Between Nigeria And Nigerians

By

Yusuf Gamawa

ibrahimgamawa2005@yahoo.com

As students of History we have come across many books on Nigerian History, and have listened to many lectures delivered on many different areas by many scholars, and have of course heard and watched debates and programmes on radio and television concerning this our country times without number.

In the University we have gone through Nigeria’s History from 1100-1800, a period which saw the rise of the Hausa States in the North like Katsina, Gobir, Zazzau and Benin in the South and even the period preceding it, as we have studied the founding and rise of the empires of Oyo and Kanem Borno which dates back to 666AD.We have gone through the emergence of the Sokoto caliphate and the  period of colonial rule; of the conquest of Nigeria and indirect rule by the British. And in our final year we took a course titled “Nigeria since Independence”

From all that we have learned about Nigeria, sometimes many us are made to believe in the works of many colonial and post colonial Historians on certain aspects of our History, especially when they try to argue that Nigeria is a creation of the British, a position that is still lingering on the minds of many of us and has thus created doubts as to the viability of the Nigerian project, it is indeed a position that has created a negative attitude in our people and is generally derailing our progress as a people.

Many of us agree to the fact that Nigeria was officially created by the British in 1914, but our History has also shown that there had been interaction between the various peoples of Nigeria even before the advent of colonial rule. Indeed History has shown that there was continuous movement of economic goods from the North to Southern Nigeria and vice versa. But this is not to say that Nigeria existed as an entity at that time, but is rather a pointer and indication to the flexibility and familiarity that existed between us even before colonial conquest.

And it is a known fact that no single country on earth existed as an entity right from time, we are all Historical witnesses to the founding and discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, was there any United States at that time? Paraguay, Argentina or Bolivia? Even if there were people there; they must have been living in very tiny communities if not even wandering in the bushes, without any elaborate administrative machinery. And even in places like Nigeria where the great empires of Kanem Borno and Oyo are to be found, it is clear that they grew and expanded over time, and even within these empires except for Oyo, but even Oyo extended up to Dahomey in Benin republic and as such could not have consisted of only Yoruba people. In Kanem there were many different groups such as the Kanuri, Koyan, Kaburi, Ngalaga, and Tubu e.t.c and of course these people had different ways of lives and beliefs but yet they all lived together. And again take a look at the composition of the United States now, including blacks, at what point did they start to have something in common with the white people? The time of Lincoln, who declared all slaves in America free or now that an African American is president?

And so it doesn’t make sense, and it is in no way intellectualism when scholars play on our intelligence by writing and saying that Nigeria is the creation of the British or the mistake of 1914 as they often refer to it in books, articles and journals. What these scholars are trying to tell us unintelligently is that every ethnic and religious group should have its own country if we understand them correctly, since their claim is that we share nothing in common and remember we have more than 300 different ethnic groups, meaning about 300 countries out of this land mass. And the truth is that no single group is identical in Nigeria, and even those that seem to have some similarity tended to disagree most, either within the north or south. Why did we have Zangon Kataf crises, or the Tiv /Jukun crisis or the Jos crisis? And so if we are to look at things objectively without sentiment, we will agree that yes we were created by the British but must not call it a mistake, for it is now a reality, and it is we Nigerians that will work it out, our differences has been exaggerated by agents of imperialism disguising as scholars in a deliberate attempt to manipulate and exploit us.

The History of Nigeria from independence to date is very disturbing, knowing fully that Nigeria is endowed with both human and natural resources, and among the major producers of oil in the world, but sadly Nigeria is rated amongst the poorest countries in the world with the lowest per capital income. The question we should ask is what is responsible for this mess? And a critical analysis of our political History will reveal the fact of the matter, beginning from the Balewa Government which was blamed for failing to decolonize the economy and solve problems of acute food shortage by those who over threw it to the present administration.

From what we have learned in the History of Nigeria since independence on Nigeria’s inability to develop or grow as a nation, two major problem remain very clear, the first is lack of focused and patriotic leadership which gave birth to corruption and nepotism, and then what we were made to know as petrotiasis (over dependence on oil resources) but even this can be linked to the problem of leadership. It is indeed unfortunate that the nation never had the opportunity of having the right leadership that will lead the nation out of the woods. The path to growth and development has never been an easy one, we have seen it and privileged to have models to copy e.g. Japan, India and even in Britain the industrial revolution period was difficult one.

Throughout Nigeria’s History no government ever showed the determination, vision and ability to chart the right course to growth and development, certainly the Balewa government was not corrupt, but it was only the Murtala and  Buhari military administrations  that tried to show the signs of such ability, but Nigerians are such a luxurious people and would not want to go through hardship which is the price for development. And so it is up to Nigerians to either embrace their country or allow it to collapse, because even the militants in the Niger Delta would not have been fighting if our leadership was right and just, it is not resource control, and it is certainly not Biafra, but the right leadership that will chart the right course, and I argue that it is also not democracy either.