Is Nigeria actually changing for the better?

Sometimes ago, my 8-year old daughter jolted me with this thought one evening as we were driving home. Daddy, she started “Why don’t we just go and live in another country, maybe the UK, Dubai or even Ghana”? Surprised, I answered the way most fathers will answer, “Why”? She retorted, “You said Nigeria will soon change for the better, but Nigeria is not changing!” I lamely re-assured her that Nigeria will indeed change for the better.

From the eyes of an 8-year-old who has been fortunate to go these countries on holidays, it is puzzling that Nigeria and Nigerians, with all the wealth that we have, cannot do anything seemingly right. In her own little world, she was frustrated and wanted out.

 Looking back at that discussion which happened a little over a year ago, just about when this new administration came on board, I began to ask myself, “Is Nigeria really changing’?

I know that the situation now cannot probably not be called normal, and perhaps we can say that we have a crisis that we may not have expected on our hands. People say that oil prices have come to their lowest ever, but I was reminded by a good friend of mine that in 2008, oll prices crashed to about 30 dollars.

I was also informed that the same crude oil price had fallen to about 10 dollars in 1986. Of course there were different economic dynamics and if you adjusted for inflation and weighed in macro-economic indices, it may not look as dire as it appears, but the fact is that this is not the first time that we are witnessing a depressed crude oil price regime.

Nonetheless, whatever the cause, we are witnessing perhaps what is the most difficult time of our history as a nation. Inflation is running away; unemployment is climbing, industrial capacity utilization has fallen to an all-time low; industries are closing because of the forex regime; importation has fallen through the bottom, and countless other indicators tell us that all is not well.

Is Nigeria getting better at all? Can we expect things to get better soon? There are probably more Nigerians out of work now than ever before in our history. The price of goods and services have become almost outrageous. Our currency is losing value daily. The kobo has disappeared on all things except the budget books. I still don’t know how they come up with estimates that has kobo components. Nothing is sold for anything less than 5 naira today, yet I think we still produce the one naira note or coin!

The health sector is in shambles. The educational sectors are out of sync with reality. The private schools are insanely expensive and the public schools are deeply rotten. Almost every sector you can name needs organ transplant. Power continues to be an untamed beast. The best of our administrators have been thrown into the mix, and I am praying for his own sake and the rest of us that he can succeed at that job.

How do we turn the economy around? How do we stem this slide? Criminality is burgeoning, cultism and militancy find new recruits every day. Life expectancy is lowest these days, and the indices show that you are likely to lose your life due to the negative impact of crime than to accidents or diseases. Nigerians are no longer safe in most cities and towns and villages of the country. We have book haram in the north, the militants and kidnappers in the south, Fulani herdsmen all over the country. We have inter-communal fights all over the country.

I certainly don’t envy the people in government, as I think they have a difficult task. My only concern is that I am not sure how many of them are really working. The local governments have abdicated their responsibilities to the state and federal governments. Most local government chairmen are going about doing ‘alright sir’ to the State Governors, praising them for the air they (the LG chairmen) are breathing.

The state governors in many state have become recalcitrant, like boys whose toys were taking away from them. Most of them cannot do the simplest thing which is pay workers’ salaries. It is funny how governors tell workers whose salaries have not been paid for more than 6 months that it is not a new thing that they have not been paid! Amazing!

We do have a lot of problems in Nigeria at the moment, but they are problems that we can solve if we put our minds to it and we are united in the search for a solution. If we refuse to be divided along north/south; Christian/muslim etc, then we will have a chance. Otherwise, this problem may consume our nation. The fate of over 170million Nigerians now hang on the decision of one man, the president, and his team of advisers. May God lead him along the path to achieving recovery for this nation.