Nigeria’s Seventh Secret: Mundane Materialism Is The Basis For Nigeria

By

Leonard Karshima Shilgba

shilgba@yahoo.com

This is the last in a series of four essays on Nigeria’s seven secrets and the inevitability of a sovereign national conference. To some readers, those “secrets” are not quite secret as they may be to other readers. But it is one thing to know about something, and quite another to recognize their effect on you and your society. Nigerians need to know about the important facts about their country and how negatively those have impacted on the journey towards growth and development. Our children need to know about their country and how its history has contributed to its sad story today. If Nigerians will change their country, the majority of her opinion and executive leaders must act like they feel the burden to make a nation out of the strange creation. But what can push them to?

When the basis of any relationship is mundane materialism, such will not stand the test of time. When a lady, for instance, “falls in love” with a man only because he is wealthy, it is a matter of time before relationship tests cause severe strain on that relationship until it snaps. What does 865,000 British pounds at 1900 purchasing power value mean to you today? How would you value this amount over a century ago? Suppose that your family was lent this amount of money by a bank more than a century ago on a premium, what do you think the cumulative interest would be today on the principal if it is compounded?

Sir George TubmanGoldie founded the United African Company (UAC) in 1879 to comprise British traders whose activities were along the River Niger, to protect themeven as they faced aggressive competition from the French. The company signed many treaties with local chiefs and kings thereafter, and imposed their ownership of those territories. His vision was to add to the British Empire territories of the middle and lower Niger. In 1881 Sir Goldie requested British Prime Minister, Sir William Gladstone for a charter to secure protection from Royal forces, more so when the French operated at the lower Niger (By this time the UAC was renamed National African Company (NAC)). Sir Gladstone declined; but after the Berlin conference (1884-85) where Africa was partitioned among colonial powers such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal, and the consequential acquisition of the lower Niger from French forces,  the prime minister conceded, and so in July 1886 a charter was granted, thus changing the name from NAC to the Royal Niger Company, which equally changed the leadership of the company; the Governor of the Royal Niger Company became Baron Henry Austin Bruce the same year while Sir George Goldie was his deputy. After the death of Bruce in 1895 Sir George Goldie (whose grave has been in Lapai, Niger state since 1925) again assumed the leadership of the company. It was during his leadership of the Royal Niger Company at this time that Frederick Lugard was sent to sign numerous treaties with chiefs in the Borgu area (presently, part of this area is in present Nigeria in north western area, and part of it is in Benin republic. The Anglo-French convention of 1898 resolved this partition of Borgu between the French and English powers).

It was about a year before1898 that Flora Shaw (the future wife of Lugard) wrote in the London Times of January 8, 1897,suggesting the name Nigeria, which, “applying to no other part of Africa, may without offence to any neighbours be accepted as co-extensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence, and may serve to differentiate them equally from the colonies of Lagos and the Niger Protectorate on the coast and from the French territories of the Upper Niger.” In 1897 Frederick Lugard was commissioned by the British government to raise a native military force to protect British interests in the region, thus resulting in the West African Frontier Force, which Sir Lugard commanded until December 1899. In 1900 the Royal Niger Company SOLD all its territories to the British Empire at the sum of 865, 000 British pounds! Considering the inflation-related fact that 100 British pounds in 1900 had the purchasing power of about 9636 British pounds in 2011 (check on www.aboutinflation.com), we can conclude that the British Empire paid to the Royal Niger Company  more than 83 billion British pounds in present pound value for more than half of present Nigeria.  It was then that the Southern Protectorate was formed, which comprised the Lower Niger Protectorate that fell to the British after the Berlin conference, and all former Royal Niger Company territories, very much below the Niger (The Lagos colony was joined in 1906, and the Igbo lands after that by threat of force by Governor,Sir Walter Egerton). The Northern Protectorate (formerly, Royal Niger Company Territories) was also formed in 1900, with Frederick Lugard (the mercenary, who had been governor of Hong Kong and was sent on colonial assignments to Kenya, Uganda, and Nyasaland—present Malawi) as its first governor, who presided until 1906 when he resigned; he was brought back six years later in 1912 as governor of both Northern Protectorate and Southern Protectorate, and to coordinate the amalgamation of the two protectorates, which he successfully accomplished in 1914, and became the first  Governor-General of the new Nigeria in 1914 until 1919. All colonial successors after Frederick Lugard (from 1919-October 1, 1954) bore the simple title of Governor of Nigeria. Of the seven successors of Frederick Lugard ( Hugh Clifford, 1919-1925; Graeme Thomson, 1925-1931; Donald Charles Cameron, 1931-1935; Bernard Henry Bourdillon, 1935-1943; Arthur Frederick Richards, 1943-1948; John Stuart MacPherson, 1948-1955; and James Robertson, 1955-1960) only the last two colonial governors of Nigeria, John MacPherson and James Robertson carried the title Governor-General, with MacPherson using the title only for eight months and two weeks (October 1, 1954-June 15, 1955).This narrative provides a brief historical appreciation to young Nigerians and to not so young, and hopefully, it shines the light on the battle ahead.

Was Great Britain going to just give up on its more than 83 billion pound-investment (with compounded interest) without significant returns? If the answer was No, as it was, what arrangements did Britain make to recoup its investments?

Barely eight years after purchasing large territories of present Nigeria at 865,000 British pounds of 1900 from the Royal Niger Company had it become necessary for the British Empire to start the process of recouping her investments. This, she did by commissioning the British colonial petroleum to explore for oil. Thirty years later Shell D’Arcy was given license to explore for oil in any part of Nigeria. About a year after the last Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir James Robertson took office, the company’s name was changed to Shell-BP Petroleum Nigeria Limited in 1956; this coincided with the company’s discovery of oil in commercial quantities at Oloibiri. The rest is now history as this company presently controls about 60 per cent of Nigeria’s daily crude oil production, and is at the forefront of opposition against the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), whose passage shall free this natural resource (crude oil) for the full benefit of host communities, who have suffered for so long because the British feel they are yet to reap fully their 865,000 pound-investment, which today is worth more than 83 billion British pounds and counting.

Nigeria was not designed to become a nation; she was designed for mundane materialism. Although some efforts were made in 1963 by Nigerian nationalists to build a nation, this attempt was frustrated just three years after. Since then, Nigeria has only known persistent invasion by greedy people and corporate bodies that only exploit Nigeria for their gain. How many of the people that hold political power in Nigeria truly care about good governance? The sustained policy to corruptly appropriate and sabotage what is for public benefit is a deliberate one that cannot be overcome except through a sovereign national conference whose outcome shall be owned by all Nigerians, whose benefit shall be shared by all Nigerians, and whose liabilities shall be offset by public will.

The corporatocracy, epitomized by Shell BP (the British Empire’s proxy), has fastened its teeth too deeply into the flesh of Nigeria to be dislodgedwithout mortal consequences to a few cowardly Nigerian rulers, who themselves are too attracted by the crumbs to sacrifice for the people so that they can have a bite of their natural pie. The fear of the prospect of carefully choreographed and externally-instigated assassinations benumbs them,; and unfortunately, those rulers have worsened the situation through the sad aping of this colonial exploitation of the commonwealth. While those rulers fear a national revolt, I fear that is the only way for national redemption and true statehood in the face of their incapacitation to act on behalf of the people.

I am disappointed when supposedly enlightened Nigerian scholars belittle the potential of scholarly writings by Nigerian opinion leaders to cause great awakening in the Nigerian, and would derisively say that we have had “enough of grammar”. They seemingly do not understand the precedence of history. Every generation has a unique calling, and there can be no redeeming action without proper communication of the state of tragedy of the people. Just because a particular generation is impervious to the mission of words communicated in their time does not mean  such mission is lost; another shall definitely arise out of the ash of inaction and find a transforming purpose in those seemingly impotent words. Not all writers write to seek attention or official ingratiation; and even if some do, at least the truth in the words they have dispensed must be enough consolation to a generation that seeks inspiration. The words they pen down are timeless. Yet, every generation that despises the mission of those words and rather indulges in the banal obscenities of mockers only confirms its identity and delays its healing.

Young men and women of Nigeria, every month that passes bye sucks up your hope. Eight years from now and the population of Nigeria shall exceed 200 million. The future is gloomy for you because you are too cowardly to stand up for your country. The tools, infrastructure, institutions, and the promise that builds up are all absent. But this is then your mission—to initiate a struggle for a second independence of your country and to build it into what kind of nation you may. The crop of rulers we have today lacks both the capacity and boldness to act. I cannot deny they know what is best for your country; they know and have eloquently crafted this in too numerous vision documents to recount here. But they have no heart. From your president to the senate president, there is not heart, the heart of statesmen who are ready to die for what they believe in. From your governors to your local government chairmen, only few have the courage and compassion to lead. What then can you do? You can do nothing if that is a convenient choice for you. But there is another choice you can make. You can choose to ponder and awake. NOTHING short of a national sovereign conference for Nigeria can do; and nothing short of unprecedented mass action, anchored by Nigerian youths, shall expedite its convocation. You have no better choice for instigating a better future. We have prayed without works. We have hoped without faith. We are a bundle of religious contradiction. But it is time to break our fallow ground. It is time to build a nation. For some of us writers, what we truly need at this defining hour is that you help hold up our hands. Why have we called and there is silence? Why have we received assurances of words and there is no evidence of assurance? The ruler understands only mass action. Have you forgotten the prelude in the last mass protests? That constituted a heralding of the inevitable, projecting what is possible.

Leonard Karshima Shilgba is an Associate Professor of Mathematics with the American University of Nigeria and chairman of the Middle Belt Alliance.