A Confucius scholar once said and l quoted "The first fifty years of a country determines how long the country will be on earth".Nigeria became a formally independent federation on October 1, 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970, followed by a succession of democratically-elected civilian governments and military dictatorships, until achieving a stable democracy in the 1999 presidential election; the 2015 election was the first time an incumbent president had lost re-election. The fifty years of Nigeria after independent has however recorded a terrific future of the nation, every sectors in Nigeria are dilaptating everyday yet the countrypeople never sized to believe their leaders for positive change.
All over the world, Nigeria is known as the giant of Africa, owing to its large population and economy and is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank. It is multinational state inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups speaking 500 distinct languages, all identifying with a wide variety of cultures. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa in the north, Yoruba in the west, and Igbo in the east, together comprising over 60% of the total population.
Nigeria’s poor socio-economic performance, human rights abuses, widespread poverty, insecurity, corruption and lack of trust in the political system have led to disenchantment amongst the electorate, especially the youth who make up 51% of the 84 million registered voters. This matters in a fast-growing population of over 200 million, with more than 60% of people under 25.
Being the giant of Africa, corruption flows like river, although corruption is a global menace, but Nigeria suffers most of all. People started understanding that this nation has a corrupt culture. For many years, Nigeria has earned a considerable sum of money from the rock-tar, which has gone down the gomorrah that was created by corruption. Being the oil giant, which runs on the grease of politics, Nigeria could be characterized as a wealthy nation staying afloat on oil. However, the problem is that money from oil does not flow to the people. The top public officials are wealthy because they hide behind the falsehood that public money belongs to no one. The national news is full of information on how public officials are buying million-dollar mansions and accumulating stolen public funds in financial establishments abroad.
Crime and terrorism have been among those landmines that caused the fall of Africa giant, These two issues also negatively influence the progress of the country. The Nigerian crime issue gives many people in this country sleepless nights. In some places, people feel that they cannot walk around their neighborhoods freely anymore. Public security is an essential aspect of every state, and Nigeria has failed in this respect. As for terrorist attacks, they are now on the rise in Nigeria, which is the result of Boko Haram activities over the past years. Also in recent years, the rate of kidnapping is so alarming.
Unemployment is one of the most damaging problems of Nigeria, and many people are disappointed due to widespread joblessness. It seems like we are going round in circles. Unemployment is high due to the economic recession, and we have a tough economic situation due to the high rate of unemployment. We need to break out of this vicious cycle. According to reports by the National Bureau Statistics (NBS), in 2019, the rate of unemployment in Nigeria was 23.1%, and the underemployment rate was 16.6%.
Furthermore, due to the high level of unemployment, in March 2014, 16 people were killed in a scuffle when 500,000 despairing job-seekers were hurrying to apply for about 5,000 vacancies in the Immigration Service of Nigeria. Students, after graduating from higher educational institutions, often face low morale due to joblessness. A lot of Nigerian graduates were not even able to acquire useful skills during their education process. They were busy reading textbooks without having an opportunity to practice what they read. That is why they apply for jobs, and they are not hired due to the lack of specialized skills.
The human cost of bad governance is evident in the low level of basic infrastructure, weak healthcare and educational system, high unemployment and the number of out-of-school children, amongst others. Across the socio-economic class divide, there is a feeling that the effects of bad governance will catch up with everyone someday. The recent protests by young Nigerians against police brutality, the EndSARS protests, exposed the gross human rights abuses suffered by many Nigerians at the hands of the institution created to protect them. More than about the police itself, the protests demonstrated the youth’s discontentment with governance throughout the country.
Nigerians are now demanding that the government tackles the root causes of poverty, insecurity, human rights abuses and socio-economic instability – through the levers of good governance. Moving ahead to the 2023 elections, attention must be focused on the overlooked question of who becomes a political leader to achieve these goals.
Hence, school of thought believes that the contemporary problems of Nigeria as they related to the economy are unemployment, corruption, devaluation of the national currency, poor infrastructure management, and disproportional taxes and benefits. Nigeria is sixty-one years yet, it is facing numerous challenges which has determined the future of young Nigerians. The race towards improving accountability and good governance begins now, and the power is in the people’s hands. The focus should be on encouraging the election of candidates who are trustworthy, competent and committed to serving in the public’s interest, building the Nigeria its citizens and young people hope to see.
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