LAGOS – Yesterday, October 1, 2020, Nigeria celebrated her 60 years of attaining Independence but the opinion of many citizens is that the country is not where she ought to be.
To many political analysts, some African countries that gained Independence the same year as Nigeria, have gone far ahead in terms of economic and social development, despite the fact that the country was once referred to as the “Giant of Africa”.
Precisely, Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Madagascar, Congo Somalia, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, are countries that got Independence the same year as Nigeria but today some of these countries are believed to be doing better than Nigeria socially and economically.
The Nigerian history will be incomplete without the mention of how the country got its independence. In 1914, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate was combined with the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to create the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, which has the borders of modern day Nigeria.
The British noticed that the independence drive had started to gain grounds after World War II. By the late 1950s, the call for independence of territories in Africa and the decline of the British Empire led to the country being granted independence on 1 October 1960 as the Federation of Nigeria. Three years later, the constitution was amended and the country was declared the Federal Republic of Nigeria with Nnamdi Azikiwe, previously Governor-General, as the first President.
One of the reasons why Nigeria was once referred to as “The Giant of Africa” was because of its population size of over 200 million. But the same cannot be said today, as Nigeria continues to battle the menace of insecurity, unstable electricity, bad roads, food insecurity, job insecurity, unaffordable housing scheme, poor educational system, poor health care facilities amongst other challenges.
Credit: Independent.ng
