In his recent commentary, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development, delivers a sobering assessment of Nigeria at 65 years of independence.
He argues that despite the country’s age, it has yet to achieve the maturity and stability that should mark such a milestone. Instead, he says, Nigeria has squandered its youth and adult years, leaving little to celebrate today.
President Bola Tinubu’s Independence Day address provides the backdrop for Ibrahim’s critique. While the president admitted that the country lacks electricity, modern infrastructure, and the resources to fix decades of neglect, he quickly pivoted into optimism. Tinubu claimed that reforms are working, GDP growth is up, and inflation is dropping. For Ibrahim, this optimism is misplaced, as Nigerians have not experienced any meaningful relief in their daily struggles.
The reality, he argues, is that despondency reigns across the country. Insecurity remains the most pressing concern, with terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers wreaking havoc nationwide. The military is overstretched, deployed in almost every state, yet unable to restore peace. For ordinary Nigerians, nowhere feels safe anymore.
This insecurity has had devastating ripple effects. Schools have become targets, with children killed simply for pursuing education. Farmers have abandoned their lands, worsening food insecurity. Millions live as internally displaced persons, stripped of dignity, homes, and livelihoods. According to Ibrahim, this paints a picture of a nation failing to protect its most basic obligations to its people.
The health sector is no better. Ibrahim laments that hospitals are in collapse, and families are forced to spend their savings seeking treatment abroad. Poverty is widespread, with 63 percent of Nigerians — about 133 million people — classified as multidimensionally poor. For many, daily life is reduced to a struggle for food, electricity, and water.
He identifies corruption as the root cause of this national decline. Ibrahim calls it hydra-headed, growing perpetually and undermining every sector. Under the Fourth Republic, he says, corruption has shaped politics itself. Elections are no longer about ideas or competence but about money — with vote-buying and financial war chests determining outcomes.
This culture of corruption, Ibrahim argues, has hollowed out the state. Governance has weakened so much that the Nigerian state struggles to maintain law and order. Security institutions are often captured by elites for personal protection, while the general public remains exposed. In effect, state power has been privatized.
The consequences of this breakdown are dire. As elites manipulate violence for political gain, ordinary citizens are also adopting violent tactics for survival. Ibrahim points to the rise in kidnappings for ransom as evidence that desperation is pushing many young Nigerians into crime. Violence, he says, has become normalized as a path to power and profit.
For him, this situation reflects a deeper failure of leadership. Inspirational leadership has been absent, replaced by individuals who gain access to power mainly to enrich themselves. Those who might provide honest, visionary leadership often shy away from politics, leaving the field to corrupt actors. Each political generation, Ibrahim warns, is becoming worse than the last.
Yet he believes Nigeria is not without hope. The country is blessed with talented and well-trained citizens capable of good governance. The challenge, he insists, is to convince such people to enter politics and to find ways of supporting them despite their lack of massive financial resources. Without this, the cycle of corruption will continue.
Ibrahim want Nigerians to recall the spirit of the nationalists who fought for independence and to demand a new political class that works in the people’s interest. Breaking the chain of corruption and poor governance requires collective effort, he argues, and a refusal to allow those who profit from Nigeria’s decline to dominate the future.
He however warns against divisive politics. At 65, Nigeria cannot afford the dangers of ethnic supremacy. History has shown that such politics deepens fractures and undermines cohesion. Ibrahim stresses that the only viable foundation for national unity is equity and fairness, not domination by one group.
The professor concludes with a pointed critique of President Tinubu’s administration. He accuses the government of neglecting insecurity, failing to address worsening identity divides, and wasting time on international travels that bring little benefit to Nigerians. For him, the government’s performance has fallen far short of the expectations it raised.
Professor Jibrin Ibrahim is a Political Science expert and development consultant. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.
