On Tuesday the 1st of October Nigeria marked a significant milestone by celebrating its sixty fourth anniversary of independence.
As early as seven am the messages of Happy Independence Day tumbled forth in my WhatsApp dm’s and various groups that I belong to.
Back home in Nigeria a national holiday was declared and President Bola Ahmed Olakunle Tinubu delivered his Independence Day speech at seven am. I did not listen to his speech and no longer do.
In South Africa , the Nigerian High Commision under the leadership of Acting Ambassador Temitope Ajayi rolled out the drums. Amb. Ajayi wore a respelendent white buba and sokoto with a green hat, he wore no agbada, he looked picture perfect with his beautiful wife. I was not invited to the ceremony and had I cracked an invite it would not have been honoured. To me, these events are a hollow ritual. I find them particularly of no import since it was Amb. Ajayi’s predecessor Haruna Manta who announced early last year that 500,000 Nigerians in South Africa are undocumented. Manta also announced that most undocumented Nigerians are not interested in getting their documents. What a shame!
Fourteen years ago on another Independence Day bombs went off in Abuja killing a number of Nigerians. This time around bombs did not go off in Nigeria but millions are battling with hunger and sadly those voices were not heard even though the President’s independence speech contained assurances that their voices have been heard.
The very next day being the 2nd of October, the President jetted out to France on his new $150million jet for a two week holiday. This latest travel is clearly insensitive and totally unnecessary given its timing and the deep pain thrombosis millions of Nigerians are dealing with.
The renewed hope promised by the president is not renewing but rather expiring daily. The President is enjoying and his people are suffering and not smiling at all. The President travels at the drop of the hat while his own people can’t afford to buy tickets to embark on local travel nor travel by road due to insecurity in the land. The people are stuck between a rock and a hard place and all they are told is please be patient. Even the First Lady was the United Nations General Assembly annual jamboree with no benefits to Nigerians.
Beyond Nigeria our fortunes waned in the same year of the nation marking 64 years of independence.
The Agbado and Yam and 50 million jobs promised has been all powder puffs. The EFCC has also become a toothless bulldog under President Tinubu . The recent Yahaya Bello saga is a clear indication that there is no political will by the President to fight corruption. In fact, the President’s body language supports corruption.
At the Olympics no medal was awarded to won by our contingent of 82 athletes. I do salute D’Tigrees though for reaching a historic quarter final before being dumped out by the USA. Tobi Amusan, the world record holder and former World Champion in the women’s 100 metres hurdles did not even make the Olympic final. NBA sensation Giannis Antetokoumpo chose to play for Greece as did many others who featured for other countries such as Ireland, USA, France and Germany and winning medals for same. Anthony Joshua lost very badly to Dynamite Daniel Dubois and Israel Adesanya lost in the UFC to Du Plessis of South Africa. Even in the beauty space Chidimma Adetsina pulled out of the Miss SA competition over controversies about her nationality. It was an annus horribilis for Nigeria in sports and other competitions.
The President along with fifty four other African leaders travelled to Beijing to go and meet one man. Africa owes China almost $100 billion combined. Nigeria owes more than 50% of its gdp a whopping $175 billion dollars.
The Naira is now one of the weakest currencies in Africa and Nigeria ranks fourth largest economy after SA, Egypt and Nigeria. South Africa’s budget is almost half of Nigeria’s GDP whereas Nigeria’s budget is less than 30% of South Africa’s budget.
In South Africa , there is hardly any visibility of any Nigerian brands . Access Bank South Africa and Dangote Cement are here but their visibility in the banking and built up environment sectors is very minimal to non-existent. SA companies on the other hand are massively in the driving seat in Nigeria with brands such as MTN, Multichoice, Sanlam, RMB, Old Mutual, SA Tourism, SAA , Nampak and wine brands leading the way.
Since its formation in 2013 the Dangote brand in South Africa is yet to partake in any Nigerian community activation. No Nigerian works for Dangote Cement in South Africa.
By the way South Africans can travel with to Nigeria with visa on arrival whilst Nigerians cannot do the same. The President is yet to visit South Africa after almost two years in office to address the many trade imbalances but he has visited Europe at least a dozen times since his election. What a sad situation we are in . South Africa is eating Nigeria’s lunch happily and our leaders are enjoying watching the spectacle.
It is not all doom and gloom though because a Nigerian in diaspora by the name of Bayo Ogunlesi sold his company in the US for $12 billion dollars, a Nigerian Jollof sauce has found its way onto Marko’s shelves in South Africa and Kemi Badenoch is running to replace Rishi Sunak as the Conservative Party Leader. This is Kemi’s third attempt qnd the first by any Nigerian in UK political history.
Nigeria@ 64 should be about serious issues such as education , health, security and development and also immigration. I thank EduTimesAfrica for hosting a webinar on October 1st on the vexed issue of whether children should gain University admission at age 16 or 18. I also salute Nigerians wherever they are who are doing great things. As a Nigeria heads to another milestone being Armed Forces Remembrance Day on January 15, 2025 my hope is that it’s leaders and its people will focus on issues that affect the lives of millions of its citizens rather than the hollow ritual of eating Jollof the rice and pepper soup in the future.
We will be judged by what we build and not what we destroy.
