Let me quickly walk you down memory lane before we address this topic. Perhaps, it might be something you’re familiar with. Towards the end of the 19th century, Europeans came to colonize Africa in what we call the Scramble for Africa. It was just after many empires in Europe had collapsed, and they were looking for economic resources to boost their living.
In their search, they found Africa as a virgin land to exploit. Many of them had been coming before they finally decided to colonize Africa. They’d been coming for slave trade and sneaky extortion of African resources. They’d also brought their own educational system and religion before this time.
So, they set a good ground for colonization. They came with goodies to attract the monarchs and chiefs and lured them into selling their people into slavery. Apart from the normal slaves that some of the traditional kings got from wars, they also dehumanized their own people and sold them off to Europeans in exchange for goodies from them.
These Europeans would take the slaves to Latin America and sell them to the Portuguese and other indigenous people in those areas. They, in turn, would use those slaves for farming. They would use them for sugarcane plantation and overwork them until they wear out. After harvesting the sugarcane and other farm produce, these Portuguese and Spaniards would sell those items to Britain, and Britain would, in turn, convert them to finished products.
It is these finished products that the British businessmen would carry along with them when they are coming back to Africa to buy more slaves and sell them off again to make even more profits. When they saw how easy extorting Africa was, then they finally came with their kingdom to colonize Africa.
Countries like France, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany dominated most parts of Africa and colonized it. This was concealed among them in a meeting called the Berlin Conference in 1886. After this conference, they began their colonization regime in Africa.
Since our focus is on Nigeria, let’s look at how Nigeria was formed. Before colonization, it was kingdoms and empires. Africa had its rich culture, tradition, ancestral government, and unity among its people. There were problems here and there, but they weren’t difficult to solve locally because people understood their language and the uniting voice and value that brought them together. When the colonizers came, they didn’t care about anything relating to the welfare of the people. They were only focused on one thing – draining its resources!
So, when they were scrambling for Africa and sharing the land, they didn’t consider the culture, ancestral origin, kingdoms, or anything that connected the people together. Again, they were only concerned about their selfish gains. When they divided Africa into countries and regions, there were so many mistakes with uniting the indigenous people and keeping them together as they were.
For instance, the Yoruba kingdom in western Africa has its people across the southwest of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. But when the colonizers came, they divided the Yorubas and some parts were colonized by Britain and other parts by France. So, a Yoruba man in Nigeria is speaking English as his National language, while another Yoruba man in Benin is speaking French as his national language, all because of these colonizers. They weren’t caring anything about the people; it was all about what they would gain, even at the expense of the people.
We see this same thing in the northern part of Nigeria. The Kanuri and Hausa people are not only in the northern part of Nigeria, but they also extend to Niger Republic and Chad, including the Fulanis. All these were problems caused by the colonial masters. They divided the countries not caring about uniting the people but dividing and breaking them away. So, they now joined people of different values and cultures. They focused on how they would keep draining the resources without any care for the people.
When the colonial master who ruled Nigeria then, (his name was Lord Lugard), came, he was controlling the northern and southern provinces of Nigeria. How the name Nigeria was formed was from the Niger River that came from the Guinea coast and passed through Niger Republic. At that time, most transportation was through waterways, so it was easier to describe places using waterways. So, whenever the wife of Lord Lugard wanted to describe the area where her husband was colonizing, she would say the area around the Niger River, the Niger area. And later, they turned the name of the place to Nigeria.
Looking at how Nigeria was formed, one will agree that it was an area, and never a country or nation. This is very important to note as there are many discrepancies that disqualify Nigeria as a nation. When any nation is being formed, there are usually three criteria that are being used.
First, is the ancestral origin of the people. Second, is the ethnic group or culture of the people. Third is the religion of the people. Looking at these criteria, one would understand why there are people of different values and cultures living in Nigeria. In many European countries, nations were formed based on any of these three criteria. These are values beyond political affiliations that brought people together. So, it’s easier for people to bond together by natural course than by artificial, man-made reasons. This means there is a common ground for people to unite and be together naturally.
A country as big as Nigeria in Europe may have just one language, while Nigeria has over 500 languages. Many European countries are dominated by the Christian religion, while Middle Eastern countries are dominated by the Islamic religion. It stands to reason to understand why these countries are dominated by these religions based on the origin of those religions. Nigeria has Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions which are shared almost equally. All of these are bases for chaos. Nigeria was formed based on individual self-interest and gain, and no concern about the people or culture.
When we see different problems in the country like insecurity, power shortages, economic crises, unemployment, internet fraudulence, bad governance, bad infrastructure, collapsed health and educational systems, corruption, and so on, they are all symptoms that stem from one root cause. And most times, people always focus on the symptoms without understanding the root cause.
It’s pretty much like medical symptoms that a patient presents at the hospital. The doctor understands that the problem is not the symptoms but the causative organism that is behind the illness. Once the diagnosis is made and the patient is treated, the symptoms will go in no time. But if the doctor keeps treating the symptoms, it's only a matter of time before new ones will keep arising. And that’s how the problem would keep getting multiplied, and the patient would keep feeling more pains and difficulties. That’s exactly the same problem we are facing in Nigeria today.
We keep treating the symptoms and hoping the root problem would go away. We keep spending a huge amount of money on security, electricity, crime rates, and so on, but nothing has ever worked. We keep getting drowned more and more and wallow in the mire of hopelessness.
Here is the problem – the foundation! Nigeria was founded on a wrong foundation. I will explain that in a moment. When Lord Lugard amalgamated Nigeria in 1914 (that is, joining the northern protectorate with the south), he had one thing in mind – exploitation. He wanted to keep exploiting the people and the resources. And he made sure that he gave the North political power over the South. He knew the North was easy to control and not as developed as the South. So he wanted Britain to retain power with or without their presence.
So, when Nigeria gained independence, it was only going to be a matter of time for his trick to play out. He used a phrase – joining a poor husband with a rich wife. In other words, he made the North authoritative over the South, even though there was no basis for it. But he knew what he was doing. He wanted who he could easily control and dominate.
Now, when independence came, a northerner was the first prime minister. Ahmadu Bello, who was the Sardauna of Sokoto, was the strongest man in Nigeria at that time. He controlled the North, which unarguably was the one with the highest political influence in the country. He decided to choose Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to be the first prime minister of Nigeria. Since then, the northerners have been feeling it’s their right to rule Nigeria and dominate its prominent leadership positions. Bear in mind that this is all manipulation by the colonial master to keep Nigeria under his control. He can easily manipulate the northerners and control the country, so that he can keep draining its resources while he’s away.
He has put up different strategies to achieve this. Part of it is offering of loans and giving of free money. When he gives Nigeria free money and loans, he can interfere in its economic affairs, just as the saying goes: "Whoever pays for the piper dictates the tune." He advises on what to do about Nigeria’s economics. Advice that will never work for its own people, but for the colonial master. He would sponsor courses that would enrich his pocket and decapitalize courses that would ruin his plans. He supports political leaders that would do his bidding, especially from the north as it stands to reason that he understands their mindsets and ideologies.
He distracts the youths by organizing entertaining programs for them, not educating them. He sponsors young talents and musicians who are into bad music. He also opens up floors for more internet fraudsters by forming allies to reach out to the young minds. He sponsors terrorism and crimes through his allies and pretends as though he doesn’t have a part in what is going on. His agenda is very simple – draining the resources (both human and mineral).
While keeping the country in a chaotic and debilitating state, he wishes more people are jumping out of the country of their own will, and coming to work for him. He wants to drain the country more of its intellectual resources and enrich his pocket more when the victims come to work for him (pretty much similar to what happened in the first slavery). It is part of the money he uses to entice his puppet ruling the country to foster more chaos and bad leadership using his influence and caricature advice. He’s not tired of forming more allies with other authorities and powers in the world, just to make sure he keeps his chicken in the cage and keeps fetching its eggs.
He disallows economic development, fosters corruption in government, gives advice on forming constitutions, and also prevents basic amenities such as power, electricity, transportation, healthcare, and good educational systems. He simply gives no basis for growth and development. In all these things, he comes in a very subtle way that he’s hardly noticed and he hits the head of the government against its own people. The citizens fight the government and the government fights the citizens. All these happen, thanks to the manipulation of the colonial master to control the leadership of the country and keep its people poor.
What is going to be the solution to all of these? Either of two things – Restructuring or Breakage!
Remember that Nigeria is not a country. Therefore, it has no basis for unity, growth, or development. Those that want to pray can keep praying and those that want to hope can keep hoping. But one thing is certain -
Nigeria will never get better until its foundational problem is solved!
It was the problem of putting the wrong people together. It was the problem of having one thing in mind which was draining the resources of that region. It wasn’t anything about the people. It wasn’t anything about the future or development of the land. It was purely for the colonial master and his allies.
Let’s look at these two options that can solve the problem of Nigeria. First – restructuring. What exactly do we mean by restructuring and how can it be done? Restructuring is the process of changing the political and leadership structure of the country. It is the act of decentralizing power and making regions rule themselves independently without any external forces. Nigeria is called a federal republic but that is just a name on paper. It is never a reality.
A federal republic where the states are slaves to the presidency. Or a federal republic where the parliaments are subservient to the executives. That federal republic is a joke! The Nigerian president is more powerful than the United States president in his office. Why? Because the constitution given by his colonial master allowed him to reverse any order and remain lawless as long as he’s in office. He can flout the laws and reject the judicial orders because he’s the president, the grand commander of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is who he is.
But Nigeria doesn’t need such a system. It doesn’t need power to belong to just one person in the name of the president because it’s never a country in the first place as we’ve established. It is an area that was arbitrarily formed based on someone’s selfish interest. So, putting that area under one umbrella of one leadership is a problem. It would perpetually put the country in chaos and disharmony.
If you see the South Easterners saying they want to go, and the South Westerners saying they want to break, it’s because the country is a collection of many unparalleled people who have different values, cultures, ideologies, and uncommon grounds.
A country where you have someone who values a cow more than human life and another one who values human life over a million cows is an error. They have different values and they would never agree no matter how much you preach love and peace. They are people of different descendants and ancestral origins. They have nothing in common. But the colonial master doesn’t want to care about that. In as much as there are resources to drain and people to exploit, he’d rather prefer the country to remain the same than for it to break. Watch out!
The restructuring allows everybody to be on their own without any fight or hostility and no negative or unnecessary influence from external factors. The restructuring also allows self-determination and progress in the areas of economy and social development.
The second solution is Breakage. Yes, breakage! This is when the entire country actually breaks, and nothing is connecting all the broken parts. All the broken parts become independent states and each would operate as a nation.
The whole idea of these two solutions is to dismantle the wrong system that the colonial master has already set up and remove the totalitarian regime and centralization of power in government. I can tell you that this is the major problem of Nigeria and it’s a foundational issue on which every other thing builds on.
People who are saying the problem in the country is not a leadership problem don’t know what they are talking about. Everything boils down to leadership. If a leader doesn’t know where he’s going or how to get there, how will he lead people right? He will surely lead people astray.
Someone once said – "I’m not afraid of an army of lion led by a sheep but I’m afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion;" talking about leadership. It’s important to understand the power of leadership and how it can make a difference in the lives of citizens and the development of a nation. Countries like Singapore, South Korea, China, Rwanda, and the United States were able to experience dramatic economic growth and development because of the power of leadership. This is what the colonial master knows that makes him always want to make sure that it’s the person of a low mental status that rules the country so that he can keep manipulating and controlling him and in turn exploiting and draining its resources.
Nigeria is in such a pathetic situation that it will only take people of strong minds to change its narrative and course.
To carry out any of these solutions will require determination. It is what the colonial master will not be pleased with and he will want to fight with all his strength to make sure he keeps Nigeria in that subservient and debilitating state so that he will keep sucking and milking it dry.
So, it’s got to be a serious fight. And the good news is – we will surely win. It’s time for Africa to be truly liberated from the hands of its colonial masters. The first independence has happened. The second, real independence must happen where there will be total freedom from slavery and colonial domination and imperialism.
Sept, 2021
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