Redundant Refineries, Naïve Naira and Macerated Masses: An Independent Assessment @ 63
Becoming independent of British rule has not yielded the anticipated ‘freedom’, in my opinion. With a surging population estimate of 220 million people in 2023 compared to her citizens’ count of 45 million in 1960, Nigeria has not only overtaken her former foreign masters in numerical strength (British population was about 54 million sixty-three years ago) but surpassed the perceived colonial ills. Economic liberation and national esteem, which primarily propelled our forefathers’ struggle for sovereignty, are today homeless breeds among post-independent Nigerians. I have read that several parts of our national life recorded remarkable feats within the first 15 – 20 years post-independence before multiple factors brought our nations to its current knees. Alongside my colleagues at the National AIDS, Viral Hepatitis & STIs Control Programme (NASCP) Federal Ministry of Health and officials of the Abuja office of the United States Centre for Disease Control (US-CDC), I returned to