Nigeria on the ropes and the way to go

Nigeria on the ropes and the way to go

By Richard Mammah

Without as much as any equivocation, Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria is presently ‘on the ropes.’ The challenge now is to chart the way to go.

With ravaging insecurity, governance statis, inter-ethnic and religious tempers, it is clear that very many nerves have been frayed. It will take a real effort to resolve the crisis.

The issues are long and deep and largely stem from causes that are both historic and contemporary. In this there are notable dates and sequences. And definitely ‘very many errors in rendering.’

We have the non-concluded Jihad of 1804. Then the 1914 amalgamation. Then the equally half-street constitutional conferences. Then the papered storms at Lancaster.

We moved on to the stalemating of the First Republic. The emergence of the unitary state. Aburi. The creation of states. The 1978 Constitutional debates. The Second Republic. The return of the military. The Babangida dramas. The ING distortion. The entry of Abacha. The Abdulsalami transition. And coming to today.

But beyond this listing, the point today that we have to focus on is that the country has to go forward and to do this would require firstly an urgent agreement and resolution to return to the starting bloc and commit to now properly  ‘build a nation where truth and justice reign.’

To put it as we see it, Nigeria can yet rise to its promise and potential. But we must be honest and determined to let that come to fruition.

Else…