By SUNNY IKHIOYA
In one month, Nigeria will be 66 years old. The question we must ask ourselves is simple: What have we done with our independence, and what are we doing with our minds? Is this really how we want to continue as a nation? If we keep going this way, what future do we leave for the next generation? The apathy toward the destruction of our common patrimony should frighten all of us. Power cables pulled down. Railway sleepers stolen. Street manholes and bridge reinforcements removed to extract steel pipes. I have never seen this anywhere in the world except in nations at war.
How long will the state allow this to continue? We watch them operate under different names — “iron scrappers,” “bowlar” — and we do nothing. That was how insurgency began. First, it came wrapped in religion and false promises. People tolerated it. Today, it is strong enough to challenge the authority of the state. So I ask again: How do we reset the minds of those who have been misled? Are our institutions strong enough to withstand these assaults? Does the present leadership have the will to drive real change, when many of our top leaders cannot even trust our hospitals and fly abroad for medical care? Will Nigeria ever be truly free?
Many analysts argue that African nations have had self-governance long enough to achieve real independence. True independence means self-reliance in the pillars that sustain civilization: Science and Technology — moving from consumers to producers of the machines and tools we use; Medicine and Agriculture — feeding ourselves and manufacturing our own drugs, without waiting on aid; History and Culture — protecting our identity instead of being psychologically assimilated. Instead, we remain dependent. That dependence shows in our security. Populist voices call it a “war with the West.” But the hard truth is this: the bullets, the drones, the surveillance equipment we use to fight insurgency are all imported. We cannot even manufacture the basic tools to defend our own borders.
While Western nations use law and policy to protect their children from psychological harm, in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, especially northern Nigeria, we are still fighting physical and institutional abuse of children: out-of-school children, child labor, neglect. It is a governance failure. Add to that the daily vandalism of public infrastructure. Destroying electricity grids, rail lines, and water systems is not just crime. It is a sign of underdevelopment and a civic culture that has not matured. While others legislate the future, a small minority here is tearing down the present. This was not our destiny.
The change in our mindset must begin with a deliberate policy change on the part of leadership. It must be designed to be proactive and resilient to the whims and caprices of potential dictators. We know what bad leadership could cause, in the example of President Donald Trump of the USA. But can you imagine for a moment what would be the case if there were no proper structural and institutional checks to contain him? Developed countries are always proactive in the manner they approach challenges. While we are enjoying the freebies associated with the Internet, warts and all, those who started it all are already looking for ways to prevent its harmful side.
While, in Nigeria, bandits are having free access to offload their criminal tendencies, in the developed world there would have been consequences for the Internet providers. The country of Norway has stopped the use of computer systems for children until they attain a certain age limit; right here, we are warming into it. The United States group of attorneys general just won a landmark case against tech giant Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, for content harm against children. Beyond the staggering financial penalty, to be paid in installments over a 10-year period, Meta is legally mandated to overhaul its core architecture for minor users. Sweeping changes include a default two-hour daily limit on cumulative screen time, a strict “Night Mode” block between midnight and 6:00 AM, “School Mode” mutes during class hours, hidden “like” counts, and the removal of toxic cosmetic filters.
The U.S. government’s $18 billion triumph over Meta serves as a mirror for African leadership. Power is not given; it is exercised through institutional strength, rigorous legal enforcement, and an uncompromising commitment to human capital. However, as Western institutions leverage robust legal frameworks, consumer protection laws, and institutional grit to shield their youth from corporate exploitation, a painful question echoes across the Atlantic: What are Africans doing to protect their own? If African nations are to stop dragging their feet and transition from perpetual foreign dependence into global peers, the shift must begin at home. This requires an intentional war against domestic backwardness — replacing structural child neglect with quality education, defending public property with the full weight of the law, and building an industrial economy capable of producing its own technology and security apparatus. True independence will not be found in historical grievances, but in the deliberate engineering of a modern, accountable African state.
In the years before independence, leaders like Chief Obafemi Awolowo proved that structured, strategic governance was possible in Africa: free education, regional infrastructure, economic self-sufficiency. He showed that enlightenment was possible. But history tells us that those progressive models were undermined, both by internal saboteurs and by departing colonial powers who preferred weak, pliable leadership to strong, self-reliant visionaries. The global struggle we see today is an extension of colonialism. The colonialists have not accepted that they lost control.
Wherever they can, they seek to reassert it. Leaders who stood in the way were removed: Patrice Lumumba of Congo, killed January 17, 1961, for wanting control of his country’s minerals; Sylvanus Olympio of Togo, killed January 13, 1963, for trying to exit the French monetary system; Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, killed October 15, 1987, for rejecting foreign debt and pushing self-reliance; and yes, Gaddafi of Libya. Is it fear of the same fate that is stopping our leaders from making bold decisions to free Nigeria from foreign control? This is the question we must confront.
We proved under colonial rule that we could attain self-sufficiency. Now let us prove we can do it on our own.
*Ikhioya writes from Lagos
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