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On the same day that Nigeria celebrated its 50th Independence Anniversary, the iconic time travel film ‘Back to the Future’ was re-released in the UK to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The film is about a
teenager who accidentally goes 35 years back in time, using a time
machine constructed by an eccentric scientist. He meets his parents as
they are about to embark on their lives together and he inadvertently
disrupts the course their lives would ordinarily have taken, risking
that his parents will not marry and that he himself will not be born.
He has to repair the damage to history and to his own future that his
actions have caused and find his way back to the future within a week.

As I reflect on the
flavour of the past week and Nigeria’s independence 50 years ago, it
seems very apt that the film’s re-release coincided with our
celebrations. I have read newspaper articles about how the founding
fathers of our nation got it wrong, and did not foresee the fault lines
in the nation they put together.

Other articles
blame the ‘state of the nation’ on divergence from the original plan
these same founding fathers put in place for our nation-building.

Then, there are the
parallels. October 1, 50 yearsago marked the culmination of the
struggle for independence from external governance that our thinkers
and workers felt was exploitative, repressive and unjust. Now, we are
witnessing internal struggles for autonomy from a centralized
government.

Over the past week,
we have been taken back to the past through photographs of 60s fashion
and screening of newsreel and documentaries from that time. In a
country where it is easy to feel that we have no documented history, it
has been wonderful to read and see historical references to what life
was like in 1960.

It made me proud to
learn that Independence Building was designed by a Nigerian architect
and president of the Nigerian Institute of Architects from 1968-1970
-Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor.

I enjoyed the
chronicle in the newspaper of Nigeria’s romance with musical genres in
every decade since the 60s. We really had excellent musicians and great
music, and now that spirit is captured on Broadway and in a West End
Theatre with the truly excellent and invigorating Fela! Musical. Our
magazines have featured the fashionable knee-high style of wearing
traditional dress for the ladies, and men’s dapper dressing reminiscent
of Malcolm X with short afro hair styles with side partings, sharp
suits and traditional ethnic wear.

It has felt like a
period of renaissance. Like a time when we have the chance once again
to re-invent ourselves to a time before the schism and deprivation of
the civil war; to a time when positive change rather than destructive
division may emerge from the storm of competing interests and positions
brewing in our Local, State and National Assemblies.

It has felt like a
point from which we may be able to depart from the rigid roles that
seem imposed on the south south, the northwest, the east, the south
west, the middle belt and the north east; when we can leave the past
where it is and only carry the learnings from it into our newly
envisioned future as a true federation with national representation
that takes us forward instead of holding us back.

The world is
watching Even though we have so much to celebrate as a people, there is
not much in our everyday lives to celebrate as a nation; and nothing
spectacular or inspirational to show for the billions spent on marking
the event during an economic downturn when the fortunate are under
pressure to make a living, and the unfortunate are struggling to find
something to eat. Even so, all the elements that were present at our
founding are back again – back from the past for us to take into our
future.

We have proud,
young, educated and patriotic Nigerians ready to serve our nation. A
resurging focus on pride in the armed services and on efficient service
in our ministries is evident. Flourishing music, dance, fashion,
creative arts and crafts and pride in vocations. Nigerians excelling
around the world. A country opening up to investment, investing in mass
infrastructure, new technologies, new ventures and new development
partners.

Opportunities for export of proudly-made-in-Nigeria products and the expansion of our enterprises across the world.

We are also once
more the cynosure of the world and not just for negative things. The
world is watching. We have had 50 years to stretch, grow, learn painful
lessons, and indulge in vices until we are sick. The early stages of
cancerous growths have been identified. Are we going to swallow bitter
medicine, and suffer them to be cut out before they permanently embed
the tentacles that have been spread? Or are we going to ‘go out with a
bang’; decide that we are doomed anyway and gorge ourselves
irresponsibly until the choice is taken from our hands.

I can see the
future in the back of my eyes where it has retreated to as the years
passed. It is a beautiful, orderly, free, safe, and prosperous tropical
nation with people who laugh a lot, live large, and who celebrate
life’s little joys and mourn its small sorrows together in harmony.
Let’s work to bring that future back. We will all be the better for it.