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61 years of our togetherness

Gabriel Mesikaye

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Nigeria as sovereign state has been a solution finder to other Sister Nations around her. It quite unfortunate that Nigeria today seems to be a country that is seeking solution elsewhere. The 61 years of togetherness was a mere thought, this thought might be a desire to achieve certain goals.
Although the Nigerian Amalgamation of 1914 was a complete imperialist intention (Britain) not Nigerians desire. This forceful unification has contributed a lot of problems, not only that some political analysts argue that the 1914 Union is the genesis of Nigeria’s problem. This paper aim to analyse to some extent the, 61 years of togetherness” in Nigeria Socio-Political and Economic sphere since independence.
Sixty-one years of togetherness has been characterized with series of issues ranging from civil war, ethnic rivalry, kidnapping, bad government, military intervention and corrupt practices which has truncated the democratic process culminating from an ideology called selfish interest. Uneven distribution of resources which has denied so many young talented individuals to start beguiling into ungodly practices such as cybercrime (popularly known as Yahoo-Yahoo), raping, terrorism and kidnapping for ransom just to mention a few.
The issue of uneven distribution of resources has always been a problem for togetherness to be achieved. For instance some communities in South Senatorial District of Ondo State Nigeria has been in total darkness for ten years electricity.
The transition from military rule to civil rule was a mere way for Nigerians to start working towards the togetherness of the Country irrespective of their social ethnic background. However, the reverse is the case as the civil rule has been truncated by Military Coups.
The issue of unstable government since 1960 to 1999 has led to chaos in the country; such as civil war of 1967-1970 where many lives were lost claimed. The togetherness of Nigeria is a mere thought because every state is trying to defend her territorial region from hoodlums, unknown gun men, Herdsmen issues while every tribe his/her homeland through the establishment of is trying to secure Local Security Network e.g Amotekun.
It is quite unfortunate that despite the fact that Nigeria portrays herself as the Giant of Africa, the country has found it difficult to use her resources to solve her problems. The fact that Nigeria is blessed with so many natural resources, her multi-ethnicity which paved way for togetherness has been jeopardized due to issues emanating from some part of the country. Issues like kidnapping, banditry, high way robbery, attacks from unknown gunmen to some citizen in some part of the country e.g. The attack carried out by unknown gunmen in Ibarapa Area of Oyo State which claimed many lives would not make our togetherness to be achieved.
Another factor that would have paved way for Nigeria’s togetherness is the Inter-Ethnic Marriage. The inter-ethnic marriage is not functioning as it ought to be due to the fear of security issues, language barrier, Tolerance. The issue of ethnicity gave birth to another problem called secession which is the desire to separate from a union.
Nigeria economy since independence is not in good condition. The Naira is not equivalent to U.S Dollar, in fact the margin is wide. In 1983, One (1) dollar was 0.894 Naira ($1= N0.894) not even up to a Naira but 89kobo. Every Programmes expected to develop the economy has been politicized hence this resulted into retarded economy. A good example of this is refusal of Nigeria government to rehabilitate and develop Nigeria refinery which would have helped to unity the entire ethnic groups. Some individuals who tried in the past to establish refinery ended up been sabotaged. e.g Dangote’s effort to build refinery in Ondo State. Also, some ethnic groups claimed that Government Programmes that were meant to assist the farmers, businessmen/women are not equally distributed. e.g Grants and Loans.
Socially, Nigerians interaction among various tribes, states, & ethnic groups was a mere thought and core of this pretence was the desire to achieve a certain goal. Although some prominent personalities argued that Ethnicity was not our problem rather irresponsible politics coupled with corrupt practices. However, this is not true. For example, recently the killing of some southern people in Jos over religious issue shows that Nigeria’s unity is a mere thought. Some tribes in Nigeria do not permit other ethnic groups to establish business in their area, therefore the togetherness of Nigeria over 61 years of independence has been for some particular ethnic group or selected personalities.
The National Youths Service Scheme has been portrayed as one of the programmes stimulating togetherness of Nigeria. However, the programme unifying Nigeria, although some are scared to serve their fatherland in another geo-political zone due to insecurity, kidnapping, banditry and terrorism ravaging the country.
Also, despite the adoption of democratic process, ”Democracy” which paved way for the establishment of political parties, issues of ethnicity and desire to produce a leader by a certain tribe have been banes for togetherness in Nigeria. Each geo-political zone is dominated by a certain ethnic group and this is one of the issues that led to coup détat in 1966. The fear of one tribe dominating others prompt the civil war of 1967.
Finally, for togetherness to be achieved, we have to re-examine our mindset as Nigerians by putting the interest of one another irrespective of our ethnic group into consideration.

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