Today, Nigeria marks 66 years of independence from British colonial rule.

The flag that went up at midnight in 1960 still flies, but the questions that followed it have grown louder: Has the giant of Africa fulfilled its promise, or merely survived it? At 66, Nigeria has been resilient and restless, a nation-state that has avoided disintegration but has yet to achieve cohesion.

Nigeria’s longest stretch of unbroken civil rule is now in its 27th year, a feat for a country that has experienced six military coups in its first 39 years.

Still, democracy has not translated into quality governance and enlightened politics.

Elections remain fiercely contested and litigated, with voter turnout declining from 69% in 2003 to about 27% in 2023.

The 2027 cycle is already heating up, but the conversation is less about ideology and more about survival.

Federalism, as practiced, remains lopsided.

States depend on Abuja for over 70% of their revenue, while calls for restructuring, state police and resource control have moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

The debate revived by President Tinubu’s 30-day absence from the country last month underscores a deeper constitutional unease: who governs, and from where? No statistic captures Nigeria’s dilemma better than this: the world’s 6th most populous nation, Africa’s largest oil producer, yet ranked among the world’s poorest.

At independence, Nigeria’s GDP per capita was higher than South Korea’s.

Today, South Korea’s is over 20 times larger.

Three policy pillars define the last three years: removal of petrol subsidy, unification of the exchange rate, and aggressive borrowing.

The government argues they were necessary corrections.

However, the data shows mixed results: Inflation, which peaked at 34% in 2024, has moderated to around 22% but food inflation remains crushing; The naira has lost over 70% of its value since June 2023, crippling small businesses.

Public debt has crossed N167 trillion, according to the Debt Management Office; 35 million Nigerians face acute food insecurity in 2026, per the World Food Programme, while over 140 million are multi-dimensionally poor.

The subsidy removal freed over N5 trillion annually, but Nigerians are asking: where is the reinvestment in refineries, schools, hospitals and mass transit? Security crisis In 1960, Nigeria’s security concern was managing regional rivalries.

In 2026, it is managing banditry in the North West, insurgency in the North East, farmer-herder killings in the Middle Belt, separatist agitations in the South East, and kidnapping for ransom nationwide.

Over 2.2 million people remain internally displaced.

Despite increased defence spending — N3.4 trillion in the 2025 budget — the security architecture remains overstretched, under-equipped and distrusted locally.

The absence of state police and a coherent community policing model continues to leave vast....