Let me start by congratulating us all on the celebration of Nigeria’s 63 years of independence. Before we look into the role of the Church in Nation building, let us look at what it means to be independent as individuals and as a nation.
Freedom – a non-negotiable gift of the almighty. We can only look at independence from the concept of freedom. Let me give us a graphic description of freedom from the life of Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug baron who was the richest man in the World at that time with a fortune of over 100 billion dollars mostly in cash. He agreed to submit to arrest on the condition of a custom-built prison which he financed. He escaped from prison in spite of all the luxuries in it for the love of freedom.
Let me give us more insight into freedom and finally independence through what life is like as a slave.
Let us cast our minds back to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade when Africans were hauled like cargos across the Atlantic to provide not cheap but slave labour for the development and greed of the Western World. It was the most tragic, inhumane, humiliating part of world history better not remembered.
Did it ever at any time come to our consciousness that there were Africans who never knew what it was to be free? They were born into slavery, lived as slaves, gave birth to slaves and died as slaves. They suffered the trauma of giving birth to children who were taken away from them as soon as they were weaned never to see or hear from them again. They were sold out just the way we sell our puppies.
They never owned property, but were property to another man. They had no free will but only the will of their master who owned them as property as was the case of Pata Seca, a slave with unique physical structure: tall, muscular, strong with lot of stamina – a great asset to his owner. He was forced through process of natural selection to breed over 200 children to produce another generation of slaves.
It was the most tragic, inhumane, humiliating, horrendous and dark part of world history better not remembered.
That you and I were not born at that catastrophic period is worthy of celebration.
Partition of Africa
The slave trade was established in the 18th Century, then came the Partition of Africa rightly equally called the Scramble for Africa by western powers – through a euphemistic concept they call Colonialization which is clearly organized armed robbery but this time in a transparent for. It was another humiliating, hard time for the black man. The western powers came gun in one hand, Bible in the other and forced our rulers to submit political and economic authorities to them.
Our traditional rulers in Africa did not give in easily to colonial rule. They fought it with all their might but superior weapons of the colonialists and betrayal by fellow Africans worked against them. Chinua Achebe in his popular novel Things Fall Apart captures it all.
“Now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer hold as one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”.
When we talk of genocide, we remember Rwanda where 800,000 Tutsi were murdered. We remember the Holocaust where six million Jews were massacred across Germany and other parts of Europe during World War II but these were nothing put side-by-side with the 10 million Congolese killed by Leopold II of Belgium as he converted the whole of the Congo to his personal estate.
After a Century of denial of its atrocities including genocide, Germany agreed to pay Namibia 1.1 billion Euros in reparation under a period of 30 years.
France, neo-colonialism and the pact of evil
While commenting on recent coups spreading across West Africa, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said the young generations in these countries were looking for liberators but would not support a military government in doing that. I agree with him no less.
Noting that these recent coups took place in former French colonies – Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and recently, Gabon, the ex-President was obviously referring to French’s continuous subjugation of its former colonies if indeed they were former.
From a distance, Ivory Coast, Togo, Senegal and other Francophone African countries are independent, their independence however is honeymoon on a bed of thorns.
In exchange for the so-called self-rule, these countries were arm-twisted to sign a so-called Co-operation Agreement which analysts christened Colonization Continuation Pact. It is a pact that gave them independence with the right hand and withdrew it with the left. It is a pact in which France gave them a ram for Christmas but would not release the rope.
Salient and disturbing provisions of this pact include but not limited to: The right of France over all natural resources discovered before and even after independence; right of first refusal on all major contracts – electricity, water, mining and other public utilities; training of the military; all military equipment must be from France, as well as agreement to use only the CFA Franc printed and controlled by France as the only currency and medium of exchange. They have no right to print currency of theirs.
Foreign reserves are held and controlled by France who dictates the percentage they are allowed to use and must apply if they want more. Interests are charged on the excess; payment of colonial tax for what France called the benefits of colonialism. The tax was a great burden. In 1963, it was 40% of Togo’s budget for that year. Tax for being enslaved? You would ask. The tax has no time frame.
[There is also] freedom to intervene militarily if France’s interests are threatened. Reason France has military presence in these countries. In Niger Republic, there are 1,500 of them well armed; agreement not to enter into military alliance with any other country other than France. In the event of war, [these African countries] must fight on the side of France.
This is where Nigeria’s security is threatened. What this means is that should France for any reason attack Nigeria, the Hausas in Niger (and there are 13 million of them) must attack their cousins and brothers in Kano, Katsina, Daura and Sokoto. The Yoruba man in Benin Republic separated only by colonial borders from his ancestral home in Ife must attack the Yorubas in Lagos, Ogbomoso and Oyo, the Oron man in Bakkasi region of Cameroon must take up arms against his tribesmen in Akwa Ibom in defence of France.
Still on the question of France
While we condemn the military coups in Niger, with the knowledge of France’s covert interest in that country, it’s time to think outside the box.
Insult on Niger is insult on Nigeria and all black nations in general. All my life, I have never seen, never heard, never read, never been told of a situation in which a diplomat would be declared persona non grata and would insist he was going nowhere with even the backing of his home government.
An invasion of Niger benefits no one but France and the EU. The day any African leader would yield African soil as base by a foreign power to launch attack on a fellow African country, that day would be the saddest day of my life Black nations matter.
ECOWAS, Democracy and France Shenanigans
From the provisions of this pact, it is clear that France’s interest in Africa is not democracy. It is Gabon’s oil and Niger’s uranium which analysts says it pays 80 cents per kilogramme for and sells 200 Euros per kilogram to the detriment of the ordinary people of Niger, destitute in their own country and wallowing in abject poverty, pronounced squalor and rigorous physical exertion amidst plenty.
This is where Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra-Leone and other non-Francophone ECOWAS members need to watch their shoulders as members of ECOWAS.
While their contributions to ECOWAS debates are free from foreign interference, the same cannot be said of their Francophone members – for reasons stated above.
Their voices are collectively the voice of France, their opinions, the opinions of France just as their democracy is French-styled democracy meant only for its former African colonies to perpetrate unhindered exploitation. That is why you have a democratic dynasty in Gabon with father and son winning elections for over 50 years, Paul Biya ruling Cameroon for 41 years.
Eco – ECOWAS’ proposed common currency
It beats my imagination that successive African Heads of States, civilian and military fail to realize that the Eco, the proposed ECOWAS common currency which is well-conceived and meant to boost economic development amongst member states cannot work with France still in control of its former colonies who together form a single majority of members. This is why take-off date of the proposed monetary union has been postponed four times; 2005, 2014 and 2020. The new date is now 2027.
That take-off date again is a mirage. Our leaders are putting the cart before the horse.
For this currency to see the light of day, non-Francophone ECOWAS members championed by Nigeria have to help these beleaguered fellow members get out of this subjugation conundrum. France must get out of the way for ECO to work.
Coups in Africa
There are just two ways to stem the trajectory of coups in Africa – good governance and liberation from the yoke of neo-colonialism. Noting that all recent coups happened in former French colonies, the second reason takes prominence.
The younger generations of Africans in these countries cannot fathom why their country is denied sovereignty; cannot use their God-given natural resources the way they please; must continue to pay tax in perpetuity to a foreign power for being enslaved over decades; cannot interact freely with other world powers when it comes to defence; cannot print their own national currencies; must keep their national reserves with a foreign power who dictates how and when to use them and must endure the stationing of foreign boots on their soil to ensure compliance should any of the above be violated.
The way out
Surely, the youths are looking for deliverance and the African Union and non-Francophone ECOWAS members must wake up to this responsibility by using all non-violent diplomatic channels; speaking against these obscenities in the United Nations, Commonwealth and all international organizations; sanctions and giving neo-colonialism the status of terrorism, which indeed it is and speaking with one voice that gave birth to the freedom of Zimbabwe, and the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa.
To roll back the trend of coups in Africa, the colonial hand of leprosy must be removed from these countries. Coup is outdated. Colonialism is evil and old-fashioned. The world has moved forward.
The sum total of all these is that the Church must use the pulpit to educate and inform its congregation on the need to use their God-given freedom and independence to build and not to destroy the country.
The role of the Church in this regard cannot be overemphasized. The Church in Nigeria has been playing remarkable roles in raising politicians with high morals through investment in education both elementary and tertiary. It has produced deacons and clerics as local government chairmen, legislators, governors and even presidents who changed the narratives of corruptive politics.
Like the evangelicals in the United States, the Church must take a stand on national issues and influence who becomes governor, legislator and president not on religious grounds but on who is best for the job.
Towards realization of a just, prosperous and egalitarian society, the Church must use the pulpit to commend good government moves and must not shy away from drawing government’s attention to corruption, nepotism, favouritism, outright stealing of the country’s funds and resources and other moves that are counter-productive that slows down nation-building.
For a truly independent Africa, the Church must encourage Nigeria to return to the foreign policies of the mid and late 70s that gave independence to Zimbabwe, to Angola and dismantled Apartheid in South Africa.
I recall with nostalgia those years of Nigeria’s effective, result-oriented and robust foreign policy.
I look forward to the return of those years to dismantle the remnants of colonialism in Africa. I mean those years that Nigeria’s voice was heard while silent; the years when Nigeria’s rhetoric, actions and sanctions won independence and freedom for beleaguered African nations without firing a shot.
There then was a Nigeria we were all proud to belong. When comes such another?
*Akinkunmi, an industrialist, lives in Makurdi, Benue State.
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