1st October 2025, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, Governance And Development, Business And Economy, Law And Society, News
By John Chukwu Anyim.

Today, Nigeria turns 65. Sixty-five years of self-rule. Sixty-five years of promises, betrayals, and repeated cycles of failure.

At independence in 1960, our founding fathers envisioned a great black nation that would rise to lead Africa and command global respect. Today, in 2025, what do we have? A broken giant, staggering under the weight of corruption, insecurity, debt, and endless excuses. The simple but piercing question on the lips of every citizen is: At 65, is there still hope for Nigeria?

The tragedy of Nigeria is not poverty of resources but poverty of leadership. This year alone, while millions of Nigerians were groaning under unprecedented hunger and skyrocketing food prices, the National Assembly shamelessly approved over ₦57 billion for the purchase of luxury SUVs for lawmakers. These same lawmakers insisted that ordinary workers should live on ₦30,000 minimum wage, a sum that cannot even buy a bag of rice in today’s market. Is this governance or daylight robbery?

It gets worse. Billions of naira continue to vanish in so-called “subsidy palliatives” that never reach the masses. Only a few months ago, revelations showed how billions earmarked for palliatives were siphoned through inflated contracts for food items that never got to the poor. Meanwhile, families trek miles in search of food, and mothers dilute pap with water just to keep their children alive. The Nigerian state, at sixty-five, has become a predator feeding on its citizens.

And what of our leaders’ taste for luxury? In the past year, the presidency has spent obscene amounts on foreign medical trips for top government officials, while Nigeria’s hospitals collapse under lack of funding. State House budgets revealed billions for “refreshments and meals,” “renovations,” and “generator fuel,” while ordinary citizens endure endless blackouts because the national grid fails at will. A country that cannot provide stable electricity after sixty-four years is not unlucky, it is betrayed.

Even infrastructure, the one area that could have salvaged national pride, has become another avenue for monumental theft. The so-called Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project has already gulped hundreds of billions of naira in suspicious contract awards with no transparency and little progress on the ground.

Railway projects are announced with fanfare but abandoned halfway. Roads remain death traps, swallowing lives daily. Nigeria, at sixty-five, is a nation that builds nothing and consumes everything.

Meanwhile, insecurity has become a thriving industry. Trillions have been budgeted for security in the last decade, yet the bloodletting continues. Just recently, villages in Plateau and Zamfara were sacked by bandits, leaving scores dead. Kidnappers now storm schools and highways with impunity, demanding ransoms in millions. What does government do? Announce another round of “security votes,” which end up fattening the pockets of politicians rather than securing citizens. At sixty-five, Nigeria is not at war, yet no citizen is safe.

The most painful part of this story is the silence and complicity of the ruling elite. The same politicians who lavish billions on themselves constantly lecture citizens to be patient, to endure sacrifice, and to “tighten belts.” But whose belts are being tightened? Certainly not theirs. Nigerians are told to sacrifice while leaders cruise in luxury jets, host extravagant birthday parties, and send their children abroad for schooling. A country where leaders enjoy paradise while citizens endure hell is not practicing democracy, it is practicing wickedness.

So, is there hope for Nigeria at sixty-five? Yes, but only if citizens wake up from complacency. Hope cannot be built on empty independence speeches or recycled promises. Hope must be built on accountability. Nigerians must demand explanations for every squandered naira, every abandoned project, every fraudulent subsidy, and every reckless budget line. We must reject being reduced to mere onlookers while politicians plunder with impunity.

Nigeria has the resources to be great. We have oil, gas, arable land, and a youth population brimming with talent. What we lack is honest leadership and an angry citizenry willing to hold leaders’ feet to the fire. Without these, sixty-five will become seventy, and seventy will become eighty, and the cycle of waste and failure will continue.

Today, when the flag is raised and the cannons fired, let Nigerians remember: independence is not about speeches or parades, it is about dignity, accountability, and justice. At sixty-five, Nigeria has exhausted the luxury of excuses. The time for cosmetic reforms is over. It is either we fix this nation or watch it collapse under the weight of its own greed.

Nigeria at 65: any hope? Yes, but only if the citizens snatch back their future from a political class that has squandered sixty-five precious years.

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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