In physical terms and, perhaps, its sheer lack of social character and cohesion, Nigeria has been described memorably as a mere geographical expression. But as an anthropomorphised social formation, she could well be compared to a woman, victim of multiple rapes and mental torture, that is eventually shot and left for dead by a deserted roadside. It was not always like this. Nigeria at independence, at least, had high hopes for the country.
The country built on the foundation laid by the British. Ours was neither a perfect inheritance nor was our case beyond redemption or something we could be expected to steer back to the path of growth. With all its flaws and pitfalls, there was indeed still so much to look forward to. The state in recognition of its primary role catered to the welfare of the people, especially the educated elite that emerged shortly before and in the immediate wake of independence.
They enjoyed both professional and educational training, a privilege guaranteed by the technology of Western literacy. Those who went abroad stayed not a day longer in their eagerness to return home to claim their place among those who stayed back in the task of nation building. The politics was bitter and sometimes hostile, marked as it is to be expected in a game of power, by skullduggery.
But it gradually lost balance and eventually got toxic even as the social fabric frayed at the edges with the entry of the military. The national slide into state failure became a sudden plunge into the black hole of corruption and an Edenic loss of innocence with the outbreak of the civil war. Ever since, we have careened down and deeper into the whirling void of the black hole. Every other thing we’ve done thereafter has been to build on the rot more or less.
The opportunities of growth, the latitude of individual and group expansion has been circumscribed and contracted. We lost it in our initial travel down the path of nationhood at the point where the military took control. From then on, Nigeria as a country or a state became an abandoned enterprise that everyone plunders for their personal or group interest. The deformed legacy of military rule and how to unmake the past is the problem the country is today saddled with. It is the reason why our politics has become increasingly pathological and tribal with virtually no allegiance to the motherland.
Nigeria is our sacrificial lamb, the fall guy and excuse for every one of our failed aspirations and actions. We take advantage of it. Take what it has to offer, use it and move on without giving anything in return. Where we fail in our bid, we turn around and rain curses on it. Without reading a line of Samuel Johnson or being aware of the context of its usage, we give practical expression to his riposte about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel. This we say, if not in exact words. In today’s highly mediatised Nigeria where every middling aspirant is a star player once they are before the cameras, Nigeriaphobia is a lucrative enterprise. It is the easiest way to become a hero. It draws vitality from the poisoned politics of the contemporary era that is besmirched by a retrograde and ill-digested strain of Western liberalism.
This has taken a turn for the worse since the emergence of Bola Tinubu as president. His victory at the 2023 presidential polls has been a bile too bitter for many in the opposition to take and they conflate his person with the country and are for that reason actively driven by an obsession to derail his government no matter the consequences for the country at large. The president and his government have been anathema after he emerged as a leading candidate in the election and especially since his victory which his opponents believed was stolen. The bitterness of his opponents goes beyond that accusation. They just couldn’t accept his victory.
Otherwise, there was nothing more wrong with the election that brought him to power than the one that brought his predecessors to power as yesterday’s re-publication of the Carter Centre Report of the February 1999 Presidential Election by The Cable should remind us. Except for voter intimidation, the election was marred by vote inflation in at least nine states where Olusegun Obasanjo won in the South-South, ballot box stuffing, altered votes and disenfranchisement of voters, etc. Things were so bad that President Jimmy Carter who led the election monitoring delegation could not congratulate Obasanjo before leaving the country in spite of their friendship.
The election of 2007 and 2011 were even worse given the brazen robbery and widespread violence and bloodshed that respectively marred them. But the 1999 election was left to stand on grounds that the documented abuses from it were not substantial enough to have affected the overall outcome. This is one slack opponents of Tinubu would not cut him despite the fact that he didn’t enjoy the support of President Muhammadu Buhari who enacted a slew of policies (to the warm praises of opposition elements) that were evidently aimed at harming his chances both as an individual and a member of the incumbent party.
Rather than admit they miscalculated and accept Tinubu’s superiority as a political tactician, the opposition feels better consoled by the blather that he compromised the entire machinery of state in order to win the 2023 election. For that, Nigeria stands accursed in their view. Nothing about Nigeria is good and every attempt is made to directly or indirectly promote regime change, systemic violence or disintegration. Every bad piece of news thrills them to no end. Add to that the emerging blackmail and conspiracy from a section of the Northern political elite that has been threatening electoral retribution for perceived marginalisation (read elite privilege) of the North as if others will sit idly on their palms and wait for power to return to the North after just two or four years following a two-term Buhari presidency.
Nigeria will and must not only survive but it will do so in spectacular fashion to the benefit of every one of us irrespective of our political, religious and ethnic leanings. That is, if we would stop being irresponsible ingrates. The country may be on the path towards redemption as the present government sets about executing those reforms previous administrations have failed to make. The road has been very rough in 18 months but we are better off trying than kicking the reform can down the road. There are many rough edges to be straightened out about Nigeria but we must quit being negative about our country and work for its overall greatness.
Happy New Year, Nigeria!
•Written By Rotimi Fasan
