Nigeria is failing its people, not the other way round
On Pan African Half Hour, Jay Adewole argues that the country's problem was never a shortage of talent or resources. It is the absence of systems that outlast the people in charge.
PANM — Nigeria has oil, gas, minerals, fertile soil and the largest youth population in Africa. Its people excel almost everywhere they go. So why do so many of them struggle just to get by at home?
That is the question Jay Adewole put at the centre of a commentary on Pan African Half Hour, in a segment he calls Speaking Truth to Power.
"Nigeria is not just a country. Nigeria is a paradox," he said. The question to ask, he argued, is not what is wrong with Nigeria but "how can a nation so rich produce so much poverty?"
Not resources, but responsibility
His answer is that the country has never lacked resources. What it lacks is responsibility, accountability and working systems.
For decades, he said, leadership has been transactional when it needed to be transformational, with policies designed for politics and institutions built to serve the powerful.
"Nigeria is not failing because of its people. Nigeria is failing its people."
What daily life looks like
He described the pressure on ordinary Nigerians: inflation eating into salaries that were never enough, a power supply that is a luxury, insecurity that makes travel a gamble, schools in crisis and health costs that push families into poverty.
Young people, he said, are checking out, some mentally and many physically, by leaving the country.
Yet Nigerians abroad thrive in technology, medicine, business, sport, entertainment and academia. For Adewole that settles where the fault lies. "The problem is not the Nigerian. The problem is the environment that the Nigerian is forced to survive in."
Who is responsible
He divides the blame in two.
At home, he pointed to leaders who treat power as personal property, corruption, agencies that react when they should plan, tribal politics used as a weapon, young people kept out of government and loyalty rewarded over competence.
Abroad, he pointed to foreign interests that he says benefit from Nigeria's instability, to resource deals that enrich others more than the nation, and to outside influence over its elections, policy and finances.
But he was clear about which comes first: external forces, he said, only succeed where internal leadership is weak.
Systems, not strongmen
What Nigeria needs, in his view, is not another slogan.
"Nigeria needs systems, not strong men," he said. Strong men die. Systems last.
His list: leaders elected for competence and not tribe; institutions that outlive politicians; transparency; investment in education, innovation and youth enterprise; an economy that no longer depends on oil; accountability from local government to the top; and young people "at the table, not at the sidelines".
He closed with a line addressed as much to Nigerians as to their leaders. The country, he said, is "too big, too brilliant and too blessed to be struggling like this".
This article is drawn from an episode of Pan African Half Hour first shown on 8 December 2025. Watch the full commentary. Jay Adewole is Editor-in-Chief of Pan African News Media. The views are his own.
