Voluntary Union: A Centenary Imperative

© 2014 Chuks Akamadu. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/10/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4361-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4360-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4359-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013923245

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter One How We Got Drenched

Chapter Two Laughable Quest for Nationhood

Chapter Three Like CERANY, Like SONIFES… A Personal Testimony

Chapter Four In Solidarity with the Nigerian Youth

Chapter Five Biko Haram, Boko Haram

Chapter Six Random Centenary Thoughts

a) At Centenary, Let the Lies Crumble

b) Project Centenary and the Private Sector

c) Desiderata for a Centennial Celebration

d) Aliyu’s Centenary Gaffe

e) Nigeria’s Centenary: More Than a Celebration

f) Centenary: PRONACO’s Faux Pas

g) Nigeria at 100

h) President Jonathan and His Centenary Burden

Chapter Seven Post-Centenary Economy: The Tourism Super-highway

Chapter Eight Letter to 36 Orphan States and Abuja

References

DEDICATION

To Late Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara

(My Portrait of a Quintessential Patriot and Statesman)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremost, I would like to thank God Almighty for His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, who it pleased to appoint me as a member of Nigeria Centenary Celebrations Planning Committee—the very platform that inspired, in large parts, the writing of this book.

Equally, I owe a debt of gratitude to the committee’s chairman, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and my colleagues on the committee, whose profuse optimism in Project Nigeria greatly encouraged this effort.

In no less measure, the input of Mr. Dodoiyi Deinbo William-West deserves appreciation. Mr. William-West was both my proofreader and editor. His many useful suggestions were quite enriching, even as he steadfastly urged me on when it appeared I was set to down tools.

Without a shred of doubt, my several intellectual engagements on the pages of The Guardian and Thisday, where I made frantic effort to put the essence of Nigeria’s Centenary in perspective, were an integral part of the conviction I needed to undertake the writing of this book. Many thanks to both media houses!

Equally, I would like to note in particular the co-operation and huge support of my personal staffers who ran unending errands and took all the blames, at every turn, and without any justification too, just to ensure that this ship berthed safely. Messrs Abimbola Oluwalowo, Chigozie Onyemiro and Malam Yusuf Ibrahim, God bless you richly.

Finally, God bless my lovely wife, Mrs. Mitchelle Chuks-Akamadu, for her patience, encouragement and dedication to this book project. She was, for all practical purposes, the most resourceful of all my research assistants. She did not only accept to be deprived of every wife’s basic entitlements—time, attention and care, she facilitated it by generously offering herself as the firmest pillar of support that ensured the safety of this dream-come-true. God bless her for electing to bear the brunt.

PREFACE

On the occasion of the formal Amalgamation of the two Nigerians (Northern and Southern Protectorates), I wish to convey to the Emirs, Chiefs and inhabitants of the new Protectorates and the Colony (Nigeria) my best wishes for their future happiness. Pray assure them of the great interest I take in their welfare and express my earnest hope that great prosperity may be in store for them ¹

With this message relayed through Sir Frederick Lugard, His Majesty, George R.I., the king of England, put his royal seal on the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria on January 1, 1914.

In the years that were to follow, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, after due consideration of the inherent contradictions in the country referred to Nigeria as a mere geographical expression.² Similarly, late Sarduana of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, at some point in his life time put his personal frustrations pertaining to the prevalent Nigerian conditions in perspective by dismissing Nigeria as mistake of 1914.³ It, therefore, was little wonder that late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in spite of his famed nationalist credentials, had to plead profusely: It is better we disintegrate in peace and not in pieces.⁴

Time and time again, Nigerians have argued that there were sufficient bases to re-visit the Nigerian union that birthed in 1914. Some cite the humbling submissions of Nigeria’s all-time greatest leaders above whilst others have their position premised on the fact that the amalgamation itself was for the administrative convenience of our colonial rulers (as they then were). There are yet others who simply opine that our differences make us incompatible; hence, they consider opinions other than theirs as merely wishful.

On the other side of the divide are those who insist, on the contrary, that the fact it was administratively convenient for Great Britain to amalgamate the North and the South raises a presumption of compatibility, ab initio. To this school of thought, Project Nigeria is doable. For them, too, if Nigeria’s health is ailing, then it must be a reflection of the ailing health of individual Nigerians—having nothing to do with tribe or faith!

One hundred years after amalgamation, Nigeria and her citizens have a sacred obligation to take stock. Has the hope of King George R.I. of England materialized? Were the assertions of Chief Awolowo and Alhaji Bello right? If the answer is in the affirmative, to what extent are they right? All other things considered, are they still valid today? Do Nigeria’s highly debatable present conditions make Dr. Azikiwe’s frantic advocacy necessary anymore?

In any event, what do the leaders and peoples of Nigeria feel, think and know at centenary? These are a few of the questions that this book seeks to either provide satisfactory answers to or with the combined aid of history and contemporary realities situate within the proper context for the ultimate emergence of right answers.

Further, in addition to very extensive interrogation of the National Question, this book unveils historical distortions in some discomforting details. At Nigeria’s centenary, the chain of stereotypes, biases, prejudices and deliberate falsehood must be broken for the country and her peoples to walk free or begin afresh, where necessary. The occasion of our centenary is also a most fitting time to tell home truths unabashedly—however inconvenient.

More than anything else, this work strives to present all sides of all issues it treats, leaving the reader to reach their own conclusions, with a view to ventilating the Great Nigeria House, which is thought to be a precondition for a dispassionate assessment of our 100 year-old journey to nationhood. The present danger, I must warn, is that the reader has a waiting misfortune of turning their backs on truths they had hitherto held on to as creed!

The author does not expect his position on some issues that have dogged Nigeria to go unchallenged. In fact, that these issues should be presented, robustly debated and analysed is one of the reasons for doing this book. However, such exercise, he hopes, will be done with a good head on the shoulder—clearly thought out and with the openness that does not personalise issues. In fact, at centenary we should present all the questions that affect our union. This book has presented a number of them, with the intention of setting the right tone for a watershed centenary.

Reader, here is your new garment for both the centennial celebrations and post-centenary Nigeria.

Chuks Akamadu

Abuja

(October 1, 2013)

CHAPTER ONE

How We Got Drenched

I believe we can have our own ‘Marshall Plan’, an effective and dedicated effort that can yield concrete and laudable result for the benefits of the people, not institutions overwhelmed by rhetoric and buried in the inefficiency of bureaucracy; not an institution that is a substitute for outright corruption and deluge of financial misappropriations and misuse. Not a situation that the system over-heats and crisis explodes, the privileged and rich ones will fly to safety in quiet havens in distant countries.

Alhaji Aliyu Usman Shehu Shagari, GCFR

(First Executive President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria—September 20, 2005).

I agree with my ex-president. I agree only to the extent that my assumptions are correct. One, I assume that when he opined that we could have our own Marshall Plan, by the word we, he meant the peoples of Nigeria, not those who constitute Nigeria’s successive rudderless leadership. Two, I assume also that when he said the people whose case he clearly sought to plead, he meant the peoples of Nigeria. For the failure to pluralize the word people would suggest, falsely, that Nigeria is inhabited by a people. Saying Nigerians are a people, presupposes the existence of a Nigerian nation; an assertion this book contests; indeed, one of the fundamentals it addresses frontally. A nation-state? Yes, but certainly not a NATION in the strict sense of the word. Three, I assume as well that having been forced out of power on December 31, 1983 by the military, Turaki Sokoto made his submission on the side of the people (to whom, I presume, he returned after his four and a quarter-year reign as president), his current membership of the National Council of States notwithstanding.

For the avoidance of doubt, as pertains to the very crux of ex-President Shagari’s concern, which is the need for a Marshall Plan, I totally subscribe to it and this book bears witness. At the risk of being imprudent with words, whilst this book may not be The Marshall Plan, it could be A Marshall Plan of some sort or at worst—A Road Map for the attainment of The/A Marshall Plan.

Four days before the elder-statesman’s outburst (September 16, 2005), Prof. Pat Utomi, teacher at Lagos Business School (LBS) had, at The Week Magazine’s Leadership Award Lecture placed his frustrations in perspective by stating thus: What I find most remarkable is not just that Nigeria’s current experience is leadership failure at its very worst, it is that those who have brought us to this sorry pass think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread… God is hurting from the pain of his children, and to keep quiet because of personal convenience would be a sure way to earn his wrath forever.

True, there are a few other Utomis and a few other Shagaris, but for how long shall we continue to theorize about the best way to go about Marshall-Planning, even as our country drifts seemingly irretrievably? Is the coming of our centenary light at the end of the tunnel?

Abortion at Cock Crow

We seized power to stamp out tribalism, nepotism and religionalism. The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a strong, united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife. Our enemies are the political profiteers, swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek to keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers and VIPs of waste.

-Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu

(January 15, 1966).

When on January 1, 1914, the foot soldiers of her Imperial Majesty, the Queen of England, under the leadership of Lord Frederick Lugard, fused the northern and southern protectorates into one geographical entity, with the Colony of Lagos as the seat of power, the resultant creature, Nigeria, was largely an innocent baby who had every opportunity in the world to eventually chart for herself a sustainable course of greatness.

Our colonial masters conceived the amalgamation idea to suit their administrative needs, not for their love for the numerous ethnic nationalities they lumped together, willy-nilly. Nor in fairness to them, is there any historical evidence that shows that they did seek to cobble together the Nigeria edifice on a weak foundation for their individual or collective gain, with a view to bringing the country to ruin, in the long run.

Truth is that the imperialists, at some point, got fed up with routinely running northern protectorate’s government on a deficit economy and sustaining it with subsidy accruing from the southern protectorate’s surplus. Their logical response to the festering imbalance was to fuse both north and south into one. Hence, Nigeria!

It is likely that, in the face of current emotional and social restiveness all over the country, with many waiting in the wings to vent their displeasure and frustrations on any information or data that sound ‘unpleasant’ to their ears, some people will argue that this is not the fact. We have seen numerous scenarios where fact is fought with ingenious fiction just to uphold some sectional interest, raising sentiments and even administering abuses and curses in an attempt to rob the truth of some force. It should be made clear that no intention is made to denigrate the sections of the country that formed the then Northern Protectorate. But facts should be held sacred.

In a study jointly undertaken by Joel D. Barkan, Alex Gboyega and Mike Stevens, this truism was re-echoed for the benefit of students of history: Nigeria was incorporated in 1914 when Frederick Lugard who became its first governor-general amalgamated the two British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria and the Crown Colony of Lagos into a single entity. The primary reason for amalgamation was economic rather than political. The Northern Protectorate which became the Northern Province had annual budget deficits, while the Southern Protectorate which became the Southern Province had surpluses. To eliminate the subventions from the British treasury, the budgets of the two components were integrated.⁵

Therefore, the geo-political Nigeria thus established had ahead of her an uncertain destiny laid bare to both internal and external influences. The external influence was the creators of the infant creature called the Nigerian State, whose mission in Nigeria stood, firmly, on the tripod of economic exploitation, political dominion and psychological conquest. The Nigerian enterprise was for the colonialists a struggle, the ultimate goal of which was to improve the lot of the average Briton and considerably enhance the self worth and national pride of the citizenry and the British nation respectively.

For emphasis, it is necessary to state that there was never a ‘Nigerian’ interest in the forging of that creation. There was also never at heart, the interest(s) of the various constituents of resultant Nigeria in the several decisions, policies, changes and developments hoisted at the different stages of the administration of the territory by the government of Her Imperial Majesty. It was always about the colonialists’ interests of exploitation—irrespective of how ‘humane’ they were presented to be or how such appeared to benefit the section of Nigeria where such decisions or policies were implemented. It was first and always about how Great Britain would ‘reap’ from the peoples of the yet to be named ‘Nigeria’; and more so after that fusing was effected. One glaring, undeniable and equally vexatious example was the unspoken but loudly evident policy of ‘divide and rule’ employed to the point of near desperation, by military administrators posted by the government of England to administer the territory, to please the Queen and be seen to be serving her well!

It is necessary for Nigerians or, in fact, any reader of this book, to view the entire gamut of what was done and said by the colonialists from this prism in order to appreciate the poignant truth that neither the administrative style nor the various policies employed by the colonialists was expressly in the interests of the territory’s peoples. Therefore, the injustices of economic usurpation and exploitation, not forgetting subsidizing of a section from the economic wealth of others were meant to feed the treasury in Britain first of all. The seeming benefits for that section of the yet to be named ‘Nigerian’ territory were secondary or even tertiary in the minds of the colonial administrators who, perhaps, were given marching orders to