NIGERIA @ 51

Paper Independence

By Aba Saheed

What’s it we were celebrating? How could we as a country continue to delude ourselves and say we are independent or free? We all know that we are neither independent nor free. All indexes of independence or freedom are completely absent in our lives, in our ways and in our thoughts as a people. But nonetheless we continue to make ourselves a laughing stock in the eyes of the international community, especially the diplomats in our midst who are witnesses to our daily actions and activities.

We were not given any Independence on October 1, 1960, even though on that fateful day, ignorant young people like my humble self were dancing our heads off all night on the streets of Ago Iwoye and throughout the country. Our girlfriends with their heavy turban-like wigs and mini-skirts also shared in the parade of idiots with us as we jazzed all night to the fast high pitched tempo of Chubby Checker and the pulsating rhythm of IK Dairo and Roy Chicago. We were drunk with ecstatic expectations.

Events since that day have proved beyond reasonable doubt that what the cunning and ever deceitful Colonial masters handed over to our inexperienced leaders was a mere paper document. A piece of document that was not as worthy as a toilet paper.

We graduated from full blown colonialism to wobbly neo-colonialism and from thence to a carefully pre-programmed Civil War that would have put paid to the young geographical contraption but for the good heart and good sense of young Yakubu Gowon.

Since 1970, it has been experiment upon experiment. And these recurring experiments continued to ignore the basic fundamentals of nation building. You cannot grow a country out of mere intent, or worse, through force of colonization.

There was actually no Nigeria before the so-called paper Independence was handed over to leaders who were not born Nigerians. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe,1904, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 1909, Sir Ahmadu Bello 1912, and even Chief Ladoke Akintola, Mallam Aminu Kano, were all born before Lugard’s wife dreamt up a name for the Niger river area.

The fact that some one, out of administrative convenience, gives a label to several diverse nationalities within his/her trading area does not make the nations in the area answer to the label. Several nationalities in Africa are comfortable with collective name of Africa, because that is the continent they all belong to, but when you call some one a Sudanese, many nations in the enclave will contest the title and the label.

It is within this context the nationalities in this contraption kept clamouring for a conference where the marriage which Lugard contracted on their behalf, and without their consent, should be discussed and agreement reached on terms governing the union.

The structure of this union is very faulty. The foundation is, to say the least, baseless. And those who contrived this union knew that it would never work, and they of course did NOT want it to work or succeed! Herein lies all the woes that have befallen this place called Nigeria since the day of paper independence.

As Dr Yemi Farounbi is fond of saying, Nigeria is like a dilapidated building about to collapse, and you assemble the best painters in the world to give it a beautiful whitewash and paint.

There are basic imperatives that we must satisfy before we can ever consider ourselves free, and thereafter think of celebrating Independence. The most important, and certainly non-negotiable, is the consideration of our terms of union. This must be resolved if the country called Nigeria can ever take off and get itself out of this perennial toddler stage. Do we want to be a federation or a confederation? Do we want semi-independent regional entities bound together only in matters of defence, common currency and common foreign policy?

As earlier hinted, this cardinal issue ought to have been settled before the Colonialists left. But that would not be in their selfish interest.

I dare say that all other issues would fall in line once we are able to resolve the encompassing question of terms of the union and the structure of the entity that evolves from the kind of union is agreed to.

Talking specifically of freedom in its literary entirety, we have a long way to go. We are far from free from ignorance, from diseases, from poverty, from unemployment, from insecurity, from crass inequality in terms of equitable distribution of the country’s resources, and far from freedom of thought.

One of the great leaders of Africa had opined that the greatest problem of the African is his mental colonisation. Of this, we may write a whole 1000-page book to address the terrible problem. Nowhere is this colonisation more visible than in the realm of religion. Nigerians are simply confused and totally enslaved.

The most insulting to the dignity and sanctity of our traditions and cherished cultures is the nauseating practice of changing our forefathers’ noble and historic names in the name of religion.

How can anybody be ashamed of beautiful and meaningful names like Ogungbemi, Ogundayisi, Ifaturoti, Ifalae, Esubiyi, Esuruoso, Osowemimo, Osoleye, Osodimimu, Osoyimika, Osofoluwe, Osofowote, Osonaike, Osogbesan, Osonubi, Osowale, Ifape, Ifasawe, Ifabunmi, and Ifagbemi?

The fact is, THERE ARE NO MUSLIM NAMES. THERE ARE NO CHRISTIAN NAMES. There are Arab names and there are Jewish names. The name Mohammed had existed thousands of years before Prophet Mohammed was born. And there had been many Emmanuels and Jesuses before the birth of the chosen One. Worse still, the so-called Arab and Jewish names don’t even come to us in their original form. They have all been anglicized or Yorubanised or Igbonised. Albert thus becomes Aliba in Okirika, and Mohammed becomes Mamudu, Momodu, Momoh, Memet, depending on the level of corruption. 

Nigerian Compass