Are We Truly Independent?

Across social media and digital platforms today, vibrant graphics celebrate our nation’s independence, 65 years since the colonial flag came down, and our own was raised. It marked a moment of triumph, of pride, and of new beginnings. But as we mark another October 1st, a sobering question lingers:

Are we truly independent?

Sixty-five years later, our children are still raised on American, British, and Chinese curricula—an education pipeline that often leads them straight into the arms of foreign nations. Our brightest minds are exported en masse, their potential lost to distant shores.

Our policies, supposedly sovereign, are heavily influenced—if not outright shaped—by Western non-state actors, who serve as consultants embedded deep in our policymaking processes. Whose interests do they really serve?

Our healthcare system is so underfunded and overstretched that those in power routinely bypass it entirely, jetting off to Western hospitals for the kind of care they fail to ensure for the average Nigerian—many of whom may never even see the inside of an airport, let alone fly abroad.

Our economy still leans heavily on foreign exchange. Our universities are underfunded, pushing the elite to send their children abroad while local institutions wither. Our research sector survives largely on donor funding, which comes with policy prescriptions that often undermine our local realities.

We have abandoned our indigenous seeds and embraced patented hybrids and genetically modified organisms—designed not for self-sufficiency but dependency. Our farmers are no longer masters of their fields but consumers in someone else’s supply chain.

We continue to pursue international loans tied to conditions that mandate the adoption of Western ideologies and economic models, often ill-suited for our unique context. Our media landscape remains dominated by Western narratives, echoed by our own journalists, shaping how the world sees us—and how we see ourselves.

We extract our minerals, but the profits go abroad. Our youth remain unemployed, their future mortgaged for resources powering industries they may never work in.

Our technocrats, often foreign-trained, craft policies that curry favor with global institutions rather than confront local needs. Our agricultural systems are increasingly dictated by multinational agribusinesses. We import what we can grow and neglect what we can create. Our middle class is being drained—strangled by inflation, economic insecurity, and the relentless lure of migration.

Are we independent?

We mark our sovereignty every year, but sovereignty is not simply the absence of colonial rulers. It is not the hoisting of a flag or the singing of an anthem.

True independence is the ability to feed ourselves, heal ourselves, educate ourselves, and govern ourselves—on our own terms.*

It is food sovereignty
Policy sovereignty.
Economic sovereignty.
Cultural sovereignty.

Until we achieve these, October 1st will remain a public holiday—not a celebration of true independence, but a reminder of the work still undone.