The Kingdom of Great Britain came into being on May 1, 1707, as a result of the political union of the Kingdom of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland, under the Treaty of Union. This combined the two into a single kingdom, and in the process merged the two parliaments into a single parliament of Great Britain. Queen Anne became the first monarch of the new Great Britain. Although now a single kingdom, certain institutions of Scotland and England remained separate, such as Scottish and English law; and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Anglican Church of England. England and Scotland each also continued to have their own system of education.
There is a common thread that is of paramount importance in the administration of all these kingdoms and empires. That thread is the pursuit of wealth and wealth creation for the sovereign nation, the autocrat of a king, the despot of an emperor, and the noble men who hold political power. Continuous conquests of weak nations were necessary to provide resources through taxation of the conquered. But heavy taxations bred tremendous discontent among the subjects, leading to outright disobedience and bloody revolutions, which progressively weakened the kingdoms and the empires.
The declaration of American independence of 1776 ushered a new kind of governance structure, where the power lies with the people and the authority to govern is derived through public participation in the choice of stewards of government. This model quickly gained traction in Europe with royalty giving up power to parliaments and empires dissolving into constituent nations who were handed autonomy of governance once more.
In as much as the nation-states welcomed their new autonomy, two major problems remained, namely: national resources, inclusive of financial resources needed for nation-building, and the labour to drive production in the agricultural fields and emerging industries. Having funded the explorations of North America, Great Britain quickly recognised that the procurement of the required vast natural and human resources would depend on the operations of a naval force, the best means of crossing the continents in vast numbers at that time. It thus embarked on building a powerful navy that ruled the seas, sending soldiers, sailors, missionaries, traders and businessmen to colonise indigenous tribal lands in Africa and the Far East. Other European nations like Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands all followed suit. There they exploited the mineral resources of the tribal lands for peanuts, forged a potpourri of disagreeable tribes into strange countries that the indigenes did not ask for nor desired. The exercise in boundary delineation was a deliberate ploy to deceive and engage the indigenes in inter-tribal quarrels while the colonialists publicly preached peace and busied themselves in the economic rape of the new nations they so cleverly created for their administrative and exploitative convenience.
America, on the other hand, had the vast natural resources but lacked the immense manpower to till, dig and hew the soil. To them, the solution was simple, purchase forced and free labour through the slave markets of Africa, a phenomenon set up and solely driven by their penchant for subjugating and derogating indigenous lives.
It is important to note, in all these expeditions, the sovereign European states encouraged, supported, and funded directly or through proxies their willing citizens to scour the globe for territories to secure, acquire and colonise by subtle deceit, proselytization or military force. Here they are, the same nations that abandoned wars, conquests, and the spoils of war in their backyards have proceeded to unleash the same evil on the indigenous peoples of Africa, the Far East and South America.
And make no mistake about their intentions. The nations and the murderous explorers dubbed heroes by their governments and historians created immense wealth for themselves. Subsequently, this foundational wealth was used to build their modern nation states and the human capital that populate these states. Herein lies a perfect situation of the nations building themselves through the efforts of the machinery of power and the bravery of a few adventurous men for the benefit of all future generations.
I will refrain from saying building of the individuals when discussing this same question for Nigeria. This is because pocket-lining of the individuals in government, politicians and civil servants alike is more apt. For centuries, Africans saw the governments of the colonialists as instruments of subjugation and torture with their prison system so alien to our culture. To succeed in controlling the restive natives, the occupiers designed the government of ‘divide and rule’ to pit indigenes against one another. This system of maladministration encouraged bribery, corruption, and the era of super civil servants, super judges, and saintly ministers of religion. There were no heroes in Nigeria; the colonial government made sure of that. Worse still, there was no nationalism, patriotism nor causes to galvanize the inhabitants of this geographical entity behind the national flag. It is not surprising that the question of this article thus mutates to: In Nigeria, which comes first, nation-building or the lining of the pockets of individuals in government, politicians, religious ministers, and civil servants alike?
For the past 60 years, the independent nation Nigeria has developed wonderful individuals that can stand out anywhere in the world as among the best in literature, science, industry, politics and in the arts. Some have returned home to participate, and some started with local government politics as councillors, or as chairmen. Both have left their local governments poorer than they met them. They have become richer at the point of departure and with no legacy to show for their stewardship. It is exasperating to note that there seems to be nothing in this system or constitution to hold them accountable.
The same is true of some governors, whereby some of the past governors have become some of the richest individuals in the land and, in most cases, richer than the state that made them. With all this plundering, the states are enmeshed in staggering debts. These shameless men and women inexplicably, but true to type, did not create the enabling environment that would produce a viable economy that could make debt servicing easy on the taxpayers, the people they have so blatantly raped of their future.
Therefore, my take in the whole matter is this: when will the building of the nation start? Do we know how to build a nation in the 21st Century? When will those that have been developed by the nation get together to stop the underdevelopment that has gone on for too long, leading us to the unenviable community of failed states riddled with crises?
My children are now in their 40s and 50s. They have tried to follow my path but have become completely disillusioned. They have seen all this rot without me telling them that I have given up on the seamless journey that I thought was going to come. For that reason, I have decided to concentrate on my grandchildren, for whom I wrote the article titled “Read Me In 25 Years” sometime ago.
I have estimated that 25 years is the minimum time it will take to repair the damage we have inflicted on the body of Nigeria before charting a new direction that will possibly take my grandchildren’s generation to the Promised Land.
For those who did not see the article, “Read Me in 25 Years,” you can read it on FADE Africa’s website: www.fadeafrica.org.