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.
