Whether we choose to mark 56 years of Nigeria’s independence by having a merry party or occupying ourselves with quiet reflection, we can find a place in our plans for this day for looking back at the great things Nigerians have achieved in our years as a free nation. It hasn’t been all bliss- the lows have been rather tortuous for most of us –but we can be inspired by these accomplishments to overcome the obstacles that lie on our path to becoming better as individuals and as a people.
We can be inspired by the victories of Nigerians in sports. At various points in time, we have gathered in front of TV screens to watch our athletes win medals and smash records, or hunched over radios blaring out commentaries of trophy-winning strikes from our football teams. The moments of victory are spread out over the course of half a lifetime- Dick Tiger winning the World Middleweight title in 1962, Chioma Ajunwa’s gold medal winning jump at the Olympic Games held in Atlanta in 1996, the U-23 football team’s triumph in the football event also in Atlanta. Even in the less auspicious occasions, the world’s attention was called to the potential that lies in Nigeria’s sportsmen, as Olusoji Fasuba’s record-breaking run at the 100 meters of the Doha Grand Prix in 2006 showed. His time of 9.85 seconds, which he achieved while finishing second to the American Justin Gatlin, erased the previous African record set by the great Frankie Fredericks of Namibia. Other memorable wins for Nigerians in sports include Mary Onyali’s gold in the 100 meters of the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the trophies won by the national football team at the African Cup of Nations in 1980, 1994 and 2013.
Nigerians have shown great speed and strength; they have also displayed even greater skill and technical know-how in science. Philip Emeagwali is the most well known of the host of brilliant minds that have emerged from this country- his work on supercomputing has made him so popular that he doesn’t really need much of an introduction. In times closer to the present, we have celebrated Kunle Olutokun’s leadership role in Stanford University’s Hydra Research project which yielded the microprocessing chip, and taken pride in the fact that a Nigerian, Jelani Aliyu, designed the Chevrolet Volt, an electric car manufactured by General Motors. In medicine, the Emergency Auto-Transfusion System (which affords safe and affordable blood transfusions) designed by Col. Oviemo Ovadje has been recognized as a life-saving gift to healthcare in the developing world. Dr. Achilefu’s cancer-seeing glasses and Bennet Omalu’s discovery of the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) were also widely reported and hailed. Beyond the confines of high-level expertise, a teacher , Mohammed Bah Abbah, invented the pot-in-pot cooling system which serves as a simple refrigerator- a creation forced by the sometimes desperately hot weather in the northern part of the country. That home-made solution to the local but widespread problem of food spoilage due to harsh weather conditions led to his being awarded the Rolex prize in 2001 and a mention as one of the great inventors of that year in Time Magazine.
There has been a lot of record breaking done by Nigerians in the academic world too. Recently, Ayodele Samuel Dada graduated from the Department of Psychology at the University of Lagos with a perfect CGPA of 5.0. It was the first time such a feat had been accomplished by anyone within Nigeria. Outside the country though, perfect grades have been recorded by not a few Nigerians, including Victor Olalusi’s stunner- he had straight As all through his seven years at the Russian National Medical Research University (Olalusi graduated in 2013). At an even more prestigious institution, another Nigerian student rewrote history. In 2012, Emmanuel Ohuabunwa, then age 22, became the first black person to graduate top of his class at John Hopkins University. In fact,his CGPA of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0 made him the best graduating student from the world acclaimed ivory tower for that year.
There is also much to be said about the strides Nigerians have made in entertainment. Their entrepreneurial and artistic drive has made Nollywood, the country’s movie industry, the third largest film producer, just behind the American and Indian filmmaking industry. In music, names like Fela and TuFace ring a bell across the world. Singer Nico Mbarga’s song Sweet Mother (released in 1976) grew so popular on the African continent that it was referred to as “Africa’s Anthem” by the BBC in 2004, and sold over 13 million copies. In recent times, Nigerian songstress Asa has reached a global audience with her brand of soul, winning the highly rated French Constantin Award in 2008 for best French talent, and achieving impressive positions on music charts in Nigeria and Europe.
The story of Nigeria, including its highs and lows, does not consist of the adventures of the high and mighty alone. It is an agglomeration of the daily travails of Nigerians in all parts of the country over time. Telling that story doesn’t have to be a grand project; constructed narratives detailing bits and pieces of Nigerian lives (real or imagined) help to document the continuing story. Those that have told the world who we are should be celebrated as well. And they have been- Wole Soyinka’s complex style won him a Nobel Prize for Literature, Chimamanda Adichie’s portrait of the ordinary Nigerian’s struggle was recognized with an Orange Prize for Fiction, and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has become the most widely read African novel ever. In attempting to reveal a Nigeria and an Africa that closely mirrors reality, they have shone the light on the power of the mind and pen possessed by Nigerians eager to tell our stories to the world.
We have a lot to be proud of. And we should look forward to a future in which more great achievements will come from Nigerians who will shake the world with their exploits.