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Nigeria at 64: Haunted by identity politics and toxic elections

At 64, Nigeria a product of our visionary leaders and intellectuals mainly in the profession of journalism, medicine, law and teaching, committed to the emergence of a nation where the wellbeing of the privileged is the well-being of others, has come of age. I cannot find a more befitting tribute to our founding fathers than the following trending social media message.

“My father was a refuse collector, I went to FGC Warri. Government gave us uniforms, books; we ate chicken, we were paid transport fare to go back home. I could enter medical school in Ibadan without knowing anyone. I schooled with Odutola’s grandchild. Can anyone enter Ekpoma to read medicine today without knowing anyone?”

Many of those who promoted the idea of a more egalitarian society rose through their boot strings. Many of them never enjoyed the privileges and opportunities they gave others to become somebody in life. They loved and served their people. They planned for the survival of their nation. It was in this regard that Bode Thomas, who was to later die at 33, proposed regionalism “to prevent the country from the reign of one-eyed kings.”

Tragically, what we have had since the collapse of the first republic starting with Aguiyi Ironsi who decreed a unitary system for a heterogeneous society, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo, who destroyed academy and bureaucracy without which society decays, through to Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari who destroyed the legacies of our founding fathers in desperate search for their blurred vision of society, was at best reign of half blind men. It could have not been any less distressing they insisted they knew what was good for us without asking us.

When we express nostalgic feeling for our once thriving world class universities, they reminded us of their Bells, Babangida or Atiku Abubakar universities. When our self-proclaiming messiahs are reminded UCH Ibadan was one of the best three Teaching Hospitals in the Commonwealth of Nations, they have many alternatives including India. If they are reminded of our national airline with 33 aircraft flown by Nigerian pilots, they push down our throat, Okada, Sosoliso and other funny names. Our old shipping lines have substitutes in Raymond Dokpesi and Musa Yar’Adua Shipping lines; when we reminded of pipe-borne water in our city centres, they direct us to Coca-Cola and their other agents to buy water.

Unfortunately, for the greater part of our 64 years, their deadly tools for bringing us to our knees include politics of identity and toxic elections. With propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, outright lies, reality becomes picture in our heads. In terms of diatribes, disparaging propaganda, ethnic baiting, exploitation of the innermost fears of those who look up to us for direction, the 2023 presidential election was by the far the worst in our nation’s history.

But how did we get here?

Identity politics and toxic elections did not start until the 1931 Nigerian Youth Movement’s keenly and fiercely fought election. In that election, truth and principles became victim. Lagos youths that once saw themselves as Nigerians at war against a common enemy – the British imperialists – lost their innocence.

In that historic battle, Obafemi Awolowo had on the principle that the acting president had the right of first refusal, supported Ernest Ikoli, an Ijaw from the East against Akinsanya, his fellow Ijebu man sponsored by Dr Azikiwe. After a fierce battle, Ikoli won the election. But with Zik and his West African Pilot propaganda, Awolowo was declared a tribalist. That sounded a huge joke. But for Zik’s Igbo and Ijebu supporters, the most educated African of his era cannot be wrong. They all followed him out of NYM and the first major platform for Nigerian youths collapsed.

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Between August and December 1951, ethnic nationalism and religion sentiments had mounted with NPC winning the north, NCNC winning the east and AG the west. In the 1952, elections into the Federal House of Representatives, members of the central House were to be elected by the regional houses from among its members. The constitution recognized Lagos as part of West. The five seats meant for Lagos were therefore to come from the western-dominated house.

But Zik insisted on contesting in Lagos because as he rightly claimed, he was based in Lagos. But conscious of the western house’s unwillingness to have him as their representative to the federal legislature, he cut a deal with the five Lagos elected representatives so that three of them could step down for him. Unfortunately, two of them, Prince Adeleke Adedoyin and Dr Olorunnibe refused to step down, thereby preventing Zik from going to the central legislature. The response to the new development was to seek refuge under politics of identity.

In1951, after the regional election, of the five members elected on the platform of Ibadan Progressive Union, Adegoke Adelabu remained loyal to Zik and NCNC, while Adisa Akinloye and others joined Awolowo’s Action Group. This followed a stalemate as Zik and Mbadiwe and Zik’s other supporters insisted he should become the premier of the west while leading members of NCNC like Olu Akinfosile and TOS Benson who regarded NCNC as a Yoruba party as there was only one non-Yoruba in its inaugural meeting, insisted one of them be chosen to be premier.

The decision of the Yoruba in NCNC to be masters of their own fate at a period the north was administered by a northerner and the east by easterners became a subject of intense propaganda and blackmail and misinformation to the generation of Igbo youths. Of course, Obafemi Awolowo, who emerged leader of government, was crowned king of tribal politics. Even our world-celebrated Chinua Achebe could not restrain himself from dishing out disinformation when he wrote in his last major work There Was a Country that he witnessed carpet crossing of Zik supporters on the floor of Western House in 1952.

It is all about character and adherence to principles. Sadly our politics, has since become politics without principles. If Zik cannot manipulate the constitution to represent the west through the back door, Lagos must be separated from the west. If Awo would not give up on creation of states for minorities, the coalition partners can create just the Midwest to teach Awo a lesson (Balewa). If the constitution provided for non-interference of the centre in the affairs of the regions, the coalition could pass a retroactive law to undermine the constitution. If the Privy Council ‘s judgment was not favourable, , we may on the basis of our 1963 republican constitution replace it as the highest judicial body with our Chief Justice appointed by our president after dissolution of the judicial council.

NCNC’s 1959 coalition with NPC, a party with which it shared no ideological orientation, was probably driven by opportunism than any form of principles. NPP/NPN 1979 coalition after 33 months of war of attrition was not different. Opposition to MKO Abiola’s1993 landslide victory and Bola Tinubu’s 2023 travails fit the same narrative. What was not in doubt was the groundswell of opposition to MKO Abiola’s victory with Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu serving as Abacha’s envoy to de-market Abiola in Europe. There was a smear campaign against Tinubu with intent to hurt. He was vilified and abused by children of anger who would rather have military dictatorship to Tinubu presidency. The common denominator between these tormentors is lack of principle.

Identity politics thrives because nationalism is sometimes not without altruism. And as we have now seen from electoral records dating back to 1964, identity politics cannot guarantee electoral success. At some point, the coalition game has to be played. And periodic spoiler game has its limit. Since politics is a game where trust is perhaps the most important variable, spoiler game only keeps other groups on their guard.

Finally, it is just as well the president has invited the youths for a CONFAB where they can organize themselves for challenges of nation-building. Their future is in their hands. And that future is not going to be built on the street by an unthinking mob, trading lies in place of principles .Today’s reining god is democracy. And democracy has its ethos.

October 8, 2024
Still on Nigeria at 64

By Abdullateef Isa

Sir: Last week, Nigeria celebrated its 64th independence anniversary, and the question on the lips of many was: where is the country headed? Those who witnessed the events that led to the country’s independence remembered the events with nostalgia, and wondered what exactly should be celebrated 64 years later.

A 64th independence anniversary that ought to be marked with all the fanfare it deserves turned into an occasion for deep sober reflection among concerned citizens. Instead of jubilation, many Nigerians found themselves thinking about the rot that had happened and is still happening to the country, the so-called giant of Africa.

When independence was achieved on October 1, 1960, the people were filled with euphoria. Sadly, the reverse is the case today. In the last paragraph of the October 1, 1963 editorial of the Daily Times, the charge was, “Roll out the drums, blow the trumpets, let the fanfare echo to the four corners of the world. Africa’s most populous State, strides out with renewed faith this glorious morning”.

Could anyone make such a charge today?

In its October 1, 1969 editorial, the Daily Times remarked, “The surviving generation of Nigerians who have managed to live through 40 years of the nationalist struggle for freedom, must be disappointed that the dream of a greater Nigeria in which millions permitted themselves to revel on October 1, 1960—that the transfer of political power from foreigners to indigenes would usher in an era of peace and orderly government—has remained as elusive as ever before independence”. Sadly, it seems the Daily Times was remarking about present-day Nigeria. Most of the issues raised then persist today and there has been little development in every considered sector. It feels as if Nigeria is a snail, crawling along.

The most shocking thing, however, is how Nigerian leaders live large while the citizens suffer. Only the leaders appear happy, and all evidence suggests they are unwilling or not working towards making the people too happy. Funds meant for developmental projects are often swindled and stored in personal reserves.

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Despite its abundant natural and human resources, Nigeria remains in disarray. These resources are often mismanaged, underutilized, or better still, wasted. Brains that ought to be efficiently used for individual and societal development are pushed to the walls by harsh economic realities. Many brilliant Nigerian brains have deserted Nigeria and left for where they can better their lives. ‘Japa’ is on a geometric rise.

Nigerian leaders must rise to the occasion and see to the nation’s pressing issues. A person’s sire-land should not feel like a burden. Leaders should strive to take the people to where they ought to be, and not punish them for offences they did not commit. Issues that concern the people must be promptly addressed the way the national anthem was swiftly switched. Restructuring is imminent at this point in time, and leaders must stop paying lip service to it.

It is disheartening to note that many Nigerian youths are indifferent to their country. The reason for this is not far-fetched. It stems from the actions and inactions of the leaders. Youths wonder what country exactly they would be loyal to; a country that cares less about them and their well-being? Patriotism cannot be built when leaders are not exemplary.

The citizens, too, must do better. Leaders emerge from among the people, and Nigerians need to start cultivating leadership skills from a tender age. The mentality of “I will take my share when I get there” must be buried and buried for good. If this trend continues, no one will be safe. Positive change must begin with each Nigerian.

Student leaders in educational institutions must start leading by example, demonstrating to current leaders that things can be done better. Intellectual student unionism should be revitalized, bringing back the kind of days when Nigerian students actively and orderly engaged in public interest matters.

Nigerians, individually and collectively, must display a patriotic interest in the leadership recruitment process. They must seek out leaders who will be responsive to their needs. At the same time, they must begin to look at what they can offer the country, and not just what the country can offer them. They must note that for lasting change to occur, it must occur from the inside out. And hopefully, with all necessary things done, Nigeria at 65 will be better for all.

• Abdullateef Isa, University of Ibadan.

October 8, 2024
Nigeria at 64: What future for democracy?

For the past several years, even before the commencement of this democratic dispensation in 1999, several military regimes and civilian administrations have been forced to organize what has been described as ‘low key’ celebrations to commemorate the country’s independence anniversary on October 1, 1960. It has not been different with the President Bola Tinubu administration which marked Nigeria’s 64th anniversary with a modest ceremony confined to the precincts of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. All the states in the federation followed suit. The reason for the low profile independence anniversaries by successive administrations is the protracted economic crisis that has failed to respond to various policy medications with the vast majority of Nigerians sinking ever deeper into poverty despite their country being immensely endowed with natural, mineral and talented Human Resources.

Taking the bulls by the horns and announcing far-reaching economic reform policies with respect to removal of fuel scarcity and merger of corruption enhancing parallel exchange rate markets, measures that preceding administrations had identified as necessary but couldn’t summon the courage to implement, the Tinubu administration is faced with fierce tempests of socioeconomic hardships being borne by Nigerians hoping that the pains will be essentially short term if it harnesses the courage to stay the course and ensure continuity in policy consistency and steadfastness.

In one of his submissions in his book, ‘The Strategy and Tactics of the Peoples Republic of Nigeria’, Nigeria’s preeminent developmental and transformational leader, Premier of the Western Region in the First Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, declared emphatically that man is the ‘Alpha and Omega’ of the universe; the generator of all productive activities and who should be the object of all meaningful development initiatives. In a way, Nigeria’s prolonged embrace of underdevelopment is a function of our failure to take this profound insight of the sage into account in the various developmental exertions of successive governments- authoritarian and democratic.

The depth of our developmental failings is a measure of the extent to which we have neglected the maximal development of the potentials of each individual to enable their optimal contributions to the process of national transformation. Although he penned his treatise over five decades ago, Awolowo presciently recognized the gross danger that educational disparity between the North and the South posed to national stability and harmony. In his words, “It is now generally accepted that if we want to keep Nigeria United, and harmoniously so, the yawning gap in education between the north and south must be closed with the least possible delay, and immediate steps must be taken to this end”.

This has become more imperative than ever before. Although the South has its fair share of violence and destabilizing dysfunctions, these pale into relative insignificance compared to the wave of banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, and religious extremism overwhelming the North; the region worst hit by the phenomena of multitudes of out-of-school children and pervasive poverty. So much for the lack of vision, ineptness, and venality of the region’s political elite, vices from which its Southern counterpart is not exempt even if it is implicated to a relatively lower degree.

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There are those who contend that the fundamental roots of Nigeria’s post-independence predicament are essentially economic. From this perspective, the challenges of mass poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, hunger, inadequate shelter, prevalence of disease, and large-scale unemployment among others throw up barely controllable pressures that destabilize the polity and engender social disharmony.

The essence of the state as Plato noted is to enable those within its jurisdiction to meet their daily basic needs through superintending an efficient system of division of Labour. The social contract theorists, premised the obligation of citizens to obey the state on the latter’s capacity to fulfill its part of the social contract, especially the protection of lives and property, that undergirds the establishment of the polity. For the best part of the last 64 years, the Nigerian State cannot be said to have delivered to the citizenry the contractual obligations that is critical to the relationship between the government and the people particularly in a democratic polity.

Patriotism cannot exist in the abstract with a people demonstrating fierce loyalty and fidelity to a geopolitical entity simply because they dwell therein. Rather, the state can have the moral authority to call on its people to ask not what their country can do for them but what they can do for their country, as President JFK Kennedy demanded at his inauguration in America in 1961, only if it has succeeded to a significant extent in fulfilling its responsibilities to the led.

Yet there are still others who aver that at the core of Nigeria’s persistent post-colonial crisis is politics, deficient leadership, and a flawed constitution. If no meaningful attempt is made to address this superstructure of governance, hardly any breakthrough can be made in terms of economic recovery and sustainable development according to this school of thought. But then, as the Marxian perspective correctly contends, the political and constitutional superstructure rests on the economic substructure that has a determining influence on the former.

When they visited President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa recently, The Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians led by respected diplomat and statesman, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, called on the President to urgently work towards drawing up a new constitution for the country. As far as they were concerned, the socioeconomic and political dilemmas confronting the country today stem essentially from the flawed 1999 Constitution which they claimed was a military imposition and not a product of ‘We the people’ as it reportedly falsely advertises itself. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of a new constitution and everything shall be added unto you”, The Patriots confidently insinuated. Of course, President Tinubu’s response was that he would carefully consider his eminent visitors’ proposition but that the priority of his administration was to see its ongoing economic reforms to a logical and positive conclusion. Is constitutional change an indispensable condition for effectively addressing extant socioeconomic and political challenges? I don’t think so.

For one, as has been previously pointed out in this space, it is not entirely accurate that the extant 1999 Constitution is an imposition of the military. Rather, the General Abdussalam Abubakar regime itself had committed itself to a short transition to a civil rule programme and could thus not afford the luxury of embarking on the exercise of drawing up a new constitution for the country. Thus, it bypassed both the 1989 and 1995 Constitutions, products of the discredited Babangida and Abacha regimes, and opted for the 1979 Constitution which constitutes the core of the 1999 Constitution.

Although drawn up under the aegis of the Murtala Mohammed/ Olusegun Obasanjo military regime, the 1979 Constitution was the product of 49 of the country’s brightest and best lawyers, social scientists, academics and other experts who constituted the Constitution Drafting Committee and its proposals ratified by an elected Constituent Assembly with the then existing local government councils serving as electoral constituencies in which members emerged in non-party based polls. More importantly, the various ills identified under the presidential constitution of 1979 in the Second Republic as well as in this Fourth Republic from 1999 were also evident in the parliamentary constitution of the First Republic and these defects informed the jettisoning of the parliamentary constitution for the presidential constitution which we now operate.

It is thus obvious that the problems, challenges and failings we have witnessed in post-independence Nigeria cannot be blamed on deficiencies inherent to either the parliamentary or presidential constitutions. Rather, the political culture of massive corruption in public office, ostentatious lifestyles of public officers, unbridled competition for political power with the attendant brazen rigging of elections, rabid ethno-regional sectionalism as well as political intolerance among others led to the collapse of both the First and Second Republics under two different types of constitutions. The problem is then fundamentally one of an immoral and perverse political culture which will contaminate any type of constitution even if enacted by angels.

The belief that a constitution will be effective and ensure democracy and good governance if a majority of the people participate in its formulation is misplaced and excessively idealistic. In the first place, what percentage of any given population have the requisite knowledge and understand the nuances of constitution making well enough to contribute meaningfully to the process. It is my view that constitution making is intrinsically an elite-driven process. It is essentially the domain of a minority intellectual elite. In the making of the American constitution, for instance, the knowledge and expertise of the writers of ‘The Federalist Papers’ enabled them to have a preponderant influence on the ultimate outcome of the process.

Can the extant 1999 Constitution, for instance, be blamed for the benumbing corruption and criminal profligacy of so many of our public office holders in the different arms and at all levels of government? Can the Constitution be the cause of the desperation witnessed during elections with parties and candidates eager to compromise electoral and security agencies or buy votes thus weaponizing poverty? Surely, the answers to these posers cannot be in the affirmative. Rather than rush to enact a new constitution or brusquely terminate the Fourth Republic after two and a half decades of unbroken democratic governance, we must continue to painstakingly strengthen our institutions- electoral, anti-corruption, and security agencies to attain continuously increasing autonomy, efficiency, transparency, effectiveness, and credibility.

The capacity and independence of the legislature and judiciary at all levels must continue to be enhanced. Political education and enlightenment of the people by the major political parties as well as the National Orientation Agency (NOA) must be intensified. It is difficult to credibly dispute the fact, for instance, that, compared to the early elections of 2003 and 2007, recent elections in this dispensation have been far more credible even though mischievous election outcome deniers have also grown more vociferous. Nurturing and consolidating a mature democracy cannot be the equivalent of preparing instant coffee. It takes time, patience, resilience, and hard work, especially on the part of genuine change agents.

The tempestuous and impatient young majors that torpedoed the First Republic in January 1966 due to the perceived flaws of the politicians set in process a spate of coups and counter coups with soldiers falsely posing as political Messiahs when they had not the slightest clue to solving the country’s multifarious problems. Nearly three decades of military dictatorship severely hobbled and undermined Nigeria’s political and democratic development. This is unlike India which, though no less complex culturally and socially than Nigeria and buffeted by serious political crises at various times, has never experienced a military coup thus enabling that country’s democracy to grow apace steadily and systematically.

The problems of political and other forms of development will not respond to blind rage or wild emotionalism. Rather, a critical core of the citizenry must emerge with the capacity for cold, incisive reasoning as well as the skills and acumen to organize and mobilize citizens for change through legitimate democratic structures and processes.

October 5, 2024
Nigeria at 64: Here is a country

Sir: Nigeria certainly has cause to cheer: 25 unbroken years of democracy in a sub-region swarmed by coup plotters is no mean feat; neither is 64 years of independence something to be sneered at. So, despite the gloom and doom of the current times, the country would not look ghostly in celebratory gear.

Amidst the shattering despondency in the country, a common question would be: what is Nigeria celebrating, and is there really anything to celebrate? The resounding answer is YES. To those who will ask, “what?” The answer will be: here is a country.

Here is a country hastily lumped together by the shortsightedness of colonialists who were eager to milk it dry and get away before its inevitable collapse.Sixty-four years after they left, the country is still clinging on to its unity.

Here is a country convulsed by an atrocious and iniquitous civil war that would have spelled the end for many other countries. Yet, it still stands, although many wounds from the civil war are still festering, and war continues to be waged against the country in many forms.

Here is a country trampled under the boot heels of military rule, during which the constitution was dipped in blood and flung out of the window. Outrageous amounts of money stolen from the country and stashed away in indeterminate countries are yet to be returned.

Here is a country indelibly stained by its crude oil. The environmental degradation of the Niger Delta, the suffering of its people and the mismanagement of its oil resources continue to break the heart.

Here is a country that is a victim of the conspiracy of its politicians. Motivated by ethnic and religious agendas, they have continued to wage a relentless war against the country in a bid to mould it into their unsightly images.

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Here is a country compromised by corruption. Again and again, its funds have been converted to personal funds, but still, it goes on.

Here is a country devastated by poverty with half of its population living in grinding poverty despite its staggering natural resources. Here is a country cut open by terrorism and insecurity, with Boko Haram and bandits battering it from all sides.

Nigeria is a relentless tale of resistance and resilience. Resistance to despair and resilience in the face of backbreaking odds. It is the story of a country that has refused to be broken; a country forced to scrape the bottom many times, each time managing to come up with the goods. Nigeria is the curious case of a wife who has lost everything in a marriage who, however, refuses to leave the marriage, remaining faithful to a fleeting but fathomless love.

Here is a country redeemed by its democracy that is 25 years old. In a sub-region where the military have become coup plotters, 25 years is an eternity for a beacon and defender of democracy.

The skies over Nigeria continue to darken. Poverty remains rife, insecurity continues to thrive, and bad leadership remains a staple. Many of its young people are fleeing the country. Those who can’t flee are taking to internet fraud. Many who remain behind have lost hope. Yet, Nigeria remains, raring to go at a seemingly impossible task of nationhood.

Here is a country, subject of many predictions and prophecies of doom, which, however, continues to defy every bearer of doom, sent to it.

In his masterful interrogation of the Nigerian conundrum, There was a country, immortal author, Chinua Achebe, spoke to a country existing in an existential crisis as a grieving parent would to the ghost of a dead child. That country somehow refuses to die.

Such impossible resilience deserves to be celebrated.

•Kene Obiezu,keneobiezu@gmail.com

October 2, 2024
Nigeria at 64: Governor Uba Sani calls for unity, resilience

Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, has urged Nigerians to work together towards building a brighter future, drawing strength from the country’s resilience and capacity to unite in the face of adversity.

Speaking at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna, during the Independence Day celebration, the governor reflected on Nigeria’s 64-year journey since gaining independence, acknowledging both the progress and challenges faced by the nation.

Sani highlighted the economic growth Nigeria has experienced, noting that it remains Africa’s largest economy despite ongoing economic challenges. He also emphasised the importance of patience and support for the Federal Government’s efforts to stabilise the economy.

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“The federal and state governments have stepped up short, medium, and long-term measures to mitigate the hardships of the citizens,” Sani said. “The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration has taken bold and painful economic measures to reinvent the economy, and with sustained support, we will see improvements.”

The governor also outlined his administration’s efforts in Kaduna State, focusing on investments in agriculture, education, health, and rural development. He noted the completion of several road projects and ongoing works across the state aimed at transforming the rural economy.

“Let us work together to create a brighter future where every citizen can thrive and reach their full potential,” he added, calling for unity and collective action.

As Nigeria marks its 64th independence anniversary, Sani expressed optimism that with continued effort and determination, the country would overcome its current challenges and achieve lasting progress.

October 1, 2024
Nigeria at 64: the road to renewed hope

By Allison Abanum

All eyes have always been on the most populous black Nation on Earth since Independence. Nigeria Provided leadership and enormous support to the United Nations peacekeeping missions in Congo and other countries. It led the movement for the end to apartheid rule in Southern African countries, including South Africa, Northern Rhodesia ( Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia ( Zimbabwe). It supported other liberation movements, including those of Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and Western Sahara.

Inwardly, Nigerians are beautiful people. We love life. We love people. Where you find bigotry, you can also find tolerance among Nigerians; where there is hate; there is love, and where there is tension; there is also good neighbourliness. Even under the cumulus of ethnic tonguefire, we do not relent in helping one another when the occasion demands it.

But unfortunately at sixty four, Nigeria is still not where she ought to be. We must understand that as a Great contry we have both known and unknown enemies, we must understand that foreign business interest have taken part of our economy. Nigeria is saddled with an insidious reality, plaqued by home-grown enemy: the political ineptitude, mediocrity, indiscipline, ethnic bigotry,etc. And it is valid that the Bola Tinubu Renewed Hope Agenda is the only way to open up the Political and Economic process to every Nigerian.

President Bola Tinubu is a brave leader that needs our prayers and support If we truly want a Mental and Moral reorientation. His “Renewed Hope Agenda” is a social revolution that flows from a reborn mind. Mental reorientation produces a decent moral consciousness and when it is on a massive scale, society will change.

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Bola Tinubu is leading a National integration and it’s benefits can be realised only with the entrenchment of a supportive public culture. Nigerians must understand, respect and tolerate differences occasioned by socio-cultural diversity and also develop new institutions and mechanisms that address poverty, revenue allocation and other national issues peacefully.

The Bola Tinubu Renewed Hope Agenda is gradually transforming Nigeria potentials into success and the Renewed Hope Agenda is taking a right turn per second in the middle of nowhere to find it’s bearing. This explains the so many Tough decisions taken by the Tinubu led Federal Govt.

But in a democracy, the most important office is not the office of the president, it’s the office of the citizen and so, Nigerians must be brave because Fortunes only favour the brave. But we must also remember that restoring systems alone will not, overnight, make the country a success.

This is not a time to bemoan all the challenges ahead. It is a time to work at developing, nurturing and sustaining democracy as a people. But we also must realize that we need patience and cannot expect instant miracles. Building strong institutions is not something a people do in one year, in a few years, even. The Chinese had their chance to emerge as the leading nation in the world in the middle Ages, but were consumed by interethnic political posturing and protests, and had to wait another 500 years for another chance. The United States of America did not arrive at it’s much admired democracy and institutions overnight.

As a people we must stop to abide in wilful fatalism. We must stop seeing only doom and gloom about Nigeria. We must stop making cynical projections on our country and stop holding up to ridicule narrative. We must stop saturating public discourse with

blood, sorrow and tears as if there is no ” light, love and life” in any corner of the country. While we cannot attenuate the staggering challenges gnawing at the country, it will be defeatist to say there is no hope in this tempest . It will be cynical of any Nigerian to say it is all rain and no sunshine.

No leader wants to fail and Bola Tinubu has made it clear that ” Their is no room for Excuses”. Today is not the day to tell us that Bola Tinubu has ended the era of fuel subsidy for the interest of the Economy, Today is not the day to discuss how Bola Tinubu led Federal Govt took all the State Governors to the supreme court just to get Local Govt Autonomy, Today is not the day to elaborate on the Legacy projects of Bola Tinubu, Today is not the day to give details of how foreign investments are flowing into Nigeria under Bola Tinubu, Today is not the day to share any form of Bola Tinubu’s achievement in office. Today is for Celebrating Renewed Hope and Celebrating Nigeria at Sixty four. Happy Independence Day Nigeria!

• Abanum writes from Orogun, Delta State

September 29, 2024
Nigeria at 64 and missed opportunities

Put dramatically, Nigeria entered old age four years ago. By this time next year, it will be well into that age classification, its strength drained by divisions, in-fighting, religious extremism, structural and political dystrophy, populism, and entitlement. But that is one year away. Will there be a change for the better, a reversal of the lethargy that has stagnated and disoriented it? No one can tell. Indeed, there are chances things might get worse, given the country’s predilection for majoring in minor things. In the 1950s and 1960s, Nigeria was as primed for development as the four Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, all of which put premium on exports, industrialization, and integration into the world economy, emulating Japan and growing at over seven percent. Decades later, and despite the slump of 2008, they have sustained their prodigious leaps, more or less.

On the other hand, after one military intervention or the other, a civil war that is yet to produce a closure, and deepening cleavages underscored by ethnic rivalry and poisonous infusions of religion into politics, Nigeria has continued to reel under its self-inflicted limitations. Tomorrow, it will be 64 years old. It ought to have outgrown its colonial past, but it has sunk deeper into neocolonialism. It proclaims secularism offhandedly, but it has acted more non-secular than many theocratic states, and funded religious travels, practices and observances with reckless abandon. If its cloud is to have a silver lining, it must show capacity to take the wind. So far, for more than six decades, Nigeria has mastered the art of disowning the opportunities nature and circumstances gift it. Nigeria does not lack skilled economists or seasoned administrators, but at every turn in the past, just when the silver lining appeared, it had seemed fated to self-destruct.

In the past 64 years, Nigeria repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Gifted a federalist constitution anchored on regionalism and the Parliamentary system at independence in 1960, Nigeria’s idiosyncratic impatience, poor appreciation of the salient issues of the day, and indiscipline of the highest order led to a military takeover, arrest of democracy, enthronement of a unitary system of government, and a civil war. Were any lessons learnt? None whatsoever. What of those who played key roles in destroying the First Republic? They remained remorseless and justificatory of their roles, and until their dying days refused to accept responsibility. In fact, the bitterness and ethnic suspicion instigated in the system have become gangrenous. Alarmingly, in recent years, social media has accentuated the divisions and fuelled national distrust with inflammatory language. The problem appears set to worsen.

Gifted another chance to make a fresh start in 1979, the country seemed unanimous in believing that the structure, rather than the political actors, was the problem. Parliamentarianism was, therefore, peremptorily jettisoned, and the American-inspired presidential system was adapted in a disjointed and bastardised form. There was little federal about the constitution, not to talk of its many unfounded suppositions and pretences; in fact it retained many essential elements of a unitary system of government. The departing military government simply projected its command structure worldview upon the Second Republic constitution and thus weakened it from the beginning. Nothing was done to create an enduring template for leadership recruitment, and though some attempts were made to export and industrialise and integrate the economy into the world economy, there were no safeguards to prevent the vitiation and ultimate abandonment of the progress of the 60s and 70s.

Many more incompetent military leaders followed until circumstances offered the country yet another chance in 1993 with the election of business mogul Moshood Abiola as president. In one fell swoop, his election held the promise of obliterating religious and ethnic divides, two cankerworms gnawing at the national fabric and exposing the country to instability and retardation. But even before the last ballot was counted, the oligarchs of the day subverted popular will by annulling the poll and retaining power in the hands of unimaginative military leaders with no sense of history or politics, or even sense for sense. It was unremittingly bad. The same elements who acted against popular will in the 1990s have begun their politics of brinkmanship again. Eight years, presumably, of Chief Abiola would have ended in 2001, and power returned to the North, with democracy nurtured and strengthened. Instead, those years produced a mimic civilian leader, another bloodthirsty military ruler, and finally a foisted former soldier elected as president. That great chance of 1993, which produced an elected person on his own merit, was lost, to be replaced by an imposed president incapable of appreciating democratic norms and, worse, beholden to a cabal.

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But sometimes, nature can also exceed expectations. It is not only capable of producing destructive hurricanes and storms, it is also adept at gifting second, third and fourth chances. If Nigeria was good at self-destruction and other excesses, nature was even better at offering redemption. In 2023, after welcoming a slew of lethargic and visionless presidents, Nigeria was again gifted with the election of the self-made Bola Tinubu as president who ran on same-faith presidential ticket. Rather than sense the redemptive value of a ticket capable of again dealing massive blows to religious interference in politics, nearly half of the country rose up in arms against the ticket. But just as nature conspired to produce an unlikely victory after the poll, some Nigerians disavowed the election, tried to instigate a coup d’etat, prophesied doom and death for the victorious candidate, and recklessly pushed the country to the brink. They proved incapable of recognising nature’s gifts, and in order to avert a Tinubu presidency, they shockingly announced they were indifferent to the collapse of the whole national edifice.

Despite their worst efforts, President Tinubu was inaugurated. It was a godsend to encourage faith in the country that anyone, even if not beholden to a cabal, could win the highest office. Apart from inaugurating a man who believes in himself and has had the courage to take actions and make appointments without recourse to special interests except political mobilisers, the election also helped to tame the influence of religious considerations in electing the president. In addition, the election averted the damaging potential of regional and ethnic self-succession, and then also offered the opportunity to reset the country’s economy, in the first instance, and greatly attenuate the sense of entitlement that has weakened the country’s productive base. More, it seems set to realign the value of the Naira with production in a move that will revivify the country’s industrial base of the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. Ten more years like the last one year, with of course the pain of adjustment considerably reduced, should make Nigeria re-imagine and recreate the Asian Tigers. But, notwithstanding all the opportunities offered by the unusual 2023 political outcomes, many analysts are still fixated on the old and dying economic templates that have made Nigeria uncompetitive – fuel subsidy, fixed and unrealistic exchange rate, suffocating monthly federal allocations, and overbearing political centralisation. If Nigeria does not change, it will collapse, especially having atrophied for some 64 long and distressing years.

September 29, 2024
Nigeria at 64: RCCG holds special prayers, thanksgiving

The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has concluded plans to hold a special 64th Independence Day celebration and prayer service, on the 6th of October at RCCG National Headquarters, Throne of Grace, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

Tagged: ‘Divine Wisdom,’ will bring together government functionaries, as well as students from higher institutions.

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Speaking at a press conference ahead of the programme, The Special Adviser to The General Overseer of RCCG on Administration, Pastor Oladele Balogun, said, “Though our tongues and tribes may differ, in brotherhood we must continue to stand. This is why we are called to celebrate the bravery, resilience, and determination of our forebears who fought tirelessly for our freedom.

“As we celebrate, let’s also commit to praying for both our present and future leaders, because only God can bring about true transformation.”

Oladele, who is also the Pastor in charge of RCCG, Region 1, acknowledged that Nigeria is facing significant challenges, from economic decline to growing insecurity.

September 29, 2024