By
Mike Ozekhome
Many Nigerians at home and abroad, including elder statesmen and women, rights activists, NGOs, journalists and social media czars, have severally called upon me in the last one week to comment on my personal feelings about “Nigeria at 60”. I had hitherto resisted this invitation, lest I painted a horrifically gloomy picture of despondency. However, because the questions will not stop cascading in like a torrential rainfall, I am now compelled to share my honest, but very modest, thoughts about Nigeria at 60. I am extremely sad about Nigeria at 60.
Very, very sad indeed. Surely, a 60-year and above old man or
woman, is already a senior citizen; a grandfather, or grandmother. I am one.
This means such a man or woman has grown; or is at least, presumed to have
grown, in maturity and development. But, I am sad that Nigeria, “our own dear
native land” (words taken from the beautiful lyrics of the unfortunately
discarded old National Anthem), has neither developed nor matured.
I am sad that she has not even been allowed to take full
advantage of the various constitutions fashioned out by our colonial masters
and various indigenous governments to give her meaningful nationhood, after she
was named “Nigeria” in 1897. She was so named by a young British journalist,
Miss Flora Louisa Shaw, who later married Lord Sir Barton Frederick Lugard, the
Governor – General, who amalgamated the Southern and Northern Protectorates to
found Nigeria, on January 1, 1914.
Flora Shaw (1852-1929), had written an essay in the London
Times on January 8, 1897, where she suggested the name “Nigeria”
for the British Protectorate on the Niger River. She had coined Nigeria as a
name, because she desired a shorter name for the “agglomeration of Pagan and
Mohammedan States”, to replace the rather lengthy official title of Nigeria, “Royal
Niger Company Territories”. This name, to her, was too long to be
used as the name of a “Real Estate Property” under the Royal Niger Trading
Company. She, therefore, coined Nigeria (from “Niger-Area”, in preference to
such names as “Central Sudan”, “Niger Empire”, “Niger Sudan”, etc. I am very
sad that at the time we were forcibly coupled together in the manner described
above, Nigeria was made up of already independent and autonomous nations and
nationalities.
Absence Of Social Justice
The entity called
Nigeria already had, in no particular order, the great Benin Empire, Oyo
Kingdom, Ife Kingdom, the Hausa city States, Kanem-Bornu Empire, the Afemais,
Ijaws, Urhobos, Itsekiris and the Esans. We already had the Opobos,Ebiras,
Tivs, Idomas, Igalas, Gbagyis/Gwaris, Zulus, Fulfudes, Ogonis, Efiks, Ibibios
andIsokos. There already existed the Igedes, Mandaras, Baburs, Beroms, Mangus,
the Bachamas, Eggons, Andonis, Chiboks, Bekwaras, and Atyabas. The Shuwas,
Kanuris, Bassas, Nupes, Alagos, Aokos, Owans, Balis; the Komas, the Jukuns,
Agatus and the Angas, already lived their lives jeje.
I am, therefore, sad that some new Sherriffs-in-town,
erroneously believe we must live together, willy-nilly, by fire and by force,
whether we like it or not.It does not matter that there is absence of social
justice, equity, egalitarianism, mutual respect, religious and inter-ethnic
tolerance. I am sad that we never utilized, altruistically, the 1922 Clifford
Constitution, 1946 Arthur Richards Constitution, 1951 Macpherson Constitution,
1954 Littleton Constitution, 1960 Independence Constitution, 1963
Republican Constitution, 1979 Obasanjo Constitution, the 1989 unused IBB
Constitution and the 1999 AbdulsalamiAbubakar Constitution (Decree
No 24), which has already been serially amended and is still currently
undergoing further amendments.
I am sad indeed. I am surely sad that Nigeria is still
practising, at best, “feeding – bottle – democracy”, or “come – and- chop –
democracy”. I am quite sad that of the pluralistic 374 ethnic groups in Nigeria
(OniguOtite), only three to four are given primacy and preferential treatment
–the Fulanis,Hausas, Yorubas and Igbos, in that order. We operate in Nigeria as
if the other 370 ethnic groups count for nothing, or as if they were created by
God in Nigeria, to be mere clappers, playground spectators, bystanders, hewers
of wood and drawers of water. I cannot join Nigeria and Nigerians in
celebrating our 60th year anniversary of our mere “flag independence” that has
made us remain as nothing but an ordinary appendage of neo-colonial interests.
I am indeed sad because our successive leaders have woefully failed the nation,
the present generation and future generations.
I am indeed sad that we live by the river, yet wash our hands
with sputum. I am sad that we are blessed with the best natural, human and
material resources, yet, live in crass poverty, abject penury, ignorance and
ignoble despondency. I am quite sad that we grow geometrically in population,
yet, arithmetically in growth and development. Nigeria, by available UN data,
at mid-2020,ranks number 7 (2.64 %) in the list of most populated countries of
the world, with a population of about 206,139,589 people. I am sad indeed that
we only operate civilian governments, but never democratic governments.
I am sad that we only practise elections, but not
democracy. Elections are carried out routinely as a mere ritual EVERY four
years. Nigerian elections do not translate to democratic dividends; not even
democratic profits. I am indeed sad that inspite of all government pretentions
and propaganda to that effect (Hitler‘s Goebel must be green with envy in his
cold grave since 1945), Nigeria is today, according to latest Transparency
International, TI , Corruption Perception Index, the number 146 out of 180
countries of the most corrupt countries of World. Nigeria unenviably ranks
number three in West Africa.
I am sad that
inspite of our abundant natural, human, mineral, agricultural and crude oil
resources, Nigeria, once one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and
the richest country in Africa (which actually overtook South Africa), with over
$500 billion rebased economy, is today gasping for sheer existence as the
poverty capital of the world.
It has since snatched that smelly diadem from India.
I am sad that Nigeria, once a very safe country, where citizens could drive
out, or walk leisurely in orchards, bush paths, dark alleys,
forests and highways, is today so unsafe that hapless and hopeless citizens are
mindlessly waylaid, kidnapped, robbed, raped, murdered and burnt along high
ways, footpaths and even in their very homes and farms. I am very sad that
Nigerians (happily before now), were once united in religion, ethnicity,
marriage, sports, hope, aspirations, and common goals and objectives.
This was because of the lyrical rendition of the old National
Anthem that “though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand”. I am
sad that today, however, Nigeria is pathetically and haemorragingly polarised, divided,
disunited and dislocated, along primordial fault-lines. I am very sad that the
Nigeria of today literally drips with deep mutual suspicion, aggression,
hatred, animosity, antagonism, vitriol, repulsion, cronyism, nepotism,
ethnocentrisms, tribalism and sectionalism.
I am quite sad that Nigeria is now ravaged by
provincialism, protectionism, clanishness, cliquism, regionalism, favouritism,
prebendalism and neo-patrimonialism. I am indeed sad that mutual distrust and
mistrust now reign supreme. I am sad that our children are still struggling to
obtain, literally through agonising ”trial by-ordeal”, a mere first degree, at
ages 26-32; whereas the same Nigeria had, once – upon – a – time, in the ’50s
and ’60s, produced ministers, military governors and heads of state at the same
26 – 32 age bracket. I am sad that there are no jobs for the teeming millions
of Nigerian youths who eventually struggle to graduate from our beleaguered
tertiary institutions.
They never find gainful employment; whereas in the ’50s and
’60s, local and multinational companies waited long hours at the gates of
universities on graduands’ last days at the university, to recruit them
immediately. Such graduates were automatically given cars, houses and placed on
handsome living wages and mouth – watering perquisites of office. I am deeply
sad that most of the well-known multinationals that once dotted the industrial
and business landscapes of Nigeria, have either died, or folded up completely;
or have since been downgraded; or they have relocated to small nearby
neighbouring countries.
Some
of them however exist only as mere museum relics and antiquities in the form of
administrative office carcasses. Some of these olden days companies include the
UAC, Leventis, Kingsway, UTC, Standard Bank, Barclays Bank, Lever Brothers
(Unilever), PZ, John Holts, CFAO, Dunlop, Michelin, Volkswagen, Peugeot
Automobile, Cadbury, NTC, May and Baker, RT Briscoe.
Political brinkmanship
There
were airlines like Okada, Sosoliso, Flash, Triax, Nigeria Airways, ADC,
Afrijet, Albarka, Bellview, Capital, Dasab, Slok, EAS , Harco, Harka Oriental,
Hamza Air, Wings Aviation , Spaceworld, Chrome, New Nation, etc, etc. I am sad
that no one can today show me the once famous Ajaokuta Steel Mills, the Itakpe
Iron Ore, Delta Steel Company, Oshogbo, Jos and Katsina Rolling Mills; the
famous Northern Nigeria Kano groundnut pyramids, cotton, hides and skins; the
Western Nigeria cocoa; the Eastern Nigeria palm oil produce; the Midwestern
Nigeria rubber and timber produce, Okpella Cement Factory, Ughelli Glass
Industries, etc, etc. I am indeed very sad that our leaders who were in power
in the ’50s and ’60s (some, over 70 years ago), are still today ingloriously
clinging to power, either directly, or indirectly, through their proxies,
acolytes, minions, school mates, or village kindred, kinsmen and kinswomen.
So, I am a sad Nigerian. I am greatly saddened that in the
1980s, even the Naira was exchanging for one naira to two dollars; that we did
not require visa to travel; and that my first journey to London cost me less
than N350 only. I was respected, as a very young lawyer at Heathrow Airport,
and treated with king courtesies. We have frittered away rare countless
opportunities, mismanaged our economy, abused and thoroughly misused our
natural, human and material resources. We have since birthed, nurtured and
enthroned a dangerous regime of impunity, government’s wanton breach of
citizens’ fundamental rights, reckless disregard to court orders, and brazen
desecration of the rule of law.
We have glamouralised moral decadence, primitive acquisition
and a rentier economy. We have encouraged mediocrity, nurtured ‘yahoo boys’,
festered youth brigandage and criminality, and promoted female prostitution and
girl-child labour and marriage. I am very sad. I am too sad that we still
practise what late Professor Claude Ake and other eminent economists, refer to
as a “disarticulate economy”, an economy where we produce what we do not
consume (crude oil) and consume what we do not produce (fuel and gas).
We have bred mass unemployment, untrammelled corruption,
intellectual dishonesty, academic squalor, social disequilibrium, political
brinkmanship, executive lawlessness, legislative rascality, judicial injustice
and electoral brigandage. In the Nigeria of today, the votes are neither
counted nor allowed to count. I am very sad because there is no transparency,
accountability and responsibility in government or governance. I am utterly
depressed and sad that the proverbial common man and woman continue to wallow
in ignorance, dejection, melancholy and hopelessness. I am very sad that we
practise religion vociferously but without being religious or Godly.
I am very sad that the hoi polloi continues to be repressed,
oppressed, suppressed, marginalised, subjugated, denied, traumatised, ignored,
rejected and dejected. The Frantz, Fanons “Wretched of the Earth”still wallows
in searing pains, pangs, blood and sorrow. I am indeed a very SAD NIGERIAN.
NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE. GOD BLESS NIGERIA. AMEN.
*Ozekhome(SAN), human rights lawyer and political activist, wrote from Lagos
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