By Nwokedi Nworisara<\/p>\n
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”- George
\nSantayana<\/p>\n
In 1914 there were two Nigerias. The North and the Southern Nigeria
\nmanaged by Lord Luggard the then British Governor General . He thought it
\nwould make sense for the British to amalgamate the two since there were no
\nmore scramble going on by competing Powers. Amalgamation could produce an
\neconomy of scale and enable each side to benefit from the others
\nadvantages while integrating into a giant provider of British raw
\nmaterials.<\/p>\n
Earlier the methods of administration of the two had differed greatly. The
\nNorth was ruled indirectly allowing the feudal system to remain
\nunperturbed by modern advances and it produced great courageous
\ninfantrymen to defend the whole. The south was ruled directly through
\ndemocratic means and the people were assimilated to the western education
\nas basis for their proper participation and ownership of democratic
\nculture. Earlier they were organized in hostile city states and did not
\ncare much about integration or nationhood except it was bound by force of
\narm. So the South developed faster in this new way of organizing in the
\npublic realm shedding their much of their cultures to accommodate the ways
\nif the white missionary. On the other hand the North was already conquered
\nby the jihadist Arab from the North who introduced their Islamic religion
\nto calm down the earlier existing city States and established the Fulani
\nEmirates to rule over the people. They were highly successful in utilizing
\nthe political cleavages of religion in organizing society something that
\nthe colonial British admired and wished to retain because it was also
\nproductive and effective.<\/p>\n
It was an uphill task getting to amalgamate the two disparate world views
\nbut the British had the machinery to instill law and order. Remember that
\nleft on its own the two sides cannot gravitate towards integration or
\nnationhood. So the presence of some prerequisites in the British style
\nmade it possible to hold the two together. The first requisite is force
\n,ie\u00a0 a good law and enforcement with a disciplined army. The other is
\nproductivity. The whole thing hinges on economy of scale. The British was
\nable to keep the two sides separate while uniting them at the point of
\ntheir output at the Federal levels. So the federal system was complemented
\nby the Parliamentary structure of governance. There was nothing unitary.<\/p>\n
What it means is that a law consistent with international standards and
\nexpectations contained in a constitution and backed by a strong
\ndisciplined army also rooted in international standards was needed to keep
\nNigeria Amalgamated. It was needed to keep Nigeria productive and secure
\nbut she must be governed by a balanced federal structure with delivery
\nmechanism being a parliamentary system of government because of its
\neducative ,accountable and responsible characters. It took the British 50
\nyears of trial and error to achieve this balance and when Nigeria became
\nindependent in 1960,this system was handed over to the new Government.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately those whom the British saw as worthy enough to continue this
\nlegacy did not seem to understand it. Neither did they have much chance to
\noperate it before they began to remove the very pillars that kept the
\nsystem stable in the first place. The first pillar to be removed was
\nBritish authority or guidance. The last Governor General of Nigeria who
\nbecame the first President Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was to provide that necessary
\nlink as Queens Consul. Much of Nigeria’s exports still went to Britain.
\nThe economy was structured to serve British industries even the Railway
\nlines ran to the sea. The first bad move was making Dr Azikiwe a
\nceremonial President. Then followed the rush to declare a Republic in
\n1963.\u00a0 As soon as the Republican status came,Britain had its hands tied
\neven though it still retained the lever! Earlier the new leaders were
\nalready working ignorantly to destabilize the army. The Northern Premier
\nwanted quota recruitment of Northern Youths into the Army.\u00a0 Then followed
\nattempts to alter the tripod structure bringing about instant instability
\nin the polity . The Creation of Mid West Region sent wrong signals to the
\nNorth that the South was trying to put them In disadvantage . The centre
\ncould no longer hold! All these were distractions to productivity and the
\ngroundnut pyramids,cocoa and oil Palm exports began to show signs of
\ndecline!<\/p>\n
The consequences of the above events happening before 1964 was that the
\narmy was disabled,the parliamentary system and the Regional Federalism was
\nnow in doubt in just 4years what was put together in 50 years came
\ncrumbling down. There was no need to continue this analysis until the
\nphysical effects became form in 1966 coup. The discovery of oil in the
\nNiger Delta came as a structural defect instead of blessing. It emboldened
\nthose who thought that the Army could play a stabilizing role with or
\nwithout the other prerequisites such as a good law and enforcement with
\ninternational backing. Those who did not understand the great need for
\nFederalism and Regional autonomy in the Nigerian equation, those new
\nexperimenters who believe that he who controls force which later
\ntranslated to the economy can enforce National unity and integration!<\/p>\n
From 1966 the\u00a0 Nigerian constitution was suspended,the FEDERAL structure
\ndisbanded,the army became unprofessional as quota soldiers had their way.
\nSince the constitution was no more law and order took a nosedive and the
\nrest is history. Attempts to create states to replace the Regions to give
\nsemblance of unity multiplied governance units until it was no longer
\ncontrollable and units became unviable eating deep into crude oil federal
\ncoffers establishing a new reason de entr\u00c3\u00a9e for this new concept of the
\nNigerian State to sharing instead of productivity. Later on attempts were
\nmade to put these unviable states into eight geopolitical zones and after
\nmany years of running at seemingly stable democratic rule from 1999 till
\ndate after the earlier republics proved abortive,the imbalance in
\nstructure remains and great poverty besets the land in the midst of
\nplenty. The people are no longer the centre piece of the new democracy
\nrooted in a common wealth of sharing of oil funds. Money had assumed a
\nsurfer age if its own and can buy votes or positions. The Military rulers
\nsince 1886 were experimenting in Diarchy and have converted to the new
\ncivilian helmsmen but they still feel that unitary control of everything
\nfrom the centre will retain their control of this experimental brand of
\nNigeria! So constitutional conferences are open but not entirely free to
\ndiscuss the major issues capable of returning power to the people once
\nagain or returning Nigeria to its true nature.<\/p>\n
So here we are today grappling with the effects of the perpetual conflict
\nbetween the two Nigerias and the people are all but ignorant of what is
\nhappening to them! Although they perceive the conflict some mislabel it
\nand therefore for narrow political expediency deceive their people into
\nwild goose chases year after year. They would tell you it is a conflict
\nbetween the North and the South,Muslims and Christains,Arab and
\nWest,politicians and the people,and other vague phrases arising out of
\npseudo knowledge or ignorance. Most people cannot decide it because they
\nhave arisen from it and cannot detach themselves from it or overlook it as
\nto know the big picture! From here you can see that the conflict you see
\ntoday manifested in Boko Haram,Sharia,coups etc was made in Nigeria!\u00a0 It
\nwas as a result of the rush to rule Nigeria when you do not even know what
\nNigeria is all about. Now what is happening is that the attempt to change
\nthe old British prescription for a stable Nigeria has failed disastrously
\nand the new Nigeria which is just a return to the old is rising! It has no
\ngeographical boundaries so it is not the North or South,Moslems or
\nChristains but the will of God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Nwokedi Nworisara “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”- George Santayana In 1914 there were two Nigerias. The North and the Southern Nigeria managed by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n