Nigeria at 53 Years of independence
Published: 30 September 2013 By Abiodun Giwa
Goodluck Jonathan
Nigeria and Nigerians will be celebrating the country's 53 years of independence that has always been celebrated on October 1, every year.
Many will be asking why the country is in a parlous state after several years of independence. As a Nigerian, knowledgeable about how the country has been meandering since her independence from Britain in 1960, I believe that the problem with the country is its foundation.
Nigeria is sitting on a foundation that is worse than a sandy ground. If you feel that I am wrong, feel free to chip in your own thinking about why the country is as it is today with corruption as a net that is swallowing the country.
The country has been bedeviled by different type of leaders at the national or federal level, whom no one can vouch for their credentials, unless their tribesmen and women, their supporters and accomplice contractors.
The military guys who emerged in 1966 to cleanse the stable accused the politicians of corruption, were themselves swallowed by the same ailment no sooner they had consolidated their power.
They military even proved to be worse than the politicians they had sacked from office. Ostentation and extravagance became their coat of honor and armor. And the same supporters of gangsters they sacked from office have been in and out of power, and they are still in power today.
The wish of one region to secede from the center to justify the maddening treatment of its tribe in the north was a smokescreen to control the resources in its jurisdiction, just as the wish of the leader at the center to fight to keep the country one became a smokescreen to fight to ensure the resources just discovered beneath the earth remained under his control. The only difference between Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon and Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu was that one was more educated than the other. They shared the same value and culture. These values and culture encouraged corruption. Ojukwu was a propertied guy, never mind it was inheritance from his father. It was not a surprise that Gowon was sacked by his own minister of communications for corruption. Manifestly, Murtala Muhammed, the minister of communications, who became the head of state after Gowon declared his assets, and returned the money he said he had seized from a Benin Bank during the war.
Muhammed began on a new slate as head of state. But the question remained unanswered why a commander in a war would be tempted to loot a bank. Agreed, Muhammed was born again. He took the country on a new direction. He opened the country to importation of essential commodities the ordinary people had lacked. The real enemies, among them that he had kicked out of office, planned and got rid of him, paving way for Olusegun Obasanjo, who emerged as head of state after the man considered by Nigerians as an active leader. Obasanjo quickly returned the country to civilian rule, and that remained his only achievement of the time. But to whom did he hand over power? Did he hand over to the man Nigerians believed was qualified, and could have led the country to the promised land?
The answer is in the negative. He preferred a teacher training certificate holder - Alhaji Shehu Shagari to Obafemi Awolowo. Every Nigerian knew that the election that paved the way for Alhaji Shagari was manipulated in his favor. And should have been enough reason Obasanjo ought to have been disqualified forever from Nigerian politics. Among those who ganged up against Awolowo was Kashimawo Abiola who became a miliionaire through his friendship with Muhammed, when the latter was a commissioner of communications. Muhammed restored the money he looted back to the bank, but the money in the account of those he made millionaires was never taken back and restored to the Nigerian nation.
The gangsters came together under the National party of Nigeria, NPN , along with Obasanjo as head of state, ensured Shagari's election and ensured that he was returned for the second term in office despite lack of performance. The Buhari and Idiagbon seizure of power created a vacuum and an interregnum that pushed the gangsters out of power for just a moment. But the gangsters used their power and wealth to restore the themselves with General Ibrahim Banabgida as a military president. Who were those who financed his coup?
Babangida turned the country upside down. His friend Abiola won an election, but disallowed him from assuming office for a reason he had refused to explain to Nigerians. He created the room for Sanni Abacha's time of butchery. But after Abacha and Abiola had passed, and Abdulsalam worked to return power back to the civilians, Babangida again emerged and influenced Obasanjo's selection, and Nigerians allowed him! Obasanjo then wanted to return for the third term, but because he was denied by Nigerians, he foisted Musa Yar' dua and Jonathan as president and vice-president respectively.
Yar' Dua died and Jonathan took over, continuing on the line of the gangsters. From Gowon to Obasanjo to Shagari; back to Babangida and Abacha, back to Obasanjo, and Yar' dua and then Jonathan, all represents the same drink in the same bottle. Is it any wonder that Jonathan has refused to declare his own assets?
The irony about Nigeria's case is that both the gangsters and the opposition members are not different. James Ibori says he has 30 percent share in Oando Oil. Oando Oil says he has less than he has claimed. Does that make Ibori and whoever owns Oando Oil birds of different feathers? Is that not a proof of cross fertilization of corruption among Nigerian politicians? It is only in Nigeria I see people praising the filthy rich careless the source of the wealth. There are more chairmen of companies who are proxies to corrupt former military leaders and politicians, than there are genuine company chairmen in Nigeria. Blessed I.K Dairo who sang in his days that there were uncountable directors in our country who had no office. They caused the innocent to cry and turned blessed homes into emptiness. The same is still applicable today.
All Nigeria's past and present leaders are all seeking ways to control the petrol money. It is why none of them can articulate any program to improve the lots of ordinary Nigerians or create a future for the teeming youth, despite that they spend their time more abroad than they do in Nigeria. It is not that they lack the sense of replicating the ideas and programs that have made advanced countries what they are and a place to be. All they care about and give attention is how much will go into their private accounts.
Many will be asking why the country is in a parlous state after several years of independence. As a Nigerian, knowledgeable about how the country has been meandering since her independence from Britain in 1960, I believe that the problem with the country is its foundation.
Nigeria is sitting on a foundation that is worse than a sandy ground. If you feel that I am wrong, feel free to chip in your own thinking about why the country is as it is today with corruption as a net that is swallowing the country.
The country has been bedeviled by different type of leaders at the national or federal level, whom no one can vouch for their credentials, unless their tribesmen and women, their supporters and accomplice contractors.
The military guys who emerged in 1966 to cleanse the stable accused the politicians of corruption, were themselves swallowed by the same ailment no sooner they had consolidated their power.
They military even proved to be worse than the politicians they had sacked from office. Ostentation and extravagance became their coat of honor and armor. And the same supporters of gangsters they sacked from office have been in and out of power, and they are still in power today.
The wish of one region to secede from the center to justify the maddening treatment of its tribe in the north was a smokescreen to control the resources in its jurisdiction, just as the wish of the leader at the center to fight to keep the country one became a smokescreen to fight to ensure the resources just discovered beneath the earth remained under his control. The only difference between Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon and Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu was that one was more educated than the other. They shared the same value and culture. These values and culture encouraged corruption. Ojukwu was a propertied guy, never mind it was inheritance from his father. It was not a surprise that Gowon was sacked by his own minister of communications for corruption. Manifestly, Murtala Muhammed, the minister of communications, who became the head of state after Gowon declared his assets, and returned the money he said he had seized from a Benin Bank during the war.
Muhammed began on a new slate as head of state. But the question remained unanswered why a commander in a war would be tempted to loot a bank. Agreed, Muhammed was born again. He took the country on a new direction. He opened the country to importation of essential commodities the ordinary people had lacked. The real enemies, among them that he had kicked out of office, planned and got rid of him, paving way for Olusegun Obasanjo, who emerged as head of state after the man considered by Nigerians as an active leader. Obasanjo quickly returned the country to civilian rule, and that remained his only achievement of the time. But to whom did he hand over power? Did he hand over to the man Nigerians believed was qualified, and could have led the country to the promised land?
The answer is in the negative. He preferred a teacher training certificate holder - Alhaji Shehu Shagari to Obafemi Awolowo. Every Nigerian knew that the election that paved the way for Alhaji Shagari was manipulated in his favor. And should have been enough reason Obasanjo ought to have been disqualified forever from Nigerian politics. Among those who ganged up against Awolowo was Kashimawo Abiola who became a miliionaire through his friendship with Muhammed, when the latter was a commissioner of communications. Muhammed restored the money he looted back to the bank, but the money in the account of those he made millionaires was never taken back and restored to the Nigerian nation.
The gangsters came together under the National party of Nigeria, NPN , along with Obasanjo as head of state, ensured Shagari's election and ensured that he was returned for the second term in office despite lack of performance. The Buhari and Idiagbon seizure of power created a vacuum and an interregnum that pushed the gangsters out of power for just a moment. But the gangsters used their power and wealth to restore the themselves with General Ibrahim Banabgida as a military president. Who were those who financed his coup?
Babangida turned the country upside down. His friend Abiola won an election, but disallowed him from assuming office for a reason he had refused to explain to Nigerians. He created the room for Sanni Abacha's time of butchery. But after Abacha and Abiola had passed, and Abdulsalam worked to return power back to the civilians, Babangida again emerged and influenced Obasanjo's selection, and Nigerians allowed him! Obasanjo then wanted to return for the third term, but because he was denied by Nigerians, he foisted Musa Yar' dua and Jonathan as president and vice-president respectively.
Yar' Dua died and Jonathan took over, continuing on the line of the gangsters. From Gowon to Obasanjo to Shagari; back to Babangida and Abacha, back to Obasanjo, and Yar' dua and then Jonathan, all represents the same drink in the same bottle. Is it any wonder that Jonathan has refused to declare his own assets?
The irony about Nigeria's case is that both the gangsters and the opposition members are not different. James Ibori says he has 30 percent share in Oando Oil. Oando Oil says he has less than he has claimed. Does that make Ibori and whoever owns Oando Oil birds of different feathers? Is that not a proof of cross fertilization of corruption among Nigerian politicians? It is only in Nigeria I see people praising the filthy rich careless the source of the wealth. There are more chairmen of companies who are proxies to corrupt former military leaders and politicians, than there are genuine company chairmen in Nigeria. Blessed I.K Dairo who sang in his days that there were uncountable directors in our country who had no office. They caused the innocent to cry and turned blessed homes into emptiness. The same is still applicable today.
All Nigeria's past and present leaders are all seeking ways to control the petrol money. It is why none of them can articulate any program to improve the lots of ordinary Nigerians or create a future for the teeming youth, despite that they spend their time more abroad than they do in Nigeria. It is not that they lack the sense of replicating the ideas and programs that have made advanced countries what they are and a place to be. All they care about and give attention is how much will go into their private accounts.
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