NIGERIA: Going! Going!! … By Sixtus Ezennaya

That Nigeria is sick, bedevilled with myriads of intractable and incurable problems is no longer news. That Nigeria jagara jagara, everything scatter scatter, kposa, kposa is a music popularly played by radio stations in Nigeria. That Nigeria’s image is suffering badly is also a truism. And that many previous administrations have hired the services of seasoned technocrats and people of repute and integrity like Prof Walter Ofonagoro, Prof Jerry Gana, Senator Uche Chukwumerije etc for image laundering, correction and projection but to no avail.



The Biafran Generalissimo, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s “diplomatic connection and goodwill” were exploited by Gen. Sani Abacha’s administration when Ezeigbo Gburu Gburu was appointed to lead a government delegation to the burial of the Cote D’Ivorean President Felix Houphet Boigney. Ikemba was again scheduled to go for legitimacy and credibility tour besides image amendment cum rebranding tour before the death of Abacha. Chief Alex Akinyele was once a hireling of this message. During Obasanjo civilian administration, even the oratory prowess of Government spokesmen like Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu and Frank Nweke Jnr could not do the magic. Right now it is the turn of ex-NAFDAC kingpin, Prof (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili to do the uphill task.



The rebranding campaign introduced recently by the Honourable Minister of Information Prof (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili will be another effort in futility because the ideology is still built on faulty foundation: wrong prognosis consequent of wrong diagnosis. People in Government have deceived themselves and Nigerians for so long and this will continue ad infinitum unless God intervenes via “CATASTROPHIC REVOLUTION.” Even if you close your eyes while looking into the mirror, the image still remains yours. But then, should image correction be pivoted on propaganda, falsehood, false pretences and false lives? Othman Dan Fodio is credited with the wise saying, “Conscience is an open wound which only truth can heal.” The great Harvard University has as its motto: “VERITAS” meaning TRUTH. In fact only truth will do the rebranding of Nigeria not technocrats or slogans. Rather than these jingles (including Good people, Great Nation) performing the miracle, they diminish and put question marks on the integrity and status of the apostles and their creed. Telling the truth does not even need having good memory and beautiful sweet tongues.



Brand name or trade mark is usually given to a product by the manufacturer. Any registered brand name or trade mark used by another is usually regarded as fake. Neither is it possible for a brand name or trade mark of a product to have been registered for the manufacturer by the fake producer. The question then is: Who branded Nigeria? Who is supposed to brand Nigeria? Is Nigeria correctly branded? The slogan “One Nigeria, Corporate Existence, Unity Not Negotiable, To keep Nigeria One is a Task that Must be Kept etc, who coined them? It was that ebullient American President, Abraham Lincoln who defined democracy as the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Brand name for Nigeria should be the collective suggestion or recommendation of the people, by the people and for the people. Therefore Nigeria must first of all be branded by Nigerians themselves. A lot of suggestions and efforts by good, sincere and genuine Nigerians aimed at branding Nigeria by ourselves have been rebuffed by the deceitful Nigerian military and civilian administrations.



When you think you are leading but with no one following means that you are just and only walking or trekking. Those who always think that they own Nigeria because of their privileged positions are not only a mistake of the head but also that of the heart.



Lord Fredrick Luggard was the former Governor of the Northern Protectorate while Sir Walter Egerton was that of the South. In 1914, the Northern and Southern Protectorate were amalgamated by the British. Consequent of this amalgamation, the geographical expression called Nigeria came into being with Lord Fredrick Luggard as the Governor General. Edmund Burke once said, “Society is indeed a contract … it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living but between those who are living, those who are dead and those who are to be born. But in Nigeria, Nigerian society belongs only to those in government.



In March 24, 1947 in a Legislative Council debate, the late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa with regard to Islamization and deeping Koran in the Atlantic Ocean openly asserted that “If the British departed Nigeria, the Northerners would continue their interrupted conquest to the sea.” In the same year, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, as a School teacher, had called for the separate countries of North and South on account of religious differences among others. Speaking during the budget session of the pre-independence Nigeria Legislative Council in 1948, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa had very objectively remarked, “Many Nigerians deceive themselves by thinking that Nigeria is one. This is wrong. I am sorry to say that this present (semblance?) of unity is artificial and it ends outside this chamber.” It was a quotation in one of the books that when some group of Nigerians went to London Conference that later resulted in the Nigerian Independence, Zik said to Sarduana of Sokoto, “Let’s forget our differences so that we can build one, united country.” But the Sarduana replied, “No, we cannot forget our differences. I am from the North, you are from the South. I am Hausa, you are Igbo. I am Moslem and you are Christian. We cannot forget our differences. When we take cognizance of our differences we can build.” Who among the two showed genuine commitment to this course?



The Northerners in 1957 wanted a Confederal State of Regional Government autonomy for fear of marginalization due to inequalities in mental, academic and infrastructural development then. Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was said to have persuaded Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe that they accepted the proposal. However, when the British decided to give independence to Nigeria, the election that preceded it was rigged to favour the North as Lord Luggard was crazy with the North. The retention of the Kaduna State House of Assembly building as Luggard Hall is a reciprocation of what he did for the North.



According to I. F. Nicolson in the British Confession, “Our Attrocities Against Biafra” by Harold Smith, “I wish the many journalists who wrote about Nigeria’s independence and what it meant for Africa had spoken to me, I would have told them it was a total fake. It is acknowledged that the Governor General of Nigeria, Sir James Robertson, told me in 1960 why the British had decided to destroy democracy at its birth in this giant empire named Nigeria. We had favoured the North since Nigeria was invented. Continuing Harold Smith, “Anyway Nicolson knew that we had rigged the Independence Election for we discussed this in his office in Lagos and he placed my files and papers relating to British corruption in his safe. Sir Robertson asserted that rigging Nigeria Independence Election was necessary. The same British rigged the 1963 Nigeria census to favour the North. The journey of Nigerian corruption started with the British.



The year 1967 saw the Easterners demanding for the Confederation due to man’s inhumanity to man which later culminated into a civil war and Biafran secession bid. The British again committed genocide against the Biafrans to save the North. The 1993 June 12 election confirmed by the Electoral Commission to have been won by MKO Abiola which was cancelled exposed the man’s inhumanity to man in Nigeria. Insinuations pointed accusing fingers at the same British as the unseen big hand behind the cancellation as MKO Abiola championed the cause of reparation. Having seen that “Presidency is not for everybody,” the Yoruba-nation demanded for a Confederation. To silence the Yoruba-nation all the more, many of their kinsmen were detained while Obasanjo, Adisa etc were condemned to death by a Kangaroo military tribunal. Had Abacha been alive, “no Jupiter” would have saved them. The Obasanjo presidency was to pacify the Yoruba-nation after the despot had kicked the bucket, despite the fact that Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme was the Vox populi.



Even during the botched Military Coup D’ Etat of April 22, 1990, five states were excised from Nigeria which would have divided Nigeria into two or more countries. These sacked-away states were seen as the Nigerian hot-beds of violence, trouble-spots etc. because of the occasional religious riots and tribal clashes which have turned Nigeria into a “no-war, no-peace nation,” Col. Mammar Gaddafi of Libya in 1994 called for the division of Nigeria along religious lines. Joe Garba, former Nigeria representative in the UN, in his own comment was blunt on the amalgamation of Nigeria and simply called it, “A mistake of the British.” Chief Emeka Anyaoku prophesized that Nigeria will break without a National Conference. The former British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Sir Philip Thomas, advocated for the restructuring of Nigeria. The PRONACO led by Pa Anthony Enahoro since 1999 had wanted the 1999 Constitution set aside as it was Military made thereby paving way for vox populi Constitution. In the 1960s Isaac Adaka Boro had blossomed the struggle for self dtermination and resource control. Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogonis were executed on November 1995 consequent of this belief. Could the payment of compensation of $15.5m to the deceased families in 2009 by Shell Corporation not translate into guilt-admittance?. The freedom fighting in the Niger Delta now is a corroboration of Isaac Boro ideology and sustenance of the legacy. It was the prophetic musician Sunny Okosun from the Niger Delta who sang, “Freedom is now or never we’ve got to or loose it for ever. Nigeria is now or never…………….”



The Nigerian Political Reform Conference (NPRC) of Obasanjo’s administration met a waterloo when the issue of resource control was raised. Why must Nigerian leaders pretend as if all was well and there was no problem? The problem of the Niger Delta should have evoked sensibility unto the pretenders but to no avail. It is only a sick child that is destined to die that would ask his parents to make a bow with a pestle for him as a condition-sine-qua-non for his survival from his illness. Nigerian government indifference to Nigerian’s cry for justice is like Pharaoh of Egypt’s God designed sturbornness to let God’s people go. It seems God has destined Nigeria to die otherwise the obstinacy to VOX POPULI for Sovereign National Conference is startling. Nigeria: Going, Going … (Applause).



There is an insinuation that the only language that Federal Government / Northerners hear and obey is “bindiga” (gun), force or violence. Government should disabuse this notion by acting promptly and wisely as nobody claims monopoly of evil. Gowon, Murtala, Obasanjo I, Shagari, Buhari, IBB, Shonekan, Abacha, Abdulsallami, besides Obasanjo II and III did not treat oil producing communities as expected. Worse still, oil wells or one community is deliberately ceded to the other to create division among the states, so that the Federal Government will have no oopposition in their margainalization. Under Umaru Musa Yar’Dua so far, how many rail-lines, new roads, housing estates, Refineries, job-creation facilities, Petroleum Universities etc has his administration built? Nigeria’s relation with the oil producing communities should be symbiotic and mutual not parasitic. But I am afraid that as things stand, the bad blood among the citizenry has reached a crescendo of “POINT OF NO RETURN.” However, there is no harm in trial as all hope is not yet lost.



The Federal Government should resist the temptation of going into full-scale war or alliance with any country in the bid to subdue any Niger Delta insurrection. Any pact whether with Russia, China, North Korea, Iraq, Niger, Chad etc may not come to the rescue like during the Nigerian / Biafran War. If you win the battle without winning the peace, it is pyrrhic victory. Hanibal the Cartheginian won every battle, he never won peace. If peace can only be achieved by breaking the country into four, five or six countries like Soviet Union after all available options fail, the necessary evil is acceptable. It is better to eat pepper and be happy than to lick honey and be in tears. After all, are those opposed to the breaking of the country into convenient parts wiser or more intelligent than the earlier advocates of that – Shagari, Joe Garba, Balewa, Awolowo, Gaddafi, etc? If you call your father’s adivce a foolish advice, you inadvertently call your father a foolish man. Which way Nigeria?



Mr. Ezennaya writes for the World Igbo Times Magazine, London.