Happy(?) 50th anniversary, Nigeria

As noted previously, this past Friday was the 50th anniversary of Nigeria gained self-rule from Britain. The Financial Times had a great 20-odd page special on Nigeria at 50, which I highly recommend. It gives a very good overview of the politics and the current election, problems with the power grid, the oil and mobile phone economies, etc., all with better research than I have access to.

I had already planned a trip to Munich when I found out, and I considered canceling my trip to stick around and see the celebrations. However, I asked around and found out it wasn’t a big deal. Only one person I talked to planned to go to any events that day, and they were going to a church event. The general apathy was striking.

When I asked why, I got a lot of answers along the lines of, “what do we have to show for 50 years?” This was a common theme in newspapers, too. Columnists openly questioned whether Nigeria has moved forward as much as was anticipated 50 years ago.

I’ve talked about Nigerian optimism, and some of these same comments came from people that I thought of as generally patriotic/optimistic about Nigeria. Perhaps the answer may lie in a more nuanced view. People are optimistic about Nigeria’s people, its resources, and its economic opportunities. But everyone recognizes that government is currently a drag, not an enabler. The 50th anniversary is seen as a political anniversary and closely tied to the government, and no one thinks the government is doing a good job. I suspect that if there were some private celebration of economic progress and power, it would be much better subscribed.

One event served to highlight lingering political problems rather than progress. There were several car bombings in Abuja (the capital) very near the hub of the celebrations, and 7 or 8 people were killed. A Delta independence movement claimed responsibility.