As Nigeria celebrates her 57th independence anniversary. Celebration, this writer thinks, should actually not be the word. Today should be a day of sober reflection for Nigerians and all lovers of this country. From the leadership to the led, we have treated Nigeria with so much disdain like an orphan, so much so that the country is so near to all of us but yet, so distant.
Of the hordes of ills that ail Nigeria, this writer will dwell on the labour of our heroes past that lies today in ruins; how those who suffered to get us independence from British colonial masters must today be consumed by a fury of no mean measure. The blood they shed, the imprisonments they suffered over their antagonism to British repressive laws, British’s racial intolerance, the indignity they went through in the hands of white men with their wicked jackboots, are all there stacked in the trash receptacle.
Just like today where the anger of the people against government is articulated in the media, the pre-colonial newspaper press was where the anger of the people was expressed. It became an important factor in colonial society and politics in West Africa. One of them was Robert Campbell, a West Indian businessman. Between 1870s and 1880s, the resentment increased and newspapers of the time were replete with very mordant criticisms of colonial governments so much that, by the turn of the century, the colonial governments had enacted series of repressive anti-press laws that were geared towards stemming the growing verve and power of the press.
The Lagos Times, founded November 10, 1880, a militant and nationalistic indigenous newspaper, often fired salvoes at the colonialists. What can be said of the Lagos Weekly Record, owned and edited by Horatius Jackson? The paper wrote what was regarded as by far the most popular and acerbic of all the early press attacks against white imperialists. One of such was: “One cannot refrain from speculating upon the bankruptcy of the New Imperialism and the apparent decay of British Imperial genius, so long as Great Britain continues to transcend the limits of political righteousness; to harbor the colour prejudice…; to legislate away the rights of her coloured subjects; and to remain indifferent to the wishes of her subject dependencies… There can be no question that if the Nigerian system is not scrapped within the next five years, the unfortunate experiences of the Indian agitation will be witnessed in West Africa…”
One can cite on and on the attacks against imperialism which culminated in today’s independence from British rule. A. B. Laotan, writing on the aftermath of The Record’s attack on the imperialists, said: “It was so powerful that at one time, on account of its uncompromising attitude in the national interest, all foreign advertisements were withdrawn (from the newspaper), but it stood its ground unflinchingly … (It) was by far and away the best paper in the West Africa.”
Many of the nationalists were imprisoned; many killed and yet they pressed on to give Nigeria the independence she has today. Segregation was intense but they kept on giving zero tolerance to the impunity of British overlords.
But today, what have we all made of that independence, of the bloodshed of our forebears? There is an internal re-colonialism today which is venal and destructive. Not only is that element of colonial wickedness, greed and segregation still evident, the lives the people live are of lesser quality than what they had in the 19th and 20th century Nigeria. The Nigerian elite have approximated the evils of white imperialists and are unleashing a regime of selfish rule which not only alienates the downtrodden, unlike the British, they are not even oiling the wheels of a system that benefits them so immensely. If they were, for instance, they would realize that if this system of acute hunger, homelessness, despondency continues, themselves, their children and household who train in Harvard and come home for saturnalia, are not safe because those hungry and hopeless citizens will someday turn the cudgel and the dagger against them.
White imperialists were aware of this dialectics of history and tried to maintain and service the system. The elite today are so naive of the need to provide social safety nets and it is driving this country on the path of a revolution.
No thanks to those who spiked history from the books, our children don’t even know who Ernest Ikoli, Obafemi Awolowo, Adeyemo Alakija, H. O. Davies, S. L. Akintola, Ahmadu Bello, Ogbeyiwa Rewane, S.O. Shonibare, Tafawa Balewa, were. Ask your wards: they don’t know! Even some of us who know are meddling with their Nigerian legacy like bastard offspring do. What we have on our hands today is the dross of what the nationalists fought for. Let us for once be fatalistic and superstitious. If we assume that indeed, the dead see and exhibit emotions, what will be the feeling of these forebears of ours today in their graves?
That is why, this writer thinks that Nigerians should put on sack clothes today, be sober and weep in all our closets. From Talata Mafara, to Nchantancha and Ilu Abo, indeed, in all the crannies of Nigeria, let us weep for our 57 years of existence as a nation-state. Perhaps, our sobriety, our tears, our remorsefulness can make us determine to walk with different feet. Like the nihilist German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche advocated, which was amplified by Bob Marley, in Check out the real situation, total destruction of this system and our resolve to begin afresh, is the only solution we must proffer to this Nigerian house that indeed has fallen.
For Babatunde Oduyoye
While I shared same space with Nigerian politicians, one appendage I refused to be donned with was ‘Honourable.’ It is the most insincere national scam ever known to humanity. Virtually all Nigerian politicians lack honour and it is simply a mockery to prefix their names with it. But one man stands out. I stumbled on him about 20 years ago while scavenging for political news as a reporter. He is Hon Babatunde Oduyoye, former Alliance for Democracy (AD) Whip and two-term member of the House of Representatives, representing Oyo State.
While President Olusegun Obasanjo was sharing his booty in the National Assembly as prelude to getting the parliament’s endorsement of his Third Term bid, one of the very few legislators who told Obasanjo to jump inside the Nile with his N50 million booty was Oduyoye. When politicians also started prostituting political parties in search of fluids for their bellies, Oduyoye remained in the AD, never decamped to the PDP, nor its Siamese, the APC. Today, that Honourable man is 54 years old, unfortunately sharing birthday with a country that has been raped to coma by her abductors. This is wishing Babs, as the cliché says, longer life and prosperity.
President Ayo Fayose
A lot of recriminations have followed the declaration by the governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, of his intention to be the next Nigerian president. Many have expressed their disgust at the possibility of such a calamity ever befalling this unfortunate country. Some do so out of palpable political disagreement with the very weird politics of Fayose; some others for his borderless tongues and some, believing that he perhaps has no mental or intellectual capacity to administer Nigeria.
This columnist has learnt never to underrate any man with an ambition. From Sullivan Iheanacho Chime, to the “Constituted Authority”, both of whose gubernatorial elections this writer was privy to and even more recently, the election of Donald Trump, we may be fighting shadows dissipating energy on whether Fayose would be president or not.
Come to think of it, even if the above accusations are true, haven’t we sufficiently learnt over the years that the best of us don’t get to rule us? Granted that the Nigerian First Republic saw us parading our First Eleven, thereafter, we flunked it. From Aguiyi Ironsi, who supplanted Major General Ogundipe, to Yakubu Gowon, who was Odumegwu Ojukwu’s student, the highly mercurial Murtala Muhammed, the highly-contemptuous-of-the-other-person Olusegun Obasanjo, the cigarette-smoking Shehu Shagari (whose greatest ambition was probably to become a council chairman), to Muhammadu Buhari, power-drunk Ibrahim Babangida, Papa Doc Sani Abacha, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan who, were it not that faking doctoral theses was not known when he got his PhD, it would have been argued that someone bestowed him the degree. These were about the worst of our humanity, yet they became president of Nigeria. So if Fayose joins the league, it fits the Nigerian paradox very well. Please help welcome President Ayodele Peter Fayose to the podium…
Let’s still praise Ambode
A number of expletives have been heaped on the governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, over the statue of the Yoruba nation’s recent ancestor, Obafemi Awolowo, which his government decided to erect on Awolowo Road in Ikeja, Lagos. Of a truth, that statue was everything but Awolowo. From a personal vantage, this writer sees the effigy as resembling Nnamdi Azikiwe, Awo’s political rival, even more than it does the first Premier of Western Nigeria.
However, those asking for a crucifix to be erected for the Lagos governor should realize that statues are merely representative of the original and are not meant to be live pictures. In any case, what the governor perhaps wanted etched in the people’s minds is the eternal lesson of selfless sacrifice for the people that Awolowo exemplified. Less than ten per cent of the Yoruba people alive today whom Awolowo lived and died for ever met him in person. The statue would be a nudge to leaders and the led alike that if we can ever have the mindset of Awolowo, there is hope for Nigeria. Unfortunately, those who inherited Awo’s governance stools don’t understand the gravity of the offices and have made love of themselves, their families and children more paramount than the love for their people.
Jubrin and Dogara’s ostrich
Even though we as a people are powerless to make the Almighty Nigerian parliament think like patriots and gentlemen, rather than that of a self-
Speaker of the House, Hon Yakubu Dogara
centered bunch of legislators, let us fulfill this righteousness once again. The Yakubu Dogara House of Representatives’ former Chairman, Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jubrin, was suspended from the House before it went for recess at the end of the 2016 legislative year.
He had washed the parliament’s apparently dirty linen in the public, bringing out the maggots that Nigerians already know inhabit the legislative chamber.
Last week, through its Chairman Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrasaq Namda, the House said, apart from fulfilling some stupid rituals, Jubrin must apologize to the parliament upon ending his 180-day suspension.
One can only wish the House well in its magisterial righteousness. The truth however is, even if Jubrin gets to offer this apology, does it remove from the fact that the parliament is perceived by Nigerians as a House of Thieves? Does it remove from the fact that the suspended lawmaker was merely echoing the minds of the people of Nigeria?
Let both the parliament and Nigerians continue to engage in this ostrich game. Someday, the wheat would be separated from the chaffs.
Between IGP and Misau
A ding-dong has been playing out between the Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Ibrahim Idris and the Chairman, Senate committee on Navy, Senator Hamman Isah Misau.
Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris (left) and Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, Senator Isha Misau (right)
Coming on the heels of allegation from the Senator that the IGP diverts about N10 billion Internally Generated Revenue of the police monthly and that he collects billions of naira bribe from individuals and companies to whom he makes available the services of policemen under him as guards and orderlies, the police swiftly claimed that Misau, an erstwhile officer of its whom it transferred to Niger State, deserted and never resigned from the force before joining politics. The Police Service Commission put a lie to this. The police are, however, still sticking to its guns.
It is difficult at this point to hanker a guess on where the pendulum of complicity is tilting towards but one thing is evident: The police would never have brought out the issue of Misau’s alleged desertion if he had not chosen to wash Idris’ allegedly dirty linen in the public.
Only a fool does not know that the Nigeria Police is a sewer of maggots, like many other institutions in Nigeria.
Now that we know that Misau is not a deserter, his allegations should never be allowed to be swept under the rugs.
An independent enquiry of neither the police nor the EFCC should spell out the colour of the stench oozing out from the epaulettes of the IGP.
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