Nigeria@60: Matters arising

THE name “Nigeria” is said to be a product of a number of conjectures. The one wants us to believe that it is an “area of the Niggers”. The word “Niggers” here is reserved for black people who are often objects of derision, social discrimination and unfair treatment. Indeed, it is an expression of opprobrium, of contemptuous racism.  Another conjure regards Nigeria as a product of the “amorous dementia” of a certain Flora Shaw, who was believed to have a romantic liaison with Sir Fredrick Lord Lugard, the man who, in his capacity as the colonial Governor-General, facilitated the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates of this same geographical entity called Nigeria. “What’s in a name?” asks William Shakespeare, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, he concludes. While some people believe that the country’s litany of woes is located in its superimposed name, others are wont to argue that the country would still have maintained its negative trajectory under a different name given the circumstances of its configuration. I will return to this presently.

The argument remains that some other colonized African countries in the same league have since jettisoned the names given to them by the colonial overlords in preference for more meaningful local identities. These countries include but not limited to Ghana(Gold Coast), Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Tanzania (Tanganyika), Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Benin(Dahomey), etc. Our forefathers would say: “only an animal bears the name that is given to it by its enemy.” But would the country have fared better under a different name while retaining its evolutionary circumstances? Would the country have got its rhythm in a situation people of diverse, and somewhat opposing socio-economic and religiopolitical tendencies were brought together in a marriage of inconvenience, even under a different identity? Friedrich Nietzsche’s work: “The Birth of Tragedy” offers a penetrating insight here and it is an apt summation of the situation inside which we are fearfully enveloped. According to Nietzsche, Apollo and Dionysus, the two Greek gods were “Arts sponsoring deities”. The two creative tendencies, though existed and developed alongside each other, they were usually in fierce opposition.

In spite of their opposing values, they still accepted the “yoke of marriage”. Thus, by implication, gave birth to “Attic tragedy”, which expectedly exhibited the “salient features” of both antagonistic parents. A very apt definition of a tragedy by Encyclopaedia Britannica has it as “ a loose term for any sort of disaster or misfortune; it more precisely refers to a work of art, usually a play or novel that probes with high seriousness questions concerning the role of man in the universe.” Then the birthday matter. Another 1 October is around the corner. It is an annual ritual of excitement and stocktaking. It is a moment of celebration of freedom from colonialism and its attendant evils. Truly Nigeria gained independence from the British Imperialists on 1 October 1960, it remains held captive by internal contradictions: maladministration, religious bigotry, native tyranny and corrupt oligarchy. If the successive generation of leaders had built on the vision, patriotism, sacrificial zeal and a somewhat god-like commitment of our founding fathers, we would have been the envy of countries like China, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, etc.

The unfolding events in our socio-economic and political landscape seem to have nurtured our hope and aspiration on a desolate path of despair. Whatever gains recorded by these altruistic nationalists: the Azikwes, the Awolowos, the Bellos, the Enahoros, and so on have been frittered away by the successive generation of leaders.They do this by always making sure they leave the country worse than they met it.And by implication, leaving the country to grapple with a pendulous fate and dilapidated tomorrow. That Nigeria’s rating in all developmental indices is abysmal is stating the obvious. Below are some of the parameters as a guide:  Politics. Our leadership recruitment process remains suspect.meritocracy has given way to “whomunocracy”(nepotism).There is so much mouthing of “economic and financial” corruption, while there is a conspiratorial silence on “political corruption”. In the spirit of camaraderie, every investor is entitled to recoup his investment. A good “ROI” (return on investment) is guaranteed!

The economy has never been this worse, with our naira being the whipping currency among its peers.Nigeria is today suffering the fate any country that thrives on consumption as against production usually suffers. However,it is expected that any focused,serious-minded government would translate electioneering rhetorics of economy diversification into concrete reality. Successive governments always come with their economic blueprints, obviously to befuddle the unsuspecting voting population. The vision 20-2020 of Obasanjo administration expires by december this year with nothing tangible to show for it.A case in point is raising electricity generating capacity from around 3000 megawatts then to 35000 mw by the year 2020. Even though the country’s peak generation remains 5,377 as of today, the country cannot distribute beyond 4000mw on account of transmission bottleneck. Buhari came with “Economic Recovery and Growth Plan”(ERGP), only to discard it for vison 20-2050! This blueprint aims to lift 100 million people out of poverty. The problem with Nigeria has never been paucity of ideas but that of disconnect between policy and implementation.

The economy, as it were, is on life support machine. No thanks to the unbridled, sovereignty-threatening external borrowings. The Debt Management Office (DMO) puts the country’s total debt portfolio at $85.879 billions (31trillion naira) as of June 2020! A good father, it is said, leaves a good inheritance/ legacy for his child. In the wisdom of our own rulers, the future of the unborn generation is the best collateral to finance today’s senecure and profligacy! The security situation In The country has never been this tense on account of the bloodletting, rape and kidnapping of innocent people in search of legitimate livelihood. The country whose military is rated 42nd in the world, and 4th in Africa has not found the required ruthless efficiency to tackle the recurring banditry. If the late Gen.Sanni Abacha’s admission is anything to go by, then, the country appears doomed.  The expired tyrant had said:”Any insurrection that lasts beyond 48 hours has government hands in it.” This is a country where huge money approved for arms purchase found its way into individuals’ pockets!

Health. One of the campaign promises of General Buhari (rtd) was stoppage of medical tourism. Over five years into his presidency,he has not only successfully failed to stop the capital flight occasioned by the same, it is on record that he knows the topography of the United kingdom’s hospital more than he knows that of Aso-rock villa’s. No thanks to COVID-19 which revealed the nation’s inadequacies in the health sector. Many high profile deaths were recorded due to inability to have the  rich flown abroad for medical attention. The common people must be laughing themselves silly by now, thanking “king coro” for effectively bridging the gap between the rulers and the ruled. It is on record that our one and only University College Hospital (UCH),Ibadan provided a medical haven for the Saudi Arabian royal family in the 60’s. This was at a period the flagship was rated fourth among the commonwealth countries’ hospitals, an organization that paraded countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia,etc. Today  I doubt if it is among the best twenty-five! Our hospitals across the country have been reduced to nothing but consulting centres.

Education. It was vintage Nelson Mandela that said the quickest way to ruin a nation was to destroy her education.Our leaders, instead of allowing this truth to fire their patriotic zeal, galvanize them into rescuing our educational system from the brinks of collapse, rather seized it as an opportunity for personal aggrandizement. Thus, the more industrial actions embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU),in an academic calendar year, the merrier! President Mohammadu Buhari, though is not in this league, his very act of rejecting made-in-Nigeria education for his children is a mockery of his oft-mouthed nationalism, and an indictment of his competence to fix the rotten sector. If a leader who is maintained by the taxpayer’s money lacks confidence in homegrown goods, just like his disdain for his country’s medicare, then where lies his patriotism?

Talking about the road infrastructure is another sour taste in the mouth. Yet, there have been stupendous amounts of money earmarked for road construction and maintenance. Ironically, all the humongous sums could procure for the nation are death traps! As in the case of electricity,the more money voted for electricity generation, transmission and distribution translates to more darkness for the nation.

Then the question: What is the problem with Nigeria that after sixty years of nationhood, the country is still held down by the above highlighted hydra-headed monsters? Is the problem in the name? Or is it in the contraption? Methinks the latter carries a stronger indictment. And those who lumped strange bedfellows in a room knew this much. They successfully planted the seed of mutual suspicions among the ethnic nationalities, making it impossible to trust one another.  They never programmed the forced marriage to last, hence the insertion of the clause to revisit the agreement after a hundred years which lapsed in 2014!

Having lived together, suspiciously though, for over a hundred years, the temptation to conclude that we are destined to live together is strong.  However,stronger is the insistent voice that bids us to revisit, reconsider and renegotiate the union on account of gross violation of the “marital oath”  that gave birth to this text-book inequality we are grappling with today.

It is on record that the country enjoyed its best moment when it was run along regional line.There was a healthy competition among the federating units that made the superstructure. Thus the call for restructuring of the country can never be more imperative than now.

In rounding off, it is suggested that in the absence of a will to adopt the 2014 Confab report, as it seems, a sincere roundtable meeting of all ethnic nationalities is highly desirable at this point of our history. However,this legal maxim should guide the proceeding: “For an outcome to be acceptable, the procedure must be right.”

And from Abraham Lincoln: “ You can fool some people all the time; you can fool all the people some of the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”

Happy birthday Nigeria!

Ayoade is a public affairs analyst.

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