In H.G Wells short story, "The Country of the Blind", a mountain climber falls into a valley and finds himself in a country where 15 generations of blind people have lived. His reaction is to think, "I can dominate this place, because, as the saying goes, "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king". He is in for a shock for he discovers that the whole society is constructed around the blindness of its people. His sight, a meaningless advantage is rather a hindrance and he cannot integrate. The country of the blind is unique in itself. All work undertaken at night, houses have not windows, colours are meaningless. All explanations and considerations based on sight have no meaning. In order to fit in the mountaineer has to conform to the dominant norms of the society and either have his eyes removed or pretend to be blind.
The Nigerian nation has many dominant prejudices:gender, ethicity and religion are all an issue. Those who aspire to leadership use prejudices rather and values and ideas as stepping stones. Most of the time we find that people who do not know the game or refuse to play it, do not make head way in politics in Nigeria. Every part of the country has its dominant social group which will to a large extent determine the pace of development and the personality involved in the process. Social dominance has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. If the group in contention have viable plans for society then there is some measure of development, If however, the group of leaders are more concerned about their personal gain, then society would be stunted and growth and development would remain at a stand still.
In eighteen years of democracy Nigeria has been at a stand still in terms of development. The same problems which the nation suffered in 1999 are the ones being faced by people in the country and even worst ones. One of the greatest problems bestriding the country is the inability of the farmers in Nigeria to feed the nation. Over a trillion Naira is spent of food imports every year. The major imports are rice, sugar, groundnut oil and flour. Time and again since 1999 the governments of the country have worked out policy that would help grow food within Nigeria so that the country does not have to keep relying of other nations to feed it. The sad tragedy is even in 2017 Nigeria is still importing food. The government of the day has tried to give agriculture more attention. But the smuggling of commodities like rice and frozen fish, as well as frozen poultry has undermined those efforts. A frustrated Minister for Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh threatened to close the borders in between Benin Republic and Nigeria if the smuggling is not stopped. But the threats have fallen on deaf ears. Anyone would lives in the towns around Idi- Iroko the border town would know that smuggling is still thriving with aid of law enforcement officers who are supposed bring down to the barest minimum.
The policy makers merely sit in Abuja and make policy. There is no one to drive such policy. And even when they take broad leaps like attempting to grow rice and reduce the reliance on foreign food, it is usually inadequate and ineffective since the prices of imported foods cannot be met. Lack luster agricultural development is just one of the major challenges the country faces but critical analysis shows a lack of commitment on the part of policy makers who do not really care if their laws and policies help the Nigerian nation or not. Nobody is really driving policy. Billions have been looted from the public treasury over a period of forty years and inept law enforcement has not been able to bring people responsible to book. Nigeria totters on a low moral ground. This is the root of most of the problems that the country faces and there appears to be no way out of this maze. Nigeria's moral compass is lost. The judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man and people are suffering in more ways than can be counted.
Why do we trace the central problem of the country to lack of proper morals? People with sound morals do not neglect their country for personal gain, steal from the country at the slightest opportunity, take such money abroad and come back Nigeria as if nothing happened. There appears to be no redeeming factor in the nation because like the sighted man in the land of the blind, those who care about what happens around them are very few and the majority who are part of the trend are ruled the prejudices that keep them from thinking straight. It is a sad situation. Do those of us who know but refuse to acknowledge the problems continue to act as if nothing is wrong. Do those who are position of leadership continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the generality? Who will put an end to all this? Can the man who sees clearly put society in order and create a new trend of thinking and acting. If there is such a person, now is the time for him to stand up.
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