As criticisms have intensified following a dramatic dip in the standard of living of Nigerians and rising insecurity, the Nigerian government has grown increasingly defensive, clutching at straws to extend some explanation to what has become a truly inexplicable situation to Nigerians.
There is only so much a country can withstand; there is only so much the citizens of a country can stomach. When that country is Nigeria with its enormous pool of human and natural resources, the frustration at how desperate things have become grows exponentially.
Recently, amidst severe and ceaseless backlash about Nigeria’s rising poverty and insecurity levels, the presidency traced comparative lines all the way to Kenya. According to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Nigerians were better off than other Africans in Kenya and other African countries.
Recently, the presidency doubled down, saying that according to statistics, Nigeria was growing more than the UK and the US.Beyond dubious data, what do Nigerians have to show for supposedly being better than Kenyans or growing faster than the UK and USA? Since when have the scraps that make it to Nigerian plates only barely become a sign of growth?
The reality is that Nigeria is living in past glory, and there are strong historical reasons for this hysterical delusion. In 1960, Nigeria exploded out of the blocks at independence. Four years before then, the discovery of oil at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, meant that a newly independent country had all the tools it needed to take a place long predicted for it on the world stage. At that point, it appeared that decades-long prophecies about a great country rising out of the stygian darkness of Africa were about to be fulfilled.
While Nigeria flew out of the blocks, other African countries, some newly independent, others fighting for their independence, were left behind. For a country like Ghana, the situation was one of grave despair.
Nigeria was to hit a brick wall soon, however. A succession of military coups steeped the country in a bloody civil war. The country has never truly recovered. There are grave doubts that it ever will. Decades of corrupt and inept leadership at the highest level have stymied a country once billed as Africa’s great hope, shooting up poverty and insecurity to ensure that neighboring countries with a fraction of its resources have left it behind. Yet, Nigeria clings on to its superiority complex as the giant of Africa.
While many far less endowed African countries have been able to find some democratic stability, a stable electricity supply, and some sense of direction to post consistent growth, Nigeria, Africa’s stuttering giant, continues to sing in the odious orchestra of retrogression, conducted by greedy and grandiloquent government officials who continue to nurse a false sense of superiority.
Many years ago, a stark warning rang out that if Nigeria did not put its house in order, it would not only become a danger to itself but to its neighbors. The warning was ignored, and today, Nigeria has become a massive source of concern to its neighbors.
It is now common knowledge that terrorists operating out of Nigeria have formed terrorist corridors straddling Nigeria and many of its neighbors and committing acts of terrorism that have had catastrophic consequences for vulnerable communities in multiple countries.
The clearest confirmation yet that Nigeria has become such a burden to its neighbors came recently from Ghana when President John Mahama recently revealed that he prays Nigeria gets better so that Nigerians do not have to run to Ghana. The irony is not lost on Nigeria. It was not long ago that some Nigerians, in a defiant show of incipient Xenophobia actively campaigned that Ghanaians be sent back to their country in the infamous Ghana-must-go days.
The number of Nigerians who desire to leave the country confirms what many Nigerians suspect already: that their country can no longer hold a candle to many African countries. Yet, the government here prefers denial and dissembling.
While it considers itself ahead of other African countries without any proof whatsoever, Nigeria backs itself into a corner, missing critical opportunities to close ever-widening gaps.
Kene Obiezu is a lawyer, writer, and social commentator. He can be reached via keneobiezu@gmail.com.
