AVOIDABLE THREATS TO NIGERIA'S DEMOCRACY. By Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP Okwubunka of Asa.

From every indication, Nigeria should be an abundantly prosperous country. A country amply endowed with both human and material resources has no excuse, whatsoever, to be a World Capital of Poverty. It is quite ironical.

June 12 this year will be another reminder to the existentialism of Nigeria's return to democratic governance after many years of unconstitutional military incursion into the country's national governance.

Nigeria, quite unfortunately, has been wobbling in many areas of corporate development. Among the reasons for Nigeria's backwardness are glaring injustice, nepotism and corruption.

Injustice constitutes a major clog on the wheel of Nigeria's progress. A good number of Nigerians believe that they are unfairly treated in a country of their own for no other reason than their ethnic origin. Take for instance, many brilliant young Nigerian University Graduates are denied employment in the Federal Civil Service only because they are not Fulani. 

Due to nepotism, Nigeria does not harness the potentials of her best brains. Rather, the half-baked are the ones offered opportunities to man strategic national institutions, just because of their ethnic background.

It is because of ineptitude resultant of nepotistic considerations that has made Nigeria, an oil-producing country with many refineries, to be importing refined products of petroleum from other countries, with the worst corrupt regime.

Nigeria's security is considered to be among the worst because emphasis is never laid on competence but on ethnicity.

The solutions to Nigeria's present state of both political and economic instability lie in the application of Justice, Equity and Fairness. 

Once the country embraces the above, all ethnic agitations for dissolution of the Federation, that is believed to be at variance with true Federalism, will disappear and Nigeria would become great again.