The Chairman Board of Trustees, President of our revered association, distinguished members, ladies and gentlemen.
This is, as always a great privilege. A chance to meet and interact once again with brothers, those with whom I began my early walk through life.
Introduction
Our President, Mr. Hakeem Belo-Osagie, asked me to see if I could reflect on the issue of National Unity, by no means an easy assignment. So I took cover in this very fanciful title, hoping, by that, to escape your sharp criticism of my views.
By physics, I mean the scramble for Africa in Berlin in 1884, resulting in our geographical emergence, our size, our multi-ethnic composition, the resources and endowments, potentials in human and material terms and so forth.
By chemistry, I mean the intangibles, the reactions to the amalgamation, the outcome of ethnic intermixture, the emotions, the acceptance or rejection in certain quarters, the stress and sometimes, violent explosions which have occurred so frequently, like you would expect in a laboratory, when and if, incompatible ingredients come together in a test tube. The business of the scientist so desirous of achieving a smooth blend of these ingredients would be to search for the perfect emulsifying agent to bring all elements together and achieve a blend. I believe we can achieve this.
In doing this I will crave your indulgence to borrow from relevant historical material, elaborate where necessary and then propose my own hypothesis, which I feel very strongly, is the emulsifier.
Background to Nigeria
Firstly, we must remember that Nigeria came into being by the fusing of three parts, namely Lagos, the Southern Protectorate, and the Northern region. Lagos was first merged with the Southern Protectorate before the final amalgamation of the North and South.
It was on January 1, 1914 at about 10 o’clock in the morning in a small town called Zungeru in northern Niger State, between two small buildings, that a man stood, surrounded by soldiers in ceremonial dress and made the following declaration in a short four-page speech, the last paragraph of which read as follows:
“Today Nigeria enters on a new stage of progress and we all join in the earnest hope that the era now inaugurated will prove, not only a new departure in material prosperity, but also that the coming years will increase the individual’s happiness and freedom and raise the standard of civilization and of comfort of the many millions who inhabit this large country. To these sole ends, the effort of my colleagues and myself, with God’s help, will be devoted.”
The speaker was no other than the new Governor General of Nigeria, Sir Frederick John Lugard.
Current sentiments
One hundred years on, we are here discussing our situation. Some feel this whole business of amalgamation between North and South, was a disaster. They insist we have no business with each other.
They call this situation a contraception, a forced marriage and one which must be annulled. At the on-going conference, no person seems to have been that blatant but there are unmistakeable undertones discernible in some comments made by some participants. There is a strong undercurrent of anger and hate, the South for the North and vice versa. Some Southerners see the North as lazy and unproductive, unintelligent and retrogressive but wanting to control political power in perpetuity and oppressing everybody else. Some Northerners see the South as intellectually arrogant, insolent and claiming a copyright and monopoly of intelligence and know how in all things of life. These feelings have, until recently, been restricted to the three major ethnic groups.
In between are the helpless minorities who have been playing their part in governance issues, but have not become too deeply enmeshed in the big ethnic battles for supremacy.
The conflicts have dominated our national life for nearly as long as we have existed as Nigeria.
Violent reactions
The first violent manifestation happened on June 15, 1966. A bloody coup d’état took the lives of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, Premier Akintola, Premier Ahmadu Bello, and Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh. Other victims were military officers – Colonel Sodeinde and his wife, Brigadier Ademulegun, Colonel Pam, Colonel Abogo Largema, Brigadier Maimalari, and Colonel Unegbe. The young coup members may indeed have been driven by a desire for a cleaning up of all those civilian or military persons whom they considered the cause of bad governance and corruption. They were definitely angry, and, in their anger, failed to consider the interpretation and consequences of their action.
A counter coup took place in July, followed by massive killings of persons from the Eastern parts whose officers were seen as having plotted an ethnic coup in the first place. Between then and now, we have known little peace. One corrective regime has replaced another, this time always by Northern soldiers each reading out the same litany of woes against their predecessors in office. Along the way, the much resented Northern dominance and attendant Southern anger rose. So did any chance of national unity diminish. Northern domination is perceived everywhere even when a Northerner does not head the government in power.
Awareness of this state of affairs was not lacking. As far back as the Second Republic, zoning became topical among politicians. In realisation that the North could not hold on to power indefinitely, rotation had to be adopted to achieve balance and remove Southern anger and frustration.
But again the devil struck. The June 12 election and subsequent annulment nearly brought Nigeria to the foundation. It was a thoroughly provocative miscalculation and Nigeria was lucky to have survived it.
It led to General Babangida’s stepping aside but then General Abacha stepped in, and kept Abiola in prison until his own and Abiola’s death. In Abdusalami Abubakar’s interregnum, before handover, Northern political groups recognised the time had come to leave power to the South. It was only fair and equitable.
The advent of zoning
This is why no Northerner was a Presidential Candidate in any party in the 1999 elections. This is a historical fact often ignored or forgotten by analysts of the political situation. Thus emerged Chief Obasanjo, and the policy of zoning, as enshrined in the PDP constitution.
But has zoning solved our problem? Has it promoted unity in the land? With each day that passes, the hate, resentment, bigotry and ethnic parochialism are on the increase. One only has to read the newspapers or the comments on television or social media. In what appears to be a revenge strategy, Northern businesses are consistently denied credit. A shining example is the disbursement of the agriculture credit scheme launched by the late Yar ‘Adua. Of the N200 Billion, eighty percent (80%) was loaned to one political zone, while every single application from the North was denied.
We were all called politically exposed borrowers. Our counterparts in the South did not suffer the same fate. So both sides have grievances and the hate, suspicion and resentment goes on.
Questions
The question then is, when will this situation end? When and how can we reverse this trend and bring about better relationships, greater understanding, and unity of purpose? Is political realignment the answer? Can our sentiments be re-engineered? Can a country ever make it when one section or the other feels superior to all the others? Is there any way to shift the general focus away from politics to other enterprises more directly beneficial to the larger Nigerian society?
Can any society anywhere on earth make any progress when politics is the most viable and lucrative industry in the land? Is the Nigeria union unworkable or workable? Does the answer lie in letting it go, as some believe? The questions are endless. If we were to split up into several new units, is there any guarantee that each of the new units will turn into a paradise of prosperity and peace? Is ethnic homogeneity necessarily a guarantee for social harmony and peace?
We must not forget crisis in and among small ethnic groups. In my state, among the Tiv, a homogenous group of Bantu origin and perhaps one of the last to enter Nigeria some 170 years ago, there have been severe crisis on farmlands. There has been Umuleri and Aguleri. There have been Ife-Modakeke crises and many others. There is Boko Haram among Kanuris.
The question then is, where is the devil of disunity hiding in our National life? How do we trace him and exorcise him?
The devil of disunity
As it is today, when disaster strikes in one part, some others find it amusing and greet it with cynicism. The child abduction is an example. Reactions ranged from open cynicism to mockery by those who feel and say, nobody was abducted or “it’s the gambaris, let them suffer2.”
Having watched the Nigerian scene for a long while, I have come to some conclusion about where I think the devil is hiding. It is my belief that the real headache lies, not in tribe, geography or religion. It lies in our economic theory and practice. Tribe, religion, or culture, we may not need or be able to change, but economic circumstance we can and should have altered substantially by now. And if we had, some of the pettiness, suspicion, and hate, would have long given way to greater accommodation and love for one another. Corruption in public life would have reduced.
Patriotism, love and unity of purpose in any society can only burst forth when and if the citizenry is assured of a solid feeling of comfort, care and efficiency by and from its government. A society which cannot offer security, power supply, water, housing, good health services, good education, affordable food to its citizens, a society in which the pain of daily life is generally acute, will not find patriotic citizens in large numbers.
The answer?
Which brings me to my own conclusions; And here, I ask your pardon as I make comments on economic theory and practice. I am not an economist, but I do observe things and can stand my ground arguing from a point of view of common sense, and I am encouraged when I hear that economics is ninety per cent (90%) common sense. Common sense tells me that unity and patriotism are not taxes, which the citizen must pay, but dividends, which they return for the well-being and protection they receive from their fatherland. Therefore, as long as society is not well governed, and citizens live in pain and fear, so long will anger, hate and disunity persist, and in such circumstances, stability, peace and progress are unattainable dreams.
More questions
Nevertheless, why and how did we get here? Is Nigeria redeemable? Why have we failed to realise Lord Lugard’s dreams of “a new departure in material prosperity” and increase in “the individual’s happiness and freedom” and a rise in the “standard of civilisation and of comfort of the many millions who inhabit this large country”. Why do you think this colonial master was so concerned about our well-being, civilisation and comfort? And why have subsequent political leaders in more recent times failed to focus on these issues? Our leaders in the First Republic tried, and we now seem to look at their era as some kind of golden age. But we murdered that Republic. And why are good leaders so hard to find now? Why do most politicians today avoid intellectual confrontation on the issues of concern to the people? Why is corruption so rampant and materialism so alluring? Why do the best minds avoid politics?
I will conclude by trying to answer some of these questions and leave the rest to you.
Conclusion
First, I believe Nigeria is redeemable though I do not know how much time we have, but very few nations on earth have the bounteous gifts God has given us. We must therefore rethink our position on a whole range of issues if we wish to survive.
We need to re-examine the Structural Adjustment Programme we dumped on Africa some twenty-eight years ago. It has brought us to our sorry state. Such renowned economists like Jeffery Sachs and Economics Nobel Prize winner, Paul Kingsman denounced S.A.P as the worst assault on Africa since the slave trade. What it did to our currency, manufacturing, and employment, no person can quantify.
Till date, we have one of the highest interest rates on earth, totally killing growth in the real sector. Add on to that, the dictates of globalization, turning us into one of the world’s dumping grounds for virtually every imaginable product on earth; tooth picks, tomato paste, turbines, Irish potatoes, cookies and biscuits, wines, egg powder and so on. We have been classified a consumer nation.
We are now so incapacitated that foreign global partners find us a laughing stock and manipulate us with ease. They still want the naira further devalued to N200 – 1 USD. Our youths in desperate search for employment now volunteer to go into slavery, travelling across the desert in impossible circumstances and die trying. Most of those who get there end up in prison or penury.
While we lie, flat facing the ridicule of the world, the rest of the world marches on.
To reclaim our strength and prospects, we should recognize that a democracy is only as strong as its GDP and a society only as virile as its income per capita. This is the concern of even the colonialist Lord Lugard.
We must remember that our trading partners have built their civilization based on avarice and a determination to dominate the rest of humanity. Nothing favours them more than weakness and ignorance such as is currently manifest in our country.
We must not forget colonial history altogether, even though history is no longer taught in our schools as a result of some reform in the education sector. We must remember what western powers did in China in 1839, burning down Beijing because the Chinese refused to buy opium, which was ruining their people and depleting their currency. They were accused of obstructing free trade. For penalty, they seized Hong Kong, which they only gave back in 1997. We must remember the British in India. They insisted India had to buy their salt and cotton which India, under Ghandi, refused to do. India was brutally punished and in the end Ghandi was assassinated.
My appeal, therefore, is that more of us need to get involved. Some people have suggested that Nigeria is failing, because King’s College is failing. This school was established by an act of parliament in 1909 to achieve certain objectives- leading the nation. We seem to have shied away from this role, or maybe we do not fit well into this society. But we must rethink. The world is getting together and nations must be strong and organized. That strength begins with economic prosperity and domestic well-being. As you come into politics, be prepared. Politics is not a beach party. It is a marshland full of sharks, crocodiles and the most ravenous of reptiles. But you cannot abandon it. We either recognize the urgent need for involvement and improvement or perish. And, in finally rounding up, let me bring you the comments of one of the world’s most deadly tyrants. I have been doing some research on theories of political thoughts and I came across the political theory of Hitler’s Germany called ‘Lebensraum”. It is instructive but frightening but a warning to developing societies, those Hitler refers to as ‘lower cultures’. It was on a speech he gave to German industrialists in Dusseldorf in 1932. He said:
“There can be no economic life, unless behind this economic life there stands the determined political will of the nation absolutely ready to strike and to strike hard.” According to him, “Behind all imperialism stands the will of the white race to exercise an extraordinarily brutal right to dominate others.”
Among those “lower cultures” would be Jews, Indians, Blacks, and Chinese. Today Jews, Chinese, Indians, have through organization left us behind. If we carry on the way we are going, we are returning to the dark ages. If we change, we can overtake them.
Thank you.
Being the speech of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Audu Innocent Ogbeh, at the annual get together of the Old Boys of King’s College, Lagos on June 16, 2014.