As the early fathers would tritely and proudly recall with nostalgia, pre-independence Nigerian society had dignified depth and unrestrained regard for culture, a tight and secure family structure, a winning value system, a disdain for unearned reward and wealth. There was a strong and abiding love for hard work, selfless service and our common humanity.

And up till the beginning of the civil strife in 1966 the pre-independence socio-economic character of the Nigerian system held sway in the public service infrastructure. Indeed, the nature of what was the private sector was not any significantly different.

The oil and gas industry in the then four-regional political economy was a remote proposition. Each of the four regions of the country had paraded distinct economic commodities which characterized their individual strengths and the bargaining chips which they would bring to the federal table.

And against the backdrop of a value system which promoted propriety and proportion in the conduct and management of public resources and trust, each of the regional governments was able to deliver on democratic dividends to the people in full measure.

And then a fratricidal war was thrust on the Nigerian system. In the process of executing the war, oil and gas was discovered. And this natural resource was inadvertently clothed with the unlikely toga of a bargaining chip in the hallowed chambers of military Generals and self-serving politicians.

It was therefore, discovered that the country could earn a lot more hard foreign currency perhaps effortlessly from oil and gas than it could ever hope to get from abundant agricultural production and produce.

That was the collective national undoing.

Agriculture, which had been the celebrated national pride and a more viable and sustainable means of livelihood was abandoned. The leaders therefore, went after the mammon of crude oil. And the nation virtually lost its soul in the shifting sands of the wilderness of the so-called black gold.

And following the casting of the agriculture gold to the pigs the Nigerian system unwittingly turned into an unrecognizable monster whose character had become diametrically opposed to the cherished pre-independent Nigerian socio-economic and political assumptions.

The early 1970s emerged as the flagship of the process of socio-economic decay of the Nigerian system. The next decade and half was marked significantly by such strange social vices as organized prostitution, armed robbery, drugs and narcotics trafficking, money laundering, advanced free fraud (alias 419) and so on.

It was a sorry pass as the real economic sector plummeted down the valley of adverse reckoning. This scenario inevitably led to gross unemployment of highly skilled labor, especially the tertiary school graduates.

It was a sorry pass indeed.

The untoward stress which the oil and gas industry was conferred with by public policy authorities very quickly translated into the gradual but certain abandonment of the real sector for unbridled preference for the importation of all kinds of goods and services.

And as a result, the country became awash with petro-dollars earned from a form of economic easy virtue. And then the largely unprepared political leaders threw caution to the wind.