Nigeria Was Better, Healthier and Safer During the Military Administrations

 Gen.Yakubu Gowon remains the best and most loved head of state in the leadership of Nigeria since 1960 to date.

Standards of health care and education were 100% better during the military administrations in Nigeria. Nigeria performed better in sports. Nigeria's Nollywood was born and boomed until 1999.
Things started deteriorating when the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) came to power in 1999.

 Immediately after the catastrophic Nigerian civil war, General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon embarked on post war programmes of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation and with particular emphasis on National Reintegration and he succeeded before the unnecessary coup on July 25, 1975, led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba and other offers who appointed Brigadier Murtala Muhammad as head of the new government, and Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy. But in spite of this coup and other military coups (romantically labelled "military interventions"), the military administrations were more focused on the nation building of a New Nigeria in the leadership of Africa in the world and their administrations produced more efficient graduates, scholars and technocrats among the most productive generation of Nigerians. But when the civilian political contractors and their political jobbers and political opportunists came with political thuggery and gangsterism, rigging of elections and tribal antagonism to plunder Nigeria and today have left Nigeria in ruins.


 
Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo handed over to the civilian head of state President Shehu Shagari in 1979. And twenty years later in 1999 the military administration of General Abdulsalami Abubakar handed power to him as a retired military general turned civilian politician.


 
The military administrations of Generals Muhammad Buhari, Ibrahim Babaginda, the late Sanni Abacha and Abdulsalami Abubakar were still better and safer. 

• More Nigerians have been killed in assassinations and terrorists attacks since 1999 to date than all the years of military rule after the Nigerian civil war.  
• More notable political leaders and journalists have been murdered since the ruling party PDP came into power in 1999.
• The World Health Organization reported recently that about 80 per cent of the total maternal deaths recorded in the world (Nigeria records the second most terrible occurrence in the world)
• The infant mortality is now worsening with under five mortality ratio in Nigeria at 201 per 1000 live births meaning that one in five Nigerian children never reach the age of 5. Infant deaths, which account for half of child mortality have increased from what they were in 1990.
• The academic system is now chaotic and tertiary schools are producing mostly intellectually retarded graduates who have failed world class job interviews which their peers in Ghana and South Africa have excelled. The situation has deteriorated to the public disgrace of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme rejecting graduates of Nigerian universities who were discovered to be illiterates in English.   
• Majority of Nigerian youths can name all the soccer teams in English Premiership and the European Champions league and hit tracks of imbecilic hip hop songs, but cannot name the chairmen or women of their local government areas.  

  ~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima  

About the Author: Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka "Orikinla Osinachi", is a prize winning Nigerian writer, most prolific African blogger and author of Children of Heaven, Sleepless Night, Scarlet Tears of London, Bye, Bye Mugabe, In the House of Dogs, Diary of the Memory Keeper, The Prophet Lied, co-author of Naked Beauty and editor of The Language of True Love. He has written many articles, commentaries and news reports published by Technorati, Blogcritics, Huliq, Yahoo Voices, Shvoong, Gather, Huffington Post, Face2Face Africa, Black Film Maker, Nigeria Films and Modern Ghana. Michael Chima is also the Founder/Festival Director of the annual Eko International Film Festival and Founder/CEO of Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema, member of the Projection Foundation promoting the Screen Naija One Village, One Cinema project in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and home of Nollywood, Africa's largest film industry of which he is a major stakeholder in movies and cinemas.

  © Orikinla Osinachi. 2013. No reproduction in any format of media without the authorization and permission of the copyright owner and publisher.

 

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