Giant on its Knees

by Collins Nweke

There is no gentler way to say it: Nigeria has failed its people. For too long, the world’s most populous Black nation has lurched from crisis to crisis. It is governed not by vision but by accident. Each election cycle has promised hope. But citizens end up with recycled mediocrity. Corruption remains institutionalized. Infrastructure is an apology. Public education is steadily  crumbling. Private education is out of the reach of the public. Power supply is erratic. Insecurity is rampant. Poverty has deepened. The slap in the face is that a bloated elite still controls wealth. They laugh their way to foreign banks.

The facts are not debatable.

• In 1960, Nigeria had a GDP per capita comparable to Malaysia. Today, Malaysia is a high-income economy while Nigeria wrestles with multidimensional poverty.
• A nation blessed with oil has repeatedly faced fuel scarcity.
• A country famed for its brilliant minds exports its best talents to build other nations’ economies. Meanwhile, its own system atrophies.
• Insecurity has turned vast parts of the country into warzones. Bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers dictate the terms of life and death in these areas.

Nigeria has become a betrayal on an industrial scale. Successive governments, military and civilian, have largely mortgaged the country’s promise for personal gain or parochial interest. The trust between citizen and state has been broken, not once. But repeatedly, brutally, until the very idea of “nationhood” seems almost satirical. Nigeria is not, by any unbiased measure, living up to the title of “Giant of Africa.” At best Nigeria is a giant on its knees. A case study in wasted potential.

Despite all of these, Nigeria remains one of the most compelling paradoxes in human history. It is a country that refuses to die. Yes there is despair but Nigeria can’t die because of its competitive advantages shimmer with stubborn resilience:

• A youth bulge that is unmatched: over 60% of Nigerians are under the age of 25. No other African nation has this concentration of energetic, digitally connected, fiercely entrepreneurial youth.
• A diaspora that sends home over $20 billion annually. An economic army spread across the globe, investing not just money but ideas and influence back into the homeland.
• Natural resources still abound: oil, gas, and solid minerals. Even more precious are the untapped riches of renewable energy—sun, wind, and water.
• Nigeria is a cultural capital that is unrivaled. This is clear in music (Afrobeats), literature, fashion, and film (Nollywood). Nigeria is already a global power, albeit soft power.
• A strategic geographical position that offers a gateway between West Africa and the global economy.

If leadership, real leadership, were to finally align with the people’s tenacity, Nigeria could pivot from basket case to beacon.

Not slowly. Not incrementally. Seismically.

The foundation of Nigeria’s rebirth must be brutal honesty and fearless reform.

We must stop flattering incompetence. We must stop rewarding theft with applause. We must stop allowing ethnic and religious divisions to be weaponized against the common good.

The new Nigeria will not emerge from the corridors of Abuja alone. It will rise from tech hubs in Lagos. It will rise from farms in Benue. It will emerge from classrooms in Enugu. It will rise from oilfields in Bayelsa and voting booths in Sokoto. It will rise when we place merit over mediocrity, innovation over inertia, service over selfishness. It will rise when the Nigerian passport becomes once again a badge of pride, not an apology.

We must envision a nation that is:

• Governed by competence, not connections.
• Fueled by industries of the mind, not just commodities of the earth.
• Measured by how it treats its weakest, not just how it enriches its strongest.

This is not wishful thinking. It is a mandate that history demands.

For if Nigeria rises, Africa rises. If Nigeria remains broken, Africa’s own renaissance is delayed.

Nigeria is not irredeemable.

I may not say it out when often I hear that Nigeria is finished. But my mind loudly says: No, Nigeria is unfinished. I know that I hear it alone! But that is fine because I know that Nigeria is a  story still being written. Stained, yes, but not beyond beauty. The nation has for so long been cursed. It has been cursed by bad leadership. But blessed with a greatness that no failed government can ever fully extinguish.

The time for excuses is over. The time for the rebirth has come.Nigeria must rise — not tomorrow, not someday, but now! And it will. Because the soul of Nigeria, though battered, remains unconquered.