By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Today marks the beginning of the existence of Nigeria as a sovereign nation. For several decades preceding October 1, 1960, the colonial imperialists had ruled the so-called geographical expression with iron fist almost to the exclusion of the Nigerian educated elite, while virtually all important administrative decisions were taken outside the shore of the country. It, therefore, took the strident opposition of foremost nationalists like Herbart Macaulay, Nnamidi Azikwe, Sadauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, among others, to put an end to the British rule.
This ultimately climaxed into the lowering of the Union Jack and the hosting of Nigeria’s Green-White-Green flag amid pomp and ceremony. The late Babatunde Jose, the grandfather of Nigerian journalism, vividly captured the mood of the nation in his emotional commentary on the independence anniversary. His words: “As the clock struck midnight, they took their positions on the dais and watched the lowering of the Union Jack and the hoisting of the Nigerian flag. And so ended 100 years of British rule, 100 years of colonial bondage. A nation conceived in faith and unity is born today. And I am happy. And I am sobbing.”
The late Matthew Tawo Mbu, who was minister of state for defence on Independence Day, had also reportedly danced till dawn along with his other colleagues. With the euphoria that heralded the glorious day, optimism was high that Nigeria would be a leading light to the rest of the black world, especially given its numerical advantage as well as endowment of natural resources.
However, the rot had set in long before the first decade of an independent Nigeria had drawn to a close, as the country succumbed to multiple dysfunctions and was plunged into a bloody civil war. Today, one of the things that sadden most Nigerian enthusiasts who witnessed the epoch-making event is the failure of successive governments in the post independence era to sustain and nurture the aspirations of the founding fathers who laid down their lives for the struggle for self rule.
The gradual drifting
In the immediate post independence era, Nigeria embraced parliamentary democracy with a strong opposition to the power at the centre. While NPC controlled the North, NCNC and Action Group (AG) predominated in the East and West respectively. But with the intervention of the military, the arrangement was altered in favour of quasi-unitary system which is now the primary source of tension among ethnic nationalities. A former president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mustapha Akanbi (retd), in an interview with Sunday Sun, traced the genesis of Nigeria’s problem to military intervention. Hitherto, Nigeria had adopted regional arrangement which allowed the three regions-North, South-East and South-west, to develop at their own pace within the limit of resources available in their respective domains. According to him, the gradual abandonment of the principle of regionalism makes it difficult for states to grow their economies in their different ways. He lamented: “When our founding fathers got independence in 1960, we were delighted. In 1963, we became Republic and things were going well. For me, I believe we started drifting when the military coup of 1966 happened. Before then, there was no stealing in the civil service. We were not thinking of reckless acquisition of money. Once you can feed yourself three times a day, live in a decent room, it was okay. Those of us in the civil service, they gave us accommodation. In Zaria, when I was a student, we were paid well. Is it the same thing now when people don’t get their salaries? The politicians of yesteryears always thought of the supreme wellbeing of the people. Today, they think only about themselves and their children. Self aggrandisement, greed, avarice, corruption have become the order of the day. I don’t know what the people of Sodom and Gomorrah experienced before God destroyed them. I hope our country will change for the better. We are known as the giant of Africa. We can’t be giant, if we break into pieces. We can’t be giant, if we cannot do something to show that God has been kind to us, He has blessed us.”
Separatist agitations
More fundamentally is the failure of leadership to sustain the unity of the nation. Indeed, at no time had Nigeria been so divided than now. And there is a plethora of reasons why some separatist agitators are bitter about the state of things. One of these is the resistance by some sections of the country to accede to the clamour for restructuring as a way to douse the tension. Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former minister of works and housing, commenting on the state of affairs of the nation at 57 in a chat with Sunday Sun had this to say: “The present separatist agitation is due to lack of equal rights and justice. Nigeria is full of injustice. The Constitution we have should be christened the Constitution of injustice. People agitate because of the structure given to us by the constitution. There are too many unjust provisions in the Constitution that could make anybody feel agitated. The present constitution is inimical to our growth. It is very destructive. That is the reason for the agitations; that is why people are not comfortable with what is happening. All the fundamental principles of state policy are not just right. People in government can do whatever they like with the citizens because they cannot take them to court. That is not a country. Citizens must have fundamental human rights.”
Economic stagnation
Nigeria prides itself as the giant of Africa. But unfortunately, 57 years down the line, the nation is still grappling with myriads of economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, falling standard of living, lack of access to qualitative education and health care delivery, among others.
There is a theory of “oil course” to all of these. According to the proponents of this theory, Nigeria lost the opportunity to economic greatness when it abandoned agriculture following the discovery of oil in 1957 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta region. Alhaji Badmus Olaoluwa, a retired civil servant, speaking with Sunday Sun said: “When we got independence, we had no idea that oil would become a major source of income for Nigeria. Although the discovery has been a blessing for us, it has also made the states to be less productive. Now, majority of the 36 states with the exception of a few like Lagos are solely dependent on the oil money that is distributed by central government. This status quo is simply not good enough.”
Ogunlewe in his own submission blamed the economic stagnation Nigeria has been facing on the lopsided arrangement as well as over bloated civil service structure which allows for over 75 percent of revenue to be expended on recurrent expenditure at the expense of capital expenditure. “The number of states, the number of courts and the over bloated public service we have can never sustain our growth. At independence, we had only three regions. Later we had middle-west. What was the size of our civil service? So many things have been duplicated to the extent that we spend 75 percent of our national earning to pay salaries of only about one million people. That is not what we craved for when we had our independence. With the structure we have now, there can never be prosperity in Nigeria. It is just not possible. The present structure is not sustainable because only a few people are benefitting from it. We must sit down and readdress this structure. Before now, we were at par with India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the rest of Asian countries. We were even better than China. But suddenly, they all overtook us. We need to sit down to readdress this issue, he posited.
On his own part, Emmanuel Okeke, a Lagos-based businessman, decried the pervasive corruption in the polity saying: “Corruption has given us a rotten image internationally and prevented us from fulfilling our potential. The country’s value system has been deeply compromised as a result of acquisition of ill-gotten wealth. In the past, if someone built a mansion that was not compatible with his salary, the entire community would query it. But it is not the same thing today. And that is why there is reckless looting of the treasury. A nation is not built like that.”
Way Forward
In the face of the present challenges, the ordinary Nigerians who expressed concern over the future of Nigeria have called on the Federal Government to address the inherent injustices in the present structure to sustain the unity of Nigeria. Mr Chukwuma Umeh, in his comment on the state of the nation said: “Nigeria needs total freedom from all discriminations, including marginalization, nepotism, militarization, brutality, oppressions and social injustices of all sorts that the Northern political cabals had used the advantage of the military coup to promote for their own selfishness and self-centeredness, at the detriment of other Nigerians, especially from 1966 till date. We honestly prefer genuine peace and tranquility in place of war that promotes the destruction of lives of the people and their properties! We, the well-meaning Nigerians of all tribes and cultures obviously prefer to have an all-inclusive Nigeria. But regrettably, the Northern political cabals have subtly hijacked this government and it is detrimental to our national unity.”
Ebuka Amaechi , also expressing a similar view, urged the Buhari administration to do the needful, adding that regionalism would save Nigeria from the current separatist agitation. His words: “I believe that regionalism will save Nigeria from its recurring crisis of confidence, hate Speeches, Maginalization, Religious Bigotory, Parochialism, deliberate exclusion of a section of the country from the national equation since the end of the Civil War. We should revert to regionalism, as was practiced before the ill-prepared & corrupt military officers’ intervention which over threw the then democratically elected Federal Government at the Centre after Independence in 1960. I believe it will end the continued ethnic agitations for equity. Besides, regionalism will eliminate endemic Corruption. At present, the revenue sharing formula is skewed in favour of a particular section of the Country. Above all, regionalism will ensure healthy competition amongst the regions or the federating unites. I urge leadership of Nigeria to do the needful to save the nation from its present state uncertainty.”
No doubt, this is another opportunity for the leadership to do a stock-taking analysis of the last 57 years with a few to working out an enduring solution to the problems that had held back the country since independence. And to do this successfully, there must be an all-inclusive engagement with the relevant stakeholders.
Source: The Sun
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