On this day 54 years ago, there was a lot of excitement across the country as the British handed over the reins of political power to Nigerians. Nigeria had become an independent state.

The hope and sense of anticipation that accompanied that period has over the years been replaced, by a more sombre litany of missed chances and opportunities squandered.

These past 54 years have not been uneventful. As soon as independence was ushered in, we began to question the white man’s sense- or lack of it- in clumping together a large mass of ethnicities and territories as one entity. This manifested in religious and ethnic disagreements that ultimately led to a civil war which nearly tore the country apart.

No victor, no vanquished was the national maxim post-civil war, but as it turned out, the military emerged the real winners as they took advantage of the mistrust and suspicion that pervaded the era, imposed a long reign of dictatorship, briefly interrupted in a failed civilian experiment in 1979, and plundered the national treasury. The oil boom of the seventies became both gift and curse as the country tethered precariously on the brink of becoming a mono-economy. Oil revenue represented almost 90 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and about 85 per cent of total exports.

The damage was massive; an overbearing government became involved in sectors they had no business in, corruption intensified and the civil service began showing signs of redundancy. The military era was also hostile to critics and the most vocal of those either had to flee for their lives or suffer tragic outcomes.

After an aborted process in 1993, Nigeria would once again return to democratic rule in May 1999. Olusegun Obasanjo’s government began a tough mandate to restore stability to the system and commence effective nation building as quickly as possible.

While Obasanjo shone in critical areas like waging a visible war against corruption and restoring investor confidence in the economy, his military background most often got the better of him and he failed to abide by basic democratic principles. His administration was no fan of the rule of law and flouted multiple court rulings that stood in its way. The electoral process was a disaster as candidates were imposed on voters regularly and elections were characterized by massive rigging, ballot snatching and other fraudulent acts. Indeed the 2007 general elections which Obasanjo supervised were characterized by European Union election observers as the “worst they had ever seen.”

The short lived Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration made some well publicized campaigns for abiding by the rule of law but this was overshadowed by a near constitutional crisis, following his debilitation and confinement in a Saudi Arabian hospital. His eventual death would usher in President Goodluck Jonathan whose government, despite advocating an improved and more transparent electoral process, has been infamously soft on corruption.

GEJ has ignored corrupt ministers and aides, preferring to turn the blind eye to the almost daily revelations of graft coming out of his own government. This style of unprincipled permissiveness has created a culture where loyalty to the president is valued above anything else and actual performance is gradually being relegated to the background.

How else does one explain the award of national honours to the current service chiefs who have not been successful in stemming insurgency attacks in the North-East of our country? How else can one explain the massive destruction of lives and property and wanton disregard for the rule of law as seemingly demonstrated by Ayodele Fayose, the incoming, and democratically elected governor of Ekiti state. A culture of impunity where people are allowed to get away with such behaviour is inimical to the ideals of democracy and civilized behaviour. Such developments can only breed anarchy.

The potential crowning glory of the GEJ administration is the launch of the roadmap for power sector reform, an ambitious plan to ensure that Nigerians enjoy stable electricity in the nearest future, but even that has come under threat of late as government has had to pump in a N213 billion intervention facility to assist electricity distribution companies offset legacy gas debts as well as address the revenue shortfall in the power sector.

While this bailout is timely and necessary at this point, to avoid a total collapse of the electricity reform process, its necessity proves that the entire privatisation process is inherently flawed and gives credence to allegations of nepotism over competence.

For a brief moment, it is important that we cast the ever looming 2015 elections to one side. In the 21st century, democracy is not an end unto itself and no country can expect to make progress in an atmosphere of legal anarchy, and no power. After all, China is not a Western style democracy, but has managed to implement a law system that works, plus, they have an abundance of power.

No one can deny the progress that Nigeria has made in the last four decades, but it is clear that a lot more still needs to be done as we have barely even scratched the surface.

Indeed, 54 hearty cheers are in order, but we need to get back to work.

The task ahead is daunting.