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By Adeola Ogunlade
As Nigeria celebrates its independence in the next few days from now, national development has not been given priority. Rather, greed, sectionalism have dominated the political space , General Superintendent, Holy Spirit Mission, Bishop Charles Ighele, has said.
He spoke during a news conference on the state of nation recently in Lagos,
He x-rayed development in Nigeria from the colonial era to the Fourth Republic.
According to him, Nigeria’s development is disproportional given the abundant rate of its natural endowment and human resources, adding that the years of military rule coupled with lack of transparency and accountability have crippled the nation’s ability to develop and compete with other developed countries.
Ighele said, “I would like to look at development from when the British came and development as at when Nigeria was made up of many ethnic groups, empires etc. Let us look at it in terms of development par western standard which has almost become the standard globally.
“If you look at it from that angle, you would find out that there was development from point zero, from when the British came till about 1960 when they left. When I went to Nigerian Railway headquarters in Lagos sometime ago, you could see the structures put in place by the colonial masters. Then you can compare it to how it is now”, he said.
Ighele, who doubles as Chairman, Financial Accountability Council of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, further said “having looked at that, look at 1960-66, the first coup then the military era from 1966-1979, and then the Shagari era, then the military till 1999 and democracy from then till now. When you look at how things have grown in terms of development, you cannot say that we are developing.
If we are developing, let’s take the educational sector for example, then how come the quality of English that I speak is better than that of University graduates of today. When you look at all the sectors, you will see that we have only developed in the area of how to acquire personal wealth and corruption. When you talk about development, it is not rocket science to me. But unfortunately, the elites that rule Nigeria do not understand what development is. And that is where the problem is.”, he said.
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He explained that there are certain factors that make up for development, which, if neglected, no nation can develop. The factors, according to the cleric include labour, capital, entrepreneur and land.
“These are the factors that bring about productivity of a people. If you want things to improve in terms of productivity, then you look at these factors; they are the basic pillars of development”.
Our leaders need to understand them,” adding that, “the way I see things, it is just the elites who have what to celebrate. How does a nation which has gone down like this celebrate poverty, insecurity, basic amenities, lack of electricity? Ghana and Rwanda have reasons to celebrate but as far as I see it, there is nothing to celebrate.”
Proffering solution on the way forward, the general superintendent submitted that the country needs a new set of elites with “proper orientation”.
“And these things are not difficult at all. Russia used to be a pure feudalist nation but some nationalists came up with ideas that birthed socialism. And there was capitalism in the U.S. along with other countries. These are elites that loved their nations. We need new sets of elites who will love this nation”.
He said “People want to be rich, so the values are wrong. You see those among the worse going into politics and the educated joining them. We need a reorientation. It happened in Rwanda and Ghana where they had President Rawlings who put a new social order, and they built the political order based on that consensus.
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