14012020 - 50 years after: Let's revisit issues that caused Civil War

18 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2020
THE 2019 general elections took
place barely 10 months ago, and those
declared winners were installed a little
over six months ago. Yet, it seems the
politics of the next general election
year 2023 is already in play.
One of the founders of the ruling
All Progressives Congress, APC,
Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is
reportedly eyeing the presidency,
come 2023, visited Aso Villa last week
and told newsmen that it was too early
to be talking about the next election
because “the time is not now”.
However, this opinion does not
derogate from the fact that some
groups have been openly campaigning
for him to succeed Buhari come 2023.
There is this notion that in a
democracy there should be times for
politics and governance. We have just
done with intensive politics, it is now
time to deliver electoral promises to
the people through focused
2023 politicking in 2020
governance. There is no beating this
logic.
But several factors are responsible
for this seeming early start. Most
Nigerian politicians and their
supporters do nothing else but politics.
That is how they earn their living and
make their wealth. Downtime politics
means no business, no money. This is
why busybodies are campaigning even
for putative candidates who are still
smarting from the bruises of the 2019
elections.
Secondly, the question of succession
to the presidency in 2023 requires
some clear answers. It helps very
much that Buhari has assured he
would no longer be contesting when
his tenure ends in 2023. He has said
the right thing, but we must all hold
him to this.
Also, the issue of power rotation
between North and South is not settled
in the major parties – the APC and
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
It is difficult to stop people from
wanting to know which way the cat
should jump. Talking about it will help
in generating broad national
consensuses around these relevant
political issues.
We see nothing wrong in engaging
in robust discussions around
succession 2023, both at presidential
and gubernatorial levels. But we must
not allow the heat of politics to distract
those we just elected a few months ago
to lose focus in governance. They, in
particular, must guard against
distraction.
The worst kind of distraction is if
clear successors become known this
early in the political cycle. It will
render those we just elected early
lame-ducks.
We advise President Buhari that,
having concretely disavowed the
tenure extension hoax, he should
return our collective attention to
efforts to rebuild the economy and our
national infrastructure, secure the
country and rid the system of
corruption.
We expect the President and the
Governors to start commissioning the
projects they built in the past four
years and touch the lives of the people
in a meaningful manner.
THIS House Has Fallen-
Nigeria In Crisis is a 327-page book
written by Mr. Karl Maier who lived in
Nigeria as a foreign correspondent for two
years, from 1991-1993, and returned often
on reporting assignments.
According to him, he had inputs in writing
the book from Chris Alagoa, Richard
Dowden, Yomi Edu, Anthony Goldman, Phil
Hall, Michael Holman, Nick Ashton-Jones,
Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Bill Knight, Abidina
Coomasi, Father Matthew Kukah, Dr.
Suleiman Kumo, Bashir Kurfi, Dr. Beko
Ransome-Kuti, Clement Nwankwo, Nduka
Obaigbena, Barnaby Phillips, Patrick Smith,
Olukayode Sokoya, Mathew Tostevin, Bala
Usman, William Wallis and his two angels;
Ken Wiwa, Simon Yohanna and Kabiru
Yusuf.
Maier quoted, in the book, Professor Wole
Soyinka, Professor Chinua Achebe, Major
General Ishola Williams (retd.), Bobo Brown
of Shell Petroleum Development Company
and the Publisher of City People magazine,
Mr. Seye Kehinde. The book was published
in 2000 by the Penguin Books.
Since the publication there have been
reactions on the book. Mr. Nicolas Okpe
said “the book is typical post-colonial
prejudice by Western journalists”. The book
x-rays Nigeria’s past and present problems.
The major issues missing in the book were
kidnapping and Boko Haram; if not one
would think the book was written just last
week.
No doubt one may not agree with what
the Western world is saying about Nigeria
judging by their failing leadership and
noting that most problems that have affected
Nigeria today were created by the
colonialists themselves. It helps if we are to
listen to what others are saying about us,
OPINION
This house has fallen
either right or wrong. Maier was the Africa
correspondent for The Independent from
1986 to 1996, and has contributed as well
to the Washington Post and The Economist.
In the Preface, Maier declared: “Designed
by alien occupiers and abused by army rule
for three-quarters of its life span, the
Nigerian state is like a battered and bruised
elephant staggering toward an abyss with
The human capital is there;
thousands of Nigerian
professionals are well
educated and skilled to drive
the country forward
the ground crumbling under its feet. Should
it fall the impact will shake the rest of West
Africa”.
He then added “very little trickles down”.
In the official arenas of international
discourse - the United Nations, the World
Bank, the media - Nigeria is known as a
“developing nation”, a phrase that conjures
up images of economic progress of the sort
experienced by the West or among the Asian
‘tigers’; Nigeria, like so
many countries in Africa,
is patently not a
developing nation. It is
under-developing. Its
people are far worse off
now than they were 30
years ago. The
government spends up to
half of its annual budget
on salaries of an
estimated two million
federal, state and local
government workers;
yet the civil service
remains paralysed, with connections and
corruption still the fastest way to get
anything done. The armed forces are equally
in shambles. Up to 75 per cent of the army’s
equipment is broken or missing vital spare
parts. The Navy’s 52 admirals and
commodores outnumber serviceable ships
by ratio of six to one. The air force has 10,000
men but fewer than 20 functioning aircraft.
“Colonial Nigeria was designed in 1914
to serve the British Empire, and the
independent state serves as a tool of plunder
by the country’s modern rulers. Nigerians
spend a good part of their lives trying to get
the better of the government for their own
benefit or that of their family, their village,
or their region.
“Rare is the head of state who acts on behalf
of the nation. The people are not so much
governed as ruled. It is as if they are armed
and barricaded themselves inside the
company safe. Nigeria’s leaders, like the
colonialists before them, have sucked out
billions of dollars and stashed them in
Western banks.
“So far the West has done little to help and
has often made matters worse. It is
hypocritical of the West to blame Nigeria
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for corruption, fraud, and drug running and
to demand that Nigerians own up to their
foreign debt, while at the same time
allowing the funds garnered from such
nefarious dealings to be deposited in Western
banks.
“A man who receives stolen goods is called
a fence, but what do you call a country that
is in the business of collecting stolen goods?”
asked Dr. Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, a U.S.
educated dentist and businessman, while in
his Lagos office one day.
“They lend Nigeria money, somebody
here steals the same amount and gives it
back to them, and then they leave these poor
Nigerians repaying what they never owed.
The role of the Western powers has been
totally disgraceful.”
Maier went further to state that: “Nigeria
could, however, follow another. Its potential
is huge. Its tremendous wealth, if properly
channelled, holds out the hope that a stable
government could unleash the unquestioned
energy and talent that pulsates through the
rich ethnic mosaic.
“The human capital is there. Thousands
of Nigerian professionals are well educated
and skilled to drive the country forward.
Anyone who has visited Nigeria’s markets
and witnessed its people endure the
constraints of bad government and the
sinking economy can testify to the country’s
resilience.
“Among its writers it boasts a Nobel
laureate, Wole Soyinka; the Booker Prize
winner Ben Okri; Chinua Achebe, whose
Things Fall Apart is arguably Africa’s best
piece of postcolonial literature, and rising
young talents such as the playwright Biyi
Bandele Thomas. Nigerian professors grace
university campuses across the United States
and the world.
Continues next week