As Nigerians, we should all sympathize with ourselves
that despite our limitless potentials and
possibilities, we have been constrained in
constructing a true nation, united in her diversity
and progressive in her national ideology. We have been
on this tortuous trajectory, not because we do not
possess the wherewithal to advance but because we lack
the courage to begin from the numerous starting points
of national construction. The problem with Nigeria is
that we are too blessed to know the biggest blessing
to leverage on. Confronted with so many options, we
seem to be in the greatest dilemma of deciding the
most cost effective and fastest means of reaching our
promised land.
Rather than just taking any of the trains and routes
available to us, we are busy at the national terminus
of development figuring out and fighting among
ourselves on which of the routes does not have sharp
bends and creaky joints and which of the trains have
air full conditioned coaches to travel in luxury to
the extent that we all seem to be dragging the
steering with the captain and pushing him almost out
of cabin. If we are not careful, we will collectively
derail this train of a nation and crash together
woefully, recording unimaginable casualty and
fatality.
The crises of nation building are not peculiar to
Nigeria: Leadership, Integration, Participation,
Representation, Resource distribution and allocation
are issues that every diverse society has to contend
with. It is in the management of these crises that we
short=change ourselves as sectional vested interest
take precedence over the collective national interest.
What to do in our various ethnic cocoons and tribal
camps that we have holed ourselves since independence
is to lower our garb of pride, remove the stained and
dirty lenses with which we view one another from the
distance and travel from our various primordial posts
towards that national confluence and have the warm and
affectionate handshake across the rivers Niger and
Benue rather than posting fake letters and emails
without the attachments of love and understanding.
What options are available for us? I believe the best
options we have are not anything close to dissolution
and disintegration as many disappointed patriots would
prefer. They are not what marginalized and aggrieved
Nigerians should contemplate, even though these seem
the easiest way to meet their demands. In the final
analysis, if we take the road to the Balkans, we will
soon come to the table of negotiating reunification.
The challenge we really have in Nigeria is the lack of
will and weakness of structures and institutions
required to build a strong nation. In our tribal
confusion and ethnic viral infections, we acquired
certain national immunity deficiency syndromes. In
this scenario, what kills the nation is not the
disease, but the arising depression from the stigma
associated with the disease. But it is better to admit
we have this natural and national virus and take the
necessary cocktail of drugs in addition to following
the strict dietary regime and have a new outlook to
life if we must live happily with our malaise. This is
a national strategic management challenge, managing
our diversity, our opportunities and our strengths
while remaining conscious of our internal weaknesses
and national threats.
In my recent fajr reflections, I isolated a number of
factors as responsible for our national crises.
Drawing from our colonial experience, one can say
there was no sincere attempt by the departing
imperialists to nurture a true nation from the diverse
and complex peoples aggregated into Nigeria. From the
dawn of independence therefore, there is what I refer
to as structural disaggregation or misalignment in the
new nation which gave room for uneven and unequal
development. It is to be noted that the colonial
government ran Nigeria with policy differentials and
variation suitable to their own economic interests.
So, before Nigeria attained political independence
from the British colonialists, the nation had been a
victim of policy inconsistency. The fallout of this
misnomer is that the constituents of the new nation,
even before the Union Jack was lowered on our soils
for the green white green flag to fly in the new
Nigerian sky, had begun to nurture animosity towards
one another. In any case, our resolve for independence
was not uniform which explains why southern Nigeria
attained self government earlier than the north.
It is therefore not surprising that on the eve of
independence, Nigeria was birthed on a keg of gun
powder waiting to explode. In less than two years of
nationhood, the West was on the boil. Wetie was in the
air. The mainstream political party in the Western
Region, the Action Group, despite its standing as the
most cohesive and disciplined political party with a
coherent ideology, was already being penetrated ,
compromised and eventually isolated as the opposition
party. Its leader, the very charismatic Chief Obafemi
Awolowo later to be acknowledged as the best president
Nigeria never had lost in the political game as he was
caught in the trap of treasonable felony which saw him
being imprisoned. Marooned in the Ita oko Island,
Chief Awolowo had a bitter experience not uncommon for
true nationalists and resilient freedom fighters.
As things began to fall apart for the new nation, the
Young Turks in the military, the press and the
academia who were already witnesses to regime changes
in some parts of Africa were afflicted with the twin
diseases of evolutionary impatience and rabid
revolutionary consciousness, the result of which was
the coup d'état of January 15, 1966 that saw the
assassination of key political figures and top echelon
of the military in Lagos, Kaduna and the east. The
details of that plot have been written in different
versions of memoirs depending on the position and
motives of the actors and authors.
Before 1960, Nigeria or the constituents of Nigeria
were not decided on what future to craft for the
nation. We are still at it, almost 52 years after the
queen agreed to let Nigeria go from her majesty's
suzerainty. Nigeria's diversity and vastness are
usually cited as reasons why it would be impossible to
forge one country. I disagree with that notion,
because diversity is not inherently evil or
problematic. What comes as a challenge are the
intentions and sagacity of managers and stakeholders
of a diverse political entity. In all diverse
polities, there is always the minority question.
Because of the peculiarity of comparative disadvantage
of the minorities, the cry of marginalization is
always prevalent among them. The real and quantitative
weakness of the minorities and their insignificant
demographics always lengthen their distance from the
power centre of the polity. So it is not uncommon that
the minority question becomes a big issue in a
pluralistic polity. The enduring challenge in such a
polity, therefore, is how to ensure distributive
justice and equity so that no group, no matter how
insignificant is its strength and number, is excluded
from the socio-economic and political benefits in the
scheme of things. This is a real policy challenge, the
solution to which is putting in place a very robust
and effective affirmative action contents in the
constitution, written or unwritten.
Beyond ensuring distributive justice and equity
through affirmative action however is the need to
ensure the primacy of rule of law in the diverse
polities. The compromise or the breach of the rule of
law in most instances is at the detriment of the
minorities who often lack the voice and the strength
to challenge their denials and deprivations in the
larger political context. Again, what protections and
guarantees exist to prevent the abridgement of the
rights and privileges of the minorities or against the
oppression and exploitation by the majority in the
socio-economic and political context of the nation is
another policy challenge.
The first option to overcome this miasma is through
the instrumentality of the rule of law. Inherent in
the primacy of the rule of law, therefore, is the
institutionalization of good governance in the
national polity. Here, we begin to raise questions on
how fundamental and strong are our national objectives
and directive principles of state policies as
contained the ground norm of the nation, the
constitution? How participatory is our political and
decision making process? What are the pillars of
transparency and accountability? What are the
constitutional protections and guarantees for the
constitution itself, its interpreters, executors and
enforcers? What is the substance of immunity and
immunity waivers in that constitution?
These questions are germane to incorporating elements
of good governance in any polity, the deliverables of
which would manifest in the promotion of political and
democratic pluralism, building strong and effective
regulatory institutions and mechanisms, ensuring
distributive justice and equity in the allocation of
state offices and resources and promoting
socio-cultural and religious diversity.
In this climate, it will be possible for all to seek
equal opportunities and have equal access to power. It
will be possible to live anywhere in Nigeria as a
Nigerian and not as an indigene of a part of Nigeria.
But the ultimate policy challenge for the government
of the day is facilitating nationwide infrastructural
development and diversifying the national economy to
the extent that every Nigerian can live anywhere and
work anywhere without resorting to political
opportunism and the political cannibal and economic
rapist mentality of looting the treasury, emptying the
pot of the commonwealth and stuffing the throat with a
selfish bite on the national cake. With development
policies, we should be able to trust, depend on and
optimize our chances and dreams. The collective
challenge for Nigeria is what framework do we
institutionalize that will create disincentives for
political jobbers but empower true patriots to work
for national development and cohesion and consequently
build the New Nigeria of our dream and not break her
up as our enemies dream.
Ends.
ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE B.Sc. Mass Comm (Lagos); Master
of Public Policy (Brunei Darussalaam) Head, Voice of
Nigeria Training Centre, c/o VON Transmitting Station,
Ikorodu, Lagos. Formerly the special assistant to the
Director General, VON, he is the 2007/2008
Commonwealth Broadcasting Association scholar in
Public Policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam,
korewarith@yahoo.com 08090585723
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