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| Nigeria's Founding Fathers (L-R; Awolowo, Bello, Zik, Balewa) |
History shows that most of the nations that failed to address their religious and ethnic differences at the core, are either in armed conflict (Congo DR) or have since disintegrated – Yugoslavia, Sudan, Eritrea (from Ethiopia) and even the former Soviet Union (USSR) are prime examples.
December 31st 2013 – January 1, 2014, may thus represent the last hours of corporate existence for an amalgamated Nigeria, if one is to go by recent events, including unguarded utterances of former leaders such as ex-military dictator, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.
But long before then was this quote: “Since 1914, the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any signs of willingness to unite…. Nigerian unity is only a British invention” – Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was reported by the TIME MAGAZINE of October 10, 1960 to have opined. He (Tafawa Balewa) believed there was no basis for a united Nigeria, as it was only a wish of the British.
According to F. D. Lugard, "the British needed the Railway from the North to the Coast in the interest of British business. Amalgamation of the South (not of the people) became of crucial importance to British business interests. Hence, the North and the South needed to be amalgamated".
The reasons Lugard gave in his dispatches are as follows: "The North is poor and has no resources to run the protectorate of the North. They have no access to the sea; and the South has both human and natural resources".
Britain did not desire the ultimate union of Northern and Southern Nigeria. Between between 1914 and 1960 (a period of 46 years), the British only allowed minimum contact between the people of Northern and Southern Nigeria, as it was not in the British interest that "the North be allowed to be polluted by the educated South".
A leading Nigerian legal luminary, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN) recounted not long ago, “I entered Parliament on December 12, 1959. When the North formed a political party, the northern leaders called it Northern Peoples Congress (NPC). They didn’t call it Nigeria Peoples Congress. That was in accordance with the dictum and policies of Lugard. When Aminu Kano formed his own party, it was called Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) not Nigerian Progressive Union. Indeed, these elements have not changed! 50+ years later, we are still being confronted with the same parochial interests from the North and the South, but mostly the North.
One of the architects of British colonialism in Africa, Nigeria to be precise, the late Harold Smith stated rather bluntly in a recent interview; ”‘Our agenda was to completely exploit Africa. Nigeria was my duty post. When we assessed Nigeria, this was what we found in the South; strength, intelligence, determination to succeed, well established history, complex but focused life style, great hope and aspirations… the East is good in business and technology, the West is good in administration and commerce, law and medicine, but it was a pity we planned our agenda to give power “at all cost” to the northerner. They seemed to be submissive and silly of a kind. Our mission was accomplished by destroying the opposition at all fronts.
The West (Southwestern Nigeria to be precise - The Yoruba) led in the fight for the independence, and was punished for asking for freedom. They will not rule Nigeria! Harold Smith confessed that the Census results were announced before they were counted. Despite seeing vast land with no human but cattle in the north, we still gave the north 55 million instead of 32 Million. This was to be used to maintain their majority votes and future power bid. He stated that the West without Lagos was the most populous in Nigeria at that time but we ignored that. The North was seriously encouraged to go into the military. According to him, they believe that the South may obtain western education, but future leaders will always come from military background. Their traditional rulers were to be made influential and super human. The northerners were given accelerated promotions both in the military and civil service to justify their superiority over the southerners. Everything was to work against the South. We truncated their good plan for their future.
"I was very sorry for the Action Group (AG); it was too great a party by African standards. We planned to destroy Awolowo and Azikiwe well, the West and the East and sowed a seed of discord among them”. We tricked Azikiwe into accepting to be president having known that Balewa will be the one with power. Awolowo had to go to jail to cripple his genius plans for a greater Nigeria. ‘’Looking at the northern leaders now , If they have any agenda in Nigeria at all, sadly it is only for the North, and nothing for Nigeria…."
According to Smith, Nigeria, a great nation, was crippled not because of military juntas or corrupt leaders alone but by the British and American fear of Nigeria's great future. He confessed, “The fear of the place that will be our ‘dumping ground’ really occupied our minds”.
Some of the things he said were not new to Nigerians or to Africans as a whole, but hearing it from the horse’s mouth was quite revealing and established more reality zones.
He finally submitted that the colonial masters did cause havoc while they were in Africa, and planted timed bombs when they finally left. What we see since independence, the administration of new internal colonial masters by fellow Nigerians holding sway in power is doing more damage to Nigeria. Instead of detonating the time bombs planted by the British, the North, through the likes of Buhari and Babangida, is planting mines.
He added that ‘It was my duty to carry out all of the above and I was loyal to my country.
Nigerians should try to be loyal to their country; leaders and followers alike. Love your country. You have got the potentials to be great again and the whole world knows this’.
Perhaps, his last statement offers nothing but the much needed incentive for every Nigerian to place the interest of Nigeria above their own personal interests and allow this great nation to finally realize its inherent potential, for the benefit of Africa and the civilized rest of humanity.
While it is encouraging that President Jonathan recently called for a Sovereign National Conference, albeit limited, one needs to see the president assert himself more with regard to national security, corruption and over-all executive leadership, rather than play into the hands of ethnic and parochial jingoists from both the PDP and the newly formed APC.
If the APC is truly committed to providing "new leadership" with an emphasis on accountability, the party must shed the reputation it is quickly acquiring of being a new haven for disgruntled PDP old guards and former dictators, masquerading as reformists in the current political dispensation.
It is no longer about Arewa, OPC, MASSOB or any regional or ethnic delineations, but more about the need for real leadership that is committed to bringing about comprehensive and much needed change, to the halls of leadership in Nigerian politics.
It is irrelevant what the designs of the British and other Western nations are for Nigeria, as long as Nigerians realize that their destinies as a people are inexorably linked.
As Nigeria goes, so does invariably, the rest of Africa.
Failure is not an option.....
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