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Nigeria: How to Make the Country Work

Godswill Akpabio

24 November 2008

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opinion

Lagos — The topic "How To Make Nigeria Work - Lessons From Akwa Ibom State" is a bit like asking one to speak on "How to Make the Elephant Dance." Elephants have locked cartilages which allow them movement in one direction and do not ease up pressure enough in their joints for the fluid exercise of dancing. But in circuses, animal trainers usually find a way to teach the elephants to hop in jerky movements which resemble a dance. It is a herculean task but it gets done. And if elephants can be taught to dance, Nigeria can be made to work.

Every Nigerian has an idea of what is wrong with Nigeria, depending, of course, on his or her experiences, perspective, learning, training and calling. To the respected literary icon, Professor Albert Chinua Achebe in his book The Trouble with Nigeria, "The problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership." To the renowned Nobel laureate, Professor Akinwande Wole Soyinka, the problem is that Nigeria is "like a quilt-work of allegiances, alliances." To the eminent former Secretary to the Federal Government, Alhaji Shehu Musa, the problem is that "We need to improve on our resource management to be able to achieve eradication or even reduction of poverty level."

Speaking in an interview in 1974, Prof Soyinka said, "I recognized a long time ago that the problem of Nigeria has moved beyond the remedy of debate and controversy, that the options are very clear." When Prof. Soyinka made this statement, General Yakubu Gowon was Head of State and the country had just come out of a fratricidal civil war. The nation was in an oil boom but the foundations of our nation was still shaken by post-war spasms - the Civil War was unnecessary, the bloodshed was avoidable.

But 34 years after, we have made definite progress in certain areas. Like Alhaji Shehu Musa said, "We should feel fulfilled in the area of unity...I think we have done what I call satisfactory achievement...we have had hiccups here and there, through a very serious civil war but today, we are doing everything possible to remain united."

Alhaji Musa is right. We have survived coups, upheavals, unspeakable tyranny, corruption, state-sponsored murders, election annulments, religious and ethnic riots, emergencies etc. We have gone through so many perils that we can say with new meaning that "tough times never last, tough people do." Nigeria is apparently working, but we believe it could work better.

History of the Problem:

When Lord Lugard amalgamated the disparate ethnic nationalities which now make up Nigeria into one political entity in 1914, it was basically in the British colonial interest. The British did not think of forming a country out of this union, neither did the prospect sound plausible. The North made it plain that it did not intend to surrender its identity or enter into a political union with a people who did not conquer them in war or had any trade affinity with them. The West and the East also had misgivings about the union and virtually none of the component units welcomed the idea of amalgamation.

The British Government signified interest in granting independence to Nigeria in 1951. On April 1, 1952, the inimitable Chief Anthony Enahoro moved a motion for independence in the Legislative Council. The Northern caucus rebuffed the idea. The North claimed that it was not ready as then.

Independence would wait till October 1, 1960. At independence, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) became Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs, while Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe of the National Congress of Nigeria and Cameroun (later National Council for Nigerian Citizens) became Governor General and later (1963) ceremonial president. The Guardian (October 10, 2004) wrote in an article The Problem with Nigeria that "because of the manner in which they took political control, members of the government could not lead... They served as a drainpipe for Britain to continue to suck the country economically; second, at home they were controlling central power only to grab as much of the national wealth as possible for the tribes they represented and to build private estates for themselves."

Added to this is the fact that the election was rigged by the British to protect its interest. Harold Smith, the British Colonial Officer in Lagos in the 1950s, confessed to a BBC journalist, Mike Thompson, about a year ago. He claimed that he was ordered to rig the election in favour of the NPC and NCNC and to ensure that both struck a partnership to form a government. Smith described Sir James Robertson, the governor-general then, as "a thug (who) had a terrible reputation....We loved Africans, but these people who came to do this job were a different breed, these were the ex-SOE [British Secret Service outfit set up during the Second World War] and MI6 (Military Intelligence Branch 6)."

Dissatisfied with this order, Smith said he requested to see Robertson and register his displeasure with this attempt to circumvent the democratic will. He relived the experience to Thompson, "Robertson said, 'I want you to know that everything you have alleged about the elections is correct.... You know too much and I want you to know how much trouble you are in. The Colonial Service is just like the army, you know what happens if you disobey orders on active service and that is what is going to happen to you.'" He claimed that Robertson was so mad that he flirted with the idea that he might gun him down with his pistol.

Professor David Anderson, Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University, commenting on Smith's expose said, "In almost every single colony the British attempted to manipulate the result to their advantage.... I would be surprised if they had not done so (in Nigeria)."

Sprinters know that when you miss a step off the starting blocks you have to lurch forward and would need time to stabilise. We never had time to stabilise before Major Kaduna Nzeogu and company struck in 1966. The intricate ethnic balance was tipped when it turned out that most of the coup plotters were of Eastern extraction, while most of those killed were of Northern extraction. Some historians believe that the killing of the northern leaders was due to the dominance of the North in the political leadership of the country - and not because of their tribe.

But the rumbles of that coup shook the foundations of our nationhood and led to a civil war in 1967. The war ended in 1970 but it is still debatable whether we have learnt lessons from the war and whether we have eliminated the factors which led to it.

Instructively, the pain of that war was assuaged by an oil boom in the early 70's. With it came the Udoji salary increase of 1974 which upped the minimum wage from N312 per annum to N720 per annum. Notable is the fact that the Naira was then more powerful than the dollar and N720 was the equivalent of $1200. Adjusted for inflation, this had more purchasing power than the current national minimum wage.

In the early 80's the economic boom turned to an economic doom. Attempts to find solutions to it have been hampered by several factors, and central to these are the twin evils of corruption and graft.

The Challenges

The challenges facing Nigeria are enormous. Some are internal and some are external, some are within our control and some are outside our control. But there is nothing wrong with Nigeria that what is right in Nigeria cannot correct.

Economy

Botswana which gained independence in 1966 has been hailed as an African miracle because of its economic successes. According to Encarta Encyclopaedia, "Botswana has been transformed from a near-subsistence economy (at its independence) into one of the wealthiest and fastest-growing countries in Africa." Botswana's success is attributed to the fact that "Since independence, Botswana has maintained the longest continuous multiparty democracy in Africa" and has been blessed by a succession of good leaders starting with the their first president, Sir Seretse Khama.

Unlike Botswanese Government, the First Republic Government had no clear-cut economic policy, neither was there any industrialisation strategy. Britain was still pulling the strings and nothing seemed to change.

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