The Nigeria I Missed

If I could travel back in time to any era, I would travel back to the 1970s/1980s. This time in my country's history can be termed the golden era. When I take a good look at my country today, it almost brings tears to my eyes that we aren't more developed than most of Europe, as we should be. Nigeria is an extremely blessed country. The blessings abound underneath the soil, in the air, in the clouds and everywhere. Nigeria is one of the biggest crude oil producers, we have all sorts of mineral and precious stone underneath our soil, our soil is fertile for agricultural purpose, we have good weather, there's no fear of any form of natural disaster etc. What else could we ask for?? To think we have all this and we still live in such poverty and misery is just heart wrenching. We should be amongst the developed nations of the world today, we should be part of G7, G20 and so on, but here we are.

Getting back to the question, why would I want to go back to that time? During that time, Nigeria's economy was mostly based on agriculture, and we were flourishing cause we were darn good at it. Then the discovery of crude oil happened. Nigeria was exporting crude oil and all of that money was like excess as the proceeds from agriculture alone was enough to cater for the country. In that time, Nigeria as a country had more money than it could possibly spend. The land was prosperous, the economy was good and booming, money was easy to earn, there was zero unemployment, students had jobs waiting for them upon graduation, there was little to no violence, and whatever violence there was stemmed from ideological extremism, not vices. In summary, the land was flowing with milk and honey.

Let me shock you. Today, the exchange rate of the Nigeria naira to American dollar is #589 to $1, but what if I told you that there was a time when the exchange rate was around #0.5 to $1. You think you're seeing wrong? No, you're not. In our golden era, that was the case.

When you travel to a foreign country, you have to exchange your currency for the country's native currency, but there are a bunch of currencies that are relatively universal, say the dollar,euro and pounds. In the golden years of Nigeria, when you walk into a store or office building in the US or UK, you could pay for goods and services with the Nigerian naira, without having to exchange it first. Our currency was so valuable that it was one of the few universal currency in those days. In those days, it was possible to have a single briefcase of Nigerian naira note have more value than two briefcases of dollar notes added together.

In that time, students earned way more than professors earn today. The universities were well funded. There was free food and education was truly free, from primary to university level. Due to proper funding, our universities were standard and amongst the best. For as little as #200, your entire monthly budget would be covered even if you were the type to squander, but today, #200,000 isn't enough to even meet one's basic need for a month alone.

What Went Wrong??

I keep asking myself this question every now and then. Who's to blame? But at the end of the day, everybody is as guilty as any other. The government, the economic advisers, the press, the youths, the electorates, and the populace at large.

The government is to blame for abandoning the development of agriculture after the discovery of crude oil. They are to be blamed for making policies that incentivized moving away from agriculture instead of encouraging it and developing it, so we could do industrial farming on a massive scale. They are to be blamed for not nipping the problem of urban-rural migration when the could. They are to be blamed for looting all the excess money, all that wealth. They are to be blamed for presiding over the downfall of a great nation. That are to be blamed.

The advisers are to be blamed for not telling their principals the truth, for not doing enough to make their principals listen to sound advice. They are to blamed for sitting in the rooms where decisions that would eventually destroy this country were been made both here and on the international stage, and for doing nothing to stop it.

The youths, electorate and populace are to be blamed for constantly putting and recycling bad leaders in power. People with questionable characters and lack the spirit of service. They are to be blamed for choosing leaders across religious/ ethnic lines. For not not demanding of these leaders, accountability and service.

Together, they killed our country and today, my generation isn't doing any better, we are actually making it worse. We do not care for our country anymore. We all want to fly abroad to greener pasture. This is quite bad, and I can't help but cry for my country.

Conclusion

Can my country still be saved? I don't know. Can it be savaged, I don't know. But another election year is around the corner and thus far we have been provided with options that are simply a recycling of the old guard. We are going to have to choose between the devils and blue seas, just like every other election. We never have the option of choosing the best qualified for the job, as those are never given as options, we get to choose which devil we feel we think will ruin our lives the least. I shake my head for the sad and grim reality for/in my country.

Thanks for reading my article.