It's obvious Sub Saharan Africa is one of the worst regions in the world and West Africa is part of this region in Africa. Africa generally is such a struggling continent. North Africa is quite different from the rest of the continent for so many reasons but this article is focused on establishing how Sub Saharan Africa got it all wrong using Nigeria as a case study. We all know how naturally wealthy countries in this region are but are languishing in poverty.
Corruption factor: yes, we all know how corruption ate deep into the Nigerian system. I'm not really perturbed about this, I am more concerned about factors that made the corruption factor a lucrative venture. Corruption is everywhere but in the case of Nigeria, it has surpassed logic motive to madness! Here are the factors that led to the current regretable state of Nigeria:
Poor Education: for many years, the standard of education in the country suffered development. No society can attain development without superb educational system.The coin lies with the public owned schools because that is where many Nigerians can afford education. The standard of public primary and secondary education is beyond poor! It's humiliating and disgraceful. The products of such near-failed system further surfer depressing standard of education in the university. Years of sustained quality education could have produced sound citizens who would have surpassed this politics by ethnicity that has destroyed the country.
- Blinded followers: it's high time we stop blaming our leaders, we also need to share from this portion of bread of blames. Followers of our politics are blinded by sentiment instead of reality. We have failed to hold our leaders accountable. We have failed to push them into accepting policies that are favourable to the masses. We have failed to unite to fight these cabals killing the hope of an average Nigerian for decades now. Same set of people ruling us for many years while they continue to make things easier for their children, leaving the average Nigerian to surfer in order to survive. Our leaders know this and have always capitalized on this syndrome.
- Religion: religion has killed us more than corruption. I don't want to emphasize more on this. Religion has made many people lazy, corrupt and blindfolded. It's so painful how religion made many people not to think outside miracle.
- Poor science and technology development: science and technology are the bedrock of any society we know today. We failed to sincerely invest in science and technology for decades when other nations were championing science and technology. We could have reached a level of pride if we had paid attention to science and technology. We can't boost of any brand in the field of science and technology and we want to stand before other nations! Not possible. We have the talent, we had the options of identifying these talents from secondary schools, invest heavily on them, develop platform on which they can practice their talent and train them further home and abroad under strong partnership. If we had developed this system, we would have reached a level of sustainable science and technology development which would have skyrocketed development in the country.
- Laziness: I must say this: we are lazy in this country. We love finished products without asking how we can start producing such finished products. We have many natural resources available but we are yet to develop many of them. If the government had invested in various capacity within the regions, we would have reached an enviable level today. For instance, the east is known for creativity in the fashion, art, plastic and automobile industries, the government would have invested in these sectors in the past. The north is known for agriculture, the west is known for agriculture and vibrant media, south south is home of oil. Just look at how blessed this great country is but leaders without love and vision for the country destroyed this nation.
- Wicked federal structure: this remains one of our biggest problems and I don't see it going away. The structure of our federation is not healthy for development. There could have been systematic policies to develop this country based on regions with regional government just the way the military and police are structured but regions having more powers to develop on their own pace. The followers would have been programmed to question their regional leaders more. The regional leaders will stand for federal government. There must be capital cities for each of the regions with mega business projects to develop other provinces under them. Due to the complex nature of Nigeria, such system of government could have done us good. Our leaders are enjoying free ride in power and no one is making the seat hot for them because no region wants to attack his own in power no matter how bad such leader is. Regional government answerable to the central government could have served the country better.
Well, there is still hope, we just hope the youths are liberated from this shackle and think outside 'miracle' and question their leaders with a united voice. The elites have paved the way for their offsprings leaving the children of the average to survive by 'miracle'. God bless Nigeria.
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