make democracy work, Nigerians have opted for community policing which has forced the government to channel resources into such private hands employing so-called traditional methods of maintaining communal harmony. This involves methods which sideline western forms of due process. In this light this has introduced concepts that deemphasize book keeping, logical & scientific determination of results, and financial prudence (strangely) deteriorating into the situation we find ourselves today.
The economy is at an all time low with 26% rate of inflation, 33% unemployment and the rapid devaluation of the Naira. This is in a country where the population is the 6th highest in the world of about 200 million people. Political infighting has forced the government to allow an artificial inflation, while fully deregulating the downstream petroleum sector at the last minute to avoid total collapse of the economy. In this time exports from Nigeria are at an all time low and have consistently fallen, limited to a few Asian and European countries. While importation is patronized flagrantly without any requirement of a return investment. This has recently been explained by some technocrats to balance the remittances brought into the country by Nigerians living abroad which is quite substantial.
This does not though cover for mismanagement of resources, both human and material brought about by the archaic system of policing, leading to a mass exit of people seeking security and job satisfaction in other counties thereby shifting the balance of liquidity and investment flow on the negative side for Nigeria (hence the poor value of the Naira). As at now, the Nigerian currency is lowest in value next to Madagasca and Mali in the whole of Africa. The 2022 perception of Corruption index puts Nigeria in the last octave of nations number 24 out of 180 countries in the world as released by Transparency International. This is only a few steps above countries perturbed by insecurity like Central African Republic, Sudan and Lebanon.
It suffices to say that one of the first government institutions hit by corruption were the police and military before this state of affairs took root in Nigeria and they should be squarely blamed, yet the Nigerian people are one whole and must agree that blame resides on the collective. The only solutions are to accept that our leaders and popular elders past did not correctly take sides as to what constituted the establishment and management of this infant country called Nigeria. While relying on the nostalgic feelings of tribal and regional affiliations refused to acknowledge the failures of such systems.
I have taken the pains to write and publicly present my new book : Foundations of Conceptuality; Will Humanity Thrive without it? This book looks at the philosophical foundations of reality and how we should pursue the future if we as a collective will survive amidst the threat that not only faces Nigeria, but threatens to annihilate humanity in its entirety. I believe that the principles discussed in the aforementioned will govern the return to a more accountable and realistic management of the resources humanity is blessed with rather than in the hands of less developed philosophies which have tried to claim a comeback in our time and age.
David Dungji Chinke
This Article was first Published in the September - December 2021 Edition of the GROW Journal.
Current economic realities in Nigeria show a preponderance visavis issues discussed.
Author:
David Dungji Chinke
ISSN: 2141 - 9507
Published in Nigeria
© 2024 by Engraved in Gold Media Enterprises
+2348065721408
Jos, Plateau State Nigeria
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE 21ST CENTURY: MAN, WOMAN AND GOD; NIGERIA IN RETROSPECT
Mother’s day has come and gone and I am one who has often appreciated what my mother has done for me since I found myself here on the planet earth. One of the most pungent experiences with motherly love has been at the times when I was unwell and needed medical help. My mother was always on hand to look after me, while my father would rather attend to his usual retinue. Contrary to popular views of the 20th and 21st century African women, at least the one some of us found on earth were not permanently confined to the home and to the kitchen. I did love my mother’s cooking but this may not be one of the things I am most grateful for. She made sure that by the time I was 12 years of age, I became a co- participant in kitchen affairs, being the second born of my siblings, the first is also male. Yet it was when I was mostly grown up at the age of 21 through to 30 that I mostly understood the role of a mother in the home. This was the period in which my father was busy, having arisen to the pinnacle of his professional career and belabored with many governmental issues in the civil service, that; I saw my mother step in to bridge the gap. It was at this time that the empathy and liberality of the woman came to play and helped me not to give up on myself and instead pursue my purpose in life.
Yet today as a grown man of almost 42years of age, married with 3children, with 17 years in Christian ministry I have come to see that the problems of this world are closely tied to the relationship between three individuals: God, man, and woman. In the 21st century, talking about the woman is almost a taboo if you cannot fully empathize with her situation, because she seems to bear the brunt of most of what constitutes human society, especially in Africa. Child birth remains the most painful natural experience that sustains human civilization, and many women are still bearing the brunt of child upbringing while providing for the family. Yet in this paper, it is the long term effects of this huge responsibility left on the shoulders of this single arm of society that I want to observe as a misnomer and possibly responsible for many of the ills found in society.
Let me take for example the Nigerian society. This is a country blessed with enormous human and natural resources, that was hitherto named “the giant in the sun” by some commentators during the 1960s and which had gained independence. I do not believe in excessive comparison but for the purpose of this particular study, it would be good to have a comparative study that will avoid the mistakes of unfair comparison usually when such are drawn from countries like the USA, China or Finland. A better standard of comparison would be rather countries like Ghana, South Africa and Kenya. These are three countries which are as old as Nigeria, have similar demographic population, similar size (not all of them) and potential for development. Population is a factor in which Nigeria may have much of the advantage yet it also is proportional to land mass. Nigeria being the most populous black nation may be a nation of immense opportunity and potential for many around the world, yet has largely not been able to bridge the gap between the developed and the developing world when looking at the context of Africa. I will in this light explore some major indicators when it comes to 21st century expectations of what a nation in the position of Nigeria should be:1. Ability to Secure its citizens and Africa as a collective
2. Technological sustainability vis-à-vis dependence on importation
3. Ability to feed its people and provide aid to the larger African continent in times of crises
4. Economic and trade versatility
5. Political stability and cultural development
Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana we must say shot to prominence as opposed to Egypt, Ethiopia and Tanzania as leaders in Africa’s developmental past due to the presence of certain untapped natural resources which were more relevant to 20th Century needs of the modern world. Kenya on the other hand may resemble Nigeria but has more of a common heritage with the Ethiopian, Sudanese civilizations. The resources that were now in the lime light were: coal, agricultural products, rubber, gold, diamond, uranium and finally petroleum. These resources replaced wild life, spices and human slave labour that the old world had offered. Nigeria among the two other potential giants was the only country at the time that possessed the resource that was to overtake gold which both South Africa and Ghana possessed: crude oil. A.A Uja in his book Understanding Development Administration in Nigeria hits a vital nerve in answering General Yakubu Gowons question in the 1970s as to the problem with Nigeria post the civil war: it was not the availability of resources but how to dispense of such resources. How to manage resources to produce the maximum desired potential. In succession of leadership after Gowon, Murtala Mohamed, Obasonjo and Shagari all offered something to the Nigerian people in this respect. Murtala was more concerned for political reorganization and consolidating on integration which he felt Gowon had not fully accomplished. His reign having been cut short to give his successor and former vice, the opportunity to lay out his own plan which focused on a return to agriculture notwithstanding the new found oil wealth. Typical of a civilian regime, Shagari focused more on politicking than on development as this was the strength of the less rigorous chain of command available to the military. The return to civil rule as before the civil war availed Nigerians the opportunity to vent themselves. The colonial masters and their successors did not envisage that the structures they had created were radically different from the ones that existed pre colonialism and thus the problem of the first republic was unity while the second faced a new evolved phenomenon called corruption. These were not new problems to the Nigerian setup as the celebratory pump and pageantry inherent in Nigerian culture merged with the lack of well laid out institutions to manage the new found oil wealth. Video documentary on Nigeria’s NTA network reveals this as a first republic elected representative to the Nigerian parliament parades almost a bride like attire resembling that of the queen of England which he wore around his waist that stretched up to 7 to 10 yards behind him. This was no ordinary piece of cloth, but probably imported “Holandis” from Europe. By the time Shagari was in office it was fashionable for public officers to be driven in a fleet of cars guarded on both sides by decorated police men in protective attire. Buhari’s coup de tat followed and changed the prerogative of Nigerian leaders to the new focus of fighting the new hydra headed monster which was named indiscipline and corruption. Buhari and his chief aide camp Idiagbon were so unpopular that they lasted only a year, replaced by Ibrahim Babangida who sought to introduce subtle economic measures as opposed to policing. The structural adjustment program (SAP) was the most unpopular method ever in the eyes of Nigerians and seemingly Babangida himself was forced not to abide by it in its entirety since he had overthrown an anti corruption crusader to put it in place. SAP itself could not be properly implemented without the fight against corruption. Within all these developments Nigeria had gradually began to grow into its roles as a leader in Africa. The most pivotal roles it played in ECOWAS and ECOMOG (The economic community of west African states, with its accompanying peace keeping force) as well as the OAU (The Organization of African Unity) were to put Nigeria in a much enviable place in the development of Africa since South Africa was sidelined due to its internal policy of Apartheid, Ghana had began going through its own upheavals and not able of play that role being a poorer country. While Nigeria played a very important role in security and to some extent in economics, due to migration and regional and international trade, it could not achieve much in the area of technology development and cultural renaissance. This was largely because; the nature of its economy was heavily dependent on the former colonial powers or their competitors in the form of Russia or China. Nigeria’s oil and agricultural wealth were used to import finished goods while efforts at science and technology development were often frustrated especially in sectors considered non essential to human life and happiness. The most essential sectors where: health and education as it were. But even these sectors did not receive the desired attention as in the importation of finished goods. Gradually infrastructure was degraded and Nigeria like India, Russia, and China became an international Diaspora state albeit for a different reason. Much of the resources of the Nigerian state were concentrated in the hands of an elite few and either in legal foreign reserves or pilfered abroad illegally. As a result of the civil war and political persecution, many Nigerians found shelter overseas in the so called developed countries. This also precipitated from the economic hardship that ensued during the 80s as a result of the Structural Adjustment Program vis-à-vis international isolation due to sanctions on the military junta’s in power. Nigerians also took advantage of the ECOWAS trade economy to find new opportunities in Europe, Asia or in Middle Eastern countries with African nations as a jump start. While western technocrats led by the IMF saw Nigeria’s economic stagnation as a consequence of the absence of democratic institutions, this was yet to be seen as many home grown minds attributed it to the absence of a genuine cultural and indigenous initiative (Following the example of Arusha in Tanzania) at inventing a national agenda and executing such agenda. Both eventually agreed that in order to achieve one, the other was essential and that gave rise to the post Babangida, Abacha imbroglio finally paving the way for a democratic civilian administration led by Obasonjo again. Democracy did open the door for development as promised and Nigerians living in the Diaspora could finally breathe a sigh of relief being able to visit Nigeria when they wanted to and a new door opened for Nigerians to freely indulge trade and tourism around the world. These were in truth of less importance to many Nigerians as the most palpable improvements were the ability of Nigerians to live a better life here in Nigeria. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s inability to have a truly home grown politically driven cultural renaissance was to pave the way for another crisis. The heavy traffic into religions like Islam and Christianity due in part to the heavy handedness of colonial powers followed by the military in Nigeria, and also the benevolence of Christian missionaries created a heavy traffic in their direction and thus a resulting seeming polarity between Islam and Christianity while an ethnic traditional conflict between the various tribes in Nigeria was going on, already experienced in the Nigerian civil war. This reached an explosive climax between 1990 and 2001. While there were calls pre 1999 to revive cultural and traditional values in Nigeria, it was the accomplishment of democracy that saw this begin to take shape. A key concept in tradition is the family and though the woman who is an important member of the family setup was always important in Nigerian politics, it was during this democratic era that her role was given proper consideration. Somehow, the Babangida Military regime had set an interesting foundation as Mariam Babangida arose to become quite a significant pillar to her husband’s leadership in the country. The emergence of her name sake, Marriam Abacha was almost poetic as the position of first lady had gained a respected significance in Nigerian politics. Women were more than welcomed in Nigerian politics by the time civilian rule ensued and participate they did. One cannot look critically at the role of women in 21st century Nigeria without looking at Religion, Social Development (trends) and economics. It can be argued that if any sector prospered by virtue of trade in Nigeria one of them was textiles, locally manufactured textiles and imported ones have always given the Nigerian economy a unique identity mostly kept afloat and proliferated single handedly by women. First of all it was a mandatory part of the gifts given as bride price before a man could marry in many parts of Nigeria and gradually became accepted all over the country. Secondly, wedding ceremonies and receptions were marked by group uniforms organized by the women related to both the bride and the groom. We will not be doing much justice if we forget to mention Marriam Babangida’s Better life for Rural Women which employed textile materials as a uniform for the nationwide movement that developed out of that initiative. It is arguable that politicians borrowed from Marriam Babangida’s model to campaign during Nigeria’s 22 or more years of the practice of democracy. The sharing of gifts such as salt, food seasoning, vegetables and textiles have become a tradition for many politicians except when discouraged by the government. In these developments, women have been accepted as pivotal to the socio political organization of Nigeria as it is true that during elections, they have become the most visible occupants of cues even when the system was thought to be failing. While this was going on in the political arena, the pews in the churches had also been taken over by women groups often adorned in traditional textile uniforms and had become a key department within the more traditionally inclined Christian denominations (mostly evangelical). One would not have done justice to Nigeria in the 21st century without having looked at these developments. Thus it would be pertinent to look at the popular psyche of the Nigerian woman to be able to describe and understand the problems and indeed solutions probable in Nigeria in the 21st century.
1. The Nigerian woman has gotten accustomed to and has accepted the preponderant trade and consumption economy and will not hurriedly let go of it having become pivotal to her everyday life since Nigerian independence.
2. Since women have remained a very active part of the Nigerian economy even before independence, many have become bread winners and thus have gained the power to even influence the direction of popular government policy often tailored at ameliorating their suffering (which is often through the use of oil money for mass importation).
3. Women are heavily invested in the agricultural sector where they serve as famers, and marketers of these products, it is safe to say they dominate the restaurant business in Nigeria. But may not be heavily invested in the technology sector, manufacturing or in sectors like the academia.
4. Women are still majorly home makers and thus bear much of the responsibility of raising children and would be largely concerned with the immediate welfare of little children and young adults between the ages of 0 to 25. Some of this care may even extend to 30 in special situations of single motherhood. Thus women would not subscribe to any policy that will make the lives of these young ones more difficult than what may be envisaged.
The present Nigerian economy is concentrated in the transportation sector, mostly around road transportation. This is evidence to the concentration of trade around light and everyday consumables rather than in manufacturing, mining or high-tech sector which may need more specialized forms of transportation for delicate goods. A good percentage of men not engaged in government employment have for very long in Nigeria found this sector lucrative and sustainable, while the women look after the children and go to the farm or sell in the market place. Also the auto mechanic sector has become a well saturated sector for men. The construction sector has also become a sector where men and women can find shared roles; the women provide water and cement while the men serve as artisans and brick layers. These sectors are also only occasionally automated as a lack of automation provides open job placements for men and women who would have been hitherto idle. Thus gradually but surely an economy has been created in Nigeria that has a great capacity for growth and sustainability but also may be very skeptical of real improvement vis-à-vis technology and the explosion of new home grown ideas coming from an increasingly exposed majority young population. These youth are often encouraged to take up job opportunities as menial laborers in construction sites and as market hands so as to keep them away from revolutionary ideas targeted at technological improvement and thus a more 21st century compliant economy. This negative, and potentially disastrous developments would have been avoided if the women who have come to dominate the economy were more concerned with improvement rather than spending. Nigeria has a very high percentage of youth who are educated above secondary school level. These youth are daily exposed to ideas from all around the world in the news and entertainment media and are eager to change the way things are done. This enthusiasm often faces stiff opposition which in turn creates revolt among the youth. The government has then discovered that it must engage the youth constructively or run the risk of chaos which is already manifesting through religious unrest and insurgency. With the lack of adequate sectors to accomplish this, because of the heavy emphasis on importation, the government resorts to employing many of these youth and thus as a result indulges heavy borrowing. This has been the emphasis since the Babangida regime which continues till today. This state of affairs has created the perception that government resources are inexhaustible and thus when the government desires to remove subsidy on locally consumed petroleum, it is stiffly resisted by the people. This has created a dilemma for the government attracting hypa-inflation and a hugely artificial economy, while terrorism and crime are on the increase. It suffices to say that if Nigeria is to take the much needed leap to avoid an eventual breakdown of its economy and governmental structures precipitating from world events and internal crises due to high unemployment and unpayable debts it must nudge the influential parts of its human capital, including the women, to begin to accept change and see the need for a total overhaul of the system allowing room for more technological improvement. This is not because a crises is hovering in the next ten years or less but to avoid the human catastrophe that may emanate from Nigeria within the coming 20 to 50 years, to the rest of the world due to a population explosion that is not manageable because the land no longer produces as it should and the government lacks the foreign exchange needed to import the needed palliatives. Population increase must be matched with sustainable economic growth. If not a deliberate policy must be adopted for managing population. The Ibrahim Babangida regime in pursuance of the IMF policies in Nigeria instituted the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria which saw to the implementation of this policy, mostly through advocacy in view of real economic realities of the time. This policy framework is mostly still in place, yet, the resurgence of traditionalism in the three major religions vis-à-vis cultural renaissance have begun to push back at these policies. Democracy the vehicle. It is pertinent to note that women, many of whom are either illiterate or poorly educated tend to subscribe to this propaganda. I must say that although I do not subscribe to all planned parenthood models, pro-life planned parenthood models tend to catch my attention. This is in view of the massive tendency for misinformation among a potentially volatile people concentrated in a country which is yet to find its secure footing democratically. A doubling of Nigeria’s current population in the next 50 -100 years has the potential to create a massive humanitarian crises around the world, except there is a radical global economic and environmental boom within this period. Finally, among the factors that may serve as indicators that Nigeria is fulfilling its desired potential, three are most pungent: Security, Economy and Political stability. While we have focused on the economy, it suffices to say that Political stability is key to security and the establishment of any cultural and economic system. Education is key to creating political stability to avoid throwing money at every situation. But before then, the elite must begin this vital process by consciously ignoring all attempts at proliferation of chaos through any cultural, economic or security diversions. While still strengthening the national security apparatus, they must first choose the right successor to the current Mohamadu Buhari government. After that they must as a collective begin to churn out a program for the stabilization of Nigeria’s current evolved cultural framework. In reality, going back to 1960 is retrogressive, any socio cultural framework must look realistically at what Nigeria is today and make a declaration as to what will secure it for the next 100 years. Most reasonable Nigerians will agree that Nigeria is a secular state that allows freedom of religion, worship and association. Nigerian government in the 21st century must insist that the safest and surest form of governance must rely on scientific and socially determinable quantities. As such the security apparatus of governance must be purged of corruption and political bias while a more realistic and scientific economic model is instituted. In this light, given that we have already accepted that a comparison to the United States of America or China is unrealistic, we must thus accept that the preponderant dominance and influence of Britain and the other western nations may have also negatively impacted Nigeria. Some have attempted to compare Nigeria with India, Indonesia, or Malaysia. These countries have since hidden in the shadows of both 2nd world canopies and 1st world nations for their economic and security guarantees while having their own problems. Nigeria must then realize that vis-à-vis Africa’s disadvantaged situation in the whole scheme of things, it must as a nation begin to seek ways of catching up with world development and playing a better role to push the continent into a position of better governance, security and economy.
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