For Chief Chekwas Okorie, founding National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Alhaji Yerima Shettima, National President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) and Chief Willy Ezugwu, former Secretary General, Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), the story of Nigeria is that missed opportunity despite abundant human and natural resources.

Okorie: Nigeria has retrogressed instead of progressing

We have failed our founding fathers, ourselves and the younger ones. Nigeria started on a good note before and after independences, but unfortunately, things began to degenerate. Instead of progressing we began to retrogress to the extent that what we hear today is about the good old days.

Nobody talks about the glorious new dawn and that is nothing to be happy about. Nigeria has become more divided than it was when it was forced into a nation by the colonial masters, in other words, the amalgamation that compelled different ethnic groups and political to come together as a country called Nigeria.

Even at that time, Chief Obafemi Awolowo made a notable statement that Nigeria was not a nation but a country of many nations, and therefore, called on leaders to try and make a nation out of the country called Nigeria.

We had what you may call a quasi-federation at that time, where the regions were developing at their own pace, exploring and exploiting their comparative advantages and contributing to the national coffers to the extent that revenue allocation was by 50 per cent derivation and that compelled the various regions to compete favourably, and they were growing.

At the turn of 1963, barely three years after independence, Nigeria had become a Federal Republic made up of four regions, namely, the Northern Region, Western Region, Midwestern Region and Eastern Region. The regions enjoyed substantial levels of autonomy.

Revenue was generated from agriculture and industries such as the textile mills. Oil was just one of them, but today it is the sole source of revenue for Nigeria.

At a point, the Eastern Region rose from being the smallest in terms of revenue generation, to become the fastest growing economy among Third World countries.

But we had the intervention by the military, which degenerated to the civil war because of the countercoup and nothing has improved ever since.

With the benefit of hindsight, the leadership Nigerians had at that time was the best ever. My generation still refers to that era as the good old days. Nigeria held great promise.

The military coup of 1966, which toppled the Federal Government led by Alhaji Tafawa Balewa as Prime Minister and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, as President, shattered the great promise Nigeria held and plunged the country into what has become an irreversible retrogression in all conceivable respects.

Nigeria lost its essence as a federation since the military incursion in the governance of the country. The 1999 Constitution was mischievously designed to either retrogress or impede development with the overwhelming majority of the citizens holding the short end of the stick.

Any ethnic group that grabbed power, struggled to put its people in total control of the government, economy and bureaucracy all at the same time, and that is what has kept us where we are.

Every policy of government is targeted to serve only a certain group of people and every president that we’ve had tried to surpass the one before in terms of nepotism, promotion of ethnicity and parochialism.

All these brought Nigeria down and when insecurity set in, people began to agitate to leave Nigeria not by any peaceful means, but by violent means. We now have Boko haram aspiring to set up a Caliphate Republic; ’we’ve had about Niger Delta Republic; we are now hearing about reenactment of the Biafran Republic and the Oduduwa Republic.

Things have degenerated to the extent that even our children have been prevent from learning their own history and they cannot even say who they are as a result of a deliberate policy of government. Also, as a result of a deliberate policy of government, Nigeria became a mono economy, whereas we were not like that before.

We are also being run with a fraudulently imposed constitution, which has contributed more than anything else in holding Nigeria down. Unfortunately, the same people who are beneficiaries of this imposed constitution have continued to resist its amendment.

Some people have even began to express the fear that the 2027 general election may be a mirage as there may be no Nigeria if things continue the way they are going. Some people will say that Nigeria has remained one by the grace of God but for how long are we going to continue like this. My submission is that something urgent should be done to save Nigeria.

We are also being run with a fraudulently imposed constitution, which has contributed more than anything else in holding Nigeria down

Shettima: Our founding fathers’ll be disappointed

So far so good, at least, we are still united as a nation. But in terms of expectation, we are yet to get there and I am very sure that our founding fathers will be disappointed wherever they are over the dismal performances of those who succeeded them.

We’ve had experience of successive governments that did not do well, and we will be unfair if we conclude that the challenges we are facing at the moment are caused by the present administration.

We will not be that myopic to think that way. However, while we believe that the hardship, and to an extent, the insecurity we are experiencing were not solely caused by the present administration, they should not be an excuse for failure because President Bola Tinubu cannot feign ignorance of what the situation was before he aspired to lead Nigeria.

There was problems already on ground but he promised to turns things around although we knew that we were going to run into trouble given the way the immediate past administration conducted affairs of the nation. However, we are hoping that President Tinubu will fulfill his campaign promises as we have never had it tough the way it is now.

Ezugwu: Bad leadership holding Nigeria down

It is unfortunate that Nigeria is yet to get her leadership right after 64 years of independence from colonial rule. Unfortunately, this has turned the country to a banana republic and it will remain in this situation as far as we keep shying away from electoral reforms that will ensure emergence of credible leaders.

Nigeria is a nation that is blessed with everything on earth in terms of human and natural resources but our leaders have continued to hold us down. You can imagine that after the people voted for those who should lead them in the last general election, it was the judiciary that ended up determining who should be in office.

Leaders are supposed to emerge through the electoral process but that is not the case in Nigeria today. Leaders now emerge through the judicial process. We are in a situation where two or three people will impose leaders on the people all in the name of tribunals.

This is an aberration that should be condemned by those who mean well for Nigeria. So, sincerely speaking and looking at the state of the nation, there is nothing worth celebrating as Nigeria still remains a sleeping giant at 64.There is absolutely nothing to show for 64 years of independence whether in the area of infrastructure, education or security.

Take a look at the state of the Niger Delta region, where we have oil that is our major source of revenue. The area has been neglected over the years by successive administrations.

For Nigeria to catch up with rest of the world, we must have electoral reforms that will not only guarantee the peoples’ right to elect their leaders, but ensure that their votes count. Until we do this, we will remain in this situation of motion without movement.

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