By October 1, this year, Nigeria will be exactly 50 years. Sadly, there is virtually nothing to show that we have ruled ourselves for 50 good years. Lets face it! What improvement has our education sector witnessed since independence? Incessant strike actions have led to the springing up of ill-equipped private schools. Our public schools are not functioning properly. The poor man cannot afford the fees in posh private schools. Hence, he has no alterative than to abandon his child in the so-called government or public school, “enjoying” free education. Who suffers it at the end? Of course, the children-the future hope of our country.

Let us look into another part where the country is still crying of pain. Next to the education sector is the health care. There is high rate of infant mortality and pregnancy related deaths in Nigeria. Life expectancy is sharply in the decline. Government appears not prepared to make any reasonable improvement in this sector. General hospitals and health centres are empty as doctors mind their own businesses In their private clinics, where only the favoured class can foot the bill. The poor man keeps on suffering in an ailment which continues to aggravate and finally sends him back to his ancestors. Is this the Nigeria we desired?

But that’s not all. Let us take a look at our roads, especially the Federal Government roads which remain death-traps. There is no cogent reason to satisfy the Nigeria people why the federal government abandon the East/West Road construction for the past two years” number of ghastly motor accidents that occurred in that road last year is alarming. Let me thank Governor Amaechi for his initiative in building a network of roads in Rivers State. This, we have never witnessed since the creation of the state some forty years back.

Yes, the country is sick. Poverty itself is sickness. The gap between the haves and the have nots are still widening as our Poverty Alleviation Programme has failed to address this problem. What hope is for the poor? Are they doomed to continue to waddle in the cesspool of penury, as hunger’s clenched firsts threaten to squeeze the life out of them?

A poet once lamented, “Water, water everywhere; but there is none to drink”, Over 70 per cent of the globe is covered with water. Unfortunately, six in every ten people, worldwide, have no access to potable water. In Nigeria, the situation seems to be aggravating daily, as a large number of people die yearly on diseases resulting from the consumption of bad water. In my home town, for example, people are forced to drink dirty, moldy water from wells, ponds and lakes, infested with warns, cockroaches, millipedes, centipedes and other deadly bacteria, for lack of good drinking water. The unpleasant result is incessant outbreak of cholera, diarrhea etc.

Need I talk about the plight of the Nigerian child? Obviously, it makes me weep each time I see our God-given children -the future hope of our country- roaming the street as peasant hawkers with tattered rags on their bodies and trays of wares on their heads. Many do several hard, menial works daily just to have food for the day. Some of them are at the tender age of five. The ambition of many Nigerian fathers remains too primitive. The typical Nigerian father desires to have an army of children – if possible to the size of one local government area. Children they cannot take proper care of. If we want to shape the future of Nigeria, then, we must start shaping the future of our children in order to give their lives a meaning.

According to the Bible creation story, recorded in Genesis Chapter One, Verse Three, the sovereign God created light first. The importance of light is as old as the hills. This explains why God gave first priority to light because He knows that His creatures cannot enjoy life on earth when the entire world is enveloped with darkness. But here in Nigeria, electricity is a luxury good, enjoyed only by the rich. Many towns and villages live in perpetual darkness. One of the pledges of this administration at its inception was to effectively tackle the problem of electricity to ensure that every community has light to make life more meaningful to the people. But the confidence Nigerians had on this promise died a sudden death when the federal government, last year, budgeted a whopping sum of money for government’s own steady electricity. The situation now is, if you need light, you have to buy your own generator, save money to buy fuel which is now at a cut-throat prize, maintain the generator and be prepared to face the danger of noise and air pollutions. The importance of electricity cannot be over-emphasised. Unsteady electricity is bane of business success. Armed robbers and other agents of darkness have their field days at nights when there is no light. In other words, darkness promotes criminalities.

Corruption stinks in every sector. There is corruption in government ministries, companies and schools. It is almost impossible for anyone to gain employment today without bribing those at the helm of affairs. Payment vouchers are loaded with ghost names. In our institutions of higher learning, greedy lecturers sell their conscience with a mess of porridge to award grades to dunces and dullards. In spite of the effort of the indefatigable EFCC, insane1ooting of public treasury by those at the corridor of power is still rampant. When shall all these end!

Next to corruption is the persistent wave of violent crime. With the advent of democracy, one would think that armed robbery, assassination, terrorism, kidnapping and other related bloody criminal acts, would have subsided. Unfortunately, kidnapping, for example, is steadily increasing in spite of the so-called amnesty. Last weekend, a security guard was kidnapped at a construction site. The contractor was forced to cough up N50m before the poor man was ransomed. This dastardly act is, of course, deplorable.

For lack of time and space, I cannot harp on other calamities plaguing our dear country, Nigeria – the Giant of Africa. The Bible tells us that the people will rejoice when the righteous rule. Africa’s foremost Novelist, Prof Chinua Achebe, also in one of his inspiring books, “The Problem With Nigeria” stated categorically in the opening sentence of the book that the problem with Nigeria is LEADERSHIP. If our Leaders should have the fear of God, they will be in the right part to the land of wisdom. It is only then that they can judiciously utilise the tax payers’ money for the benefit of every citizen of Nigeria and transform the country to an enviable land. It is never too late to effect a positive change. Let us reason together.

Constance wrote from Rumuji Town, Rivers State.

Constance O. Igwe