By Chiedu Uche Okoye
Urgent measures should be taken to save Nigeria from imminent disintegration.
Nigeria, a man-child, could be likened to a terminally ill man, who is in the throes of death. Were Nigeria a human being, it would be manifesting all the clinical signs that herald the death of a human being. Nigeria is a nation-state, however. But are Nigeria›s distressed economy, dysfunctional educational system, comatose health sector, infrastructural deficit, technological backwardness, national disunity, and pervasive security challenges not indices of a failed state?
Many examples suffice to prove that Nigeria is a failed state. For example, the governments at different levels in Nigeria have been neglecting the educational sector, although education is globally acknowledged as the bedrock of national development. Here, in Nigeria, many government-owned primary and post primary schools have shortfall in the number of teachers required to be on their teaching staff. And most of those schools› buildings are in decrepit condition, with their roofs blown off and walls falling down.
So are those schools salubrious for pupils and students to stay and learn? Can students who attend such schools pass examinations like NECO, SSCE, and UMTE without perpetrating examination malpractice?
Again, now, public universities in Nigeria have not been in session for upwards of six months as university lecturers have embarked on an industrial action to press home their demands for improved welfare condition. The perennial ASUU-Federal government face-off, which has become part of our national life, has caused the constant alteration of universities› academic calendars and the elongation of students› stay on campuses. This situation does not bode and augur well for the development of Nigeria as education is pivotal and critical to national development.
But sadly, it is not only the educational sector that is suffering governmental neglect in Nigeria. The economy of Nigeria is already in a tailspin, with the naira, which has depreciated so much in value, doing yoyo in the money market.
Yet, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has done nothing to shore up our strangulated economy. He has failed abysmally to steer it away from being consumerist in nature.
If the economy of Nigeria is diversified, which will lead to the building of more industries for the production of goods, Nigeria will become an exporter of goods rather than only an importer of goods. And our country will earn more money from her foreign trade.
In addition to that, millions of unemployed young university graduates, who pound the pavement on a daily basis in search of the elusive white and blue collar jobs, will be given employments. And they will be paid living wages for their sustenance.
More so, we are not unconscious of the fact that no gainfully employed person will risk his or her neck to commit such heinous crimes as armed robbery and abduction of people for ransom. Is an idle mind not a devil›s workshop? The nexus between the increasing crime wave in Nigeria and the high rate of unemployment in our country cannot be controverted.
However, we ought to know that the dispossessed and disillusioned poor people in Nigeria , who are disenchanted with the status quo ante in Nigeria, are taking their revenge on the thieving political elite and the unscrupulous moneybags by abducting them for ransom.
But sadly, now, Nigeria is hobbled by security challenges, with President Buhari wringing his hand, helplessly, and dilly dallying on tackling the monster of our security challenges head-on. With their unabating homicidal deeds and attacks on government buildings, the bandits and terrorists have proved, overtime, that the Nigerian army is no match to them. And are the Boko Haram insurgents still not wreaking havoc in the Northeast of Nigeria?
Now, the terrorists› invasion of correctional centres has become the fad in Nigeria. Didn›t the Owerri Correctional facilities come under heavy attack by non-state actors? But the last straw that broke the camel›s back is the invasion of the Kuje Correctional centre and the freeing of some of its inmates by terrorists. The breaching of the security of the Kuje Correctional facilities raised the hackles of many senators in the national assembly. And they have threatened Presidential Buhari with impeachment.
Doesn›t President Buhari deserve impeachment for his gross ineptitude and incapacity, especially in the area of national security? The escalating security challenges bedeviling Nigeria are chiefly caused by the lopsided appointments of heads of national security organisations in Nigeria. When meritocracy is sacrificed on the altar of considerations for ethnicity and religion in the appointment of top security personnel, the country will, inevitably, be prone to attacks by terrorists, bandits, secessionists, and insurgents. A square peg in a round hole is an aberration and misnomer.
So, there is no disputing the fact that President Buhari›s doings have further deepened our disunity. Can a disunited country make progress, politically, economically, and technologically? The answer to the question is a categorical no.
But the stark and incontrovertible fact is that Nigeria is a terminally ill country what with her distressed economy, infrastructural rot, comatose health sector, dysfunctional educational system, national disunity, and unabating security problems.
Urgent measures should be taken now to save Nigeria from bowling over the precipice. A stitch in time saves nine.
• Chiedu Uche Okoye writes from Anambra State