Gloria Mabeiam
His clothes were rumpled and smelled of dust. The frail, scrawny man must have journeyed so far –kilometres, miles, who knows? He seems to still have some way to go but clearly lacked direction.’ Hello, can I help you?’ ”Oh, yes” came the faint but quick reply. “I have travelled for sixteen days now but can’t seem to get to my destination, can you help? “If I can, why not?”
The good Samaritan was willing to help. There was just one thing: the man did not know where he was going and worse still had no idea where he was coming from. He wanted to get to a town called There but didn’t know what it looked like-couldn’t describe it, couldn’t trace it; so inspite of the desire to help, the helper couldn’t help the lost man.
There are very few tragedies that compare to a lack of compass in life.
If a man or woman does not know where he is coming from nor knows where they are going to there would never be a destination. It gets worse if the situation is about a country. The question is: Does Nigeria know where it is coming from or where it is headed to? Welcome to 2017.It is a new year and an opportunity for a fresh start. We can leap forward or double backwards depending on what we chose as a nation.
One sure way to understand the dynamics of the motion of our nation is to take a clear, hard look at the rear mirror before we look on to the road ahead of us. History is important. It is as important as the present or the future. In a different setting, this statement would have seemed self-evident but our spinning on same spot as a nation makes this a point to dwell on especially because we live in a period of rapid change, a moment where inertia has no room because time forges its own path.
Let’s take our economic history as example. Within ten years after independence, there was a steady 3.1 percent annual growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During the oil boom era, GDP remarkably grew by 6.2 percent. This growth grew in the negative in the early 80s, a period that coincided with General Muhammadu Buhari as president. Industry and manufacturing grew negatively by – 3.2 per cent and – 2.9 per cent respectively. The growth of agriculture plummeted, the contribution of agriculture to GDP, dropped not because the industrial sector increased its share but due to neglect of the agricultural sector. Predictably the economy had become a net importer of basic food items. Capital formation in the economy had not been satisfactory. Gross National Saving became low and consists mostly of public savings. Unemployment rates went high and the economy went into recession.
Fast forward 2016 and Nigeria hits a recession with the country’s economy contracted by 2.06 percent. Everything in the early 80s repeats itself. Nigeria is especially hit by the decline in oil since crude oil sales account for 70 percent of government income. 2016 was a really hard year. Nigerians are glad it has come and gone. Will President Buhari find the grit and gumption to pull the country out of recession? It remains to be seen.
The second issue which is primary for governance is security. The year ended with some news about Boko Haram conquest. The forest have been said to be combed off terrorists. Despite the news, several persons who have had relatives kidnapped have not received their loved ones back. Over a hundred and fifty of the Chibok girls are still at large. The billions of naira spent have not resulted in the prosecution of the master minds as opposed to the foot soldiers who put our country in such needless distress.
Worse still, there is the consuming herdsmen terrorism where several communities are sacked by vicious marauders who attack, maim, rape and kill victims. Houses are burnt. People are mowed down and attackers are reported to disposes original inhabitants only to take over ancestral lands. The situation is grave. Audu Maikori, lawyer and Chocolate City boss, has decried what he described as a wiping out of a generation while the government looks on. His depiction flies in the face of a massacre so gruesome that it makes no exception of suckling children and infants.
That long term measures are yet to be employed to insecurity, places the country at the lower rung of the ladder in terms of protection of human lives and looking out for the welfare of the people.808 people have been reported killed, thousands of houses have been burnt and many more displaced. I agree with Maikori when he says government is more reactionary than proactive and that even in being reactionary, it fails to show empathy to citizens as in the case of Southern Kaduna where the death of over 800 has not attracted the President’s visit to the area nor a strong directive to security chiefs.
Part of what is important for moving any country forward is to communicate hope to citizens. When hope is not translated, it affects the cohesion in society, the economy, and does not spare the destiny of the people. This hope must be an assurance that when things look ugly, the people believe that their government are committed enough to turn things around.
Sadly, our reconstruction of history reveals that most people in leadership position are only qualified to lead their small cliques and not the vast majority they preside over. We have groped through this dark path to get to where we are only by sheer luck. But from where we stand, this path can no longer lead us to where we are going.
The primordial sentiments that colour the eyes are now threatening to blind us as we move very rapidly to our undoing. Same goes with our insistence to putting square pegs in round holes thus destabilizing systems. People who have no expertise when asked to man positions produce the predictable result of failure. This has formed part of our ugly history and is an area we must make adjustment.
There must also be a plan for where we are going and a destination where we must arrive. Like the traveller in the earlier illustration, our failure to know where we took off and where we would alight is best reflected in our inability to plan. Beyond seeking to meet up with the Sustainable Development Goals, Nigeria needs a plan that shows short term and long term goals. At the moment, none of us can say for sure what our government intend for our nation in the next ten years, five years or even two years and because there is no picture that features, there is no future to be seen.
Little wonder that the destiny of our nation has been left in the hands of political jobbers and mischief makers. It is the reason a year begins without a budget and since we fail to plan we invariably plan to fail. As we look to the year 2017, one can only hope that we emerge into a situation where we are deliberate about the results we want to see. May we say like the captain aye! aye!! the sails are set. May we find the will to get the right counsel and have the right economic team who would cause our economy to bounce back. May the law speak the same language in times of distress as in times of tranquility. May we together form a common resolve to take the ruins in our country and breathe life in them. God bless Nigeria.
Like the traveller in the earlier illustration, our failure to know where we took off and where we would alight is best reflected in our inability to plan.
