Rethinking Nigeria’s development: Moving beyond roads to minds and morals, By Baba Isimi

Nigeria’s story of development often focuses on building roads, bridges, and shiny new infrastructure projects. While these are important, real progress depends on something deeper: it includes prioritizing the development of our people’s consciousness, strengthening our institutions, and promoting shared values and a strong national ethos. Infrastructure alone isn’t enough. We need education that empowers, government that earns trust, and a national spirit rooted in higher ideals. Organizations like the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should do more than just run campaigns; they should help reshape how Nigerians think and act.

There is a big gap between Nigeria’s dreams of infrastructure and the reality of our human development. Despite spending billions on concrete, many children still leave primary school, unable to read or write. Our universities often produce graduates who are not ready for the digital economy.

Meanwhile, people’s trust in institutions keeps declining. Countries like Rwanda and Vietnam show us that development starts with education, civic responsibility, and trustworthy institutions. Rwanda’s focus on unity and Vietnam’s emphasis on technical skills show that progress begins in the mind, long before buildings go up.

The NOA’s role in promoting patriotism and values has been underused. Instead of just running occasional campaigns, it should help build a culture of critical thinking, accountability, and innovation. We need to reform education by focusing on problem-solving instead of memorization or rote learning and work with anti-corruption agencies to make transparency normal. Success should be measured by real results, like the number of patents or students’ reasoning skills, not just roads built. Engaging local communities through media and dialogues can shift public expectations from just ribbon-cutting ceremonies to lasting institutional improvements.

Advertisement

Action is needed now. We can start by trying reforms in a few states: rewarding teachers based on student performance, making school budgets transparent, and adding ethics classes to skills programs. If these work, we should expand them across the country, with funding based on real benefits for people and not just flashy projects for politicians’ ego and vanity.

True development isn’t just about infrastructure. It’s about improving lives: creating good jobs, ensuring peace, providing quality schools, and making healthcare, housing, and clean environments accessible. These are the real measures of progress and the signs that a government can solve the social and political problems holding the country back.

But progress doesn’t come from concrete and steel alone. It depends on wise policies, a skilled and adaptable workforce, and trustworthy institutions. Here’s where the NOA can play a key role—not just as a messenger of messages but as a creator of a shared national identity.

In order to achieve real, sustainable, and inclusive development, we must urgently find the right balance between visible projects and meaningful progress. Otherwise, we risk ending up with high-quality infrastructure but low-quality people, poor governance, and weak institutions. It would be like putting pigs or bushmen from the Kalahari or the jungles of the Congo into the luxury of the Waldorf Astoria or the Burj Khalifa—out of place and unable to truly benefit from or sustain such grandeur. Roads and bridges connect cities, but only a transformed mindset and moral foundation can truly build a great nation.

● Baba Isimi FNIA is a promoter of National Integration Group.