The title of today›s discourse isn›t original to me, it is more associated with the American journey to greatness. Their televisions use it once analyzing the development of America as the country is the focus. I am using it here today because it is more than suitable for the matter concerning our own journey to true nationhood.
It is crucial to state or make clear that nationhood even though a destination still involves a long journey. Quite a distance to cover. The journey begins from the low level of just an entity, sometimes without very clear features. It takes real political, economic and social engineering to give shape to the space. Societies move from entities to become a country.
The founding fathers of Italy sat down and beat their chest exclaiming, «we have found Italy”. They reminded themselves that the next task was to create the Italian. There are very instructive developments in all of this for those who know. They were well aware that the country doesn’t just emerge. Dedicated men acting as vanguards sit down to plan and make sure they work it through.
Societies in America were strong and dominant. Like ours, theirs was like a rainbow coalition of different people with different cultures, orientation and influences. Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France and even Mexico that is being derided today by Great America had good enough influence. The native Indians who owned most of the land were also a strong factor. The society morphed into states that had so much power in their own rights.
Power was domiciled in the states. America was made up of confederate states until very foresighted leaders like George Washington, James Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln and others rose up to say that they could turn the small states into a big country capable of ruling the world. They began to do the work required because they were home with the talk that action speaks louder than words. Wishes don›t build castles; raw action does. They had a national conference from where the American country was birthed with all imperfections trailing the bigger vision and efforts.
Today after about 250 years of independence from Britain, America is a nation and a land of vast opportunities as they say. Truth is serious work had to be deployed in pursuit of higher ideals that were chosen based on far higher vision. Indignity still reigned but the laws were very explicit on the kind of nation they envisaged. The constitution spoke of equality. It gave vent to citizenship over race. It placed emphasis on human dignity and freedom. The driving force is private initiative. This notwithstanding, the state still owes citizens cardinal obligations like social safety net – the system doesn›t allow citizens to go to bed hungry.
Any discerning fellow country man or woman can review the experience highlighted above and juxtapose with what our leaders do back home. It is true we got independence officially but in what particular aspect have we seen independence take root? Politically, everything appears lost, even the semblance of the country we inherited has been done away through reckless political engineering.
Bad politics retarded progress and led to military incursion into the governance process. The military in power in some instances like in Egypt, Libya and some countries in Latin America was a blessing. In the case of our experience it turned out to be a big curse. They killed whatever vision that was about to emerge and left us with none. They balkanised the political architecture agreed to at independence, threw up huge recurrent expenditures by senseless subdivision of the administrative structure agreed to before we got independence.
With it came the new vogue where government became the biggest business. The twist in direction has come with not only huge dislocations, it has resulted in destruction of cherished institutions leaving the entire population weather beaten and in great anguish. One will think the pains would be enough to redirect attention and focus to real issues of development but that doesn’t appear to be what is happening. Rather than turn to the path of rectitude and progress, we have chosen to run very deep on the path of perfidy.
This should be troubling to anyone that means well for the country. Our entity requires unity and the cohesion it provides to make head way in the efforts to first found a country and thereafter a nation. But from the look of things it would appear we know the destination but not how to get to it. Nothing can be more frustrating than this. Our leaders prefer to mouth national unity than take steps that can bring it into reality.
They make a song of national unity. President Muhammadu Buhari told us that unity of Nigeria was non-negotiable, meaning a settled matter. Yet his regime spent huge resources trying to keep peace. A united country would naturally be in peace. Igbo are agitating for secession, they are not the first and perhaps the only one but in this case it has been tagged “treason” and made a non-discusable issue. Buhari didn’t talk to Igbo leaders, not even when they sought to have an audience, he preferred a military option in which state guns would be turned against citizens.
It is possible dialogue and concessions would have taken us nearer sustained solutions on many fronts. Boko Haram and militarist herders are all agents of political interest and agitations. But who cares to know. It is foolish to hold on to the mantra of unity and still see the kind of activities one saw happen in the country last week. We saw People’s Democratic Party presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar visit Abdulsalami Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida, two retired military Generals and former heads of state who got to power by shooting their way through. Atiku also met with Buhari.
About the same time, the northern governors, traditional rulers and the Vice President of Nigeria, Senator Shettima, held a northern region conference. The governors of Southern Nigeria held theirs too in Ogun State. All key players were talking mainly about sectional development without touching on key drivers that can hasten their desires.
The plain truth is if building or founding a country with the name is the objective we ought to have transcended this ugly level of holding sectional consultations and summits. Such outings don›t help national unity, cohesion and growth. Not in the least. There is a lesson it conveys and a suffocating psychology associated with it. It tells citizens they are not together and more seriously that the talk of unity they hear often in various communication channels is a ruse. Fake proclamation!
It is time we know patriotism, unity and bonding are not as intangible objects as we think, they are substances with real life of their own. One does bring up their manifest presence through playing on the peripherals, like changing to a new national anthem, we get them active by taking very concrete actions.
When our country by its laws places emphasis on citizens rights, like the right to life and safety, excellent healthcare, unhindered access to education, employment and food security, no one would need to plead to anyone to desist from taking actions that bring harm to the country and people. Citizens act in a more voluntary manner.
With no free health insurance, no infrastructure, no jobs, no basis for friendship among components and no enriching examples from the leadership class, things are naturally bound to go awry. Sense of ownership would on its own accord just disappear. Instability will be the order of the day and that is the point where we are. If we don›t take care, the move will cause the country to slide into anarchy. This is a natural sequence.
