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Many decades ago, I read Animal Farm, the classic satire by George Orwell (real name Eric Blair). I read it with relish. I giggled at the fantasies of the animals. I wondered at their utopian craving of a world of absolute freedom where no human will oppress them anymore.
George Orwell served up a parody that offered comic relief. Yet, it wasn’t really about animals. It was about humans. About leadership, followership and betrayal. Animal Farm was written in 1945. It is older than Independent Nigeria. But it poignantly mirrored Nigeria. How one government topples another government by ballot or bazooka only to end up worse than the former government.
In my secondary school, St. Anthony’s College, Ubulu Uku, Delta State, we read Orwell’s masterpiece without knowing we were reading the story of Nigeria. Orwell painted the picture of an animal family which badly wanted to free itself from the shackles and bracelets of humankind. The animals protested what they perceived as man’s unkindness towards them. They till the earth, they manicure the lawn, they plant and pull the carts at harvest but the greedy man takes all the spoils home. And when they age, the same greedy and shylock man slits their throats and cooks them as condiments in his animal-flavoured broth or barbecues them at their feasts.
This must stop, they reasoned. So, all the animals conspired (some were actually cajoled) to chase humans out of their farm (Manor Farm) and take possession of their heritage. The conspiracy to oust man from the farm was successful but as the plot unfolded, some of the animals realised, to their chagrin, that victory from bondage was not yet won. The elite animals (dogs and pigs – politicians in the farm -) in this instance, seized the moment to assert authority and embark on a mindless ego trip. Ego collided with a quest for power and control of the animal kingdom. At the end, the lower animals (the masses) suffered as they were denied basic food. Worst of all, their fundamental rights which the elite animals promised to restore from the greedy man were brazenly trampled upon.
Just imagine how the Nigeria civilian elite fought for Independence. How they organised into pressure groups masquerading as neo-activists on a mission to rescue Nigeria from the colonial overlords. They promised the Nigerian proletariat a better future. They promised improved food rations, better education and a lush verdant of goodness. But it was all utopia. The glorious future never came. The more the people endure the pains of the moment, the farther the beautiful future recedes into a distant orbit.
Animal Farm in its original Orwellian concept is a portrayal of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the playout of the Soviet Union Marxist–Leninist ideology of Joseph Stalin. A courageous disquisition into the sycophancy of tyranny and its often dystopian outcomes.
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In Orwell’s Animal Farm, the revolution of the animals against greedy man did more harm to the lower animals. At the end, moralistic animals transformed to morbid beasts complete with all the tendencies of medieval tyrants. While the lower animals toiled and tilled in painful animation, the elite animals popped champagne, clinked glasses and took the form of wicked man. The Orwellian plot may be about animals but it vividly depicts the Nigerian political narrative. Nigerian politicians have carved out for themselves a kingdom of their own; a kingdom of opulence and affluence while the rest of the people are consigned to a lower kingdom where poverty collides with pain in shebeens and squalour.
Between 1945 and 2026 is a good 81 years. And you still find the Orwellian plot unfolding in Nigeria. Whichever side of the prism you look, Nigeria hits you as yet another Animal Farm with two kingdoms. And as was the case in the Orwellian classic, both kingdoms are split along sharp lines. The elite animals, the politicians, too drunk with power, money and the dainties of life, have massed to the stage in a dance of shame. A financially rascally executive, a corrupt judiciary and an equally fraudulent legislature have formed an unholy alliance to feast on the national harvest while the lower animals, the masses of the people, rot in destitution. That’s the story of Nigeria.
Just as some animals – Benjamin, Boxer and Clover – later regretted the revolution that chased humans out of Manor Farm, some Nigerians today wonder what use is Nigeria’s independence? How can life under the colonialists be better than life under self-rule? They ask, where is the comfort of sovereignty? The political elite who chased the colonial masters out of Nigeria and hoisted the green-white-green flag have abandoned Nigeria. Like Orwellian elite animals, the pigs led by their dogmatic and infallible Napoleon (Napoleon is always right) returned to and hobnobbed with the same humans they chased out of the farm, the elite tribe of Nigerians have reunited with the colonialists they revolted against and shooed out of Nigeria.
Rather than build Nigeria, the elite steal from Nigeria to help build Britain, America and the rest of the global north. They steal from Nigeria to buy property in the West. They move money meant for Nigeria’s development to bank vaults in Switzerland, France, US, UK and adjunct tax haven islands allied to the West. And when the Nigerian elite fall sick, as little sickness as headache, they jet off to UK and France and elsewhere for medicare. Is it not a shame that the medical records of our leaders from presidents to governors, ministers et al are domiciled overseas in the hands of those colonialists and westerners we chased away? What then is sovereignty? What is the essence of independence when our leaders have voluntarily bonded with those we once asked to leave our country?
Sovereignty in the 21st century is beyond hoisting your national flag. Inherent in self-rule (sovereignty) is self-care, food security, ability to enforce and maintain your territorial integrity, tech capacity, quality of education and quality of your human capital. Protection of citizens’ data is a critical determinant of a nation’s security and sovereignty. Yet, Nigeria leadership elite willingly submit themselves and everything about them including personal health data to foreigners. It makes me want to join the people to ask: what really is sovereignty? Is Nigeria truly sovereign? The answer is in the actions of leadership.
