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STATE OF A NATION at 61 - Naija no dey carry last - really?

"Naija no dey carry last", familiar with that mantra? But where do we stand 61 years after independence from Britain - first or last? Nigerians in the diaspora are fiercely competitive and the best in anything they do - they are everywhere in the US, the most educated minority ethnic group in America with over 61% of Nigerians above the age of 25 having a bachelor's degree. The story is not different in the UK or the rest of Europe. Nigerians make sway in the music world today with afrobeat becoming a global genre. Nollywood classic movies are enjoyed everywhere in the world now on Netflix and other platforms. Most of these films were produced in Nigeria by Nigerian artists and producers. There are several stories of young Nigerians securing admission to multiple Ivy League schools in the US from schools at home. There is no top US school that you will not find at least one Nigerian professor, including all the nine Ivy Leagues. Look at the NBA and NFL, there is hardly any NBA team that does not have a player of Nigerian descent, we are everywhere doing well for other nations.... taking subsidized education, however low quality, to benefit other nations, WHY?
This is a paradox though, the home front in Nigeria is in tatters - the country is bedeviled by the most incompetent leaders year-in-year-out. The nation's lot at 61 is gloomy and rather sad - all indices of growth have gone south and Nigerians at home are in deep pain from insecurity, unemployment in double digits, low or no remuneration, poor healthcare systems, poor road network, insensitive and myopic leaders who just say whatever comes to their mouth without weighing it. An average Nigerian, young or old wants to take the next flight out. 
 
I know some will argue we should focus on the good - I am not sure what good to focus on now in Nigeria - naira that now exchanges at N575 to a $1, being home to the poverty capital of the world, host to the most dreaded terrorist group in the world - Boko Haram that keeps killing, a nation where the president's kinsmen are maiming across the nation and his only solution is to take land across the nation for this marauding thugs in the name of RUGA, what is the interest rate for a small business loan - can you get the loan, how much does a congo of Gari sell for today compared to 6 years ago, etc.? The gap between the few who are rich and the majority who are poor is as deep as you can imagine. The nation is at the brink of disintegration and we can not afford to continue to engage in wishful thinking that, well, it is not that bad ..... we are sitting on a time bomb that can explode anytime.
 
Nigerians, home and abroad need to tell these same set of people who have ruled us from independence, who have stolen our commonwealth that it is ENOUGH - we want our nation back. If we are not wise at 61 when are we going to be wise, when there is no more nation to call home? 
 
Happy Independence, y'all.

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