Nigeria at sixty-five years of independence presents a paradox of vast potential constrained by decades of unfulfilled promises. While citizens remain resilient, the nation’s governance structures, infrastructure, and accountability mechanisms continue to trail behind the expectations of a modern state.
Ejes Gist Media reports that this milestone offers an opportunity for reflection, yet the recurring challenges across security, infrastructure, education, and the economy reveal a country still struggling to match its aspirations with delivery.
Oil Wealth, Enduring Neglect
The Niger Delta, the epicenter of Nigeria’s oil wealth, remains a region scarred by decades of underdevelopment. Collapsed roads, recurrent flooding, and poorly connected communities highlight the irony of an oil-rich region cut off from basic infrastructure.
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Farmers and traders are frequently stranded during rainy seasons, unable to access markets due to impassable roads. Federal promises on projects such as the East-West Road and the coastal highway have largely remained on paper, leaving local economies weakened. The cruel irony is that communities supplying Nigeria’s oil must spend heavily just to move people and goods across broken highways.
Insecurity in the Heartland
Kidnapping and militancy continue to devastate communities across the Niger Delta and beyond. Oil workers, commuters, and even schoolchildren have fallen victim to abductors, while vandals target pipelines and installations.
The explosion on the Trans-Niger pipeline earlier in the year underlined how insecurity in the oil belt threatens both lives and national revenue. A state of emergency declared in Rivers State was a stark admission that insecurity in the oil heartland has reached alarming proportions. Despite billions spent on security, ransom payments, sabotage, and bloodshed remain entrenched.
Power Sector Failure
Six and a half decades after independence, electricity remains Nigeria’s most glaring failure. While officials celebrate record transmission levels, millions of homes remain in darkness.
The dysfunction became painfully evident when WAEC candidates were forced to write examinations in blackout conditions, relying on torches and mobile phone lights. JAMB examinations also suffered from biometric failures, server crashes, and abrupt power cuts.
For families who made sacrifices to prepare their children, these disruptions were more than inconveniences—they represented broken dreams. A nation cannot gamble with the future of its youth and still expect to secure its destiny.
Education in Crisis
Nigeria’s examination system has endured repeated embarrassments. From biometric malfunctions to server failures, examination centres have collapsed into confusion. Students faced delayed or withheld results, while some were forced to re-sit examinations.
This recurring dysfunction erodes trust in educational institutions and undermines national progress. At sixty-five, a nation with Nigeria’s resources cannot afford to compromise the credibility of its education system.
Deadly Floods, Weak Response
Flooding continues to devastate lives and property across the country. The Mokwa disaster in Niger State claimed hundreds of lives, destroyed homes, and wiped out farmlands. In the Delta, tidal surges and poor drainage left riverine communities submerged.
Bridges collapsed, roads disappeared, and livelihoods were lost overnight. These disasters are not seasonal inconveniences but national emergencies worsened by poor planning, climate change, and reckless construction. Government’s inadequate response leaves victims stranded between swollen rivers and official indifference.
Economic Strain and Unfinished Reforms
The removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the naira were presented as bold reforms to rescue the economy. Inflation has since slowed and the naira has gained temporary stability, but ordinary Nigerians remain trapped in hardship.
Petrol pump prices remain high, the Dangote Refinery continues to struggle with supply challenges, and wage negotiations between government and labour unions are fraught with disputes. Families are caught between official rhetoric of reform and the harsh reality of hunger and rising costs. Unless reforms deliver tangible relief in homes, schools, and markets, they risk being remembered as another broken promise.
The Road Ahead
Nigeria at sixty-five is still a nation of contradictions: wealthy yet impoverished, experienced yet unprepared, and blessed yet insecure. Roads remain broken, power unreliable, schools disorganized, and floods uncontained. Leadership deficit, corruption, and short-term thinking remain constant obstacles.
The solutions are known:
- Prioritise infrastructure repair in oil-producing regions.
- Secure communities and oil facilities through professionalism and trust.
- Treat electricity as a national emergency with urgent reforms.
- Overhaul the examination system to protect students’ futures.
- Invest in climate resilience and flood control as national priorities.
Nigeria’s independence will only be complete when citizens feel the rhythm of delivery in their homes, classrooms, and marketplaces. Until then, the journey remains unfinished.
By Divramredje Lawrence Efeturi
Public affairs commentator, writing from Delta State
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