Ango Abdullahi: If Nigeria was my student, I will grade her a failure at 57

Ango Abdullahi, spokesman, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), says Nigeria is a failure, 57 years after the most populous black nation gained independence.

Speaking in an interview with The Sun, Abdullahi said in comparison to other countries that gained independence around the time Nigeria got hers, he would grade the nation a failure.

He added that given all the human and natural resources the country is endowed with, Nigeria has failed to achieve “the goals and aspirations it set for itself” and its citizens.

“If I was a teacher marking Nigeria from 1960, or a teacher marking Nigeria’s script as one of my students of over these 57 years, I will grade her a failure,” Abdullahi said.

“As you said, we will be 57 years and the question is, have all those aspirations been achieved? The honest answer is no.  

“When you look at it from the point of view of the opportunities available, the resources available, the chances available, both internal and external and you sum all these up, including  the human capital, I will say that Nigeria failed to achieved  the goals and aspirations it set for itself and for its people.

“There are benchmarks with which one can base this conclusion. There are quite a number of countries we virtually achieved independence either together or almost at the same time.

“Some of the references used in gauging our development indices are  India, in 1948  and Malaysia. Malaysia has really moved faster in their development endeavours. Unfortunately, despite all the endowments, Nigeria has failed to achieve the goals expected of it since independence.

Abdullahi blamed the start of the nation’s failure on former military president Murtala Muhammed, whom he said “messed up the civil service, which has always been the stabilising factor in any country’s development programme.

“From 1960 until 1974, Nigeria was doing well in the area of development. I happened to have served as Commissioner of Economic Planning under the military government from 1973 to 1975. As from that period, things began getting worse, particularly, during Gen. Murtala Mohammed.

“Although Murtala appeared to be a nationalist and Pan-Africanist, regrettably, he messed up the civil service, which has always been the stabilising factor in any country’s development programme.

“Politicians come and go, but civil servants remain until retirement. Murtala abused civil service rules. Now a civil servant has to be a liar, or sycophant to keep his job. This is where Nigeria began to run into serious difficulties in governance.”

Abdullahi said President Muhammadu Buhari has no automatic ticket to represent the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the 2019 presidential election.

“The fact that Buhari is incumbent does not automatically confer on him the candidature of the party in the next election if there is internal democracy in the party,” he said.

“The fact that you are a sitting president does not mean other members of the party cannot contest against you. If I were Buhari, I will welcome competition in my party.

“This is an opening for democracy in my party and I will ask people to come and test their popularity. If he has done well, people will re-elect him.”