As Nigeria marks its 63rd independence anniversary, KUNLE ODEREMI reminisces on some opportunities and chances it allowed to slip away as its peers soars in the sky in the realm of economy, technology, political stability.
WITH a total of 923,768 square km landmass, Nigeria is the fifth largest country in Africa. It is the fourth in the West African sub-region with the density of around 212.04 individuals per sq km. With more than 200 million people, Nigeria is the most populous in Africa and among Black nations. Its burgeoning population confers on the country the status of a big market for goods and services.
Aside the large human population, the country is blessed with huge solid mineral deposits, including crude oil, as well as arable land and fertile soil for agricultural purposes. Agriculture had constituted the economic mainstay of the Nigeria at independence in 1960, bringing in substantial foreign revenues until the obsession by the political leaderships at different times with crude oil held sway, especially years after the country secured independence from the British colonial masters on October 1, 1960. Then, each region had a comparative advantage in arable crop production for local consumption, industrial purposes and export to generate the much-needed earnings for economic growth and development. It was the golden era of cultivation and harvest of cotton, hides and skin in parts of the North; the phenomenal groundnut pyramid of Kano, cocoa and kolanut of the West, tin mining on the Plateau; palm produce, rubber plantation and timber in the Midwest; coal mining in the East. All these culminated into a steady rise in the astronomical wealth creation and affluence for the young and promising Black country called Nigeria at pre-and post-independence. So, stakeholders in the Nigerian Project savoured the glitzy and blitz stirred by the freedoms secured by their fatherland after decades of human exploitation, degradation and iniquities inflicted by colonialism.
Many of the peers of the late eloquent and colourful politician and lawyer, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, were enamoured by the electrifying moment that heralded Nigeria into the comity of nations from the shackles of the degrading and dehumanizing era of colonialism to a freeborn country in 1960. The one-time foreign minister once recalled that as a little boy growing up in the then Eastern region, he was engrossed and excited by the fact that the world watched with gust and awe the birth and gestation of a great nation. Maduekwe had reminisced: “The world stood still the day Nigeria became an independent nation. The possibilities were immense. Nigerians were united in their anticipation of a nation where no one is oppressed. The noble aspiration of the distinguished first generation of leaders of our beloved country at that time was to hand over to coming generations of Nigerians a banner without a stain.”
The possibility of the country descending into the abyss of impunity then or in the nearest future was not envisaged or contemplated, as the nationalists, who led the prolonged struggle and negotiated Nigeria’s independence gave a high hope of a country that would soon be going to the moon and setting the pace in most areas of human endeavours. The potential of the country being great and leader on the comity of nation, to them. was not in doubt, given the opportunities and advantages on ground. As the president of the country, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe in an inaugural speech promised a new dawn. Similarly, the prime minister, Sir Ahmadu Bello, assured of a country that would set the pace and show others the way to the metaphorical Promised Land. In his inauguration speech in 1979, Second Republic President, the late Alhaji Shehu Shagari had also renewed the hope of Nigerians about the dawn of an epochal era. Part of his speech had stated: “We are assuming office as a result of a free, democratic and peaceful election. We must be proud of this, and we must be grateful to God and to all those who have worked so hard to make it possible. This is an occasion, which calls for sober reflection on the problems or the First Republic in order to appreciate the magnitude of the
tasks ahead. The problems of creating a national government, a viable economic base and the integration of the various ethnic groups in Nigeria in
fairness and without acrimony, overwhelmed the First Republic. These problems are still with us. And it is our determination to do our utmost to contribute to their solutions.
“This Second Republic is a great challenge and a new opportunity for all of us. This administration is determined that the slogan of ‘One Nation, One Destiny’ shall be translated into reality. We are not so naive as to think that nationalism is a natural phenomenon, which comes about automatically, as we grow. It has not been so in any part of the world. National integration requires hard work. There is need for a dedicated leadership and citizenry imbued with faith to cultivate a wide-spread national feeling for ‘One Nigeria.”
Similarly, former military president, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, had made the people to salivate through a promise of reinventing the country. In his October 1, 1985 broadcast to the nation, Babangida outlined the determination of his military government that had just overthrown another which he said was to “… break the vicious cycle of hope and despair, affluence and poverty, stability and chaos which had characterised the past quarter century of our national life. The political history of the nation is partly one of disillusionment with politics and with politicians.”
According to him, successive governments had left the country “…with a legacy of economic mismanagement a chain of political instability. We are convinced that the apparently more immediate problem of salvaging the economy and creating a disciplined social order are the result of the lack of a convenient national order based on shared class and issues,” he had gone on to impose an economic policy that he said would require a “strong belt tightening” among Nigerians.
“In the meantime this administration is aware of the need to find urgent solutions to the problems facing the country today. In view of the magnitude of our economic problems from today, I declare a state of economic emergency for the next 15 months. This emergency period will require strong belt tightening not unlike what we experienced during the civil war. However, we shall ensure that the burden of these emergence measures is distributed as equitably as possible throughout the society. During this period we are to visibly turn around the economy and lay a solid foundation for a healthier long-term development.”
But was the promise of a healthier turn around kept? Nigeria would suffer a worse fate to the extent that Babangida himself confessed publicly that he did not know what was keeping the economy afloat after the devastation it recorded at their hands.
The situation of Nigeria even from the Babangida era rather than improving has deteriorated steadily during the Sani Abacha regime up till the Abdusalami Abubakar’s government.
The little relief that democratic governance brought about when the Olusegun Obasanjo civilian government took over rather than being consolidated has been reduced to unimaginable deficit by the same political class that has become more adept at mismanaging and appropriating the country’s resources.
But why did the genuine efforts made by some of the country’s founding fathers during their lifetime to salvage Nigeria fail to achieve the desired result? According to a former Minister of justice and attorney general of the Federation, the late Chief Richard Akinjide, the British colonialists deliberately laid the booby traps that had ensnared Nigeria. Speaking frankly about the evolution of Nigeria and relying on his deep knowledge about what transpired in both pre and post Nigerian independence, Akinjide faulted the very foundation of the country. Though he acknowledged the constant admonition and warnings of Chief Obafemi Awolowo about the faulty structure created by the British, Akinjide concurred that indeed, the so-called Nigeria created in 1914 was a complete fraud and was primed to fail.
According to him, Nigeria “was created not in the interest of Nigeria or Nigerians but in the interest of the British. And what were the structures created? The structures created were as follows: Northern Nigeria was to represent England; Western Nigeria like Wales; Eastern Nigeria was to be like Scotland. In the British structure, England has permanent majority in the House of Commons. There was no way Wales can ever dominate England, neither can Scotland dominate Britain. But they are very shrewd. They would allow a Scottish man to become Prime Minister. They would allow a Welsh man to become Prime Minister in London but the fact remains that the actual power rested in England,” Akinjide had explained.
Though there is a legion of reasons being adduced for the country having faltered shortly after gaining independence, the most pronounced factor widely identified is the weak and defective foundation laid by the colonial masters. It is believed that the defects in the super structure created crevices that the adventurous boys in khaki burrowed into. The foundation, by the estimation of some observers, could not serve the useful and necessary purpose of nation building, consolidation and attainment of nationhood by the country. This issue is further illuminated by a former president of the Senate and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. He noted that the challenges of the country are traceable to the circumstances of its birth as a nation. In a piece entitled: Sustaining Nigeria’s Nationhood, the ex-presidential aspirant said the defects have led to a whiff of negative tendencies in the polity, such that “unmitigated rivalry to control the machinery of government both in the centre and at the regions bred extremism in politics and governance,” with ethnic and religious consciousness elevated over and above national interest.
An eminent scholar, Professor Anya O. Anya once noted at a book launch held in Lagos that President Goodluck Jonathan was grappling with problems he did not create but had subsisted. Anya posited: “This book made me remember two problems we have in Nigeria which are leadership and patriotism. Unfortunately, Nigeria does not have a training programme for its leaders; we just see it happen; we do not have processes and procedures that enable us to select leaders; they just come on board. Cast your mind back, Yakubu Gowon just happened; Murtala Muhammed just happened; Olusegun Obasanjo just happened; General Muhammadu Buhari just came on board; Ibrahim Babangida just happened. But none of these men went through a process of training on what is the most important assignment in life, which is leadership; they just emerged.”
The erudite scholar then rationalised the Nigerian situation within the American cherished value of patriotism. “On patriotism, how will you be patriotic about a country that does not care for you? I can see a young American ready to die for his country because America is ready to go to war just because of one American. But what do you have in Nigeria today?” he queried, recalling the curious circumstances that surrounded Nigeria’s loss of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula in Cross River State to Cameroon as it was ceded without the consultation of Nigerians and the National Assembly.
The views expressed by the late Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Lagos, Professor George Obiozor, about the predicament of the Nigeria project also deserves a deep retrospection. The late president general of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo had decried the failure of Nigerian rulers to elevate the country from its seeming ground zero to the zenith since independence. He remarked: “No generation of Nigerian leaders, past or present, military or civilian, has been able to create an atmosphere of credibility to ensure Nigeria’s claim to a political future as one nation. None was able to evolve a unifying national ideology that was embraced either by the majority of fellow political elite or by the entire Nigerian populace.” He differed with those who insisted that the unity of the country is not negotiable. “Nigeria’s unity is definitely negotiable and must be re-negotiated for it to stand or survive the test of time. The reality over the years remains that in spite of the best efforts of all our leaders, past or present, Nigeria’s unity is not guaranteed. It is simply, at best, an aspiration and not yet an achievement. Consequently, the statement that Nigeria’s unity is ‘not-negotiable’ is simply a historical fallacy,” he stated.
It is obvious that the last of the opportunity to take Nigeria to greater heights is not due to the want of ideas. Some initiatives that could have fast-tracked the process are usually abandoned once proclaimed or implemented haphazardly. Sometimes, the policies and programmes are subjected to undue political behaviours as those Nigerian elite described by the late Biafran warlord, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as neo-colonialists, subject them to their whims and caprices. Some of these initiatives include Four-year Developmental Rolling Plans; Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP); Vision 2010; Vision 2020 and NEEDS, among other such development plans.
But which way Nigeria?
The list of demands by prominent individuals and groups in the quest to resolve the euphemism called national question includes a national conference with a sovereign status; restructuring and devolution of powers, mono-camera legislature at the centre as opposed to the existing bicameral arrangement, adjustment to a single term of five or six years for president and governors by scrapping the president maximum two terms of four years each; resource control or fiscal federalism, return to the 1963 Republican Constitution and reforms in party and electoral systems.
Notable groups, such as the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), said it was gratified that one of its most prominent leaders who contributed significantly to the democratic struggle and campaign that the organisation embarked upon on behalf of Nigerians to restore democracy has become the elected president of the country. It reminded President Bola Tinubu that the most important demand of the struggle was the imperative to return Nigeria to a federal constitutional governance upon which Nigeria secured its independence.
“Nigeria remains a country not a nation till date because the military had, without Nigerians democratic approval, truncated, illegally suspended, abrogated and replaced our negotiated independence constitution and replaced it with unitary constitution till date.
“The deceptively choreographed 1979 and 1999 Constitutions which preserved all the grave damages which successive military governments have forcefully imposed upon Nigeria remain the bane of Nigeria’s backwardness, stunted growth and unacceptable level of poverty,” the group said . It explained that it was convinced that a return to the Independence Republican Constitution will restore responsive and responsible government as Nigeria grapples with the business of reconstructing its country which it said was successively overrun for the narrow personal interests of politicians in military uniform since January 15, 1966. All the many aberrations: political, legal, and structural, which the different military dictators whimsically imposed on Nigeria, it argued can then be strategically corrected overtime.
“Mr President, you were part of the patriots who suffered deprivations, dehumanisation, and hounding along with us as we spoke truth to the powers that forced themselves on us.
“Fortunately, your own party, established the Governor Nasir el-Rufai committee which recommended that the APC government should immediately fulfil its promise to return Nigeria to a federal constitutional governance as contained in your manifesto.
“All that we are requesting you to do is to use your good offices and commit yourself to be faithful to the promise upon which your party was elected into office,” NADECO added.
But just as Anya had advocated a paradigm shift in the type of people Nigerians choose as leaders by consciously preparing them for the leadership role, another distinguished scholar of International Relations, currently an Emeritus professor at the University of Lagos and Redeemers University, Akinjide Osuntokun, canvassed a reform of the whole political process, that will produce credible and acceptable leadership, even as he opined that there are external forces working against the success of this country. “But the sorrowful thing is that those who are at the commanding height of political leadership in this country appear totally oblivious or indifferent to the destiny of Nigeria and the black race. What we need, if this country is to succeed, is to find collective and equitable solution to the way we choose our government and put in place the administrator of the country based on the French revolutionary credo of careers open to talents, instead of the current nebulous federal character and the odious and rampant corruption ruining the country, while the majority of our people vegetate in poverty and in want”.
That is indeed the sad reality and commentary on Nigeria as it marks 63rd year as an independent country. Unemployment rate among the youths regarded as the leaders of tomorrow keeps soaring. National debt has plummeted to N49.85 trillion while the country is said to set to borrow a whopping N8 trillion to address budget deficits in the next fiscal year while debt servicing chokes critical sectors that should fast-track the process of renewing the hope of distressed citizens.
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