NIGERIA ANALYSIS: THE WAY FORWARD

The Nigerian state is delicately poised on the brink of a precipice. In this most crucial of times, the possibilities of survival or, disaster are almost equal. This state of affairs is neither strange nor unique. It is symptomatic of a virulent malaise that has plagued the world since the late 19^th century to date. That malaise is soul-crushing poverty.

      Nigeria like most former colonies is resource-rich. However, the vast majority of Nigerians are poor, very poor. It is an undeniable fact that the material condition of a human being determines every situation in his state of existence. In other words, if a human being is materially poor, such a person will also be mentally poor, emotionally poor, ideologically bankrupt, psychically dislocated, and spiritually hollow. Simply put, because we live in a plane of material existence, therefore, any form of material deprivation leads to deprivation in all other aspects of material existence.

      With this fact firmly established, it means that despite Nigeria’s resource wealth, it is, in reality, a poor country. Thus, it must be the very nature of its people to produce poor leaders. This singular fact can only partially explain the deep crisis of survival that the Nigerian state is enmeshed in.

      Colonialism as a model of imperial state business enterprise created Nigeria. Every nation within the colony put up resistance but, this was usually feeble due to the weakened nature of the sub-region. The people of the sub-region had already been materially devastated and dislocated by many man-made disasters – self-serving jihads, senseless civil wars, inhuman slave trading, sadistic cultural practices, and disease. Thus, all the British had to do was carry out a process of pacification, and then install a structure to facilitate primitive exploitation of the territory.

      Nevertheless, the British had to give up their imperial business holdings due to the fallout of the 2^nd world war. They were not given much of a choice in this regard because, the newly emergent powers after the war were the United States and the Soviet Union, two countries whose state ideologies were vehemently against any form of slavery, be it human or territorial. Colonialism is territorial slavery. Thus, a fundamental condition for economic aid, was for the devastated European powers to give up their territorial slave holdings(colonies) through the facilitation of state independence.

      As an imperial business enterprise, Nigeria was a cash cow for the British and it was not just ready to let go just like that. It created structures and put into place certain instruments that made sure that it had a neo-colonial hold over its business. This was not strange since all the other European colonial powers did the same in their former colonies.

      Using the instrument of divide and rule, control of resource extraction entities, an extremely lop-sided regional structure, and the endemic distrust among the co-existing nations; the foundation for state destabilisation and an endless crisis was firmly established. However, it must be clearly pointed out that it was the conscious refusal of the elite state actors to confront crucial and objective realities, and at the same time ask and answer vital existential questions that have been the true foundation of the unending crisis faced by the Nigerian state.

      No entity can survive a state of immobility, and a country is no different. Whether the state of Nigeria likes it or not, it has to keep moving in time. Like all entities, it will like to remain in existence but, in the case of Nigeria, will it? Its crisis of survival can only be rooted in three outcomes – maintaining the status quo, complete administrative, economic, and political restructuring, or, balkanisation. One of these three or, a hybrid of them most occur. This is as sure as the sun rising tomorrow morning.  Thus, we have to look at each of these possible outcomes critically.

      A position of being in a status quo is the desire for things to remain the way they are and, continue the way they are. It is a conscious attempt to keep things the way they are. In social, economic, and political terms, it is an attempt at frustrating change. It is a desire to keep political and administrative structures the way they are. It is a need to keep an oligarchic socio-political hierarchy stable.

      The status quo in Nigeria can be traced back to the misfortune of military misadventure into Nigerian politics. The 15^th January 1966 coup d' etat with its attendant unexpected consequences laid the groundwork. The 1963 Republican constitution was suspended and, absolute political power resided in the hands of the ruling military junta. The military dissolved the three regions by chopping them up into smaller pieces which they gave the grandiose titles of “states”. They then imposed an administrative and political structure based on rigid centralisation of authority. Thus, though Nigeria was called a federation, in reality, it was a unitary state in its extreme form.

      The preferred nature of administration by the military was by decree. A decree is a law that is both unassailable and unchallengeable. Although, it has been argued that this was necessary for the successful prosecution of the 1967 – 1970 civil war by the victors; its retention after the war was by design and not forgetfulness.

      What this state of affairs did was to greatly increase the fears of domination expressed by a section of the Nigerian state and the nationalities therein. A fear that is based on good reasons and solid historical references.

       Though the military had ruled Nigeria for just over half of its post-independence history, the periods of civil rule, which includes the present; have only reinforced the entrenchment of the status quo. The constitutions of the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th republics were the instruments for maintaining the status quo. In name, these constitutions claimed to be federal in structure but, in reality; they continuously whittled away any powers that the so-called federating units had. Thus, the constitution of the 4^th republic is structured in such a way that the central authority is monstrously powerful, while the “federating units” are all highly dependent appendages. In fact, with the exception of its title, the 1999 constitution is a classic example of a written unitary constitution.

      The nature of the status quo remains entrenched because of its roots.  The minority Fulani ruled most parts of northern Nigeria as an oligarchic theocracy prior to the coming of the colonialists. Using religious guile and military ruthlessness, they had conquered and overthrown the political elite of the dominant Hausa nation and many other smaller nations in what is today known as northern Nigeria. They had also managed to destroy the only threat they had in the Sahel, namely, the Oyo empire through the instruments of internal greed and treachery; tactics they have used against the other nations till this day, over and over, with unrelenting success.

       By achieving this feat, the Fulani became the undisputed masters of the Sahel. They then imposed their own form of colonialism on the conquered nations of the area through the administrative instrument of an emirate system. It was this state of affairs that the British found when they came to the region in a colonising adventure of their own.

       No nation gives up its cash cow without a struggle, and the Fulani were no different. They resisted the British with everything they could muster. Things came to a head when the two forces faced each other in pitched battle. The over 200,000 strong Fulani cavalries were decisively routed by the 5,000 strong British infantry. The decisive factor was the wide discrepancy in weapons technology. Soldiers armed with swords, spears, bows, and arrows and, fighting on horseback; were simply slaughtered by soldiers lying in trenches, armed with Gatling machine-guns and single-action rifles.

     However, as every man of destiny knows, there’s nothing like a bad situation, it’s what you make of the cards you’re dealt. The inheritors of the decimated caliphate met with the representatives of the British crown and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. The Fulani asked the British to allow them to continue to run their caliphate, promising to make good on the issue of exploitation and expropriation on their behalf, while continuing to feather their own nest.

      The British being one of the most pragmatic people in the world, agreed to this arrangement for very practical reasons. First, they already had this kind of arrangement in the Indian sub-continent, a situation where the conquered rulers assisted in the exploitation of their own territory. Second, they had neither the manpower nor resources to directly subjugate and administer the territory. They were still having an enormous headache with the pacification of the southern part of the territory. Third, a partnership with the Fulani in which they controlled the dynamic through the corruption of the institutions of government was infinitely more profitable.

      Thus, until the end of the 2^nd world war, this was the status quo. The need for the British to divest themselves of their colonial interests after the war brought about the need to rearrange the colony in such a way that exploitation would continue. For this plan to be successful, they used their Fulani friends as proxies. Thus, the grossly lop-sided regional arrangement. The arcane parliamentary machinations. The cooked census figures. The rigged independence elections. The unending destabilisation and much more. The status quo is about exploitation, unending exploitation. The result is endemic and crippling poverty for the people. This can definitely not be the way forward.

      This brings us to the issue of restructuring. In ordinary terms, the word simply means, to rearrange the component parts of an object into a new pattern or, form. In other ways, the rearrangement of the object could be to return it to its old form. Whichever way you look at it, restructuring means the rearrangement of the component parts of an object or, entity.

      However, in its most clinical political form, what is restructuring? In Nigerian political language, restructuring means the return to the political, administrative, and institutional structures maintained and guaranteed by the 1963 Republican constitution; that preceded the 15^th January 1966 coup d’état that demolished the first republic.    

        Nevertheless, it is very important to point out here that, in Nigeria, the word restructuring, has a deeper and highly emotional meaning. It refers to the cry of helplessness of the disempowered and neutered power elite of the former southern regions. This unhappy state of affairs now includes the middle belt areas and parts of the far north. In actual reality, it means the agitation of various indigenous nationality power elites who have been excluded in all areas of direct influence, from acting within the country’s power matrix. By intrinsic definition, it means all of those elements, whose political power yearnings are not directly satisfied within the status quo. These are the people the inheritors of the status quo, tongue-in-cheek call the “disgruntled elements”.

       At this point in this write-up, it is important that we have a fundamental understanding of the meaning of political power. Political power at its most rudimentary is the power to allocate resources and value. It is the right to decide who gets what, when, where, and how? In simple language, it is the right to be the one who shares to, or, withdraws the good things of life from others.

     Despite the simplicity of the definition given above, it is easy to see how universal its effect is on the life of an individual, nation, and state. Thus, when we talk about restructuring, we are also talking about empowerment. The first republic’s three region state structure empowers the elite of the coexisting nationalities and through them empowers their people. The key positive in this is that each group of people can pursue the necessity of development at their own pace, without being tied to the apron strings of others.

      Since power is intrinsic to human nature, and all human beings aspire to areas of optimum personal power within their own worlds; restructuring will reduce the winner-takes-all and, do-or-die attitude currently displayed by state political actors. This is because, what they are looking for in Abuja, will be in their backyards. The fact is that, apart from an almost complete form of administrative and political autonomy; restructuring guarantees resource control.

       The agitation for restructuring and its key component of resource control is boosted by the discovery that practically every part of the country is resource-rich, either in oil or, solid minerals. Everybody has the instrument of development in their backyard. Everybody can move at their desired pace. Everybody can authoritatively protect, enhance and enjoy their own cultural ideals. More so, everybody can feel less threatened. The truly strange thing is that the agitation and settlement for the three region structure at independence are to prevent what is happening now – the fear of domination!

       Thus, a majority of the elements within the counter-elite believe that the opposition to restructuring is based on the selfishness and greed of the elite. They see the position of those trying to protect the status quo as a blatant exhibition and practice of internal or intra-state colonialism. Unfortunately, most members of the counter-elite have refused to stare the truth in the face. Most of them have been compromised by peanuts and crumbs from the master’s table. The result of this brand of myopic intellectual behaviour is that they are too busy throwing each other under the bus, instead of paying attention to what really matters.

      The objective truth is that the crisis of state that the country is currently facing, will be enormously reduced with restructuring. The leaders and their followers in the coexisting nations that make up Nigeria will have their hands full, trying to actualise their development goals, instead of fighting a do-or-die battle for the centre. It is a situation in which there will be hope for the average man on the streets. It will greatly ameliorate the soul-crushing poverty that is now being experienced around the country. It is the narrow perception of entitlement intrinsic in the mentality of the protectors of the status quo and, their active perpetuation of such, that is the crux of the call for balkanisation.

      The process of balkanising a state can come about in two ways – by negotiation or, by secession. In the first instance, members of the elite and counter elite sit at a round table and mutually agree to carve up the country. In this situation, an agreement is reached in terms of the former state’s assets and liabilities. In other words, a mutual agreement is reached on who gets what and, who pays for what? Separation by negotiation is always a long, drawn-out process. This process is only short and quick if the parties involved are all eager to go their separate ways.  History has examples of this type of mutual willingness to separate. It is usually profitable and painless.   

      The second process of state balkanisation is by secession. In the case of secession, a portion of the state decides to cut all ties from the whole, and create a new, totally independent state. In the first instance where separation is by negotiation, issues and assets of common interest can still be owned and jointly administered. However, in the case of secession, separation is usually total. In most cases, the people or nations of a seceding portion of a state come to this decision out of a feeling of acrimony; which is borne out of a sense of alienation. The process of secession comes about in two ways, which are either through a referendum or, through armed struggle.

       In the case of secession through the process of referendum, the affected people, or nations of the seceding portion of the state go to the ballot box to vote “YES” or “NO” to stay in the union or not. If “YES” is the simple majority vote, separation is immediate and total. If the simple majority vote is “NO”, then the seceding portion remains in the union. However, it should be pointed out that a referendum vote can only come about through an enforced mediation of superior power or, the superior intelligence of the state’s ruling elite.

      Conversely, secession can come through armed struggle. In this case, separation is brought about through the instrument of violence. The seceding forces engage in pitched battles against the forces of the state. This is what is known in common parlance as a civil war. This form of separation is always messy and wasteful both in human and material resources for both sides. If the secessionists succeed, they spend years licking their wounds, while their antagonists are doing the same. If they lose, the victors are always wary and uncomfortable, and the losers harbour deep-seated hatreds that never go away, except through true and sincere integration.

      In Nigeria, the cry of secession is now country-wide. The reasons for this have already been mentioned, but for the sake of articulation will now be reiterated. First, is the issue of poverty. The undeniable and irrefutable facts are that a vast majority of Nigerians are poor. This is despite the proven fact that Nigerians are one of the most industrious people on the face of the earth. So, why are Nigerians so poor in their own country? In 2019, at the height of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Central Bank reported that Nigerians sent over $17billion dollars into the country. This is more than total oil revenues for that year. If ordinary Nigerians could generate this kind of wealth in foreign lands, why are they so poor at home?

      Second, is the issue of exclusion of the counter-elite. The feeling of powerlessness that is systemically created is a source of frustration for most of the power players. It is this politics of exclusion that is being played that makes unity unattainable, no matter the amount of lip service or propaganda that may be applied. The feeling of domination is real and true. No nation of people likes to be dominated. The issue of domination comes directly through the exclusion of their elite from the power matrix. Once a nation’s elite is excluded from the power matrix, the whole nation is excluded.

      Third, the problem of an intellectually myopic and insular ruling elite, and their second-class collaborators. It is the determination to continue reinforcing a system that is practically unsustainable. If the Nigerian state is to survive common sense has to prevail. The fear is of the country imploding not exploding. In their myopic and insular intellectual state, they refuse to see that their need to support and propagate the status quo is a recipe for mutual disaster. They refuse to see that the status quo promotes poverty. The poverty that’s rooted in institutionalised social injustice.

 

      

        

NIGERIA'S SURVIVAL AND EXISTENTIAL CRISIS

Only three categories of people do not know that the Nigerian state is in a deep crisis, and has been in it for the last six decades. The first category is children and infants. These are the little angels who go about their existence, completely oblivious to the fact that they have been born into a boiling cauldron.        The second category is those who are too ignorant to make sense of what is going on around them.         The third category is those who know exactly what is going on but, are too scared to admit it. This category buries its head in the sand like an ostrich, preferring to live in the self-delusion that everything is okay.

       The first two categories can be excused their ignorance. However, the scathing effect of their environment on their psyches and persons, quickly clue them to the fact that something is horribly wrong. Nevertheless, the third category cannot be excused. This set of people know exactly what is going on but pretend otherwise out of fear or, avarice or, both.

      Existentialism teaches us that entities, be they human or corporate, are born or, created, and put into their environments without purpose. They now have to find their purpose through choice and the deliberate expression of their will. Conversely, an entity’s purpose may be given to it by its creator, thus, its will may be an expression of its creator’s own purpose.

      The colony of Nigeria was created by the British as a colonial business enterprise. Its purpose was to enrich its creator by being a monopolistic market and a steady source of very cheap, primary raw materials. It fulfilled these purposes well, until uncontrollable circumstances, namely, the second world war; forced the British to relinquish control of its creation. Thus, the modern independent state of Nigeria was born.

      The new “state” of Nigeria still continued to fulfil the purpose of its creators as a neo-colonialist enterprise. But, right from inception made pretences at having a purpose within the comity of nations. It is this self-deception and the shying away from a set of crucial questions by its political and intellectual elite; that has created the existential crisis we’re now in. This existential crisis is the root cause of the threat to Nigeria remaining a state. It is what has plunged Nigeria into the long persisting survival crisis that it has found itself.  These questions are – What is Nigeria? Why should there be a state called Nigeria? Is there a need for a state called Nigeria? It’s the fear of confronting these questions that had prolonged the agony of its citizens.

      A nation may exist without a state but, a state as of necessity is made up of a nation or, group of nations. A nation is a group of people having a common origin and history, a unique language and culture, a perceived belief in a common destiny and, a unique way of viewing creation and the universe.

       The objective realities of global geo-political history are that; a nation may grow organically into a state. An example of this is the nation of Japanese people growing organically to become the state of Japan. The same thing can also be said of the French, Chinese, Russians, Arabs, Israelis and, many others. Thus, their reason for being is easily expressed in the spirit of “one people, with one destiny under the same sky.”

      On the other hand, a state can come about through the negotiations of a group of nations among themselves. In this instance, a group of nations come to a round table and hammer out the details of state creation. In other words, these individual nations become part of one country because they desire to do so. This may be done for any number of reasons, which may include – security, prosperity, obvious similarities, combined advantageous potential elements that enhance and uplift the individual component nations. The key aspect of this is, the nations are in such a state by choice. They are there because they want to be in such a union and, not due to coercion. They are there because they can see the clear and overt advantages of being in such a union. The oldest examples of such states are Switzerland, Canada and, the United States of America.

      Conversely, states that have come to be without the active negotiations of their component nations have been plagued with unrelenting existential and survival crises. This has been the case with most states that originated from being colonies. This fact is the fundamental contradiction creating the crises.

     The people of the various nations in sub-Saharan West Africa are not new to operating in the survival mode. In the last four hundred years, the people of this region have lived through consistent trauma. They have had to live through self-serving jihads. Inhuman slave trading. Humiliating colonial domination. Thoughtless civil wars. Soul numbing ignorance. Gangster political leadership. Disease and excruciating poverty and, much more. It is quite right to say that the component nations that make up the state of Nigeria have been through all this, and more.

      It is reported that one out of every four people of African descent can trace their roots back to one of the nationalities that make Nigeria. This makes Nigeria crucial to the development of people of African descent worldwide. Thus, it is very important to examine the contradictions causing the crises that had stymied the growth of this country. This can only be done by looking at the issues from the beginning, dispassionately.

       It is very important to point out a fundamental understanding of the fact that, colonies were never designed by their creators to function as states. Although they had structures and institutions that mimicked those of a real state, all these were deliberately perverted by their creators to enhance and accelerate primitive exploitative functions. Absolutely, none of the sub-systems of a colony is designed to function the way they should. They were all designed to subjugate and exploit the indigenous population with undisguised rapacity. The fact that colonies metamorphosed into independent states are an accident of global history.                                                               

      The colony of Nigeria which became the state of Nigeria was never designed by the British to function as a normal state. What they designed was a contraption that mimicked a state, but was programmed to appropriate and send an outflow of resources to the United Kingdom and its western allies. It is painful to point out that the Nigerian state still carries out this function.

      The colony of Nigeria was an odd contraption of more than three hundred and fifty nations, most of whom were brought to heel by force of arms. It is this amalgam of strange bedfellows that became the independent state of Nigeria. It may be argued that the terms of “independence” were negotiated, it was between a highly suspect political elite and their slave masters. True negotiations between supposedly co-existing nations never took place. This is the fundamental contradiction that is at the root of the existential and survival crisis Nigeria has found itself in since independence.

      The implementation of the Independence and Republican constitutions did not ameliorate the institutional and systemic contradictions that characterised deep-seated animosities and suspicions that had always existed between the nations that occupied the state of Nigeria. Matters were not helped by the invisible but, dominant hand of the colonial masters who continued to operate their business through local proxies.

      Deep cleavages became obvious in the political landscape immediately after independence. The rancour, treachery and, back-stabbing that characterised the six years after the gaining of independence is another story on its own. Suffice to say that, all the elements that were needed in building a viable newly created state were totally absent. This was so because of the fact that the most crucial element to creating a viable state was missing in the thinking of the political and intellectual elite – a unified sense of purpose.

      Despite the fact that, individually, the top-ranking members of the Nigerian political class were extraordinarily brilliant individuals; their personal biases destroyed that brilliance. At the root of this was deep primordial suspicions that had existed before the white man came on the scene. This was due to events that took place over a century before the coming of the colonialists. Thus, despite their education, eloquence, brilliance, there was an endemic xenophobic streak inherent in all the members of the Nigerian political elite. It is this basic character flaw in all of them, that made the building of a viable state impossible and, still makes it impossible. Thus, every action of the political elite had almost always had unintended disastrous consequences.

      The colonialists agreed to give the newly emerging state of Nigeria an administrative structure of three regions. However, this structure was obviously skewed in favour of the north. This automatically created an imbalance in the country’s administrative structure. This fundamental contradiction was inserted into the state structure by the colonialists, deliberately.

      It must be noted that nothing in politics occurs by happenstance. Things may occur due to the laws of unintended consequences but, never by happenstance. Nevertheless, all primary actions in the realm of politics are due to deliberate thought and intentions.

      Thus, the singular deliberate policy of an imbalanced administrative structure by the colonialists, was a deliberate action, from inception, to make the Nigerian state unworkable. This is because it gave the northern region an unnecessary and undue advantage in the political power structure. This made the other regions automatically disadvantaged and challenged within the political power matrix. A situation like that is humanly intolerable. Nobody or, a group of people like to play second fiddle and, the colonial masters knew this.

      Thus, with this fundamental policy of destabilisation firmly in place, and the basic existential questions deliberately ignored due to greed, ambition and, fear, the foundation for endless crises was hammered into place. Even before independence, it was obvious to anybody of average perception that things were not working out. The endless bickering, antagonisms, back-stabbing, betrayals, and openly domineering tendencies of the elite political elements, the details of which will be treated in subsequent discourses, was very disheartening to the enlightened segment of the citizenry.

      How this bunch of mutual antagonists came together to form a state called Nigeria can logically be explained on the basis of two facts – the need by the British to preserve its neo-colonial business enterprise and; the greed and personal ambitions of the apex political actors in all the regions. It was obvious to neutral intellectuals around the world that Nigeria, just like a majority of colonies agitating for independence was a tragedy waiting to happen.

       Within a decade of Nigeria gaining statehood, a monumental humanitarian disaster occurred. Oceans of innocent blood were spilt, all because of the hatred, arrogance, thoughtlessness, mind-numbing stupidity, with the youthful exuberance of a paltry few. It has been observed that the disaster could have been averted if only a little humility and common sense had been applied by the political actors of that sad drama. A repeat scenario is already playing out again, slowly. The only observable difference this time is that the situation is more insidious because there will be an implosion rather than an explosion. This is really dangerous because of the devastating effect it will have on the citizenry in general, and not a particular section. This can already be seen through the current observable fracture in political authority.

      In conclusion, due to the deliberate reluctance of the oligarchic political elite, their inheritors, with the newly emergent collaborator class to face existential realities; the various crises plaguing state survival will continue unabated. Meanwhile, the extraordinary citizens of the nations that make up Nigeria continue to battle against debilitating material conditions and, poor standards of living that are not of their own making. It is the writer’s intention to examine the crisis of state survival and confront the fundamental existential questions in subsequent discourses. 

   

      

FIRE GUTTED ACCOUNTANT GENERAL’S OFFICE: AN ARSON OR ACCIDENT?

It is no longer news that the Capital Unit of the Treasury House where the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation is located, was gutted by fire on Wednesday morning, 8^th April.

      The Capital Unit in the OAGF’s office is where the money to be spent by the ministries, departments, and agencies of government are made and released.

      As would be expected, this incident sparked reactions, albeit, negative ones from the polity. The first vitriolic reaction came from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). According to reports gotten from highly credible national dailies, the party’s national publicity secretary made its position known by wondering why the fire incident should occur when it did.

      According to reports from the national dailies, the PDP was highly suspicious of the timing of the fire incident. They wondered why the incident should occur at the time calls were being made for “a forensic audit into the hazy oil-subsidy regime of the President Buhari-led administration for which trillions of naira are being claimed to have been spent”.

      The main opposition party’s spokesman, according to reports, went further by saying that; “this is in addition to recent demands”, into allegations of financial wrongdoings and fraud in relation to the alleged diversion of COVID-19 intervention funds and, the administration’s social investments programmes since 2015. He went further by saying that, the PDP spearheaded the demands by Nigerians to the National Assembly to investigate these social incentives programmes spending.

      Thus, the PDP demanded an unbiased investigation into the unfortunate fire incident.

 The body’s spokesperson wondered why the fire incident occurred a few hours after a normally “docile and pliant National Assembly” raised issues of suspicion of fraud and misuse of public funds running into multiples of billions of naira.

       Speaking on the same fire incident according to highly respected national dailies. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), viewed the incident with huge disapproval. The body’s spokesperson wondered why the fire incident occurred a few hours after a normally “docile and pliant National Assembly” raised issues of suspicion of fraud and misuse of public funds running into multiples of billions of naira.

          The HURIWA spokesperson wondered why a fire would suddenly gut the OAGF’s office only hours “after the Senate uncovered an alleged monumental heist in the Federal Government’s school feeding programmes.” They insisted that a forensic investigation be carried out, to ascertain the true causes of the fire.

         The human rights organisation and other highly placed personalities in the human rights community were highly cynical about the timing of the fire incident. They couldn’t help pointing out how shoddy the management of government resources was. This they said was evident from the fact that media reports are always claiming that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), and other entities; claimed to have generated billions of naira in revenue for the government. Yet, the minister for finance still has to run helter-skelter, with cap in hand, seeking foreign loans. This makes the government’s position very watery.

           However, when all is said and done, was this truly an accident; or an act of economic sabotage? The answer to that will always be highly speculative. Now, let’s take a closer look at the issues.

         No government in the world, no matter how backward, deals with physical cash in its operations. Although countries like Nigeria are still relatively unsophisticated compared to the western world, money issues are mostly electronic. This means that no really significant sum of money could have been lost in the fire, except, petty cash used in running the office. It would be extremely absurd for anybody, no matter how disturbed, to torch a government building to cover up the stealing of petty cash.

          Conversely, the loss of extremely sensitive documentation would be staggering. Files, internal memoranda detailing sensitive instructions, sensitive intra-departmental policy thrusts, top-secret documentation, etc.; would definitely have been lost to the conflagration. Unless all documents also existed in soft copy, which is highly unlikely, given the sensitivity of certain documents, some things of importance are gone forever. Then there’s the issue of continuity, which cannot be done in an electronic format.

        However, the authority’s explanations that the fire was caused by a faulty air conditioning unit are also highly plausible; since that has been known to happen. Air conditioning units have reduced many houses to ashes. This is a fact. Unfortunately, the timing of the incident makes it highly suspicious.

        Whichever way you look at it, the losers in this unfortunate incident are Nigerians. So, what do you think happened? Let me know through your comments below.   

            

                   

5 REASONS WHY AFRICAN RULERS CAN'T MANAGE POLITICAL POWER

If there are two things that everybody wants more of, it’s money and power. Both are intricately linked. The more money you have, the more power you have and, it goes the other way also; the money always follows the power.

      Power makes things happen. Power allows the wielder to act. Power is the ability to do. Power moves things.

      There are different kinds of power – physical power, chemical power, spiritual power et al. However, the true power, the one that makes a difference in social relations is, political power. On the macro-level, it is the force that arranges social hierarchy. In other words, the rulers at the top of society and the slaves at the bottom. On the micro-level, it is the force that arranges hierarchy within groups; it decides who leads and who follows. Both on the macro and micro levels it decides who does the sharing of resources.

      In Africa, from antiquity, power has always been an issue of great importance. It is not different from other societies where the struggle for societal control dominates social life. In Africa of antiquity, there were only two ways or, a combination of two ways, by which an individual can acquire political power. First, through the agency of the warrior and, second, through the agency of the shrine.

        The agency of the shrine is the avenue through which all forms of political leadership came into being. This is universal. All societies in antiquity had been initially led by the priesthood class.  

        Those who had access to the unseen realms or, claimed to have access to it, led all primary societies. This is because early societies had limited knowledge of their environments. There were so many things they did not understand. The man or woman who could rationalise what was happening around them automatically led the group.

 In fact, pretensions to democratic ideals in recent times has not changed this scenario. It seems that any form of political power sends the power wielder into a form of drunken madness. - Ayo Sodipo 

       Political power revolves around decision-making and the sharing of resources. Those who gravitated towards the priesthood were naturally more intelligent and less intimidated by their environment. This gave them social hegemony. Their power came from their ability to manipulate the fears of the group.

      However, along came the man of violence. His natural endowments automatically made him feared in his group and, this gave him rights in the acquisition of the group’s resources. The “priest”, recognising the need for such an individual, both for the group’s survival and their continued place of prominence in it; bonded with him to form the first royalty.

      In Africa, the surest path to political power was through the agency of the warrior. This has always been how it is, and the advent of colonialism did not change anything. The nature of this power-matrix seems to be ingrained in the psyche of the African. This is that political power is transferred only at the death of the power wielder.

      Thus, the moment the colonialists left and self-rule was attained, practically all countries in Africa became dictatorships. The educated elite that took over from the European overlords suddenly dropped any pretence to democratic ideals and, wore the toga of traditional demi-god royalties. Any form of criticism was frowned upon and usually attracted harsh sanctions, and; any form of opposition to the government, the ruling party, or ruler was considered to be treason. The penalty for this was death and, this sometimes included the family and friends of the erring party. It is this rabid intolerance to any form of opposition that led to the many and, continuing fratricidal wars and conflicts that have plagued the continent.

       In fact, pretensions to democratic ideals in recent times have not changed this scenario. It seems that any form of political power sends the power wielder into a form of drunken madness. The nature of the personality change is always immediate and radical. Campaign promises are forgotten immediately. Predecessors are demonised and hounded into prison, exile, or death. Moves are overtly made for self-perpetuation. And, the cycle of demonic infantile rascality, conspicuous consumption of the country’s resources and, egomaniacal personality shifts start over.

      That disputes and struggles for power have made Africa remain grounded in the quick-sands of underdevelopment, is an understatement. Despite the enormous riches in human and material resources, the continent has remained rooted in the contradictions of visionless leadership. Leaders who espoused clear and meaningful plans jettison them in drunken madness the moment they come to power. All their focus is now placed on how to pocket the country and die in power. This is pathetic.

      The great masses of the African continent are left with little choice but to promote pro-democracy elements and, hope they don’t become tainted with madness. The implications for the continent if things continue the way they are are too dire. Already, masses of African youths are risking their lives in perilous journeys to Europe rather than remaining in the land of their births. These are some of the best and brightest. They would rather chance desert crossings, slave selling gangs, and hazardous sea crossings, than stay at home in hopelessness.

      Things just have to change. I recommend the administration of anti-mad dog serum to all political officeholders.

KLEPTOPATHOLOGY: A HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS NIGERIAN DISEASE

The word "kleptopathology" is a coined one. It is a combination of two words – kleptomania and pathology. The first word refers to a person who has an uncontrollable compulsion to steal. The second refers to the study of diseases, especially, contagious ones. Thus, kleptopathology is a disease that affects the sufferer in such a way that, not only is the person a compulsive thief; but, infects those who are close to him or her with the thieving bug. Even those who can only see and hear the sufferer are infected. This is how potent and contagious the stealing bug is. The major carriers and spreaders of this contagion are the Nigerian governing class – politicians, government officials, and, their families, cronies, and sponsors.

      Strangely, in traditional Nigerian society, stealing is hated and forbidden. In all Nigerian nationalities, stealing attracts serious punishments. These may include ostracism and, banishment. This is why it is strange that the looting and corruption in government are tolerated. However, to understand this, the past has to be examined.

   Modern governance in Nigeria started with British colonial rule. It is a known fact that colonial policy was the open and rapacious economic exploitation of the colonised territory. Thus, the Nigerian colonial government was set up to exploit the Nigerian territory. The issue of development in the colonised territory occurred when it facilitated exploitation and, abetted the comfort of the colonising personnel. Furthermore, although the structure of colonial government mimicked that of its imperial creator, it was skewed to facilitate exploitation. The foreign colonial officers all left the territory, rich. This was the norm in all colonised areas of the world. This trend is almost universal. As it is normal in human nature, the educated native elite watched their conquerors and learnt, wrongly, how to run the government.

      The second world war ended the ownership of colonial territories for the imperial powers. In fact, the war ended Britain's status as a superpower and global arbiter. In Nigeria, as the British carried out a gradual withdrawal of its personnel, they were replaced by the educated Nigerian elite. Thus, it was a case of replacing white faces with black ones but, the function of government remained the same – exploitation. The black elite did not, or were reluctant to rearrange structures to benefit their newly won country. Instead, they let the status quo remain out of ignorance. This unfortunate state of affairs was to set the tone for future pains. What most people don’t know is that official corruption had started even then, but was undetected because of the low level of awareness in the citizenry due to blanket illiteracy. Although, it must be said that the elite then still had shame and, being called a thief was still very painful. This made the level of thievery very low compared to now.

      Fast forward to the independence period, tensions among the major competing nationalities in the state led to a colossal human tragedy – ,the Nigerian civil war. After this totally avoidable catastrophe ended in 1970, the Nigerian military took over the country’s governance. In fact, the army was in charge.

      Although the military held the reins of power, it was the civil servants that ran the country. It was the top civil servants that dictated policy. They were the people that kept the country on an even keel during the years immediately after the civil war. There was corruption in government but, it was done cautiously and covertly. However, during the regime of General Murtala Mohamed in 1975, a massive purge of the management level of the civil service was carried out. This action sent shock waves through the civil service establishment. Most of those who were affected by the purge had nothing to fall back on. Amongst them, the derogatory phrase – “from Ikoyi to Ajegunle”, meaning, a person who used to live in Ikoyi, but now has to live in Ajegunle because of a sudden reversal in fortunes; became a reality. Their juniors who watched in horror as this drama unfolded, determined to protect themselves against future penury. This was the beginning of officially tolerated stealing and corruption.

     Thus, the civil servants taught the politicised soldiers how to steal and, the soldiers gave the civil servants the thumbs up. All the while, the true professional politicians were beside themselves to get back to power. Seeing now, that stealing from state coffers was an open game. Since that time, and until the present, it has been open season on the Nigerian treasury. The soldiers, having learnt the game, allowed the pro-politicians a brief stay in power “to chop”; then seized power and, holding on to it for two decades. At the end of this period, the clamour for the return to democratic rule was so strident that, power had to be returned to the civilians. The soldiers simply removed their uniforms, put on civilian garb, and joined the horde of pro-politicians and top government officials to continue the looting.

" Thus, kleptopathology is a disease that affects the sufferer in such a way that, not only is the person a compulsive thief; but, infects those who are close to him or her with the thieving bug. Even those who can only see and hear the sufferer are infected. This is how potent and contagious the stealing bug is". - Ayo Sodipo

      The issues of compulsive and infectious stealing, corrosive corruption, and underdevelopment, have been studied and analysed for some time in Nigeria. What most people agree on is that, given the country’s antecedents, the problem has to be hydra-headed.

      It has been said that the material condition of a human being determines his other conditions. This means that, for example, if a person is materially poor, he or she will also be mentally and emotionally poor. Most of our leaders come from quite impoverished backgrounds. They were seriously materially deprived in their youth. Thus, this condition has warped their psyches so much that they cannot but think that they are poor, even if they are physically in possession of billions. This form of insanity which can be recognised through the rapacious and avaricious grabbing of resources, continually feeds on itself, thus creating a thieving monster. Strangely, those who are most afflicted by this ailment are the quickest to call other people thieves.

      As reasonable as the above arguments seem, a lot of social analysts don’t agree with them. They insist that the fact that a person was materially deprived during youth, doesn’t mean that the person will become a compulsive thief in the future. They insist that another head of the hydra has to be looked at if the problem is to be understood.

      It has been established that there’s a disconnection between the state and its component parts. The effective instrument of the state is the government. Thus, there’s a disconnection between the government and the people. In other words, right from inception during the colonial era to the present, the government has always been alien to the people of Nigeria. The government has always been seen as some kind of “foreign land” that tribal champions go to, to bring the golden fleece to their people.

      Thus, the average Nigerian doesn’t see him or herself as having any sense of ownership in government. There is no sense of belonging. No matter the amount of lip service paid to citizens’ patriotism, the average Nigerian’s thinking is that of a person living in a foreign land. This is why when people steal government money they are applauded by their tribesmen and seen as heroes, while derided by those of other tribes. In fact, when an individual attains any position of power in government, his people will tell him or her that “it is our turn”. In other words, it is our turn to steal money through you. It never occurs to them that it is their commonwealth that is being stolen, while they don’t even get a rat’s pittance. In their penury, they are happy that it is their tribesman that is stealing the money.  Even when it is obvious that the money being stolen is for the development of their communities, they seem to care less. The stupidity of logic and reasoning is baffling.

      Nevertheless, another head of the hydra has to be examined. It has been successfully argued that the reason the stealing of state money has become a tradition is that nobody really gets punished. In fact, the higher up the individual in the power structure, the less the possibility that he will ever be brought to justice. This particular head of the hydra is the pathetically weak correctional institution the state has. These institutions are perennially under-funded, over-bloated, lack true talent, and lack political neutrality. All these institutions are heavily politicised. This makes them impotent as watchdogs of the state’s treasury. The structures of these institutions have been damaged in such a way that they have been made deliberately incompetent. Their ability to function has been seriously compromised by political interference. Until these issues are seriously addressed, the stealing will go on unabated.

      However, another thing to look at is the tolerance society has for any type of wealth. The source of people’s wealth is never queried. This makes it easy for people of questionable character to enter the political arena. Even the political parties don’t vet their members. The only criteria needed to join a political party is money. The issue of unchallenged wealth has made the asking of simple common sense questions moot. It should not be considered a witch hunt to ask questions when an individual is obviously living beyond his or her means. If this is done, association with questionable characters and stealing will be reduced. The seriousness of this issue is such that, at the family level, elders have lost their moral authority because of aggrandizement with ill-gotten wealth. Everybody just wants the loot; nobody wants to know how it came. What a shame!

      Strangely, the issue of questionable wealth is intricately tied to the issue of questionable leadership. Analysts say that one of the most vicious heads of the hydra is the hijacking of the institutions of the state by criminal gangs. These elements operate clandestinely within the state’s institutions, forming stealing cliques along primordial lines. Positions of authority to allocate economic resources are hijacked and, staffed with anti-state criminal elements of the competing cliques. This is to facilitate the seamless looting of the treasury. Useful policies that would have benefitted the polity if properly executed, are strangled, as criminal gangs in government battle each other for supremacy.

      However, a majority of analysts believe that the real problem is the feeling of entitlement that top-ranking elements in the government have. These people believe that they’re the custodians of state wealth. They truly believe that they have the right to keep and, give, to whom they please, money belonging to the state. This fact is clearly established by the way they, their family members, and cronies; openly squander state funds without fear of sanctions. This shameful state of affairs is manifest at all levels of government. We have seen and, we are seeing situations in which godfathers and godsons engage in open war, because of this issue. They don’t even hide the reason why they are fighting. Socio-economic development can never occur, as long as political leadership has a sense of entitlement to state funds.

      All-in-all, where do the citizens of Nigeria stand? The obvious answer is, not well. So long as the country’s ruling and governing classes remain hopelessly and terminally infected with the kleptopathology bug; the possibility of socio-economic development will remain a mirage. The good news is that; all viruses end up consuming their hosts. The question is when and, what kind?

      That change will occur is an inevitability because natural law dictates it! However, while the terminally ill anti-state criminal elements battle each other into oblivion over who has the right to steal more; the dynamics of their struggle will lead to said changes. What kind of changes?

       The struggle amongst these anti-state criminal elements could lead to a most unfortunate conflagration. This kind of change is usually caused by the vociferous stirring of primordial sentiments in each group’s base. The multiplier effect and fallout of such a change will be the destabilisation of the continent for decades to come.

      However, a more likely scenario will be that the anti-state criminal elements will be consumed in internal and inter-group struggles. Their mutually assured destruction will lead to the rise of pro-development champions. This is how the rise of the pan-Nigeria and pan-Africa renaissance will occur.