Lagos — Independent Nigeria is forty years old and many will be celebrating the nation's arrival at an age that traditionally marks the shift from young adulthood to maturity. But is it a Happy Birthday? AllAfrica put that question to six ordinary Nigerians.
"Don't kill my dream," pleads Miss Idara Udoh, 21. Currently working as an Executive Assistant in a publishing company, Idara is preparing to enter university to study either public relations or international relations. "I want to handle public relations for a company," she says.
She recognizes, however, that she faces a myriad of obstacles. Schools, including universities, are poorly equipped, while teachers are not given adequate remuneration, examples of the infrastructural deficiency that has become the hallmark of Nigeria. From frequent power outages, through lack of access to potable water, to decrepit road networks, Nigeria's infrastructure is in urgent need of repair.
One of the greatest failures of the Nigerian nation state, says Idara, is the government's "inability to provide for the needs of its citizens." She blames government officials for been solely "concerned with their own interests" and not with the welfare of others.
But, says Idara. "Its a great joy to be able to celebrate 40 years of independence, especially for those who have survived." One of the countrys greatest achievements, according to her, is the return last year to democratic rule, after military dictatorship.
But she wants the countrys leaders to do much more than they have done up to this point. "I want the Nigerian government to build Nigeria in such a way that the country can be respected by other nations of the world," she says, instead of the pariah state it became at the peak of the military dictatorship in the country.
Government, she says, should fund education adequately. It should pay teachers well, and equip libraries. And she wants the government to "put more money into tourism," where she wants to work. If this is done, she says, Nigeria will be able to develop its game reserves, "and foreigners will come to enjoy there."
