If a nation
has patiently sought and pursued peace and progress that have been largely elusive
and unattainable due to discord, dissonance and dissension among its people for
over a century, a deep reflection and introspection then not only become
necessary, but expedient to peremptorily resolve of all that has brought a
bedlam on that nation and its disparate people. 1914 was the year when the
northern and southern protectorates of the Nigerian arrangement were
amalgamated by the then Governor-General, British Lord Lugard. Over the last 100
years of the tumultuous relationship, the fusion now appears to have
metamorphosed into a grand, exacerbated excrescence as many of us continue to
comb and flip through pages of history books in an attempt to find a
justification for why Lord Lugard lorded over us a load so unbearable. It is now a known fact that Nigeria’s fusion
has brought heightening and escalating maelstrom and entropy primarily fuelled
by ethnic and tribal frightening and infernal verbal fireworks that have gotten
some of us to conclude that we might have been conned into a fusion as a nation.
There are millions of Nigerians across all tribal and ethnic affiliations who believe
that the merger was not a marriage-made-from-heaven.
PAIN ALL
OVER THE LAND
We appear
to be growing more and more incompatible, and more and more prominently pulled
apart by many overt and subterranean reasons. More people feel cheated and
desecrated by principal ethnic actors who have been in control of the jugular
of government and governance for seasons unending. Communication between the elements is
gradually grinding to a hurtful halt. The fury, anger, and distrust between all
the elements that make up poly-ethnic Nigeria is climbing up by the speed of
light into a pathetic apotheosis. If nothing is urgently done, the ship of the
relationship seems to be on its way to an inevitable titanic wreck and untold
collateral damages. There are evidences of this in every bend, curve and curl of
our political, social, religious, and economic landscapes. Pestering
pandemonium, purulent pogrom, protracted pestilence, baleful bloodletting, ethnic
intolerance, economic stagnation, metastasizing cancer-cells of poverty, disenchantment
and general malaise are now Nigeria’s bedfellows. Our troubles are multiplying
daily, our leaders are brash and brazen hourly, only a handful of people with discernible
commitment, love or loyalty to the orphan called Nigeria, and love and trust
are expressed only along ethnic and tribal line. There is an infraction in the
myocardium of the nation that requires an emergency surgery, the present
arrangement called Nigeria is in deep trouble.
HOW DID
WE GET HERE?
The history
of a nation is its DNA, and without the knowledge of it, navigating into the
future is an infantile sciamachy, and the history must be truthfully told. The
fruits we see on the Nigerian tree are the results of what was deposited as
seeds in the roots. A swift swing back to history can give us an idea of the
deep and true feelings of our founding fathers about the arrangement. According to the Amalgamation reports addressed
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, The Right Honorable A Bonar Law,
the Governor General, wrote immediately after the fusion; “…the year 1914 will ever be a
memorable one in the annals of Nigeria, in that it opened with the amalgamation
of the two separate administrations of northern and southern Nigeria into a
single government of Nigeria… as an outlying part of the British empire in its
trade and its revenue….”. It
is obvious from this submission that the raison
d’être for the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates was
about territorial control, expansionism, and revenue-garnering adventure for
the British. In other words, Nigeria with its vast resources was business for
Britain.
A
fundamentally historical abhorrence of the fusion of the nation was largely expressed
by Northern elites whose push-backs against the idea of Nigeria’s fusion were
not subtle as evidenced by their many public utterances. In 1948 while
addressing the legislative council, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa declared in a
statement: “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 sign of
willingness to unite. Nigerian unity is only a British intention for the
country.” This idea and ideology are what the terror-group Boko-Haram in
the north uses as a template for championing their senseless cause today. On
the 3rd of august 1966, Nigerian military Head of State and a northerner
said in his historical broadcast and announcement: “there
is no basis for Nigerian unity, which has been so badly rocked, not only once
but several times.”
In 1961, an
Irish man authored a book expressing how the British overlords truly felt about
the fusion of the north and south of Nigeria: “The majority of the Fulani and Hausa of the North dislike the
Southerners fundamentally. Historically the Northerners have always despised
them, enslaved them and treated them cruelly, and above all regard them as
inferiors…The memory of all this still lingers and is making the British policy
of creating one Nigeria nation out of the three main Regions difficult
enough..”.
Robert Collis in “AFRICAN ENCOUNTER: A DOCTOR IN NIGERIA”.
OUR PROBLEM IN THE FOUNDATION?
Our beginning as a nation was fraudulent, self-serving, and impudent. Neither the British imperialists nor Nigerians
themselves had any hope about the fusion. This then informs why as a nation we
take one step forward and one hundred steps backwards, why commonsense
discussions cannot take place without the infusion of tribal and ethnic
jingoism, why corrupt practices and brazen stealing are seen by kinsmen of the culprits
as an expression of their constitutional rights that somebody is trying to take
away. This may also
inform why many groups all over Nigeria are calling for the
dismantling of what they believe is a mockery and a mere effigy called Nigeria.
It is so true that our
shout and clamor for decency in government, commitment to the Nigeria idea,
love of country and patriotism, can only
be achieved by participants who are truly enthusiastic, happy and hopeful about
the future of the fusion. In the case of Nigeria, It will take more than two to
tango. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness can only manifest when we agree
to work together.
IT CAN
STILL WORK IF WE WORK AT IT
This writer
grew up in Ibadan and Lagos with people from all manners of tribal blocks who
loved each other and got things done. Nigeria is a good idea that needs a major
fine-tuning, and the hour of truth-telling is now with Nigeria crossing the 100th
year of existence line. I hope that President Jonathan’s National Conference
can offer some answers. The clamor for disintegration by many groups all across
the land is as a result of hurt and pain majority of Nigerians continue to
suffer as a result of misrule and wicked leadership that is not sensitive to
the yearnings and hope of the citizenry. No one group of people or tribe should
be made subservient to the other; there is no superman tribal block. We all
bring something to the table that must be harnessed for the greater good of
all. Greed must go and fairness and equity must rule. Whatever our founding
fathers felt about Nigeria was their opinions, but we have our lives to live. We can make Nigeria a true fusion If only we don’t see ourselves
as Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas, Itsekiris, Tivs, but one people. But if we can’t see
this, then we are saying that Nigeria is a conned fusion. And every conned
fusion gives birth to confusion untold. We have a choice to make!
