Oluseun Onigbinde

On October 1, 2020, Nigeria celebrated sixty years as an independent nation. This book reviews the country's evolution since independence. As a well-traveled Nigerian, I have always wondered why a nation so blessed with human and natural resources has failed to reach its enviable height. Over the years, I have seen how gross mismanagement, short-termism, lack of national values, and polarising elements such as tribalism and nepotism have severely held back the country. In this book, I attempt a dissection of the issues. I started with an inquiry on the state of Nigeria and why the country has failed to rise to its potential. I questioned the poor state of Nigeria’s socio-economic status and also its current leaders’ lack of ideas. My questions also revolved around the country’s low level of revenues, high level of poverty, current addiction to revenues, weak legal and judicial systems. These guided me to an interrogation of the nation’s current human development situation through its weak health and education systems. I asked these existential questions with the hope that Nigerian leaders will be provoked to rethink the country’s trajectory. I hope that perhaps, they will look around and begin to how did the rain start beating us? And that in their asking, they will find solutions.

On October 1, 2020, Nigeria will celebrate sixty years as an independent nation. This book reviews the country's evolution since independence. As a well-travelled Nigerian, I have always wondered why a nation so blessed with human and natural resources has failed to reach its enviable height. Over the years, I have seen how gross mismanagement, short-termism, lack of national values and polarising elements such as tribalism and nepotism have severely held back the country. In this book, I attempt a dissection of the issues.