Critical observations on Nigeria’s economic and political stability
By Adisa Adeleye
IN this column a fortnight ago, I asked whether the ‘Amalgamation of 1914’ was a mistake. The feedback was that judging by the present state of events in Nigeria, the step taken by Lord Lugard, though helpful to Britian, was not in the best interest of the country.
Many argued that instead of one politically unstable country, it would have been possible to have three or more independent countries – strong, reliable and in a competitive relationship with one another.
Others believe that it was not the amalgamation that was faulty but the inability of past and present leaderships to maintain political unity and evolve economic prosperity.
It would appear that the problems of the country are deep rooted and thus, could not be blamed on the present President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan.
The President recently in a speech in Enugu called for the evaluation of events since 1914 and also assessment of events since independence in 1960.
In fact, the political situation suffered a terrible stroke in the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70. That war could be attributable to the intransigence of old politicians and the inability of the military to agree on the principle of justice, fairplay and equity that was needed at that time.
There should be no more grand illusion of political unity, religious tolerance and ethnic co-existence. There should be a need for dialogue to support the continuous existence of Nigeria as a strong and happy nation.
In recent weeks the economic stability of the country has been called to question. The other day, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that Nigeria was not broke as being imagined by many soothsayers just because of recent delays in salary payments and a day postponement of the meeting of the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
“With a GDP (Gross
Category: Politics
