Since 1960 when we got independence, any keen observation of our journey to statehood knows our society has been and remians a challenged one. Not necessarily new problems; rather the old fault lines have remained. For those of us who don’t know, the effort towards declaration of independence wasn’t a smooth one at all; if anything could be taken from it it would be that activities then were indicative of the hidden foxes in all the components that were about to make up Nigeria.
The West harbouring mostly the Yoruba ethnic nationality, led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had a very different vision of the emerging Nigeri. Their sense of association was hinged on their knowledge of history of competing old empires elsewhere; they weren’t very certain culturally diverse entities with high level of organization that could join others to form a workable union. While being forced against their wish to be part of the union something interesting happened: they made a critical demand to have provision for self-determination inserted in the constitution.
The Igbo, led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, were not definitive as they still are even today. It was the Igbo group that said no to acceding to the request. Incidentally the Igbo were the only ones that wholeheartedly embraced a union on no terms. Don’t ask if this amounted to lack of foresight, in the light of todays happenings. The thinking we have been told was that the emerging Nigeria would be a large entity, and if well managed would be the black man’s answer to the other world civilizations seen in Europe and the America. Curiously, the North dominated by the Fulani and supported by the Hausa never even wanted independence in 1960.
When it became obvious that the colonial masters had exhausted their stay and were eager to handover and go, North saying unity is not negotiable today said in very strong terms they would prefer a separate country of theirs. These are historical truths.
When the colonialists told them they could suffer since the wealth was domiciled mostly in the South, they reluctantly accepted to be a member of the Nigerian union but under a Federalist arrangement so that each section could retain her cultural heritage. Recall it was northern leaders who insisted we couldn’t wave aside our differences; rather we should highlight and respect them. It was for these and other allied reasons that our founding fathers settled for the federal structure. This was the Nigeria we had at independence and it served well. Historians believe in terms of positive transformation that period remains the golden era. We know that changing the physical landscape and making it look like existing civilizations elsewhere is good but certainly not the fulcrum of classical development. Crux of sustainable transformation is embedded in rich human capital development, installation of enduring innovative productive ability. We have seen these in development of Russia, China, Singapore, Malaysia, even South Africa and Cuba, the last being for me the best example.
Cuba may not be as aesthetically beautiful as her neighbour America but if the big powerful nation had not been choking life out of Cuba by means of economic blockade and other acts of sabotage, it is most likely by now the tiny country would have entered the group of seven best countries of the world. That tiny country has a good military institution that can fight anywhere; they run free education which has made them enter records as having the highest literacy rate in the world within a space of a very short time; an education system that produces world beaters in every field including medicine and even residual activities like sports. While world leading nations struggled to find answers to COIVD-19, tiny but united Cuba produced a vaccine and were even sending medical and personnel assistance to so branded developed countries. This is what you get when a society is well bonded and the bonding translated into a single soul. Nothing they imagine to do will be impossible for them. The foundation is what we miss.
The point being made and this is very crucial is that in our case there was no foundation and hence no bonding, till tomorrow we express desires to be seen and addressed as Nigerians but faulty foundation has stood between us and that noble desire. This critical omission has been architect of all our troubles, exact cause we went into a bloody civil war in which it is estimated about three million persons lost their lives. It was from this point that the military came into politics, a terrain they were not suited for. Their reckless acts widened whatever gulf that existed, leaving us with so many quarrels, tension, killings, unstable yet very wasteful polity. That is the heritage they left behind when they handed over power to civilians in 1999, 22 years ago. A country can turn around in 15 years. So, the question has been: why has there been no turnaround since the military left and the society returned to a democracy?
The answer is in the faulty foundation and the distortions that sprang from it. Each year the aberrations multiplied and their impact widened. One of biggest effects is in throwing up a ring of hypocrites, a predatory oligarchy who know what is wrong and know the right prescriptions but who for purposes of self and group aggrandisement chose to hold on to other issues and to run in a different direction, a wrong path if you like, very ignorant of the fact that no matter how far one runs in a wrong direction, getting to the destination is never in view. Going round every year has consequences, chief of them isuconfusion and then frustration. We have entered that mode and the results are very visible for all to see and assimilate. Stunted development and terribly closed space. Everyone is experiencing a suffocation. It is such that if those benefiting agree we have gotten to the periphery of the clif. How to stage a roundabout turn appears very difficult to fathom.
All these years we got oil money, but 60 years after we have ended up asking if we were wealthy at all in the first instance. We were, it was just that we hadn’t the wisdom to do first things first, and uptil now we still chose to live in the illusion of grandeur when actually the train of wealth left the station a long time ago. Even now we ought to know that wealth without pain and plan will diminish very fast. We are there now. Every human society would always have a challenge, the difference between those who surmount them and succeed and those who fail is in knowledge and mentality. Successful ones run on possibility mindset, everything needed to be achieved to make life better is achievable, so all obtactles are confronted in a positive manner. Failures are the ones where the leaders wait for time to work things out while they busy themselves scavengeing for whatever immediate benefits they can get out from the prevailing chaos. A backward society led by scavengers can’t see progress. The leadership can’t understand the issues let alone generate ideas for positive development. On the other hand progressive, intelligent leadership will pull things within a short time. History is loaded with examples.
Britain, which is often blamed for our problems, has nationalism challenges as well but we can see how imaginative successive leaders there have been in finding creative solutions. The basis has been to engage the people as well as altering the laws of the land to accommodate all interests. America has race issues; today the Vice President is black and there is a first native American appointed to an office of cabinet level all in the bid to find solutions to racial discrimination. Last weekend, President Joe Biden met with relations of a black victim of police brutality, late George Floyd, in the White House of all places.
Yet in our case our outburst and actions contain no reconcilatory gestures rather there is the tough guy approach. America may not be where they ought to be but at least one can see genuine efforts to redress a wrong and that is the best approach.
In our case we see nonchalance at play; our leadership class lead us to act the ostrich or better still, Nero of Rome, who fiddled while his city was on fire. Bad attitude has left us with hypocrisy or mediocrity as the norm, and if truth be told, it is hurting.
Finding a topic this week was problematic and that was because no one is certain which of the days is stewardship season, May 29, June12 or October 1st, the day we got our independence as a country. If reason reigned here, May 29 won’t be; The military in politics was and remains an abberation, keeping their memory is absurd. Like Martin Luther Day in America, June 12 should simply be Abiola Day and October 1 reserved as our political account day. Now we don’t know which is which. If you know tell us. Vision, and its twin, merit, have deserted our land. There is a reign of mediocrity.
Military gathered their friends to give us a constitution. Civilians don’t see anything wrong with them yet the abnormality daily provokes deadly convulsions. Between 1999 and now 22 years of democracy, we are still talking about national conference or constitutional amendments without one major breakthrough, yet funds are expended. Each political party that has governed at the centre won a majority seat in parliament, still nothing gets done in a most fundamental way. Legislators leave cardinal issues to debate mundane matters. One is attempted to mention religious and cattle colonies when issues pertaining to true statehood remain unattended to. There are resolutions of past constitutional talks that should provide a guide, but nobody is bold to pick them up and turn them into laws. Barely, two years to elections, electoral rules to make polls credible are still not touched even when debates on them started more than four years ago. A year before another round of campaigns our politicians have woken and about to embark on another vain trip for constitution amendment. One could ask them where they have been all the last six years. Deceit and abdication of responsibility.
Abdication of responsibility carries heavy price; it is worse when we leave what we should do to another in the place of the former. It is deadly when, for instance, we give all attention to importing petrol instead of quickly building refineries. It is non-action that has compounded our woes. I wish we all knew this.