Former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, has lamented that Nigeria has “lost its way” and must urgently return to the discipline, values, and vision that once defined it as a promising nation.
Speaking on The Exchange Podcast hosted by Femi Soneye, the senior lawyer and ex-lawmaker reflected on Nigeria’s journey since independence, blaming the country’s present woes on a corrosive political culture and the abandonment of foundational national plans.
Ndoma-Egba recalled that Nigeria once ranked among the world’s fastest-growing economies after independence in 1960.
“The economy was one of the fastest growing in the world, and the problem was not money, but how to spend it,” he said.
At 69 years old, Ndoma-Egba reflected on his early years in public service, noting that he became a board member at 24 and a state commissioner at 26. He compared the governance structure of the past to the present, explaining that in the 1980s, most states had only seven to nine commissioners, a system that encouraged cost-saving but often reduced administrative efficiency.
“I was overseeing what would today be over a dozen ministries,” he said, questioning whether the current drive to cut governance costs truly strikes a balance between frugality and performance.
The former lawmaker blamed part of Nigeria’s institutional decay on deep-rooted cultural attitudes, including citizens’ “excessive deference to authority” and reluctance to hold leaders accountable.
He contrasted the modesty of past leaders with the flamboyance of modern-day politicians.
“It’s the milieu, the environment that defines today,” Ndoma-Egba said, recalling that his late mother, a former local government chairman, “walked to work without an official car or residence.”
