here is no day, no time I read Nigerian newspapers, magazines, or internet news websites without me coming across mats of articles, written by Nigerians, which describe how underdeveloped, how failed Nigeria is in her independent nationhood. Some of these Nigerian article-writers believe that all Nigerians are thieves and corrupt while others describe all Nigerian government officials as political looters and incompetent public servants. There are others among these Nigerian lampoon-writers who are of the view that Nigeria has never made any progress since independence because the quality/quantity of her socio-infrastructural development is at a low ebb. There are others among them who believe that Nigeria has retrogressed because of the recent upsurge in incidents of kidnapping, armed robbery, and some other criminal maladies in the society.

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Many of these self-styled social critics are very apt to draw an analogy between Nigeria and the industrially advanced nations of the world, such as the USA, UK, France, and Japan. Many of them are very quick to teach the reading public that Nigeria at 49 has nothing to show for her independence, and that it did not take these industrialized countries up to half a century ( fifty years ) to get developed. Many of these self-made social crusaders are very apt to draw a comparison between Nigeria and China, India, Malaysia, Singapore etc. According to them, China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore were some of the countries that started the race of national development with Nigeria almost at the same time. In their view, instead of moving on equal or the same pace as these other countries, Nigeria has stagnated, retrogressed, or lagged far behind them. A good number of these article-writers see themselves as acting in the manner of Chief Ghani Fawehinmi, the renowned late Nigerian human rights activist. Some of them see Nigeria as a hell or another Sodom and Gomorrah. Many of them believe that the best way to bring about an effective change in the errant Nigerian polity is through constant, subversive, blaming article-writing and rhetorical opposition. A good number of these self-opinionated Nigerians live abroad and have stayed away from Nigeria for a donkey number of years. Some of them living abroad have even sworn never to come back to Nigeria for good until Nigeria becomes as developed as Japan overnight in social conveniences for them.

Although I am not interested in making a case for Nigerian government officials in this write-up, I personally believe that many, if not all, of these characterizations of Nigeria, Nigerians, and Nigerian public office-holders are myopic, misleading, mischievous, unpatriotic, and uninformed. It is understandable to me that Nigeria has not achieved much socio-economic development as a nation, and it is unarguable to me that Nigerian political arena is dominated by corrupt and incompetent individuals. However, it is not clear and believable to me that these self-proclaimed social critics are honest and God-fearing individuals who can lead Nigeria or any of her component states or local government areas to the promised land if given the opportunity to serve. The insincere, untrue, lopsided, and ethnically tinctured nature and tenor of their criticisms immensely belie whatever professions of love or true crusadership for Nigeria they may seem to have made.

How can a true social crusader for Nigerian development believe that the USA, Japan, UK, Germany, Russia, Italy, and other industrialized nations achieved their developmental strides in fifty years when history is full of the authentic dates and times of major world inventions, without which modern human civilization and development wouldn't have been possible? According to history, the following statements of fact are indisputable:

1. The first flying machines, which ushered in the manufacture of airplanes, were invented in 1905 by Wright brothers
2. The first full-scale working rail-way steam locomotive was built by Trevithick in 1804.
3. The first successful steam rail-way in the USA was South Carolina railroad, inaugurated in 1830.
4. The first automobile vehicle, with internal combustion engine, was built by Gottieb Daimler and Maybach in 1889.
5. Turing's machine, the theoretical precursor to modern computers, was invented in 1936 by Alan Turing.
6. Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the first digital computer, was built in 1945 by John Mauchly and J. Presper.
7. The first electric light and incandescent light bulb, which ushered in the manufacture of electric generators, wires, appliances, and all modern electric equipment, were invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison.
8. The first television set/device was invented in 1927 by Philo Farnswworth.
9. The first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.
10. The first bicycle was invented by Kirpatrick Macmillan in 1839.
11. The first pneumatic tire/tyre, which occasioned the construction of concrete/macadamized roads, was built in 1845 by Thompson Williams.
12. The first refrigerator, called an ether ice machine, was constructed in 1834 by Jacob Perkins.
13. The first antiseptic was made in 1847 by Ignaz Semmelwers.
14. The first telegraph was invented in 1837 by Samuel Morse.
15. The first matches were invented by John walker in 1827.
16. The first typewriter was built in 1829 by W.A. Burt.
17. The first sewing machine was constructed in 1830 by Barthelemy Thimonnier.
18. The first patented radio set/system was invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1896.

According to history, the united states of America, for instance, got her independence from the British in 1776, and that she was fifty years old in 1826. History has also shown that slavery, the worst man inhumanity to man, was officially abolished in the USA in 1865, and that black Americans were for the first time accorded citizenship status in their country in 1866, after about hundred years of American independence. From these facts, a right-thinking social critic will understand that when the USA was forty-nine or fifty years old, she had no electricity, no matches, no bicycles, telephone system, television sets, telegraph, computers, type-writers, no refrigerators, no motor cars/vehicles, no trains, no airplanes, no sewing machines, no radio sets, and no antiseptic solutions. This, therefore, means that there were no airports, radio stations, television stations, no railway stations,no seaports,no concrete/macadamized roads,no motor transport systems, no air-condition/heating systems, no equipped hospitals, no equipped schools, universities, no human rights, no social justice, no social conveniences, no comfort, pleasure, and joy for an American in 1826, when the USA, as an example, was fifty years old.

With this abject state of underdevelopment, this stupendous social discomfort or injustice, Americans never failed to celebrate their national day in 1825 (when the USA was 49 years) or 1826 ( when she was 50); they never lost hope and faith in their national and individual abilities to develop, to grow, and march towards national greatness. They never rejected their country and never described their nation as a hell or Sodom and Gomorrah. Nigeria at forty-nine, has all these social conveniences, though in short supply or quality. Instead of Nigerians to be proud of their national heritage, feeling lucky to have had all these amenities, though in inadequacy, in their national forty-ninth independence birth-day and believe in the audacity of hope for a better future, many of them who are fair-weather citizens have chosen to toe the path of subversive, vituperative, and negatively incisive article-writing, which will never do Nigeria any good, all in the name of fake social crusadership.

If somebody can see Nigeria as a failed state, as a hell with all the said social conveniences in her forty-ninth year of national development, how can that person describe the USA, Germany, UK, France, Russia, Japan etc at fifty without any of those amenities of life? If one can describe Nigeria as Sodom and Gomorrah because of political corruption in her forty-nine years of age, how can one qualify the USA at fifty with unabated slavery (the worst inhumanity to man), engulfing social injustice, racial prejudices, unchecked lynching/hanging of the black folks, and untold corruption across her landscape then?

Again, in assessing a country 's growth, we consider its level of civilization/national development before colonization, the nature of colonization, amount of natural resources, amount of its educational reservoir, the patriotism of its citizens, length of sovereignty, population, presence or absence of ethnic diversity, and existence or absence of a dominant culture. Many Nigerian socio-political critics are very quick to condemn Nigeria because of her low ebb of infrastructural development and usually compare her with China, India, Malaysia, Singapore or South Korea. In my view, this comparison is out of place.

In history, we have ancient and modern China, and China never suffered or experienced colonialism by any external power. On first of october every year, China celebrates the birth of communism in 1949, which ended previous years of dynasty and civil wars. China never celebrates independence from any foreign force, as many short-sighted Nigerian critics believe. Ancient China was one of the earliest centers of human development and civilization. For instance, true writing or phonetic writing records were developed independently in four different civilizations in the world, namely Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, and Mesoamerica. The first university in China, Liaoning university, was founded in 1892 while the second and third, Peking university and Zhejiang university, were established in 1898 and 1912 respectively. During these periods in Chinese educational development, Nigeria had no single university or institution of higher learning.

Likewise, we have ancient and modern India. Though India experienced advisory and protective colonialism, she never suffered predatory and emasculatory imperialism as Nigeria did. Before India got colonized in 1858, she had already established her university of Calcutta in 1857. The first university built in this world, Takshashila university, was established by ancient India in 700 BCE. Ancient India was one of the earliest seats of world civilization. In the same token, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea experienced advisory colonialism; they never underwent predatory, plundering imperialism like Nigeria. The first universities in Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea were built in 1905 while the first autonomous, indigenous university in Nigeria was established in 1960. Can a reasonable social critic expect Nigeria to develop at the same pace as these countries?

Functional, creative education is the substratum of any national development. Nigeria is developing at a snail's pace because we have not achieved much in proficient education. A country that has eighty percent of its citizens as illiterates and educated illiterates, who possess ineffectual university degrees, cannot realize massive socio-infrastructural development in double quick time, whatever is the amount of its natural oil reserve. Afortiori, though China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the USA, Germany, Japan, Uk, Canada etc are plural societies, they all have their individual dominant cultures, unlike Nigeria where there is none. Having a dominant culture in a society facilitates the forging of a common front, unity of purpose, the creation of national consciousness and patriotism. Because there is no dominant culture in Nigeria, mustering support for the best government/public programs is extremely difficult. As a result, the best government policies in Nigeria are usually killed either at the altar of ethnic/primordial rurutanianism, educated myopia or stark ignorance.

The agony of it all is that many of the said Nigerian self-styled social critics, who believe that Nigeria has lagged far behind other countries in development, have lived in industrialized nations where, according to them, everything is perfect, for over twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years. Many of them, with their children, are citizens of their host countries, yet they have not been able to have their names written in the list of world millionaires or billionaires. They have not been able to create any niches for themselves in the world temple of inventors or discoverers, and they have not been able to land any noble laurels as Wole Soyinka did, living in Nigeria where nothing, according to them, works.

When Americans, Germans, Italians, the Chinese, Russians, Malays, Koreans, the British etc travel to foreign lands, they come back to their fatherlands with new, creative ideas, skills and use them to help in developing their nations. However, when Nigerians travel abroad, many of them get drowned in useless romance and pleasure and when they get back to Nigeria, they become disenchanted at the failure of the OKADA RIDERS in Nigeria to develop the country for them. This fair-weather friend attitude, this consumer/romance-mentality on the part of many Nigerians abroad is one of the serious elements that pander to Nigeria's underdevelopment.

In fact, Nigeria is a country endowned with many resources for greatness. All we need to do is to have the lamp of hindsight, insight, and foresight in evaluating her developmental steps and to have the wisdom to imbibe the ideals of John F. Kennedy who said, "ASK NOt WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU BUT ASK FOR WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY." Nigerians should be proud to celebrate their nation's forty-ninth independence anniversary. Ignorance of world history is, in truth, part of the failure of Nigerian socio-political criticisms.