Nigeria At 45

Nigeria At 45: The Challenges Of Nationhood

Garba A, Isa

The federation of Nigeria came into existence at the beginning of the last Century following the Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates by the British Colonialists, The nation formally became independent on the 1st of October 1960, But the question is; have we become truly independent Economically, Politically, Legally and Culturally these past 45 years? Upon their arrival, the British met in the North, a well established state; the Sokoto Caliphate with its elaborate structure and well articulated trade and commerce, The rapid disappearance of Ajaami(Hausa in Arabic script)and the replacement of the Maliki Shari'a Legal system with the so-called Penal Code, were some of the most conspicuous negative effects of colonialism on Northern Nigeria and by implication, the outlook of the current Federation, The negative impact of colonialism in Southern Nigeria is often overlooked or underestimated, This is because the British were seen as having brought religion (Christianity) to the hitherto largely Animists communities, Their(British) enslavement of the Southern people, the destruction of their positive communal value systems and the massive impoverishment of the peoples' natural endowments, were mainly ignored, A former Kenyan President Mr., Jomo Kenyatta, tells the story better: "They (the colonialists) told us to close our eyes, by the time we opened, they have stolen our land and gave us the Bible", Although the British granted independence since 1^st January 1960, their notion of independent Nigeria was that of a "Secular democratic nation" built within the shadows of the larger British Empire as epitomised by the so-called Common Wealth of Nations, It was therefore a wishful thought to expect a Neo-colonial Nation (Nigeria) to fully escape from the Political, Economic, Educational, Legal and Cultural indoctrination nurtured in the tradition of the colonial actors, It was thus not surprising that even the Independent leaders of Nigeria such as the late President Nnamdi Azikiwe and regional premiers, Ahmadu Bello (North), Samuel Akintola and Obafemi Awolowo (West)were not themselves, well purged of "Colonial Hangovers",

Admittedly, some of those first generation of Nigerian leaders were more colonially indoctrinated than others, Much as one may excuse the first generation of Nigerian leaders, this generation of leaders have no justification to continue with the colonial political, economic and legal structures which are irrelevant to the majority of the population, We must as a matter of utmost national urgency realise the futility of transplanting the totality of alien systems, Our past political experiments failed partly due to their failure to tally with our culture and trepidations, and largely because of the preponderance of decadent operators, Incidents of chair throwing, exchange of blows which characterised the first republic, particularly in the "Wild West", graduated into gun trotting and knife brandishing during the second and the current republic respectively, The country's firs military coup the so-called Nzeogu-led 'Revolution, of January 1966, was simply an assassination outfit, The selective murder of only northern leaders such as Prime minister Tafawa Balewa, a sincere, honest and compassionate person, the northern premier Ahmadu Bello Sardauna or Brigadier Maimalari on that fateful Friday, could not have been mere coincident, The murder of Akintola, the Western premier, was the ultimate punishment for his being too close to the Sardauna, It is a pity though that after 45 years of independence and some 35 years since the Civil war(1967-1970), a disgruntled section of the Elites is still contemplating the breakup of Nigeria, The survival of Nigeria as a strong, united and virile nation should be the major concern not its dismemberment, The "National Question" as consistently maintained by this writer for years, is not about how to breakup the country; but how to fine tune the federation to achieve a just, fair and balanced society in which no group feels alienated, General Aguiyi Ironsi an Igbo and the most senior Army officer at the time of the January 1966 coup took over power following the mayhem, Following the July counter coup in the same year, General Yakubu Gowon took over(1966-1975), Although Gowon prosecuted the civil war, created a 12-state structure and embarked on massive post-war infrastructural development of the nation such as the expansion and commissioning of Kainji Hydro Electric power plant, the regime later lost some focus, Gowon, the longest continuous serving ruler of Nigeria to date, later drifted into plan less spend spree and was eventually quoted to have once said, the country's problem was not money, but how to spend it! These economic mess, corruption and unfulfilled promise to handover power to civilians by 1976, led to the overthrow of Gowon's regime in 1979 and was replaced by the then Brigadier Murtala Muhammad, Murtala ca me to power with a clear vision; to wipe out corruption, fight indiscipline and decadence and chart an independent course for the nation politically, legally, economically and diplomatically, No wonder, this "fine soldier and a positive temperament" was gunned down in broad day light only after some seven months as head of state on the fateful Friday February 13, 1976 in a failed coup plot led by Lt Col, Bukar Suka Dimka, Within the short spell of only 7 months Murtala created 7 more states, launched a constitutional drafting committee, set a 1979 date for return to civil rule, embarked on a massive purge of corrupt federal officials, set up a corrupt practices investigation Bureau, created a new federal capital at Abuja and on the International scene, led an OAU diplomatic offensive on Angola against the wishes of the then American president Gerald Ford and foreign secretary Henry Kissinger, among others,

After Murtala's assassination, his then deputy, Major General Olusegun Obasanjo took over as a reluctant leader, In all fairness though Obasanjo did not stray much from the dynamic course charted by General Murtala Muhammad, At least General Obasanjo honoured the 1979 civilian handover plan and the actualisation of the new federal capital at Abuja, The second republic Civilian president Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was cool levelled in personal character which ironically probed to be his greatest undoing; he thus led a regime whose ministers somewhat went out of his control such that what was supposed to be a "watershed" regime from long period of military intervention, turned out to be corrupt- ridden, decadent and indiscipline, Party stalwarts and their supporters, helped themselves with impunity, The permissive style of Shagari and the eventual "mess" which characterised his regime no wonder made General Muhammad Buhari to attempt to punish Shagari for the crimes of the entire regime, not his personal wrongdoings; but a well learned judge, I think it was justice Muhammad Owais, dismissed the charges against Shagari on the grounds that it will tantamount to "setting standards too high even for saints", He (Buhari), may have exaggerated it, but by the time he overthrew Shagari in December 1983, the country was” on the verge of total collapse", General Buhari launched the War Against Indispline (WAI) whose objectives may be honest but whose modus operandi were in some cases, excessive, Buhari's economic policies were largely homegrown and honest such as counter trade proposals and the structural adjustment programme and WAI which was cited above, Buhari's self reliance policies were popular with the common man but not the well to do elites or foreign powers, His regime was thus terminated 20 months after, in 1985, When General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew his former boss, General Buhari , many welcomed it due to the fact that several detained politicians languished in detentions, the press was gagged by decree 4 and a number of people were impatient with Buhari's harsh but necessary economic policies, Babangida played a "political soldier", dribbling people from one post to the other which eventually so him supervising over civilian regimes at the states while he remained a military president,

The economy was terribly battered under Babangida, the Naira virtually became a worthless piece of paper, huge oil revenues such as the 1991/1992 Gulf War "Oil Windfall", were poorly managed and the political transition tikered with several times till we landed in the June 12 1993 crisis which consumed Babangida himself, Inspite of all the devilish charges against Babangida including that of promoting corruption to the level of "Government-to-government" and several ethno-religious crises and the entry into the Liberian quagmire initially to shore up his sinking friend, former president Samuel Doe, the man has recorded several noteworthy achievements during his eight "maradonic" years in power, He actualised the transfer of the presidency to Abuja, create d new states and embarked on far reaching infrastructural projects such as the Third mainland bridge in Lagos, the Kano-Kaduna express way and the several land mark projects in Abuja including the security-tight, Aso rock presidential Villa among others, Chief Ernest Shonekan's interim national government went away as casually as it was patched up by Babangida when he hastily "stepped aside" following pressure from both the internal pro-June 12 groups and foreign powers, General Sani Abacha, a powerful member of the Babangida regime who was ironically retained in the ING to 'protect' it, shoved aside Shonekan and took over the government, barely 3 months after its inauguration, General Abacha allegedly played a fast one on the late MKO Abiola the assumed winner of the June 1993 elections; it was allegedly said that the General to hand over to Abiola shortly after removing Shonekan, This didn’t work out and hence all that happened; and as the saying goes, the rest is now history,

Abacha's era was characterised with much political tension occasioned by both domestic pressure at home and diplomatic offensive from Western countries notably America and Britain which spear headed the country's suspension from the commonwealth, These pressures made Abacha to become more combative and hardliner in dealing with both his domestic and foreign opponents sometimes with devastating consequences such as the execution of Ken-Saro Wiwa, the Agoni rights activist and a playwright, But Abacha was also a man of ironies-inspite of the brutal nature of his regime, charges of amassing ill-gotten wealth and attempt to perpetuate himself in power (Tazarce), he somewhat managed to cut the image of a ruthless nation-builder; created new states; Zamfara, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Kogi, convened a National Constitutional Conference, evolved the Vision 2010 document and his most popular pet project, the Petroleum(special)Trust Fund( PTF) (from the proceeds of his marginal increase in the price of petroleum products), which was ironically entrusted to a very popular and credible person, Retired General Muhammad Buhari, himself a former Head of state,

But one fine morning of July 8, 1998 General Abacha who only a couple of years ago was tackling political enemies such as the late Shehu Musa Yar'Aduwa who died in detention, and jailed General Olusegun Obasanjo, Major General Oladipo Diya his former deputy, on coup plotting charges, suddenly died under mysterious circumstances,

General Abulsalam Abubakar the most senior military officer after Abacha's death, took over as the new head of state, He pursued the transition back to civil rule with a zeal and determination such that he run one of the briefest transition periods in the history of the country to the delight of pro-democracy groups in the country and the approval of former South African President Mr., Nelson Mandela and other mainly Western governments abroad,

Abdulsalam's swift relapse of political detainees notably General Olusegun Obasanjo who was literally wasting away in Yola prison and the imminent release of detained M, K, O, Abiola also earned him further respect of the international Human rights community, What nearly spoiled Abubakar's show, was the controversial death of Abiola while still officially under detention shortly after taking a cup of tea at a meeting in which American top diplomats were present,

But some of the serious undoing of General Abdulsalam Abubakar were charges of massive questionable spending under the guise of completing transition related projects such as the National Assembly complex in Abuja and bending the rules of the political process to accommodate some sacred cows, But because the catch Phrase was to handover power come what may, Abdulsalam got away with all his apparent failings amidst the democratic euphoria of the time,

The system eventually saw the emergence of President Olusegun Obasanjo who emerged from a condemned prisoner languishing in jail to become the leader of Nigeria for the record second time, first as military ruler(1976-1999) and in 1999 as Civilian President, If you describe President Obasanjo as the "luckiest" member of the country's ruling Elite, you are probably right, It is the more reason why he should be more than doubly thankful to God for His mercies, Truth be told, Obasanjo's gravest mistake on his second coming to power was to have allowed gravely vengeful characters to shape the nature and character of his administration, Also despite all his shortcomings, Abacha's VISION 2010 document and the PTF were projects worthy of retention, but which were thrown away because good as they were, emanated form "an enemy", It is instructive to note that whereas as PTF's landmark achievements in roads construction, health care and mass transit for instance are still traceable six years after its dissolution, many communities are still asking for the elusive 'Dividends' of democracy,

But the Obasanjo regime is always embarking on one reform after the other; privatisation, commercialisation, banking reform, NEEDS, AGOA, Petroleum price deregulation(read increase) among other jargons, The problem with all these is their failure to improve the lives of the people in practical terms, A lot of these market-driven reforms were unilaterally introduced as they were not homegrown or done without wide consultations and mandate of the people or their representatives in the National Assembly, which should be a feature of a democratic dispensation, President Obasanjo's regime also had to contend with charges of "marginalisation" by certain sections of the country, some genuine while some merely sentimental, But in the interest of National unity and peaceful coexistence, President Obasanjo who has restated his faith in the indivisibility of Nigeria must own the necessary moral courage to own up to the genuine failings of his tenure and demote h is personal interests below that of the Federation which he laboured so much to preserve notably through our painful civil war(1967-1970), But truth be told, hidden Agenda aside, the EFCC is doing a good job in the fight against corruption, The Due Process arrangement for government contracts is also another plus for Obasanjo if you remove notoriety for slowing down or even "killing" several projects which would have impacted on the people, The communication sector reform is working although its regulatory and consumer protection mechanisms aren’t working, Obasanjo, s food and drug control agency NAFDAC is a success story as well, ,

On the final analysis therefore, much as one may be disappointed with the performance of our nation building process in the last 45 years, we must admit that some modest gains were made nevertheless, The power sector though is still off the mark, NEPA (Never expect power always) has consumed billions of Naira without appreciable response and is now replaced by PHCN (Problem Has Changed Name), Our education is still in tatters, Rulers have turned into Ruiners and endemic corruption and squabbles over power rotation and resource control still dodge us as a nation, But as the late Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa once said, "Nigeria is big enough to accommodate our differences", Nigerians must insist on qualitative leaders not tribal war lords who capitalise on sentiment as against delicate national bridge building process, Recent unnecessary squabbles over the expansion of the horizons of Shari'a applications, exposed our intolerance or inability to allow our true federalism to take a firm root in the polity,

On resource control, it is worth noting that while one part of the country is rich in one resource, the others are rich in others which completes the symbiotic relationship, Whatever the sentiment involved, the hard fact is the nation's natural endowments belongs to all Nigerians, their particular locations not withstanding, Finally, Nigeria, the Giant of Africa which went the extra miles to shore up other nations in times of their crisis such as Tanzania, Lebanon, Zaire(now DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone among others, must itself remain afloat through the maturity, tolerance and accommodation by its own good people of diverse backgrounds, Lastly our political Elites squabbling over the "spoils of democracy" must ponder over this dangerous course they are treading and allow the nation a breeze of peace rather than thread it into pieces with devastating consequences for all of us,

Garba A, Isa

Yekuwa Communications, Kano, Nigeria