Nigeria and the Illusion of the “Good Old Days” -By Leonard Karshima Shilgba

It has become almost a national pastime in Nigeria: to look back wistfully at the “good old days.” The Nigeria of the 1960s and 1970s is often painted as a lost paradise of honesty, communal spirit, and progress. In contrast, today’s Nigeria is lamented as hopelessly corrupt, unsafe, and unredeemable — so much so that “japa,” the quest to leave the country at all costs, has become the dream of millions. A suffocating hopelessness has settled like a fog, breeding the dubious belief that nothing good can come out of Nigeria anymore.

But such sentiments are not uniquely Nigerian, nor are they new. Across cultures and centuries, every generation has glorified its own time while condemning the present. The Scriptures recognized this long ago. Proverbs 30:11–14 (KJV) describes it vividly:

“There is a generation
that curseth their
father,
And doth not bless
their mother.
There is a generation
that are pure in their
own eyes,
And yet is not washed
from their filthiness.
There is a generation,
O how lofty are their
eyes!
And their eyelids are
lifted up.
There is a generation,
whose teeth are as
swords,
And their jaw teeth as
knives,
To devour the poor
from off the earth,
And the needy from
among men.”

Notice the wisdom here: the problem is not with one specific generation but with recurring patterns of human society. There will always be a people who dishonor their elders, who claim purity while wallowing in corruption, who carry arrogance as a badge of modernity, and who exploit the weak. In their own eyes, they are “pure,” but in truth they remain unwashed.”

Nigerians who glorify the past forget that the Nigeria of the 1960s and 1970s was also scarred by a brutal civil war, widespread poverty, military coups, and oppression of dissent. Corruption did not begin with “this generation.” In every age, there have been leaders with “teeth as swords,” who devoured the poor and needy, and elites whose lofty eyes looked down on the masses. Yet because memory is selective, we often see the past through rose-colored glasses, while dismissing the present as irredeemable.

This kind of nostalgia is dangerous. It feeds despair. It convinces young people that the Nigeria they inhabit is already beyond redemption. It justifies the flight of millions in search of hope elsewhere. While “japa” may offer individual escape, it also drains the nation of talent and accelerates the very decay we mourn. When everyone agrees that “Nigeria don spoil finish,” then no one feels responsible to repair it. Hopelessness becomes self-fulfilling.

The wisdom of Proverbs warns us against this blindness. It calls each generation to examine its own filthiness rather than congratulating itself on imagined purity. For Nigeria today, this means asking hard questions: How do we honor what is good in our heritage while rejecting what is rotten? How do we confront arrogance, corruption, and exploitation in our time without drowning in despair?

No generation has been free from stain. The “good old Nigeria” was never as pure as memory makes it. And “this generation” is not as hopeless as despair insists. Every era carries both seeds of destruction and seeds of renewal. The challenge is to stop romanticizing the past or demonizing the present, and instead to face our moment with honesty and courage.

The destiny of Nigeria will not be determined by those who merely shake their heads at “this generation,” nor by those who flee with hopelessness in their hearts. It will be determined by those who see clearly — that no age is pure, that every age must be washed, and that each generation has the responsibility to reject self-deception and build what is good.

If we can see that, then Nigeria is not lost. But if we cling to the myth of the “good old days” and surrender to despair, then we will become exactly the kind of generation Proverbs warned us about: lofty in our eyes, yet unwashed in our filthiness, devouring our own poor, and excusing it all in the name of nostalgia. Then, we will have failed the test of justice, humility, and mercy. We must never surrender to the pull of hopelessness, because hopelessness is a myth built by those who fear effort.

© Shilgba