By Boluwatife Adedokun & Friday Omosola.
Babies are expected to take their first wobbly steps, and parents happen to capture the magic moment on camera. The only thing to do is to share the joy with the world. These Insta captions for those precious pics of babies first steps will help to know exactly what to say.
Babies’ first steps are so special in part because they’re so spontaneous. In widespread, babies start walking when they’re around 12 months old and when they failed, such would create fear in their parents’ hearts.
According to a study on crawling, cruising, and walking in Developmental Science, this is only a guideline, because the skills that babies gain while crawling or cruising don’t always transfer directly to walking, and babies who are experts at cruising around on furniture may take a little time to get the whole walking thing down.
After sixty one years of being given birth to, Nigeria is yet to crawl nor walk as a baby in spite of tables and other playing gadgets amounting to billions of naira to purchase in order to aid its growth.
In 1914, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate was amalgamated with the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to create the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, which has the borders of modern-day Nigeria.
By the late 1950s, the call for independence of territories in Africa and the decline of the British Empire led to the country being granted independence on 1 October 1960 as the Federation of Nigeria. Three years overdue, the constitution was amended and the country was declared the Federal Republic of Nigeria with Nnamdi Azikiwe, previously Governor-General, as the first President.
Every year, Nigeria celebrates this day with the President’s address to the people, which is broadcast on radio and television.
Do Nigerians really have anything to celebrate? The challenges of farmers and herders clashes, banditary, kidnapping, embezzlement, killing, bad economy, lack of electricity supply, poor educational system and a lot more keep rocking the country.
In May 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as president while assuring people of change in the obscure darkness that fails to project light after the tunnel.
Insecurity under the Buhari government has been on the increase when compared to his predecessor, Good luck Jonathan.
In his address on the occasion Of Nigeria’s Sixtieth Independence Anniversary, Thursday, 1st October 2020, Mr Buhari renewed his appreciation to Nigerians for entrusting him with hopes and aspirations for a better and greater Nigeria.
“Today, it is my unique privilege to recommit myself to the service of this great country of great people with profound diversities and opportunities. We are bound by destiny to be the largest and greatest black nation on earth. At this stage in our nationhood it is important that we reflect how we got here to enable us to work TOGETHER to get to where we aspire to be as a strong indivisible nation, united in hope and equal in opportunity.”
He added that the founding fathers understood the imperative of structuring a National identity using the power of the state and worked towards unification of Nigerians in a politically stable and viable entity.
So far so good, nothing has changed in the system of the country and policy of the government towards the various insecurity ravaging the country.
“Sixty years of nationhood provides an opportunity to ask ourselves questions on the extent to which we have sustained the aspirations of our founding fathers. Where did we do the right things? Are we on course? If not where did we stray and how can we remedy and retrace our steps,” Mr Buhari had stated in the 2020 independence broadcast.
These are the questions raised by the president in his speech but yet to be answered and proffered solutions to.
Analysing some germane points in his speech concerning the growth of the country but still the country is not moving forward. Just like stagnant water, that neither go back nor go forward.
“We came out of the civil war with a focus on reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation that enabled the country to put in place world class development structures and a strengthened public service that served the government well. This positive trajectory continued with a return to democratic government which was truncated by another round of military rule” he said.
With all these Nigeria has been experiencing nothing but deconstruction and rehabilitation. After trying several times to redeem the country, it’s still wallowing in dilapidation. Many efforts to get the country moving and raised up from it’s wheelchair is just like casting pearls before swine.
After applying panacea and antidotes to the illness of the country, it is still like beaten the dead horse.
With several daily agitations, Nigeria is yet to move, standing on a motion like a statue. Instead, the economic situation keep witnessing crisis. Economic recession is the talk of the day, no way forward.
On the economic situation of the country, Buhari had said, “Harnessing and Optimizing our tremendous human and natural resources to attain our goal of being in the top twenty economies of the world and in the process.”
With all the propositions, Nigeria is still experiencing economic recession. Nigeria, a country full of milk and honey is where the citizen are now experiencing bitterness, Inflation on the increase daily.
Can we say the works of our heroes past is now in vain? Nigeria, a developed but still a developing country after Sixty-One years of independence is absurd. Where will Nigeria be after 61 years of independence?
Adedokun & Omolola are students of the department of Mass Communication, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.
PS: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily that of the Publishers of The Precision NG.
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