Nigeria will only become a great country and an emerging economy in this 21st century human universe if the present poverty rate of 80% is reduced through the massive creation of those good paying jobs and the economic opportunities for the ordinary Nigerians. Nigeria will only be great when her hardworking workers can earn the true living wages instead of the present poverty wages of $100 or N18,000 a month. Nigeria will only be great when the present youth unemployment rate that stands at 23% is reduced drastically to a reasonable level. Nigeria will only be great when her middle class population that is almost facing extinction is made vibrant again like the 1970s during her oil boom.
Nigeria will only be great again if her hospitals are now modernized to the 21st century international standard and any sick Nigerian can have easy access to the quality and affordable health care. Nigeria can only be great when her citizens can enjoy the most basic social services, such as, good roads, weekly trash-collection, constant electricity and treated or safe water supply. Nigeria can only be great if all her school-age children can go to school and enjoy the 21st century education to any level of schooling. Nigeria can only be great if her universities and research centers are recognized globally as the true centers for academic excellence and research innovations.
Nigeria can only be great when the elections of her public officials at all levels of government are free, fair and transparent. Nigeria can only be great when her judiciary is truly independent and completely autonomous. Nigeria can only be great when all Nigerians are treated equally before the same supreme law of the land. Nigeria can only be great when her police force can be trusted to do the right things and her armed forces do not see other Nigerians as bloody civilians. Nigeria can only be great again when any Nigerian can live freely anywhere in Nigeria without the fear of intimidation, deportation and harassment from the state governments, locals or the natives.
Nigeria can only be great when the regime of merit replaces mediocrity, nepotism, tribalism, quota system and federal character as the standard way of conducting the business of that nation. Nigeria can only be great again when Nigerians embrace religious tolerance instead of religious bigotry, religious violence, religious terrorism and religious ignorance. Nigeria can only be great when the sanctity of the human life and the properties of all Nigerians are protected and defended by the government of Nigeria and her security agencies. Nigeria can only be great when the menace of the official culture of corruption and the decades of the mammoth mismanagement of our state resources by the successive governments are officially stamped out, once and for all.
Nigeria can only be great when the rule of lawlessness and brutality are both replaced by the rule of law, justice for all and public accountability from all public officials. Nigeria will be great again when Nigerians that live in the diaspora can easily renew their expired Nigerian passports without any undue stress and bribery at the Nigerian foreign embassies and consulates. Nigeria can only be great when her citizens in foreign nations will be readily evacuated in the times of international emergencies, crises and conflicts. Nigeria can only be great again when the foreign investors can trust the Nigerian system to the point that they will invest their hard earned money into her national economy. Nigeria can only be great when the anti-gay law that now criminalizes homosexual Nigerians as with hefty jail terms and as second class citizens of that country with limited constitutional rights is finally abolished.
The likes of Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga and the few other Nigerians who are now government created dollar-rated billionaires do not make any nation to be great in all truth, honesty and reality when the same economic opportunities that lifted up a handful of those Nigerians are not physically available to the tens of millions of these ordinary Nigerians today in 2014 to partake in in order to have their own bites of the Nigerian dream in all reality.
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