It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...
This famous quote by Charles Dickens in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, can be said to summarily characterise the state that Nigeria was in the aftermath of our independence and the state it unfortunately finds itself since then. In one of his previous speeches, Father Matthew Kukah spoke spoke about the insulting state of our democracy. He lamented Nigeria's limited capacity to do what a state is supposed to do, mainly to provide basic infrastructure and protect citizens. Father Kukah could not have made a better analysis of the deplorable state of Nigeria and the raison d'être of our malfunction -- a malfunction that has seen the downward spiral of a once brilliant state since its independence. Without doubt, during the colonial era and straight in the aftermath of our independence, Nigeria experienced the best of times, while the period between our independence till date has characterised the worst of times in Nigeria's existence.
...