I can’t help but remember how when I was very young and in primary school how my ambition when asked was to one day become the president of Nigeria. Then, all I could do was visualize myself as a military president because General Ibrahim Babangida was Head of State then. I’d also read in civics about the former presidents and regimes that had occurred and found out that the military had ruled for most of the time since our independence.

I obviously took it for granted as a naive young school pupil that the military uniform will perpetually remain the costume of our presidents. I therefore kept visualizing with all sorts of armed forces uniforms as my attire. Needless to say that things took a turn for the better and now in the civilian era. Many people will argue that we were better off during the military era than during the civil regime. That is a topic for another day. However, looking critically at Nigeria since the new civilian era started in 1999 with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo flagging it off, the country seems to have moved 2 paces forward and 5 backward. Continue reading →