The rich history of Nigeria prior to 1914 to date speaks volumes of high potential due to the abundance of natural resourses, a large able bodied population and vast agricultural land.
The colonialists found ample opportunities in our land, which fact with close scrutiny can be said to have actually aided the development of their home country.
Upon acquiring independence our earlier leaders were able to get us to a certain level of development but due to disadvantages of weak technology and industry at the time they had understandable limitations.
The discovery and commercialization of our oil resources became a curse to our development instead of being the necessary impetus or optimum push to sustainable prosperity.
The second republic had some challenges of governance because the diversity of our nation did not align properly with development efforts and corruption began to rear its ugly head.
The military interventions that happened along the way were a draw back but somehow made some impact on national development ,regardless even if corruption became more commonplace.
The current third republic has brought in an admixture of successes and failures with both macroeconomic and microeconomic challenges making the once rich nation becoming a ghost of itself.
Nigeria, above all else, needs to purge itself of inequity to bring back its past glory and palpable prosperity.
It is very glaring that there is now a very articulate discontent with government action no matter how well intended.
Every action of government is viewed with suspicion such that it is gradually becoming exceedingly difficult for the leaders to remain focused on national development but are rather forced to engage in continuous crises management which has, in fact, become the order of the day and is clearly inhibiting any meaningful national progress.
To be fair to the current administration ,though, it has opened the economy for growth and the entire country for economic development but the people have to purge themselves of inequity and distrust for government actions and intentions.
The leaders may also need to continuously show that they are indeed equitable and transparent in all their actions to regain the trust of the people.
And Nigerians should put the overall development of the nation as paramount and sine quo non to sustainable prosperity rather than dwelling on divisiveness and disjointed politics.
Arc Kabir Ibrahim FNIA, is the President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG)