Nigeria`s recently celebrated 62nd Independence Annsiversary brought with it a fresh opportunity to reflect on how far Nigeria has come as an independent country in sixty-two years,how well it has journeyed, and what it can done to ensure that it does not run out of legs as it continues its journey going forward.
By all accounts, Lord Lugard`s seeming masterstroke of 1914 was not borne out of a deep reflection. Maybe, it had immediate economic and administrative benefits. But it was incredibly shortsighted in that it did not take into account the implications of bringing together two diametrically different regions of the country in what was at best a marriage of convenience. If Lord Lugard`s calculation was that like what obtains in some marriages, the southern and northern protectorates of Nigeria brought together by his 1914 amalgamation would sort themselves out and grow to love each other, it has proved a disastrous calculation. I
In fact, it is a marriage that has grown increasingly strained with time. Matters came to a head a few years after independence when military coup followed military coup until the catastrophic civil war of 1967-70 saw the illusions of one independent and united country explode in a plume of smoke.
The journey so far
For Nigeria, the journey so far has been one full of many difficult tests and trials. It has been an excruciating experimentation of what works for people and specifically, what works in the country. For many years, nothing has really worked. Even the little that has worked has worked largely by chance than by design. What has been left is a country that has known no little fragility.
Of course, the story has been replete with square pegs in round holes. So many of Nigeria`s struggle as a country started when some military men following a pattern that was then rampant across Africa in the 60s and 70s, leapt into the corridors of power.
For many years, their actions which were informed more by avarice than anything else proved disruptive of Nigeria`s fragile democracy. The fact that no one knew when they would strike was enough to elicit the kind of fear and anxiety that no serious country should ever have to experience.
When they did strike, they were often ruthless, digging in their heels, enjoying years in power during which they successfully laid to rest many of Nigeria`s febrile attempts at building solid institutions.
The less said about their decimation of the Nigerian civil society and their alienation of the Nigerian diaspora and international community, the better. But can enough ever be said of the pervasive corruption which practically became a principle of state policy under the Babangida junta before going on to acquire chilling notoriety under the Abacha regime. That till this day, outrageous sums of money stolen by the now deceased Abacha and stashed away in foreign countries continue to be repatriated back to the country in tranches amidst fear that they may yet be stolen speaks of the pervasive power corruption wields in Nigeria.
All these give a biting background to the blight that has bulldozed a benighted country in the last seven years under the All Progressive Congress. The party may have inherited a riot of rot from the Peoples Democratic Party but when at President Muhammadu Buhari`s swearing in in May 2015, it was inconceivable that the country would head downhill in spite of his s effusive promises. Today, the worst fears of many have been confirmed.
With the 2023 general elections hurtling ever closer, Nigerians would be fed into the cauldron of choice acutely aware that whosoever they choose and whoever they choose to forgo would have drastic consequences. But are Nigerians ready?
In a country carved apart by ethnic and religious differences, are Nigerians ready to risk the uncertainties that may yet yield the highest returns for themselves and their unborn.
In a country caught in the pangs of childbirth, are there enough midwives to assist in what has been a difficult birth? Will the cry of the baby be heard or is the country about to be rattled and haunted again by the another stillbirth? Time, that unerring fortuneteller, will tell.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
