As Nigeria marks its 56th Independence Anniversary, very few Nigerians would expect any form of celebration or excitement. Independence from colonial rule in 1960 has brought the country so much to be cheerful about, but 56 years later, also a lot of regrets. I am not one of those who imagine that we would probably have been better off if we had remained under British rule, but that there are some Nigerians who still entertain such impossible thought indicates the depth of the people’s anxiety about Nigeria’s post-colonial reality. The big issues are well-known: the failure of leadership, corruption, and perpetual anxiety about the future. Every October 1, Nigeria is described as “a crippled giant”, a “toddler”, “a broken nation”. And the various editorials, year after year sound so repetitive as they focus on an economy that is not working, the failure of public infrastructure, leadership crisis, the bad habits of the political elite, religious and ethnic violence, disunity, national insecurity, and so on.
