Text of a lecture delivered by Dr. Jhalil Balewa, a US-based medical doctor, at the third Afe Babalola Law Lecture held at the Aafe Babalola Multipurpose Auditorium, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti.
Early History: There is no river without a source. I ask for a little indulgence to go through our history so we can surgically analyse how we got to this state before we rush into a curative regimen. All evidence suggests the early settlement of Nigeria millennia before the spread of agriculture 3.000 years ago. The earliest culture in Nigeria is identifiable by the distinctive artefacts of the Nok people. These skilled artisans and ironworkers flourished between the fourth century B.C. and the second century A.D. in a large area above the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers.
Long before 1500 A.D. much of present-day Nigeria was divided into states, which can still be linked to the modem ethnic groups that trace their history to the origins of these states. These early states included the Yoruba kingdoms, the Edo kingdom of Benin. The Hausa cities, and Nupe. In addition, numerous small states to the west and south of Lake Chad were absorbed or displaced in the course of the expansion of Kanem, centered to the northeast or Lake Chad. Borno, initially the western province of Kanem, became independent in the late fourteenth century.
The sixteenth century marked a high point in the political history of northern Nigeria. Borno dominated the region for 200 years. Despite Borno’s hegemony, the Hausa states wrestled for ascendancy among themselves for much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is a major reason for an understated logger-heads between the Kanuris of the northeast and the rest of the Hausa-Fulani northern Nigeria, a fact that goes over the heads of most of our policy gurus.
European Slave Trade in West Africa: By 1471 Portuguese ships had reconnoitered the West African coast south as far as the Niger-Delta. Portugal’s lasting legacy for Nigeria was its initiation of the transatlantic slave trade. The Dutch took over Portuguese trading stations on the coast that were the source of slaves for the Americas. French and British competition later undermined the Dutch position, and Britain became the dominant slaving power in the eighteenth century.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the area that was to become Nigeria was far from a unified country. Furthermore, the orientation of the north and the south was entirely different. The savanna states of Hausaland and Borno in the north had experienced a difficult century of political insecurity and ecological disaster but otherwise continued in a centuries-long tradition of slow political and economic change that was similar to other parts of the savanna. The southern areas near the coast, by contrast, had been swept up in the transatlantic slave trade. Political and economic change had been rapid and dramatic. By 1800 Oyo, a constitutional monarchy, governed much of southwestern Nigeria, while the Aro, another polity, had consolidated southeastern Nigeria into a confederation. Both Oyo and the Aro confederacy were major trading partners of the slave traders from Europe and North America.
Colonial Nigeria: In 1885 at the Berlin Conference, the European powers attempted to resolve their conflicts of interest in Africa by allotting areas of exploitation. The conferees also enunciated the principle, known as the “dual mandate,” that the interests of both Europe and Africa would best be served by maintaining free access to the African continent for trade and by providing Africa with the benefits of Europe’s civilizing mission. Britain’s claims to a sphere of influence in the Niger Basin were acknowledged formally, but it was stipulated that only effective occupation would secure full international recognition. In the end, pressure from France and Germany hastened the establishment of effective British occupation and the creation of protectorates in northern and southern Nigeria.
Frederick Lugard, who assumed the position of high commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria in 1900, was occupied with transforming the commercial sphere of influence inherited from the Royal Niger Company into a viable territorial unit under effective British political control. His objective was to conquer the entire region and to obtain recognition of the British protectorate by its indigenous rulers, especially the Fulani emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate. Lugard’s immediate successor, Hugh Clifford (1919-25), introduced a diametrically opposed approach emphasising Western values. In contrast to Lugard, Clifford restricted the power of the northern emirs by scaling back indirect rule, while in the south he saw the possibility of building an elite educated in European-style schools. This was as the first evil seed of our present day problem.
British colonialism created Nigeria, joining diverse peoples and regions in an artificial political entity with little sense of a common Nigerian nationality. Inconsistencies in British policy reinforced cleavages based on regional animosities by attempting simultaneously to preserve the indigenous cultures of each area and to introduce modem technology and Western political and social concepts. In the north, appeals to Islamic legitimacy upheld the rule of the emirs, so that nationalist sentiments there were decidedly anti-Western.
Independence and Civil War: By an Act of the British Parliament, Nigeria became an independent country within the Commonwealth on October 1 1960, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the first and only Prime Minister and head of government. In 1963 Nigeria became a Republic within the Commonwealth. The change in status called for no practical alteration of the constitutional system. The President elected to a five-year term by a joint session of the parliament, replaced the crown as the symbol of national sovereignty and the British monarchy as the Titular Head of State. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the Republic’s first President.
One of the most important developments during the I960s was the declaration of independence by the Eastern Region in 1967, followed by a 30-month civil war. In the face of increased sectarian violence, the Eastern Region’s military governor, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was under pressure from Igbo officers to assert greater independence from the Federal Military Government (FMG). Ultimately, on May 30, 1967, Ojukwu proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra. He cited as the principal cause for this action the government’s inability to protect the lives of predominantly lgbos and suggested its culpability in genocide.
Initially, the FMG launched “police measures” to restore the authority of Lagos in the Eastern Region, but soon full-scale civil war broke out. Finally, in January 1970 Biafran resistance collapsed, and the FMG reasserted its authority over the area. An estimated I to 3 million died from hostilities, disease, and starvation during the civil war, and more than 3 million lgbo became refugees. The economy of the region was shattered. In several years, however, the Nigerian government achieved the rehabilitation of 70 per cent of the industry incapacitated during the war.
The Federal Government granted funds to cover the region’s operating expenses for an interim period, and much of the war damage was repaired. This single act was greatest disservice to Nigeria, the beginning of gross corruption-contracts, conspicuous consumption, absolute power abuse and unfettered disdain for law and order — to mention a few of the ills that were introduced. The regions had self-sustenance before and contributed to the fiscal functioning of the centre i.e. the Federal Government. This was the first time the Federal Government did not just trickle down but took total fiscal control of a region. Since then our regions produced nothing of substance and now became wards of the Federal Government. This was the quoin of our national moral decay.
Coups and Mostly Military Government: In the postwar period, all significant political power remained concentrated in the FMG. The influence of Yakubu (Jack) Gowon who had come to power in a 1966 coup, depended on his position as chairman of the Supreme Military Council, which was created in March 1967. The regime ruled by decree in October 1970, Gowon announced his intention of staying in power until I976, the target year for completion of the military’s political program and return to an elected civilian government. But many Nigerians feared that the military planned to retain power indefinitely. ln 1972, Gowon partially lifted the ban on political activities that had been in force since 1966 in order to permit a discussion of a new constitution that would pave the way for civilian rule. The debate that followed was ideologically charged, and Gowon abruptly terminated the discussion.
The Gowon regime came under fire because of widespread and obvious corruption at every level of national Iife. Inefficiencies compounded the effect of corruption. Crime also posed a threat to national security and had a seriously negative impact on efforts to bring about economic development. The political atmosphere deteriorated to the point where Gowon was deposed in a bloodless military coup in July 1975. The armed forces chose as Gowon’s successor Brigadier (later General) Murtala Ramat Muhammad a Muslim northerner. Muhammad was assassinated during an unsuccessful coup in February 1976, but in a short time his policies had won him broad popular support, and his decisiveness elevated him to the status of national hero. He had sought to restore public confidence in the Federal Government, reduce government expenditures on public works, and encourage the expansion of the private sector. He also set in motion the stalled machinery of devolution to civilian rule by a commitment to hand over power to a democratically elected government by October 1979.
Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, succeeded Muhammad. Keeping the established chain of command in place, Obasanjo pledged to continue the program for the restoration of civilian government in 1979 and to carry forward the reform program to improve the quality of public service. In 1979 under Ubasanjo’s leadership, Nigeria adopted a constitution based on the Constitution of the United States that provided for a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The country was now ready for local elections, to be followed by national elections that would return Nigeria to Civilian rule. Obasanjo also initiated plans to move the federal capital from Lagos to a more central location in the interior at Abuja. Ultimately, Abuja became the country’s capital in December 1991.
The Second Republic, 1979—83: In 1979 live revamped parties competed in national elections, marking the beginning of the Second Republic. The presidential succession from Obasanjo to a civilian, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was the first peaceful transfer of power since independence. Nigeria’s Second Republic was born amid great expectations. Oil prices were high, and revenues were on the increase. It appeared that unlimited development was possible. Unfortunately, the euphoria was short-lived. A number of weaknesses beset the Second Republic. First, the coalition that dominated federal politics was not strong, and in effect the victorious National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Shagari governed as a minority. Second, there was a lack of cooperation between the NPN-dominated Federal Government and the 12 states controlled by opposition parties. Third, and perhaps most importantly the oil boom ended in mid-I981, precisely when expectations of continuous growth and prosperity are at a height. The recession that set in put severe strains on the Second Republic. This epoch started our hollow romance with ‘our democracy,’ where our campaigns were limited to regional, ethnic, and religious instincts alone, no sharp ideological differences amongst political parties or whatever they will offer to the citizenry.
Return to Military Rule: On December 31 1983, the military seized power once again, primarily because there was virtually no confidence in the civilian regime. The leader of the coup d’etat was Major General Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner whose background and political loyalties tied him closely to the Muslim north and the deposed government. The military regime tried to achieve two goals. First, it attempted to secure public support by reducing the level of corruption; second, it demonstrated its commitment to austerity by trimming the federal budget. In a further effort to mobilise the country, Buhari launched a “War Against Indiscipline” in the spring of 1984. This national campaign, which lasted 15 months, preached the work ethic, emphasised patriotism, decried corruption, and promoted environmental sanitation. However, the campaign achieved few of its aims.
The economic crisis, the campaign against corruption, and civilian criticism of the military undermined Buhari’s position, and in August 1985, a group of officers under Major General Ibrahim Babangida removed Buhari from power. The Babangida regime had a rocky start. The most serious opposition centred in the labour movement and on university campuses. There was also considerable controversy over Nigeria’s entry into the Organisation of the Islamic Countries, an international body of Muslim states, in 1986. Buhari’s regime had initiated the application, which Babangida allowed to stand. The strong reaction among many Christians proved to be an embarrassment to the regime. Babangida remained in power until 1993, when he ushered in an Interim National Government under the leadership of Chief’ Earnest Shonekan. This step followed the military’s annulment of election results in June 1993.
