Photo credit: Daily Trust
Saying Nigeria had been good sometime ago could be a surprise to the youth of these days.
Then, the factories at Ikeja, Apapa, Iganmu, Ota, Ikeja, Kano, Kaduna, Aba, to mention a few were in full operation.
In agriculture, Nigeria was able to feed herself and even export. Those were the days of the groundnut pyramids in the North. Oil palm and cocoa were also in the South. Tin and bauxite were also there.
In the area of foreign policy, , Nigeria made her impact felt too. In fact, when gangling Joe Garba was in charge of the External Affairs ministry and Bolaji Akinyemi he hed of Nigerian Institute of International Affairs while Murtala and later Obasanjo was head of state, that period actually marked the watershed in Nigeria’s foreign policy
In sports, we were masters. Thanks to the feats of Modupe Osikoya, Mary Onyali, ‘Mathematical’ Segun Odegbami, ‘Chief Justice’ Amaesimaka, Haruna Ilerika, ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu, and others too numerous to mention.
I dare not go into the list of politicians who made Nigeria vibrant neither will I go into the list of human rights activists.
So, how did we get into this shallow water?
What hope do we have of regaining our lost glories?
PS: There was once a Nigerian Airways, there was once a Nigerian National Shipping Line, and other parastatals!
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