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Omoniyi Salaudeen and Daniel Kanu
All is now set for the 59th Independence Day anniversary of Nigeria. For several decades preceding October 1, 1960, the colonial imperialists had ruled the so-called geographical expression with iron fist almost to the exclusion of the Nigerian educated elite, while virtually all-important administrative decisions were taken outside the shore of the country. It, therefore, took the strident opposition of foremost nationalists like Herbart Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, among others, to put an end the British rule.
This ultimately climaxed into the lowering of the Union Jack and the hosting of Nigeria’s Green-White-Green flag amid pomp and ceremony. The late Babatunde Jose, the grandfather of Nigerian journalism, vividly captured the mood of the nation in his emotional commentary on the Independence anniversary. His words: “As the clock struck midnight, they took their positions on the dais and watched the lowering of the Union Jack and the hoisting of the Nigerian flag. And so ended 100 years of British rule, 100 years of colonial bondage. A nation conceived in faith and unity is born today. And I am happy. And I am sobbing.”
The late Matthew Tawo Mbu, who was minister of state for defence on Independence Day, had also reportedly danced till dawn along with his other colleagues. With the euphoria that heralded the glorious day, optimism was high that Nigeria would be a leading light to the rest of the black world, especially given its numerical advantage, as well as endowment of natural resources.
However, the challenge of nationhood had set in long before the first decade of an independent Nigeria had drawn to a close, as the country succumbed to multiple dysfunctions and was plunged into a bloody civil war. Today, one of the things that sadden most Nigerian enthusiasts who witnessed the epoch-making event is the failure of successive governments to sustain and nurture the aspirations of the founding fathers, who laid down their lives for the struggle for self rule.
More fundamentally is the failure of leadership to sustain the unity of the nation. Indeed, at no time had Nigeria been so divided than now. And there is a plethora of reasons some separatist agitators are bitter about the state of things. One of these is the resistance by some sections of the country to accede to the clamour for restructuring as a way to douse the tension.
Again, Nigeria prides itself as the giant of Africa. But unfortunately, 59 years down the line, the nation is still grappling with myriads of economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, falling standard of living, lack of access to qualitative education and health care delivery, among others. There is a theory of “oil course” to all of these. According to the proponents of this theory, Nigeria lost the opportunity to economic greatness when it abandoned agriculture following the discovery of oil in 1957 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta region.
Coupled with economic challenge is the threat of insecurity arising from Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping, banditry as well as armed robbery.
A former Minister of Police Affairs, Gen David Jemibewon (rtd), assessing the state of the nation in a chat with Sunday Sun, stressed the need for improvement in security architecture of the country.
He said: “We could have done better, but we thank God that at least we are still here as a nation. There are ups and downs, but we thank God that we are still one entity, one country, united and trying to improve on our present situation. Of course, there is no country that can claim to have reached a level that it doesn’t aspire for further improvement. I think there is room for improvement in almost every room of human endeavor – economic development, industrial development, educational development, social development and more particularly in recent times that we have problems of insecurity. I think it is an area we need to work hard on because without security development can be impaired. With improvement in security, economy too will find an atmosphere of improvement.”
He suggested investment in education as a way to end separatist agitations threatening the stability of the nation. “I think development and education are important to stem the tide of separatist agitations. Even if we separate, the problem will still be there. It can be reduced in intensity, but it will still be there. If there is communication, there is education, there is interaction, there is opportunity for movement from one part of the country to another, we will see that we will be tending more to stay together than being in fragments. I think education which will lead to a lot of acknowledge, with communication and information, we will find out that we don’t need to dissipate our energies on separation. I think education is very key because education destroys barriers among communities and individuals. With education, you can exchange ideas, knowledge and through that you get better understanding,” he posited.
On his own part, Ebenezer Babatope, also a former minister of transport, called for a revisit of the agitation for restructuring to put the nation back on true federalism.
He argued: “Every nation state has passed through stages of its own development. All developed countries too have had their problems, they’ve had their challenges. I think we in Nigeria should thank God that despite all the challenges, all the problems we had, we are still managing on as a country. And I still believe that is an achievement we have to celebrate.
“I think what we have to do is very simple. There must be a commitment by all of us to ensure that democracy succeeds in our country; democracy that will allow Nigerians to choose their leaders by themselves, not through manipulation. Once democracy succeeds, we are okay. Apart from that, we should also have recourse back to restructuring. It is not that restructuring that has been badly criticized by some dangerous elements, but restructuring in terms of returning back to a true federalism. That is, we should redefine the federal nature of our country’s existence. We should go back to it and we should not move away from it.”
The National Chairman, United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, in his own contribution, listed restructuring, review of electoral law to allow electronic voting, power devolution, as well as review of revenue sharing formula as some of the areas that required urgent attention to ensure stability of the polity.
While reviewing the journey of almost six decades of nationhood, he said: “First of all, let us thank God that we have survived as a country all this while in spite of all the problems and threats against the corporate existence of Nigeria. Our journey so far has been a chequered one, it has not been smooth at any time. There is no time we can even refer to as glorious time, as far as I know, and I have been around for a long time to be able to say this. Things seem to be getting worse. When I say things are getting worse, I mean there is a serious division in the country. And it’s not something anyone can blame on any government like the present government or even the one before it. The foundation for Nigeria was weak. Even when we got independence, it was a partial federation that we got and then degenerated to a unitary government even though we still call it a federation.
“This degeneration can be seen from concentration of power and functions at the centre. Exclusive legislation is loaded with things that are supposed to be handled by local governments and states. And this has hampered development.
“What it, therefore, calls for is for our federation to be reviewed. While President Muhammadu Buhari was receiving some APC governors when they came to congratulate him for winning a second term election, he made a commitment that our federalism would be reviewed. He also made a point that the time to restructure this country along the line of true federalism was now compelling. I had expected that the wakeup call would be followed almost immediately with executive bill coming from the government to the 9th National Assembly to look at some of the aspects of our constitution that devolve more power and responsibility to the other two tiers of government. That will also mean a review of revenue allocation formula that will translate to more revenue to states and local government.
“It is my belief that when that is done, states will be able to explore their various comparative advantages in a very healthy manner that will make Nigeria better for it.
“Again, there is this worrisome circle of four-year orgy of violence because of election. And, of course, after the violence we return to another long period where the court will now determine who wins election rather than the electorate being the final decider of who has been elected to rule over them. And that is why I have always canvassed electronic voting system. If we do that, the violence that we always witness during elections will be reduced to the barest minimum and tribunals will have very little to do after the elections.
“I want to urge the 9th National Assembly to please ensure that they review electoral law which has been returned to the 8th Assembly before the last election. They should present it to the president before they close for Christmas so that we can have adequate time to prepare for it. We will like to see electronic voting introduced to the next elections and the subsequent ones.”
The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC), Prof Itse Sagay, said despite some hiccups, there is still something to celebrate in the areas of transportation, quality of life as well as technological advancements.
He, however, expressed worries that Nigeria had not evolved a political culture, noting that the present administration of President Buhari’s commitment to nation building had re-affirmed the hope that the nation would be great again.
“I am very happy that a man like Buhari and Osinbajo emerged. Those two are like the first old republic politicians in terms of commitment, in terms of integrity, in terms of honesty, in terms of trying to raise the standard of Nigeria particularly the vulnerable. That is what gives me hope and that is why I have committed myself to serve in their government.
“But by and large, there has been a drastic drop in the sense of values, in the sense of service, in integrity, in honour and so on.
“Most politicians are behaving like barbarians’ who are looking for food and material acquisition. In fact, they lead so as to acquire those things rather than leading to serve. That is the difference and that is what appears to have brought us down.
“The programmes of this government anti-corruption fight, peoples’ welfare, et cetera, are yielding good results. If they are sustained, things will change for the better.”
A woman activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, who had been detained for over 17 times during the military dictatorship, told Sunday Sun that it’s not yet Uhuru, as leadership seems to have bungled the great vision of a united and strong country.
She said 59 years of independence had been a long walk frustrated by adoption of a system that was inherently riddled with injustice.
She lamented: “Nigeria at 59 is a long walk, but the reality gazing boldly at us in the eye points to the fact that we are still far from the el dorado of the comity of developed nations. We got our independence on a very solid foundation of development vision, plan and strategy.
“But that foundation was struck into an abyss by the adoption of a unitary system of government with the concentration of power at the centre.
“Experience, they say, is the best teacher. We can’t sustain the subsisting presidential system of government. We must endeavour to revert to the regional system of governance that we launched our independence upon,” she said.
