Write 7 page essay on the topic Nigeria: Then and Now.

Thousands of its youth think that going abroad is the only solution to escape their hardships. A society of jobless people resorts to criminal acts and gangs. others go to religion for consolation. Oil riches has not been cautiously managed to diminish the effect of reliance on a single commodity, produce enormous domestic capital and foreign capital or investments,

and improve in general productive capability and social capital (Falola, 1999). A thriving class of manufacturers is yet to surface, as it is at all times more lucrative to acquire access to power, or to endeavor in commerce, oil bunkering, land assessment, currency changing, smuggling, drug trafficking and other illegal activities. Domestic industries, with highly significant contents, carry on resisting for cold cash while foreign investments lingered essentially restricted to the oil industry (ibid).

Despite of its plentiful resources, including an energetic and literate population, and the largest oil reserve in whole of Africa, Nigeria has been in a miserable condition for a long time now because of a combination of incidences, namely, the colonial heritage, mediocre leadership, political authoritarianism, governmental ineffectiveness, mishandling of oil revenues, legitimated corruption, the exploitation of ethnicity by the political groups, protracted military administrations, an absolutist politics where the victor gets everything, and manipulation by outside forces. Up until now, the country has fell short to design feasible political foundations, particularly a mechanism to lessen abuse of authority and power and permit a truthful changeover from military to democratic regime (Ejiogu, 2002). Oil revenues have facilitated the survival of the country and its populations to contemplate of a prosperous future. However, oil wealth has permitted a few political personalities to take pleasure on a high level of political independence while stepping on the rights of the common