(By Brady Chijioke Nwosu)
Nigeria is always going in circles. Its history is always repeating itself. This happens because its leaders, and the led, refuse to learn from their own history. Perhaps, that’s reason History, as a subject, was removed from school curriculum. If we were good students of History, we would be jittery over the situation in the country with August 27, 1985 in focus. That day, we were woken up with marshal lyrics, which heralded the fall of the then Buhari/Idiagbon regime.
At the moment, Nigerians are passing through fire. Some who could not continue to bear the heat have resorted to suicide, which is anathema in every Nigerian culture. This was not what any Nigerian envisaged would crop up again after the period of 1984-1985. Nigeria was conceived as a great nation, even though it was hurriedly, fraudulently and corruptly packaged and enthroned; yet there was hope for a nation. The costly misapprehension unfortunately, has trickled and doubled down, and has now become ironclad burden to the continued existence of Nigeria.
Class struggles, suspicion among ethnic groups, and religion have put the country on edge at different dispensations, leading to the fall of governments, instability and truncated several republics. The historical excursion below, therefore, demonstrates why the nation hangs on precipice.
The first coup was actually planned and executed to stop impunity and corrupt governance. It was alleged that there was mass looting of the nation’s treasure by the politicians. For example, the then Finance Minister, Okoti-Ebo, and others, were accused of recklessly and excessively looting and brazenly showing off their booty. A move aimed, with overwhelming public support, to end that government turned out unbalanced based on the execution of human targets in order to achieve the desired goal. It was tagged an ‘Igbo coup’ because Igbo leaders escaped the purge, while most of those whacked were northern leaders, including the first Nigerian Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, and the Premiere of Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello.
General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was installed as first military Head of State. In anger and deep frustration, some young officers of northern extraction carried out a vicious reprisal by executing a counter-coup while Ironsi was in Ibadan on a state visit to Western Region. He and his host were killed. This followed a pogrom against Ndigbo mostly in the North and the subsequent declaration of Biafra and Nigeria Civil War.
General Yakubu Gowon, from then Middle Belt, replaced Ironsi, and led Nigeria through three years civil war that ended in 1970. A reconstruction was announced aimed at reintegrate the Igbo and to unify the deeply divided Nigeria, which never worked and never achieved till today. Resultantly, the war has not ended but defeated. The syndrome persist. Gowon, who presided the oil boom, trumpeted that Nigeria had too much money and didn’t know what do with it. He was dishing out money even to Britain. A period Nigeria could have laid foundation for enhancement and diversification of all sorts.
I believed, the country may not have crafted for meaningful development for a vantage reckoning in the world civilisation. Otherwise, why weren’t enough and stable electricity generation, petrochemical industries, steel rolling mills, scientific laboratory research centres etc? Thus, any country that lacks the ingenuity for these sectors that aid and advances inventions and discoveries must forget about growth and a place in universal advancement. He later fractured the country into twelve states. This was done to downsize and discourage any state unit to rise up again to secede.
In 1975, he was pushed out for General Murtala Muhammed, a Hausa Fulani, whom, senior military officers from Middle Belt, led by Col. Bukar Dimka, killed in February 1976, in a coup said to be retaliatory for Gowon’s ouster. The coupists were rounded and executed. This paved the emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo, who was said to be reluctant to ascend. He, however, began a process of returning Nigeria to civil rule.
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, with his deputy, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was elected president through a new presidential system of government in 1979. After the first term, they were elected for the second term, and it was expected that by 1987, Ekwueme would have succeeded him. In order to preserve the northern oligarchy and hegemony, the military dominated by the North sacked the civilian government citing corruption and other vices, which they, however, institutionalised. Muhammadu Buhari mounted the saddle with Tunde Idiagbon. During their period, Nigeria went into its first recession. Living became nightmarish. It was an iron-fisted government, and it’s collapse sparked jubilations across the country.
Ibrahim Babangida took over from Buhari and his administration enjoyed an oil windfall. For his effort, Abuja, the nation’s capital was hurriedly built and other infrastructures developed. Development of Abuja was speedy though the South West didn’t want it, as it wanted the seat of government retained in Lagos. The annulment of the June 12 election, supposedly won by a southerner, M.K.O. Abiola, almost laid the foundation for the balkanisation of Nigeria. Many viewed the cancellation as further attempt by the North to perpetuate itself in power. Unable to withstand pressure, Babangida stepped aside and enthroned Ernest Shenokan to lead an Interim National Government (ING). That venture failed because a court of law adjudicated on a suit brought to question the appointment of a leader for the country. As a consequence, he was sacked by a court laying the foundation for General Sani Abacha to happen.
Then Abacha came and before he died, he had already looted the nation blind that it has taken 26 years for successive government to recover the loot and Nigerians have not seen the end yet. It was like Abacha collected more than the past and present.
General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over from Abacha following his demise and left the stage after handing over to an elected Obasanjo. That was his second coming as Nigeria’s head of government.
Looting was taken to a higher level under Obasanjo, though the administration set up anti-graft agencies. There was stealing of government funds at every level of governance. Obasanjo’s second coming opened the floodgates of looting of the country’s resources by its leaders till today. This heightened at the local government level with the 774 councils in the country operating more like looting centres. Sadly, looters of public fund are able to ‘pay’ for protection by law enforcement officials.
Our 36 state capitals are better off as looting covens for the second tire of Nigerian level of governance. As undertakers of the masses, they would take (not stealing) from the state and withdraw to their counties to become moguls. Abuja is our nation-state capital, and in order words, Nigeria’s centre of unity. In the real sense, however, it is the centre of all kinds of fraudulent activities and corruption known to man since creation. Everything is done with all amounts of alacrity that has now become culture. Our buccaneers take from Abuja and run back to their states, onward to their LGAs, emirates/ezedoms/obadoms, towns and villages to become local czars and show off, often with airtight security and noisy sirens.
Now the ship of the nation state has berthed at Buhari’s harbour. But instead of steering it aright, the hegemony has hijacked him and moved power to Daura where it is anchored, albeit, dangerously, in Buhari’s family linage. The Buhari’s hegemonic blue blood indoctrination stretching across northern political enclave. This hyper-phobia and action is now separating and jolting once strong Hausa and Fulani relationship and also enslaving entire Nigeria. Buhari arrogantly told Igbo youth corps members that visited his Daura’s village over last Sallah holiday that they should forget Biafra. Obviously, there’s a collective Nigerian leadership flaw here. Instead of assuring them job opportunities and hopes for the future, but unaware at backdrops of his assertion, the statement wriggled energiser than discouragement.
With that, Buhari enthroned ethnocentrism, nepotism, cronyism and ethnicisation of the Nigerian government in a manner that has dangerously and negatively overran Nigeria’s national institutions and everyday life of a multi-ethnic society. Every institution of government is now forced to protectionism of particular ethnic groups against others. Buhari has much embolden his ethnic herdsmen and increased their impetus to behave deadlier unlike before and up till presently never made any categorical statement on the atrocities of his own.
Dr. Junaid Mohammed had stressed this dangerous Buhari’s nepotistic pre-eminence in an interview with a national daily. “If this is not nepotism, then I don’t know what is nepotism and anybody who has the guts, the brutal arrogance to appoint these relations not bothering about public opinion, about the sense of justice, about competence, then you can see that he has a very serious question to answer,” Mohammed stated.
A nepotistic hegemony colour! That’s against Nigerian federal character, antipodal of northern symbols, and contradictory to Kastina State’s all rounds stretch but great only for Daura’s habitation. This anti-Nigeria logo must quickly be wrapped up out existence. Thus, this unreasonable situation has technically expired Nigeria. Shambles!
Obasanjo established EFCC with the intention for graft control. But he rather used it as attack dog to harass, blackmail and propaganda etc against his adversaries. And Buhari is currently, doing exactly the same. The agency is now extending its culture of pursuing serious critics of Buhari and on the vacuum cleaner list are many notable critics. They’re no records and indication to date that EFCC has convicted and incarcerate anyone since inception. Perhaps, it’s instructive to know that successive chairpersons of the anti-corruption agency are billionaires because of its modus operandi opted for settlement in the name of plea bargain.
Obasanjo, recently have barked and alerted nation the danger for lack of strong government and weak opposition and fell short of proffering an immediate alternative. A dynamic and cardinal political leadership is imperative in Buhari’s effort to revamp Nigeria and which is innately lacking. This imperial policy of Buhari can’t continue, and must be swapped. There is, no doubt, a need for restructuring for a federated geopolitical regions, or zones, and united as Nigerians.
Nigeria will soon be graduating from recession and up for depression, a period of time in which there is little economic activity. Many people do not have jobs and sadness and feeling badly envelopes the populace. It’s simply time bomb about to go off. Hunger has become an accomplishment in the land. The North boasts of prolific agricultural and food production and abundance and yet horrific starvation and deaths, as a result of server hunger, surges presently. My five months sabbatical in the village was a profound unforgettable experience. Village farmland boundary marks are no more recognisable. The people randomly encroach to none of their own farmlands in search of food.
The sovereignty of Nigeria is under huge threat of sporadic agitations of all sorts and self-determination proliferating from within, possibly outside too. There is yet to be a visible measured political leadership as solution. If it remains so, the truncation of this republic becomes inevitable for an interim national unity government . And it is so highly recommendatory to renegotiate sovereignty.
[• Nwosu, thrice governorship aspirant of Imo State, writes from Okai, Isiala Mbano. Telephone: 08023035430.Email: [email protected].]