This country is getting worse. My generation is tired and moving to other countries, if they can. The elite have secured their futures via 2nd passports & foreign accounts. Even if Nigeria dissolves to chaos, they will still make money via solid minerals like Congo/Sierra Leone.
It is the masses who will suffer from an exploding population, health epidemics, food shortages, crime, bad governance etc.
I see maybe one or two strategies saving Nigeria. One is the "George Soros strategy". Make your money abroad where Nigeria can't reach it and then use it for politics. That is, if you're determined not to steal or make money via the system.
Another is the Biblical strategy, where unusual and extremely creative wisdom overcomes the mighty. But that assumes we still have wise people in this country. After what our decimated education has done to us, e get as e be.
Relying on a mass movement or Messiah (aka MLK/Mandela/Ghandi model) has no timeline or strategy. It may or may not happen. You can't plan for it and your life will just be wasting while you're waiting.
Living in Nigeria is not living. It is an "existence".
I will try to explain why I believe "Nigeria is getting worse", within the context of my tweets.
I acknowledge that the Nigerian government has made some strides in security and infrastructure, but when Nigerians grumble that things are getting worse, it's because citizens tend to focus on "human statistics" - the things that affect our daily lives.
Human statistics include poverty rates, GDP per capita, the gap between the rich & the poor (GINI), education rates, employment & employability, inflation and food prices, among others. We feel the effects of those things keenly.
I have provided links to some of these statistics for your viewing pleasure: nigerianstat.gov.ng, ceicdata.com/en/indicator/n…, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c…, qz.com/africa/1313380…, tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-pe…, ceicdata.com/en/nigeria/pov…
You see, there's a problem of "love language". Nigerians care about one set of things, but government keeps shouting about an entirely different set of things. Thus, there's dissonance.
Government complains about misrepresentation by "irresponsible media", yet forgets it owns mass media and has the power and responsibility to shape its own narrative.
Unless a nation has the luck to possess the (human) resources and small population of a Dubai for instance, it is difficult to leapfrog years of infrastructural development, without uncommon vision and creativity. Traits we do not readily identify with this government.
This means, Nigeria currently does not have a timetable for when it will develop and each year that passes, is a year of citizens' lives.
People relocate because they are tired of using their lives to wait for a national vision they do not trust and cannot articulate, predict or control. They've seen Nigeria play the dance of 2 steps forward, 5 steps backward before. Who knows what will happen next?
Let's examine more human statistics - Fear Quotient. If you were to run a national poll, you would discover that Nigerians are deeply afraid of our arms of government, regulatory agencies and law enforcement officers.
When we go to a government building, we brace ourselves for who we need to beg or bribe. When we see LASTMA, SARS, AEPB or the Police, we pray to escape undetected, even when we've done nothing wrong.
No amount of propaganda about the economy or infrastructure can curb this fear. It is real and ever-present. We inherently sense that our Government rules us. It doesn't serve us.
More on dissonance. If our hospitals are working as they should, why are Doctors leaving? Why is medical tourism growing? If our education is working, why is private education more sought after? Why are our people unemployable?
If business is booming, why is unemployment rising and why are people poorer? Businesses cannot plan, because we cannot predict who will tax us next or which harebrained policy will wreck our business models.
Fear Quotient is at an all-time high and one only needs to read about court orders that are ignored by government or plans to set up a Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech and we experience amygdala high-jack.
Everyday, government tries to limit and silence us. We are still looking for journalists that have disappeared, by the way.
Other indicators that tell us all is not well in Nigeria, include the near complete breakdown in values as well as worrying stats about domestic abuse, rape, online pornography addiction (including juvenile porn), early onset high blood pressure etc.
The Nigerian government is quick to point out that it is trying. But, we did not elect it to try. We did not elect it to serve us mediocre scraps of progress that make us a mockery among other African countries. We elected it to perform.
The sad thing is there is scant consequence for non-performance. In a society with a largely uneducated, poverty-stricken electorate, money trumps reason in elections. You cannot easily fire government officials for non-performance. And they never resign in this part of the world
Government needs to focus its communication on "human statistics". That is what truly matters to us. And it needs to learn to communicate with empathy, compassion and respect.
We are not government's servants. We do not deserve to be talked down to with condescension. Tone and body language are as important as words.
In the digital age, there should be no communication vacuum. If I Google any important national matter, I should be able to see Government's response in clear and simple terms.
I shouldn't need to wait for days or chase after a Freedom of Information request. Our government seems reactive rather than proactive.
Finally, there are so many good people in government. They are working tirelessly to make Nigeria better. They are sacrificing so much. In the same way, there are many good people in the private sector, without whom, government cannot execute its noble plans.
However, what I sense is a lack of coordination and communication of effort, particularly from government. So, we always hear and see the bad and not so much, the good. Surely, our government can do better.
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