Post by #Nigeriamustgetbetter (@silvertouch37)

Nigeria Must Get Better in My Lifetime*

I’m not willing to wait another generation for Nigeria to work. Not for my children, not for the kid hawking water at the junction in Ikom, not for the graduate with a degree and no job. Nigeria must get better in my lifetime.

That’s not a slogan. It’s a demand born from watching what this country could be if we stopped accepting dysfunction as normal.

1. We have the basics, we’re missing the basics working

Nigeria has oil, arable land, young people, and a diaspora that builds hospitals and tech companies abroad. Cross River alone can feed a chunk of West Africa with cocoa, ginger, maize, and plantain if the supply chain didn’t collapse between the farm and the market.

The problem isn’t absence. It’s execution. Roads that wash away every rainy season. Power that still “takes 2 hours, bring 4 hours”. Ports where clearing a container takes weeks and bribes.

You can’t build a 21st-century economy on 19th-century infrastructure and expect different results.

2. Better starts with accountability, not vibes

Every Nigerian knows what’s wrong. The difference between those who complain and those who fix it is accountability.

When a contractor takes money for a road and disappears, there should be consequences. When a civil servant extorts at the port, it should cost them their job. When a governor diverts LGA funds, the people in that LGA should know and act on it.

Accountability doesn’t require a revolution. It requires citizens who refuse to look away, journalists who follow the money, and judges who don’t sell rulings. It starts with us demanding more from the people we elect and from ourselves.

3. The economy won’t fix itself on oil

Oil paid the bills for 50 years and left us with nothing to show for it. The next 50 years have to be about production, not extraction.

That means farmers who can get their produce to market without losing 40% to spoilage. That means small factories that don’t run on diesel 24/7. That means tech founders who can register a business in a day and trust the contract will hold up in court.

Valley Free Nig Ltd exists because I believe in that model: aggregate from farmers, add value, sell quality, pay fairly. Multiply that by 10,000 small businesses across Nigeria and you have an economy that doesn’t beg for oil prices to rise.

4. Young people are the leverage, not the problem

60% of Nigeria is under 25. That’s either a time bomb or a demographic dividend. It depends on whether we give them skills, capital, and a system that rewards merit over connection.

I’ve met kids in Ogoja and Ikom who can fix phones, code basic apps, and farm better than their parents. What they lack is access. Access to credit without collateral they don’t have. Access to markets beyond their village. Access to a government that sees them as assets, not liabilities.

If we get that right, the next Dangote, Iyinoluwa, or Mo Abudu won’t need to leave the country to build.

5. It’s personal now

“Nigeria will get better” can’t be a prayer we hand to our kids. It has to be a project we finish in our lifetime.

That means showing up. Voting in LGAs, not just presidential elections. Paying taxes and demanding to see what it buys. Starting businesses that pay people properly. Calling out corruption in your own circle before you post about it online.

Nigeria won’t fix itself. But 200 million people choosing to stop tolerating broken systems? That’s enough to change a country.

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We’ve spent too long debating whether Nigeria can work. It can. The question is whether we will make it work while we’re still here to see it.

I intend to. encourage a positive energy that will in turn rehabilitate the thinking capacity of those we entrust with the power to lead us.

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