NIGERIA 🇳🇬 @ 60 IS NOT WORTH CELEBRATING - OKON OFFIONG

NIGERIA @ 60 IS NOT WORTH CELEBRATING

BY OKON OFFIONG (De-Catalyst)

As Nigeria celebrate 60 years of independence, many say there isn't much cause for cheer. Fuel prices are at a record high and the nation is struggling to wean itself off oil.

straight months following the government's ending of fuel subsidies because of a budget crunch.

The price of fuel spiked sharply to a record high in September, rising by around 15% And it's not just the fuel prices that have risen. The cost of electricity has doubled — from 22 Naira (€0.05, $0.06) to over 60 Naira per kilowatt-hour.

At the birth of every nation come fresh dreams, new aspirations and a great hope for the future in a free nation. Independence gives the right and power of self-governance. With it, comes the greatest opportunity for the new nation to carve it own path and determine its own destiny. Nigeria should not be an exception.

"It has been Sixty years after we have gained independence. But still, a lot more is left to be desired. Ours is still a story of dashed hopes, fading dreams, uncertain future and daily struggle to live above one dollar for majority of the masses. Ours has been sixty long years of journey to nowhere. At Sixty, the nation is still underdeveloped, or at best – a developing nation. How would the heroes of our independence struggle feel seeing the current state of the country whose freedom they fought hard to get?

Nigeria is, no doubt, a great country with immense potential. But the leadership is in wrong and incapable hands. Our leaders are people with no understanding of responsibility and accountability. Nigerian is a nation blessed with competent human, natural and material resources the likes of which only few countries on Earth can boast of... But the leaders are with stolen mandates and lost conscience.

To say our leaders are bereft of ideas is an understatement. They have no desire for growth, only passion for power and positions, greed for looting public funds. Promises at election campaigns have become a mere rhetoric. Corruption is deeply engrained in the fabrics of the nation's leadership.

Sometimes I think perhaps we Nigerians are too greedy for asking our government to provide us basic amenities like clean drinking water, stable and steady power supply, good and passable roads, qualitative and affordable education, security of lives and properties. Or in the developed countries of the world, is it not the citizens who provide such for themselves? So why should expect such from our leaders here? Perhaps we should be grateful to our leaders for looting and embezzling public funds, for living flamboyant lifestyles while the masses live in poverty, for rigging elections and upturning the masses choice year-in, year-out.

From North to South, East to West, everyone should feel the true impact of a free and independent nation. Nigeria can be great, will be great no doubt but we must pay the needed sacrifice to earn our place among the great nations of the world.