By Ikechukwu Amaechi
07/01/2021
“It is illusionary to be hopeful that security will be better in 2021 when Buhari said recently that Nigeria’s 1,400 kilometres border with Niger Republic, from where most of the terrorists killing and maiming Nigerians come through, “can only be effectively supervised by God.”
To be hopeful that 2021 will be a safer year for Nigerians when the same institutions that claimed, falsely, that Boko Haram had been technically defeated turns around five years later to say, unashamedly, that Africa’s most populous nation will most likely continue to suffer terrorist attacks for the next 20 years, as the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, who has clearly overstayed his welcome, did in December, is to dwell in fantasyland.
Sitting around thinking about how Nigeria’s current parlous situation could be better cannot change anything without consequential action.
Hoping that Nigeria would be food-sufficient when there is no strategy to contain armed herdsmen that have chased farmers away from their farmlands is forlorn.
Hoping that 2021 will be our annus mirabilis while doing the same things that made 2020 an annus horribilis smacks of insanity.
Of course, some Nigerians will be better off in 2021 than they were in 2020. After all, some people made their first million, bought their first car and built their first mansion in the horrible year that just ended. Some businesses have proved to be “COVID-19 friendly” and the tech industry will continue to blossom. .
But, for 2021 to be better than 2020 for Nigeria as a country, something more tangible than mere hope must be placed on the leadership table. There must be actionable policies and programmes. That is the only pathway.
Unfortunately, I can’t see much on the horizon.”
Please click on the link below to read the full article
