THURSDAY COLUMN BY SAFIYA ADAMU
yandokye@gmail.com
Time for somber reflections; why is Nigeria not “working”? Tomorrow the Nation will go into frenzy in preparation for its memorial day. There will be Muslim prayers for the fallen soldiers, Christian prayers for the fallen soldiers. Meaningless speeches will be parroted to very disinterested audience of the high and mighty in the land, audience of political heavy weights decked in “Sunday outfits” that camouflage low or lack of knowledge of the history of a country they purport to serve and defend. Their children know all the heroes of United Kingdom, China, the United States of America but know next to nothing about the sweat and sacrifice that went into attaining Nigeria’s independence. They do not care, they are happy with it because their dear children are supposedly having the best education money can buy. It does not matter that they have and are creating generations that think little of Nigeria their supposed country, it does not matter that they are creating a generation that may never be able to appreciate the potentials of these great country nor see the beauty in it. They do not care, they are simply happy to milk the country for their self-serving narcissistic ambition. They do not care. The television channels, radio, and the social media platforms manned by intellectually –challenged hosts, knowledge bereft persons would bombard us with meaningless, very not factual narrations. They do not know and care less about knowing. They are a happy people. Thank God for them!
We need to understand all the rage threatening the polity, creating crevices that keep deepening and widening. The rage engulfing the nation, that rage creating barriers to any attempts at bridging these crevices and communicating in order to build a nation at peace with itself. No, no! no! Something is definitely wrong and we need to interrogate our situation that we may know. I and I’m sure along with quite a number of other fellow Nigerians with minds and hearts set on having a nation we call our own with dignity and much pride. We want to understand ethnic relations from historical perspectives; yes, we need to understand what drives this rage. I do not believe or do not want to believe that it stems from ethnic differences or even religious differences. Do not get me wrong, I’m not saying or trying to even imply that these two factors do not matter, they do and very much so too. The big question is why can’t we live together in acceptance of our obvious common destiny? May be I’m not putting this out properly? I really do not understand. These factors have been present like forever. Some of what I believe is driving us apart is the underlying notion that some regions or ethnic groups are better than others. That dumb inexplicable notion that we must view, see, judge, and accept events and persons through religious – colored glasses. Instead of apply ourselves to attain growth and development we choose to imprison our selves in supposed religiosity. Yet quite a number will swear by ‘ ifa”, “tsafi”, “juju” and whatever even at that.
Even though at independence our founding fathers did not quite agree on how to get there, they did have the boldness to agree on the way forward to which they all chatted causes of action compatible with their different regions. And it worked until the trigger-happy mislead five majors and a captain decided to go on a misadventure that derailed us and plunged us into a state of disarray. That singular event will remain the worse tragic development in the history of Nigeria. It set the foundation for the mutual suspicion of one another. It was a most horrible twist in an already very fragile set up. It broke us and as we pretend to mend the cracks remain relentless.
The founding fathers were prepared to make contraption that birthed Nigeria work, they agreed on parliamentary system of government, regional, well, a kind of semi-autonomous units federating or relating with a much less powerful center. Because they understood the socio- economic and political landscape of their various regions and their people, well at least the Northern leadership did and that guided their actions and utterances. Sir Ahmadu Bello understood the people he represented, wanted the best for them and was determined to pull up to the level and more of their more educated counterparts from the south. What exactly was wrong with that? Nothing, absolutely nothing. These men were not university degree –touting fellas but their intellectual capacity was definitely not wanting in any way. Within the short period they led the North, they had established a competitive education system, established a world-class university, set up industries in different parts of the region. And they never shied away from the brutal honesty that made them dwarf others. The sir Ahmadu Bello led team had development strategy like no other. There was a relative balance of power. Forget those striding around in supposed religious garments while lying through their teeth, making concerted effort to destroy the Northern region and set the people against each other. Forget about those whose utterances belie the benefits they derived from the strategic thinking of these great men. Forget the Jerry Ganas, the Kukahs and lets interrogate the actions of these great leaders so we can learn and move forward. Only fools set fire to their abodes in the hope that strangers may come to their rescue. What happens when that happens is in simple terms “ self – enslavement and servitude”. What I find fascinating however even in this relatively balanced contraption was the fact that they were able to ignore and refuse to let the undercurrents of distrust or dislike for others pull them down. At least the Northerners were able to do that even in the face of much animosity from the Action Group leader and his followers. But the 1966 or Nzeogu coup changed all of that. It was an event that threw away hopes of economic, social, and political development and growth. That train never got back on track after that unfortunate derailment. The North lost a leader and instead of picking up decided to go into wilderness. It is a sad depressing situation for a people once so promising. The North is looking for a leader not a joker. Who shall be the Sir Ahmadu Bello of our times? He or she is not in the horizon, but we shall continue to search because we need a leader to provide us with guidance. It is sadly a desperate situation.
