In October 1st 1960, the Union Jack flag of the British was lowered in what would mark the independence of Nigeria at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos but Chief Obafemi Awolowo was quick to observe that the leadership of the country had fallen in the hands of incompetent Nigerians and no one took his comment with seriousness, the result is what has continued to befall the nation in every of her sphere socially, economically and politically. As a matter of fact, Nigeria is a toddler without the ability to stand much less walk.

Nigeria's problems began at birth as rightly observed by Awolowo with power finding its way in the hands of incompetent people which was one major reason Nigeria could not industrialize when the economic ability to do so was present rather, the nation at later stages continued to inherit leaders upon leaders who were only interested in their personal purses without any love for the development of the nation. This became responsible for the inability of the nation to celebrate her independence.  

To local and international attestations, the nation has nothing to celebrate in the name of independence, and the Federal Government of Nigeria appears to understand this development very well when it instructed that the independence anniversary of the nation be observed on a very low key in line with the mood of the nation. A lot of problems are combining even on daily basis to beset the Nigeria nation even on daily basis and the result is that the people of the country have continued to live in abject poverty with the leaders appearing to have lost economic solutions to the problems at hand.

But it is germane to inquire if the nation has ever celebrated her independence in its entire 48 years of freedom from what some people would term the shackles British colonial government even though quite a number of Nigerians would readily assert that the British colonial regime was far better than what has ever existed in the name of Nigerian governments. It is indeed a sad commentary that 48 years after independence, Nigeria is still studying on which way to follow so that the nation will not fall. The problems of Nigeria are quite numerous and usually very complicated to understand and trying to fix such becomes almost impossible as the nation has almost at every stage of her life worked with the best of her brains in economics and politics yet making giant strides is far from realization.

Nigeria inherited the parliamentary system of government independence by the British, series of military coups have been recorded afterwards and finally democratic governance, yet none has particularly proved useful in turning around the fortunes of the country for good. Democracy looked upon as the global hope for good governance has become a nightmare to the people of the nation. The question on the lips of Nigerians now is what other form of governance the nation should look forward to. For one, Nigerians were given the impression that the military were responsible for the woes of the country but about 10 years after the death and burial of the military, the problems with Nigeria appear to be getting worse with majority of our clerics turning to divine intervention for solutions to these problems.

Over 70% of the nation's population live below poverty level and are greatly impoverished with no hope at all courtesy of the rapacious greed of our leaders who are merely interested in amassing wealth and stockpiling in foreign countries to the detriment of the larger population and as one man observed Nigeria's stolen money are not made to reflect in the economy of the nation (Nigeria) because much of these stolen monies are enjoyed by the economies of other nations where they are either invested or made to remain. Nigerian leaders are known to assume offices with lengthy promises, promising to alleviate the pains of the people but they thumbs usually turn out to be thicker than their waists while no new developments are recorded. The introduction of GSM by the last administration may well be concluded to be the only revolutionary achievement the nation has recorded in her entire 48 years of existence.

It is ironical that no Nigeria's leader has been to up a spiritual fight against the epileptic supply of power in the country which has worsened and presently remains at abysmal. There was hope when this present administration returned with a promise to battle the sector making it one of what has become famously known as "Seven Point Agenda" in the country but as usual hopes are once dimming following a recent pronouncement that the regime may be unable to meet up with its target of 6,000MW by 2009 and 10,000MW by 2011. The adverse effect of lack of constant power supply to the development of the economic cannot be overemphasized.

Every sector is seeing its worst stage in Nigeria; the health sector is not left out at our Teaching Hospitals, National Orthopaedic Hospitals have all become consulting clinics where citizens have to go in with so much money and come out with so much Bank tellers yet maternal rate is high. In Nigeria the citizens have to pay for virtually everything including hospital treatments thus giving everything to the country with no returns from the government. The education sector has been rubbished with the standard reduced to nothing, students have to pay more and receive almost nothing it. School fees continue to soar with much of the nation's potentials dropping out of our various institutions. We have been told of how 83% of those who sat for WAEC failed. Security problem has also worsened with the entry of the militancy in the Niger Delta where much of the oil of the nation has been obtained with nothing to show for the development of that very region.

The problem of Nigeria among others was terribly worsened when the Nation decided to relocate its capital from Lagos to Abuja duplicating everything hitherto available in Lagos without cogent reasons to do so. This development cost Nigeria a fortune because the nation had to spend so much to bring the nation's capital to the doors of the northern oligarchy pointing out meaningless reasons for embarking into such a white elephant project. Till today the government has not disclosed to the people how much the nation spent to build Abuja, the now glorious capital of the nation which any transparent nation would have done.

Corruption has also been another factor responsible for the present economic woes of Nigeria. Besides the Big wigs prosecuted by the Nuhu Ribadu, the now removed chairman of Economic and financial Crimes Commission, Nigerians are yet to see another corrupt official sentenced. Nothing have been heard again of all the pending cases in the Nigerian Court of Law involving the past governors in the former administration and as usual Nigerians have all forgotten that these ex-officials have cases to answer to corruption and the man who achieved the sentencing of Big-fish in the country for the first time have been removed and demoted in an unclear circumstances giving others the impression that seeking to truly make achievements in this area could cost you your entire career as a result the situation is best left as it is.  

It will result to undue unfairness if the present woes of the nation are not blamed on the northern elites who have ruled the nation for its better part of 48 years whether through military or civil rule and have failed to either lay good foundation for the development of the nation or correct their leadership failures. The British rested the leadership of the new born baby, Nigeria on the shoulders of the north who ruled from 1960 to 1966, with brief interruption by Aguiyi Ironsi, then Yakubu Gowon who has had the longest reign as a leader of the nation how the northern elites have continued to carry on with the helm of affairs of the nation, writing and rewriting the history of the nation is best understood in history itself while some capable hands from the other parts of the country have never tested leadership position at the helm of affairs of the nation.

Now that the common masses of the nation cannot find employment to put food on their tables, history will surely remember the roles every one of us has played in the life of our beloved country, Nigeria. Strangely, I am concluding this write-up written exactly on the 1st day of October 2008, a day to mark our independence without delving into solutions to the problems described above because it will have amounted to absolute nonsense doing so since our leaders will never take to such solutions, more so, all the solutions to these problems are well known to them. Let them act if they genuinely intend to do so. Nigeria we shall continue to hail thee!