The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) says it remains optimistic that Nigeria’s diversity can be built on to become a source of strength.
The organisation made this remark on the occasion of the country’s 60th Independence Day anniversary.
Nigeria, a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse country, gained independence from Britain on 01 October, 1960.
Although the country is Africa’s biggest oil exporter and has the largest natural gas reserves on the continent, it has struggled to achieve its full potential.
‘The Nigeria of our dreams is possible, notwithstanding the problems, which have delayed the nation’s quest to take our rightful place in the comity of nations’, the CDD said in a statement signed by its Director, Idayat Hassan.
‘While it may be true that the realities have dashed expectations and led citizens to question the very basis of Nigeria’s existence as a country, it is also true that if citizens unite, and bond together to speak and act with a common voice, the challenges will be much easier to overcome’.
Nigeria accounts for about 200 million people and available data shows that about 87 million Nigerians, or half the population, live on less than US$1.90 per day.
Corruption, according to economic analysts, has given room for diversion of the limited public funds, undermined economic progress and impeded policy changes required for Nigeria’s development.
According to CDD, Nigeria’s problem is the lack of leadership and the right framework for governance.
‘The same problems of hunger, poverty, malnutrition, maternal mortality, lack of infrastructure and human rights abuse, which are the reality for many ordinary Nigerians of Kanuri extraction, are the same challenges confronting other ordinary Nigerians of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Ijaw extractions’, the statement read.
‘The same consequences of lack of transparency and accountability in governance that is affecting the ordinary Nigerian in the south, are the same as what the people in north are facing’.
The organisation, therefore, said that the energy being expended by separatist groups for the purpose of the breakup of the country would be better applied to uniting the country and making it work for the good of all.
Source: CDD West Africa
Photo source: j-No