Celebrating The Failure Of Nigeria By ‘Pelumi Olatinpo

As the clock struck midnight
on October 1, 1960, the new
Prime Minister, Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa, spoke into
the microphone and
declared Nigeria free from
the shackles of colonial
Britain. “I promise you,” he
said, “we shall not fail … We
come to this task better-
equipped than many.” Five
years later, Abubakar will be
dragged from his house in
the wee hours of the
morning, told to turn
around, shot in the back,
and his dead body discarded
in a ditch on the roadside.
This week marks the 52nd
anniversary of that midnight
hour at the microphone;
Abubakar and his failed
promise now sojourn in a
planet far away from this
one.
Yet, given the lamentable
state of Nigeria, many
Nigerians as a matter of
ritual bellow “Happy
Independence Day!”
whenever the occasion
arises. A sort of automated
response it seems. But I
truly must say, few things
inflame my blood and
threaten to roast my heart
within its sac as this yearly
display of ignorant and
pathetic patriotism. If as a
reader you take offense to
this, then, I have done well.
I do intend offense.
It is depressing that
Nigerians continue to equate
patriotism with a blind
optimism punctuated by
timid civic engagement. It is
an attitude that has
bedeviled this nation since
independence. This sort of
twisted patriotism is moved
along by a myth that has
persisted too long in the
Nigerian space, which states
that Nigerians as a people
fought for independence. I
should at this point profess I
find nothing spectacular
about the circumstance of
Nigeria’s independence. 17
other African states got their
independence that same
year. So, for the many
romantic Nigerians who
deemed this some exclusive
chivalrous affair, they will do
well to disabuse themselves
of this rarified air.
But what is indeed true is
this; that “Nigerian officials
and politicians,” Balewa and
his contemporaries, fought
for independence. I submit it
is easy to conjecture this to
mean the general Nigerian
population. But anyone who
seeks to confer such acclaim
on the Nigerian populace
does the nation serious
injury.
Unlike in Ghana where there
were political protests
against the colonial state,
Nigerians never expressed
any mass concerted political
angst to free themselves
from their colonial master.
As Obafemi Awolowo, a
prominent figure at
independence, would put it:
“There had never been a
properly organized
countrywide demand for
independence which had
been spurned or
contemptuously turned
down by Britain.”
Well, some may argue that
these compassionate
“politicians and officials”
fought on behalf of their
constituents. Alright, if this
is so, how could Nigeria
have gone so badly left and
now headed to hell in a hand
basket under such caring
leadership? I’m afraid the
answer is one with which we
have now lived for over five
decades. With the poverty
rate doubling since
independence to where it
now stands at over 70
percent in a nation of 160
million, it is clear our
“brave” political class has
branded itself the sole
inheritor of our freedom.
Contrary to Balewa’s profuse
profession that this nation
shall not be let down,
administration after
administration, both civilian
and military, through acts of
sheer impunity and
disregard for the rule of law
and human decency,
generations of these
“politicians and officials”
have demonstrated to
Nigerians that they are silly
to demand the fruits of
freedom where they have
not laboured.
Many cry that our ethnic
diversity is the cause of this
failure as a nation; but the
story since the British left
our golden shores prove
otherwise. For as recent as
Babangida to Obasanjo to
Jonathan, the hometowns of
these presidents have not
enjoyed privileges access to
power could bring. They
remain as underdeveloped
as the many depressed
communities across this
nation. If we were so ethnic-
oriented, these presidents
should have grossly enriched
and developed their tribal
communities at the expense
of the nation. Instead, the
developments we see are in
their personal wealth. The
North has produced most of
Nigeria’s leaders, yet, it is
the poorest region in our
country. This is high
indictment. It is proof that
our calamity and poverty lies
not in our diversity but in a
callous and unremorseful
elite.
But it is not too late for us.
It is never too late for good
to overcome the evil of
injustice. First, we must
remedy the grave error of
our past. A voiceless
population at creation must
now find its voice in this
present day. If it is a robust
society we want and seek,
we cannot be complicit
spectators in the sport of
our own victimization. It is
futile to celebrate October
1st while this nation is yet to
undergo a new birth of
freedom; where equality and
justice is accessible to all of
God’s children, Muslim and
Christian. This is the ideal
patriotism and the
inescapable task to which we
must now commit ourselves.
God bless the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and her
freedom yearning peoples.

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#CONSENSUS 2015