2023: Breakup Only Solution To Nigeria’s Problems– Okonjo-Iweala’s Son, Uzodinma Iweala

 

Uzodinma Iweala, the son of Africa’s best export to the world, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has stated that Nigeria needs another independence and should be dissolved.

The author of the masterpiece, Beasts of No Nation made the declaration in his article, ‘Nigeria’s Second Independence: Why the Giant of Africa Needs to Start Over’, published in Foreign Affairs- the American magazine of international relations and United States foreign policy is published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

In February, 2023, Nigeria will be going to the Polls to elect a new president at a time the nation is facing so many problems; ranging from insecurity to religious intolerance, poor economy and infrastructure.

Uzodinma Iweala insists that one of the solutions to the political troubles of the country is its dissolution as no single individual has the magic wand to steer the ship to the desired destination.

As citizens face serious security and economic problems, he urged them to decide if they want Nigeria’s existence as a state to continue or to expire.

“Nigeria’s political system defies neat packaging”, stressed the son of ex-Finance Minister and WTO DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

“Scholars have labeled it everything from the facetious “chaosocracy” to the more benign “entrepreneurial democracy” to the pejorative “kleptocracy.”

Uzodinma Iweala said such tags wrongly suggest that Nigeria’s problems stem from individual moral failings within the political class.

Citing experts’ recommendation of good leadership and good governance, the Harvard graduate believes no individual, however well intentioned, can fix the challenges.

Nothing should be off-limits for discussion – even the dissolution of the country”, he suggested.

“Before doing anything else, Nigerians need to decide: Do they want the patchwork entity named Nigeria to remain Nigeria?

“It is a reasonable question, given that the country is the arbitrary product of colonial boundaries.”

Uzodinma Iweala said in their quest to form a working system, citizens should not “limit their thinking to outdated and flawed U.S. and European models of democracy”.

The novelist won the Hoopes Prize and Dorothy Hicks Lee Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis while in Harvard, among other honours.