Wake Up, Nigeria, by Engr. Bello Gwarzo Abdullahi, FNSE
Nigeria is running out of time to correct mistakes that have become national habits. Decades ago, Ken Saro-Wiwa warned that the country was drifting on a “darkling plain”—a space defined by confusion, conflict, and wasted potential. Today, that warning feels less like history and more like a headline. The same failures he condemned—corruption, ethnic manipulation, weak institutions, and the misuse of power—still shape our national reality, only now they are sharper and more dangerous.
Our crises are interconnected. Economic instability fuels insecurity. Institutional weakness enables corruption. Infrastructure decay suppresses productivity. Rising inequality and identity politics fracture national unity. Tackling any one of these in isolation only deepens the others because the system itself is broken.
Yet Nigeria is not helpless. The economy can recover if we commit to a productivity-driven strategy that is anchored in agriculture, technology, manufacturing, and the creative industries. Policy consistency and transparent fiscal management are essential. Strong institutions—merit-based, disciplined, and digitally enabled—are even more critical.
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Security requires a complete overhaul. Insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, and urban crime demand a modern, intelligence-led system that empowers states, improves cooperation across agencies, and addresses the poverty and exclusion driving unrest. Real security begins with justice and opportunity.
Infrastructure must be treated as national priority, not political decoration. Power transmission upgrades, modern rail corridors, logistics hubs, renewable energy expansion, and functional water systems would unlock productivity and restore confidence.
Rebuilding social cohesion is equally urgent. Educational reform, civic reorientation, and targeted youth empowerment can help reverse rising mistrust and inequality.
Nigeria needs an integrated approach—economic reform, strong institutions, infrastructure modernisation, security restructuring, and human capital development working together. Saro-Wiwa’s message still stands: critique is not despair; it is a call to responsibility.
The country has the people, resources, and heritage to choose a different path. But potential will not save us—action will. The moment demands disciplined leadership, coordinated planning, and a collective willingness to confront reality.
Nigeria must wake up. The cost of sleeping through this moment will be far greater than the cost of change.
Engr. Bello Gwarzo Abdullahi, FNSE
bgabdullahi@gmail.com
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