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Lying in bed this morning, I wondered about the Nigeria that existed before I was born, before my parents were born, and before 1 October 1960 became the date we proudly call Independence Day. What did freedom mean to the generation that fought for it?
Before independence, political authority over Nigeria rested outside the country. The struggle for self-government was not about changing a flag. It was about the right of Nigerians to determine their own destiny.
The Freedom They Contested
That freedom did not arrive by accident. It was won through years of agitation, protests, negotiations and journalism. Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, Anthony Enahoro, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, Aminu Kano and others challenged colonial authority in different ways. Enahoro moved the historic motion for independence in 1953. Awolowo published “Path to Nigerian Freedom” and championed federalism. These were not people who inherited freedom. They contested for it.
Nowhere was that battle more visible than in the press. Ernest Ikoli edited and founded newspapers including the *African Messenger* and *Daily Service*. Azikiwe founded the *West African Pilot* in 1937. The *Daily Times* (1926) and Awolowo’s *Nigerian Tribune* (1949) also became platforms for political awareness. Mbonu Ojike, Peter Enahoro, Sa’ad Zungur, Lateef Jakande and others joined the struggle through the pen. Nigerian journalism did not begin as a passive observer of history. It helped make it.
Independence, however, did not solve everything colonialism left behind. The First Republic (1960 to 1966) collapsed under political tension and regional rivalry, followed by coups, the Civil War (1967 to 1970) and long stretches of military rule. The Second Republic under Shehu Shagari ended in the December 1983 coup.
After another decade of military rule and the short-lived Interim National Government, General Abdulsalami Abubakar handed power to an elected civilian government on 29 May 1999. The Fourth Republic has endured since.
Gains, Setbacks and the Reform Test
The journey from 1960 to 2026 is neither a story of total failure nor of uninterrupted progress. Oil revenues financed infrastructure but exposed the economy to volatility and weakened the push for diversification. Democratic continuity since 1999 has brought stability earlier generations never enjoyed, while telecoms, digital finance, technology and the creative economy have transformed how millions work and earn.
Yet at 66, the harder question is whether national progress reaches the Nigerian who may never read an economic report but knows exactly what bread, bus fare, hospital bills and a litre of petrol cost.
The Tinubu administration has undertaken some of the most consequential reforms in recent history, notably the removal of the petrol subsidy and foreign-exchange reforms. The IMF reported growth of 3.4 per cent in 2024, and the World Bank says the economy grew 3.9 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2025.
The World Bank also credits the reforms with restoring macroeconomic stability and strengthening external balances. But the same institutions document the other side: high poverty, food insecurity, weak household incomes and heavy inflation.
The subsidy question is more complicated than the slogans around it. Removing it eased a major fiscal distortion, but the cost to households has been severe because transport, food distribution and business operations all track energy prices. By September 2026, media reports put petrol at N1,500 to N1,600 per litre in some markets. The real question is no longer whether subsidy removal was necessary, but whether the savings are being converted into better public transport, stronger social protection, jobs, reliable electricity, affordable healthcare and lower living costs.
The same test applies to healthcare, agriculture and security. Nigeria keeps losing trained health professionals to countries offering better pay, and a WHO-supported health-system assessment cites shortages, uneven distribution, poor remuneration and migration as major challenges.
Farmers face insecurity, weak productivity and poor logistics. Banditry, kidnapping and insurgency remain serious threats, particularly in parts of the north. Security is not merely a military problem. It is also an economic, food-security, healthcare and education problem.
A farmer who cannot reach his farm, a doctor who leaves because the system cannot retain him, and a child who cannot safely attend school are symptoms of the same failure: the inability to convert national resources into human security.
2027 and the Nigeria We Must Still Build
Then comes 2027. INEC has scheduled the presidential and National Assembly elections for 20 February 2027, and governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections for 6 March. Beyond personalities and campaign promises, the election should force a more mature conversation. What kind of economy should Nigeria build? How will insecurity be confronted? How will hospitals retain professionals, and agriculture become commercially productive? How will electricity become dependable? How will technology create opportunities at home rather than a generation seeking escape abroad? How will institutions become stronger than individuals?
No single administration can answer these alone. They require continuity, competent institutions, accountable leadership and citizens who understand that democracy is more than voting every four years.
At 66, Nigeria’s greatest achievement is not that it has become the country its founders imagined. It has not. It is that, despite coups, civil war, military rule, economic crises, insecurity, corruption and repeated disappointment, Nigeria is still here, and millions are still building, teaching, reporting, farming, inventing, serving and believing.
The independence generation fought for the right to determine our destiny. Our responsibility is to make that destiny worth having. Nigeria does not need another generation that merely survives its problems. It needs one that solves them.
So on this 66th Independence anniversary, let us remember those who fought for the country, scrutinise those entrusted with its leadership, and recognise the ordinary Nigerians whose daily sacrifices keep it alive. The road has been long and hard. But we are not finished. There is still a Nigeria to build, and every reason to believe we can build it.
Views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of News Diet.
