Happy Independence Day Nigeria!

Happy independence celebrations Nigeria !

Today Nigeria celebrates her political independence from colonialism. Colonialism is a political movement or process whereby a more advanced country socially, economically and politically dominates over a less developed one. Nigerian history is to say the truth, incomplete without colonialism and colonialism was what brought us together as a nation.

Before colonialism began, Nigeria was just a vast piece of lands occupied by different tribes and ethnic groups that had little or nothing in common. It is noteworthy here to state here that each tribe and ethnic group had its own organized form or government and most pre-colonial Nigerian societies were politically organized with laws and orders, nevertheless most of these political institutions were not democratic, leadership in most cases were hereditary and according to history, there were some traditional rulers who were dictators.

We believe in a prosperous Nigeria.

What Was The Impact of Slave Trade On Nigeria And The Rest of Africa?

No matter how the world or the super powers try to pretend that the slave trade was a mistake, Nigerians and Africans will forever remember the negative impact of the slave trade. The slave trade lasted almost for a century and within that time; millions of vibrant, youthful and visionary Africans were forcefully shipped to Europe and America to be working on the farms of their white masters.

 Slave trade was another sordid matter that would be discussed someday. We may all pretend that it doesn’t matter and that it happened some hundreds years back yet the wound it left in its wake will be never be healed because many of the African problems today are directly or indirectly connected to the negative impact of this inhumanity.


When And Why Did Colonialism Begin?

Many centuries before the Europeans arrived on the shores of Nigeria, the Arabs had been in contact with the Northern part of Nigeria and had Islamized it in the eighteenth century under the Jihadist leader, Othman Dan Fodio who after conquering the aboriginals called Habe people instituted a well-structured emirate system with two headquarters in Sokoto and Gwandu.

Late in the eighteenth century, the Europeans came to Africa en masse at the height of industrial revolution in Europe. The Portuguese were the first set of Europeans to arrive Nigeria through the Atlantic Ocean and they began trading with the people, especially in the southern part. By then, Nigeria had no name so to say. Later, the British, the French, the Germans and the rest of the developed European countries came down to Africa lay claim to certain parts of the continents that rich with untapped human and natural resources.

 The scramble almost led to war among these European super powers until the then Monarch of England called a meeting in Berlin, German capital for all the European expansionists to ensure the peaceful division of the country among the European countries. This meeting was held from 1884 to 1885. This meeting was what sealed the fate of Africa for hundreds of years to come. At the end of the meeting, each European super power had already decided which part of Africa it wanted to colonies.

Britain ended up colonizing four countries in the western part of Africa, this includes: Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia and Sierra Leone. These countries (including Liberia) are called Anglophone countries in West Africa.
Colonialism began in Nigeria in 1898 but some records claimed that it began in 1900 but whatever the case maybe, it began and the British government sent some low level government officials to Nigeria to being the colonial administration of Nigeria.

  When the British came, they introduced Indirect Rule System; a system of colonial administration in which the British colonial masters made use of the existing political institutions and traditional rulers in administering the country. They adopted this system because they were short of willing European personnel, lack of funds, unfriendly climatic conditions and so on. Lord Fredrich Lugard became the first colonial governor General of Nigeria and it was during his time as the governor that Nigeria was given her name in 1906 by Miss Flora Shaw who was the secretary to the Governor before she later became his wife.

It was also during the time of Lord Lugard that the Northern and the Southern protectorates of Nigeria were amalgamated (or joined together) in 1914.
The Beginning of Political Activities In Nigeria.
In 1922, Nigeria had a new colonial governor general; his name was Sir Hugh Clifford. Sir Hugh Clifford swung to action immediately he became governor and he introduced elective principle. Elective principle is the principle or process which allows indigenous Africans to be able to elect their representatives in the colonial master’s administration. This earned him some level of respect from some educated elites who had been fighting his predecessor for not including Nigerians in his administration.

Introducing elective principle gave birth to the establishment of political parties in Nigeria. Therefore, the frist political party to be established in Nigeria was NNDP (Nigerian National Democratic Party) in 1923, by Herbert Macaulay, the grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the Archbishop who translated the English bible into Yoruba. From that time onward, political activities fully began in Nigeria and it  gradually spread to the rest of the African countries.


Was Colonialism A Blessing Or A Curse?

The answer to this question depends on how one sees it but from a conventional perspective, it was a blessing turned curse.
I will explain.
Nigeria experienced tremendous positive changes during the colonial period and even few years afer colonialism. For instance, colonialism and the activities of the missionaries brought western education to the country which led to the establishment of schools in strategic places in Nigeria. Many of these schools are still in existence in Nigeria till date. Also, colonialism made our economy one of the fastest growing economies in the world in the 1960s.

The British government is more of a conservatie government, therefore it was able to effectively to harness most of the human and natural resourecs together to build a vibrant economy that was principally based on agriculture.  Though we cannot forget the fact that during this period, huge junk of our income was pumped into the British economy to boost their growth, yet the little that were brought back to Nigeria were effectively used fo developmental projects some of which were still in evidence today. Principal among this is our rail system that is no longer functioning.


Post Colonialism Nigeria.

From the 1940s to the 1950s, people and organizations both within and outside Nigeria began to mount pressure on the colonial masters to grant Nigeria independence.  This pressure was especially much in the late 1950s until the British government was forced to grant Nigeria a partial independence in 1960. It was a partial independence because the queen of England still remained our head of state while Nnamdi Azikwe became the first indigenous governor general.

Nigeria was granted political independence from colonialism in 1960 which means that the British colonial masters stopped ruling Nigeria. So the last colonial governor General in Nigeria was Sir James Robertson.  In 1960, (on October 1st to be precise), the British flag (the union jack) was lowered and the Nigerian flag of green and white was hosted and our national anthem was sung for the first time. At the independence celebration, the queen of England among other notable world figures was in Nigeria that day. That was the last time the queen came to Nigeria though.

In 1963 however, the Queen stopped being our head of state and the mantle of leadership of the country was totally in the hands of our indigenous leaders.


Where Did Nigeria Get It Wrong?

Perhaps the failure of Nigeria as a nation today is blamable on our early leaders. These leaders should be held responsible for our failures because they were the foundational members of our politics but they messed it up. Instead of building a strong and united nation, they were playing ethnic politics and their administrations were fraught with greed, corruption and selfishness. Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, S. L. Akintola and all others are part of the reasons why this country is failing today, they were the ones who formed the government from 1960-1966 and they were the reasons for the eventual downfall of the country which began in 1966.

Picture of all the Nigerian leaders.

1966, The Year Nigeria Began To Fail.

After the general elections of 1963, there were pockets of crisis in the different parts of Nigeria. Some of these crises were because of the elections results while others were crisis gingered by leadership tussle among the people listed above.  For instance, the Western part of Nigeria was filled with political mayhem and anarchy until a state of emergency was declared in the region and the regional government was suspended because the two main leaders of the region, Obafemi Awolowo and S. L. Akintola were fighting each other physically and spiritually over the leadership of the party (AG). Other parts of Nigeria were not better either.  There were violent actions and reactions in different places as well.

Because of these unrests, the first military coup happened on January 1st 1966. It was a bloody coup. A coup is the sudden (often violent) taking over of a civilian government by military men. The coup claimed the lives of Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and other top government officials and from that time onward, the country began to move from one political unrest and coup de tat to the other.
Despite all these unpleasantness, Nigeria is blessed with a lot of natural resources; notable among them is our crude oil. Crude oil was first discovered in Nigeria in Olobiri in 1975, from that time on, it had also been discovered in other part s of Nigeria. The discovery of our crude oil ushered in our economy doom and damnation. It was a cursed blessing or should I say it was a blessed curse? Whichever one you think it is, it was not good.

Nigeria that was thriving and prospering in agriculture shifted her attention from agriculture to oil. People discarded their hoes and cutlasses and left their farms in order to take part in the oil deals and make themselves rich with little or no work at all. The prices of foodstuffs sky rocketed and we began to depend heavily on imported foods and goods. Since that time onward, Nigeria has been a consumer nation. This was so bad that mundane things like matches and razor blades are imported into the country. Before the discovery of the crude oil, Nigeria was once the largest exporter of palm oil, one of the largest producers and exporters of cocoa, groundnut, sorghum, millet and other grains but following the discovery of the crude oil, all these wonderful things stopped but our population kept expanding every year such that it was said that by 2050, Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world.


Is There Any Hope For Nigeria?

Maybe.
Nigeria’s problem goes beyond her leadership alone. Every parts, nooks and crannies of Nigeria had been infested by the cancerous cells of corruption so changing the leaders is not enough. What Nigeria needs this time is a military messiah, a revolutionary leader who will come revamp the whole country. A leader like Chairman Mao Zedong of China who will come through a democratic platform but change to a military man because only a military government can make any effective change. Like one ancient philosopher once said, he said if you want peace, then prepare for war. War precedes peace.

The entire developed countries in the world today had fought their own wars. From USA to Russia, to Germany, China, Britain and so on had fought their own internal wars and they had emerged fresh and strong. A country is like a raw gold, it must first pass through fire before it could bring out its beauty. That is the simple truth. It is the law of nature.

Unfortunately for Nigeria, these developed countries (especially USA) are telling Nigeria not to take some proactive measures like disintegration. If Nigeria has to break up to bring a lasting solution then so be it. For those who are preaching unity, they probably do not understand the reason behind our amalgamation in the first place then. Let me explain.

Lord Lugard joined us together in 1914 for administrative convenience; he didn’t join us to be a united nation because even as at then, he could see the unbridgeable gap and differences in us. We practically had nothing in common. This may be the reason why he included a clause in the amalgamation document that after a hundred years, any part of the country that want to secede has the right to secede. Even the United States of America has not always been united. They were once divided until George Washington brought them together but he didn’t do it by force, neither were the different tribes and groups in the US brought together by an outsider, a stranger who only brought them together for his own selfish reasons.

Nigeria is big enough to be divided into as many independent nations as possible. A nation is not determined only by large territory or population. If that had been the case, countries like Luxembourg and Leinchestein will just be pieces of lands with some people. Some people said that even if Nigeria divides eventually, what is the assurance that the same set of leaders who are leading us now will not be the ones to lead when we eventually disintegrate? Well, when it eventually happens, each region will know how to grow on its own and if the citizens of those regions are foolish enough to let such leaders take over them, then so be it.

 But the point is, after disintegration, each region will develop at its own pace and has its own agenda. Maybe later, the regions can come back to form a union or a sort of confederation. We can even be called USN then (United states of Nigeria).

Thank you for reading. Please share with your friends and families.

Happy independence celebrations to Nigeria!


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