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Nigeria At 50: Who Crippled Her? By Mustapha Umar Mustapha There is a part of the national anthem which Nigerians, most especially the leaders have not understood its meaning. If we all know what it means, Nigeria will have been a different nation entirely. This part of the nation anthem is “The labour of our heroes past, shall never be in vain”. Our great leaders in 60s have laid a great foundation for this great nation. Unfortunately their efforts where made to be in vain by the later leaders. How many governors has the south-west region produced like Awolowo that are role models of leadership? What about the East, have they produced any governor like Nnamdi Azikwe that can b e role models of leadership? How many governors in Niger-Delta are role models of leadership? Has he North produced governors like the Sardauna of Sokoto. Who crippled the Nation? Some Nigerians think that the colonial masters laid the foundation of the problem Nigeria is facing today. They said the colonial masters love Northern Nigeria and that is why they gave 50 percent of the National assemble seats to the north at independence. The British came for 60years and Sir Ajayi talked about few numbers of graduates in the north (Two at independence). What he did not say was that it was a British policy when they came: that if you educate the northerner you will produce progressive Muslim intellectuals, yet some say those British love the North. You talk about Babangida and the economy. Who were the people in charge of the economy during Babangida’s era? Olu Falae, Kalu Idika kalu…. Are they from the North? We talk ethnicity when it pleases us. We complain of election rigging in 1959, election cancellation in June 12. But Obasanjo and Maurice Iwu rigged election in 2007 the like of which was unknown in our history. Was it a southern thing? Of course it was not. You talk of January 15 1966.Was it all Igbos that supported the grand design. In his book “No place to hide crises and conflict in Biafra” Bernard Odugwu, then a Nigerian diplomat. He wrote “although sitting alone as I write this, I am tempted to say that there was no such Igbo’s grand design. Yet the inescapable fact is that the Igbo are already as a group being condemned by the rest of the activities of a handful of ambitious Igbo army officers: for here I am with the rest my Igbo colleagues some thousands of miles away from home, yet been put on a defensive for such action that we were neither consulted about nor appointed off” The problem is ever where. In Nigeria there is Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo man whose concern is how to get the “national cake” and steal as much as he can. Either in the military or in the civilian government, they sit down and eat together. They are all from different Nigerian ethic group. So, anybody that is still preaching that the problem of Nigeria is Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo, he doesn’t love Nigeria. The problem of Nigeria is that a group from each and every ethnic tribe is very selfish. There are good Yoruba people, good Hausa people, good Igbo people and good Nigerians and there are bad ones. Now who crippled the Nation? Chinua Achebe, In an earlier savage analysis of the Nigerian condition, having noted that Nigeria had lost the twentieth(20th) centaury, Clearly a deliberate exaggeration-went on to ask rhetorically “are we (Nigerians) bent on seeing that our children also lose the twenty first? God forbid! ”(Achebe 1983:3) So why don’t we discuss the real problems of all Nigerians: basic infrastructures, education health etc. We are still taking about Hausa/Fulani? Is there anybody saying there is no poverty among the Hausa/Fulani. The Sardauna of Sokoto has said something very important in solving the Nigerian problems, he said “Let us not forget our differences, let us understand our differences and in so doing build unity in our country. |