NIGERIA: SO MUCH AT STAKE

                        PART ONE

     By Chidi Chike Achebe MD, MPH, MBA

"Corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the fatal stage; and Nigeria will die if we continue to pretend that she is only slightly indisposed."

• Chinua Achebe

What’s at Stake: We don’t appear to get it

Over the past couple of months, fair minded persons of all races, creeds, religions, and persuasions, have watched with great trepidation and concern, an upsurge in bigoted, many will say ‘racist’ rhetoric and events around the world.

James Watson, a leading scientist, found himself “embroiled in an extraordinary row” recently, after he made, then officially retracted, a statement that “Africans were less intelligent than Westerners.” In far flung Australia, a controversial immigration bill last year, sought to limit the number of refugees from war torn Darfur from gaining entrance into the country, claiming that “Africans would find it difficult, even impossible, to assimilate into a civilized society.”

CNN recently reported that “thousands of protesters clogged the tiny town of Jena, Louisiana, to show their indignation over a noose sighting on a tree in a school compound and what they consider unjust, unequal punishments meted out in two racially charged incidents.”1 According to the political pundit and columnist Clarence Page “noose sightings have risen nationally in the months since the Jena, Louisiana, incident.”2

Elsewhere in the world, in a statement that clearly illustrates that the business of racial intolerance has opened an Equal Opportunity Office, a former Mexican president, commenting on the problem of immigration from his country to the United States, referred to the Mexican émigrés as individuals that take jobs “even blacks don’t want.”

Tragically, Native American groups also joined the world wide bazaar of racial intolerance when Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole tribes triggered a hornet’s nest of outrage and found themselves under immense moral, political, and cultural pressure, for excluding would-be tribal members with shared Native American and African bloodlines from their ranks.

Racial intolerance is as old as the hills. This article is not designed to be its lament or treatise of solutions. I will leave a more expert analysis of its history and ramifications to others. I am concerned only with Nigeria’s role in improving the lot of Africans around the world. Here is the albatross of responsibility hanging on Nigeria’s neck, as I see it, for good or ill: “As long as Nigeria does not live up to her great potential, Africans everywhere will not attain their full potential and respect as a group, and will continue to be vulnerable to bigotry.” Here is why:

One of every seven living Africans on the planet is Nigerian, and naturally, for decades, concerned individuals of all colors, but in particular African peoples on the African continent, and their descendants in the Diaspora, have looked to Nigeria- clearly the most populous and arguably the most gifted African State- to provide an example of a nation run by Africans that can attain economic, cultural, and political success.

African intellectuals such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Nadine Gordimer; as well as CLR James, Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, Aime Cesaire in the Caribbean; to James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Johnetta B. Cole, Cornell West and Julian Bond in the Americas, have all, at one time or the other, and with great anxiety, wondered why Nigeria, with all its human and material blessings, seems never to be able to get its act together. One of these great minds recently expressed this concern aloud this way: “Are Nigerians not fully aware of what is truly at stake for African peoples around the world? That her success will mean our success? These words should give Nigerians “food for thought”.

Here’s more: One salient lesson successful emerging countries have learned, is the formidable power of “collective reputation - that group success outweighs individual achievement.” Japan rapidly learnt this lesson, following its “economic miracle of the sixties,” and spent the next several decades pouring billions of investment dollars into the economies of its less developed neighbors – today’s so called “emerging Asian Tigers.” Today, “Asia” conjures up images of modern skyscrapers and aggressive economic and intellectual advancement. This is a far cry from the days when Western parents would scold their children with the refrain: “Don’t waste your food… there are starving children in China!” Unfortunately, today, whether we like it or not, the image that comes to mind around the world about “Africa,” is best illustrated by the picture below:

3

The Rise of China and other Developing Economies

Over the past decade, several articles and papers have predicted the rise of China as the next economic superpower. The Economist, quoting World Bank figures, recently reported that China had vaulted past Great Britain in GDP terms to become the world’s 4^th largest economy.4

That China is currently poised to join Japan in making the miraculous “leap forward” from underdevelopment to the club of advanced nations in record time, is not surprising to economists or historians. For over twenty years, China’s GNP has grown at an annual rate of over 9% per year. By 2005, it had topped $2.24 trillion. In Asia, only Japan, the world’s second largest economy, topped China’s impressive economic expansion, with a GNP of $ 4.8 trillion.5 China’s success was made possible by an uncompromising, concomitant effort to improve her educational system, and to harness the collective intellectual potential of the world’s most populous nation. China’s recent entry into ‘the last frontier-space,’ with manned missions, is a testament to how far it has come.

China’s economic triumph tells only part of the story. The BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China (aforementioned), are expected to emerge as members of the world’s ten largest economies in the decades ahead. Indeed, 40% of the top 20 economies in the world today, are those of the former “third world.” Looming in the horizon is Asia’s other ‘Tiger” - India - growing at an impressive 6% a year, and expected to catapult onto the list of top 5 economies in the next twenty years. Equally impressive is the fact that today, Brazil is the world’s 8^th largest economy, Mexico is the 11^th and Taiwan, South Korea are not far behind. Their success also provides a salient reminder of the incredible untapped potential of Africa’s “sleeping giant”- Nigeria.

POWER, DISPOSSESSION AND OPPRESSION

Africa has had a long and tortured history. Over several centuries, she has had to endure disease epidemics, the evils of slavery, colonialism, imperial domination, and exploitation. She has not survived unscathed, and in all aspects of daily life on this beautiful continent, destructive, manifold legacies and sequelae of this historical burden are apparent. Clearly, her present economic, social, political, circumstances are not fortuitous.

One should not (indeed, cannot) dismiss the weight of the aforementioned historical shackles that Africa carries. However, for what is worth, it is my contention, that today, most of the obstacles to Africa’s development – corruption, political ineptitude, and indiscipline, ethnic bigotry etc. have local foundations. 

To the consternation of many educated Africans, some post-colonial African leaders have engaged in the looting of their treasuries with reckless abandon, depositing their ill gotten wealth in the banks of the same former colonial masters they decried and fought as oppressive and exploitative. Can African leaders who pillage their treasuries not appreciate this paradox? Surely, no matter how many foreign chateaus they purchase, how much they plunder and stash away in foreign bank accounts, how many overpriced clothes they drape themselves in, or how much expensive perfume they drench themselves and their wives or mistresses in; as long as the people and countries they rule remain undeveloped and poor, the foreign abettors of their crimes, indeed the world, will continue to shake their heads in disdain and hold them in contempt!

In order to understand Nigeria’s (and by some extension, Africa’s) conundrum, it may help to first explore the multifaceted dimensions of POWER; its corrupting influence and abuse, particularly at the hands of some corrupt members of the Nigerian political and military elite. I will also delve into the mindset of the Oppressor (some members of the Nigerian political and military elite) that wields this power; and the oppressed or Dispossessed (everyone else not belonging to the aforementioned power group), that is manipulated and subjugated by it.

THE MINDSET OF THE DISPOSSESSED: “Massa we sick?”

A recent newspaper article in one of the Nigerian dailies, unabashedly celebrated certain individuals well known for corruption, and in some cases, unspeakable acts such as murder and torture, with showers of effusive adjectives such as: “classy”, “graceful”, “elegant”, and “handsome.” Some may dismiss the aforementioned obscure journalist’s article as “the passing fancy of a sycophant.” Others may be outraged by the sheer number of such obsequious, pandering, shenanigan articles designed to recruit the reading public as “silent collaborators” in the country’s continued dispossession.

The love of the oppressor by the dispossessed is nothing new. Malcolm X succinctly captured this psychological pathology with a story in which a slave, subjugated for decades by his “Master,” had become so psychologically brain washed, and grew to love his oppressor so much, that when his master was ill he asked: “Massa we’s sick?” (Master are we sick?). The story becomes even more tragic: when this same slave was asked to join a slave rebellion and run away, he responded to the instigators with this question: “How ‘bout Massa?”

Frantz Fanon (1925-61), a Martinique-born psychiatrist and anti-colonialist intellectual, author of The Wretched of the Earth, a book considered by many to be one of the canonical works on the worldwide liberation struggles of the 1960s; along with several other major intellectuals of the twentieth century, have produced volumes of treatises about the mind set of the dispossessed. The work of Morton Deutsch, of Teachers College, Columbia University, Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator and highly influential theorist of education, as well as the feminist Suzanne Pharr; help us understand the design, strategy, and outcomes of social engineering and oppression – subjects that are applicable to the Nigerian situation and one that fascinates me as a physician.

The Design of oppression and dispossession

Suzanne Pharr posits that oppression can be traced to a “particular foundation – an oppressive base,” with “defined norms” determined by the oppressor, and including the psychological erection of “the ideal image or image of success.” This image at once casts the oppressor as embodying superior traits, often biological or genetic and hence inherited - the personification of privilege and in the “right position” - and the oppressed as the outsider, or what professor Pharr refers to as “the other.” The oppressor’s culture – his/her very essence and way of life - is “inherently superior,” and that of the outsider is “obscene, vulgar, and primitive.” Years of psychological manipulation, therefore, leads to “self loathing,” and imparts psychological complexes and the sense of insurmountable inferiority on the oppressed and dispossessed. It, therefore, becomes natural, even ordained, in the minds of the dispossessed, that the oppressor should have access to wealth and resources with which to continue the system of oppression. 

Indeed, Suzanne Pharr believes sexism, racism, classism, ageism; tribalism – most “isms” can all be traced to this oppressive base. She also notes that an established norm does not necessarily represent a majority, but those who have the ability to exert control over others. An excellent example in Nigeria’s case would be the corrupt members of the Military and the political elite; but also minority groups in business, education, and politics etc., that exert oppressive control over the majority of the people.6

The effects of dispossession is clearly illustrated in the fact that Nigerians have become accustomed to, and perhaps, accepted as normal, radio and print media announcements that this leader or the other is being “flown abroad for treatment or for a medical check up.” That these “leaders” leave behind for most Nigerians one of the most disorderly, poorly funded, and dysfunctional medical systems in the world, is clear to most Nigerians. Surviving in a country whose medical sector has suffered decades of disrepair and neglect is difficult, and many hard working Nigerians with the means have been forced to seek medical services abroad, because they are absent at home. Do average and poor Nigerians not deserve the same world class medical facilities and treatment locally that others seek abroad? Has it not occurred to Nigeria’s leaders that there is no better way to announce one’s nation’s backwardness and inferiority than to seek abroad, services that should be available in your own country?

Columbia’s Deutsch defines oppression as “the experience of repeated, widespread, systemic injustice. It need not be extreme and involve the legal system (as in slavery, apartheid, or the lack of right to vote) nor violent (as in tyrannical societies).”7

Overcoming oppression will usually involve conflict with groups in power. Such conflicts, where inevitable, can and should be resolved by non-violent means. In the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, his most famous work, Paulo Freire admits that the powerless in society can be frightened of freedom. He provides this caution: “freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.”8

The distinguished theorist further asserts that “freedom will be the result of praxis--informed action--when a balance between theory and practice is achieved.”9 He advocates the use of “cooperation, unity, organization, and cultural synthesis” among disparate groups, so as to overcome oppression and produce societal liberation from tyrannical regimes.10 The great divisions that exist among Nigeria’s myriad ethnic, political, social and economic groups, and their stubborn resistance to cooperative organization and civil protest, has served as one of the greatest encumbrances to meaningful change in that country.

The Superior Power of the Oppressor.

Deutsch suggest that the more power a group possesses, the more likely it is for that group to attain its desires, often by trampling on the wishes and hopes of the lower power groups. The high power groups often employ all possible tactics and schemes to preserve the status quo that benefits their positions, to the detriment of lower power groups. As we have witnessed in many third world countries, the high power groups often resort to violence – murder, intimidation, bribery – as well as democratic system manipulation (election rigging), to hold on to power. Nigeria, Timor, Pakistan, and Kenya, provide recent, sad examples of this pathetic phenomenon.11 

The asymmetry in power between the privileged classes, will clearly induce the lower power groups to aspire for more power. Professor Deutsch asks this crucial question: “How do high power groups use their power to prevent or contain pressures of resistance and change from low power groups? There are several basic ways: control over the instruments of systematic terror and of their use ( as in police states, armed militias and military dictatorships); control over the state which establishes and enforces the laws, rules and procedures which regulate the social institutions of the society (decrees, manipulation and intimidation of the judiciary as seen during Nigerian military dictatorships of years past, Pakistan, and others); control over the institutions (such as the family, schools, churches, mosques, and media) which socialize and indoctrinate people to accept the power inequalities; and interactive power in which there are repeated individual behaviors by those who are more powerful, which confirm the subordinate status of those in the low power brackets.”12

Tactics of Oppression

There are several tools of Oppression – One of the first and most salient tactics is to keep the people poor and uneducated; divide the people; using the infrastructure of the state – state police, army- as a perennial looming threat of violence.13 Other tools used to sustain this position of privilege and to continue the subjugation of the people include the use of stereotyping; “blaming the victim” for the state of oppression; as well as the use of isolation and tokenism.14

Additional tactics include keeping a focus on individual rather than group achievement which keeps groups divided, and leads to infighting and resentful competitive fixations. The end result is a dispersal of low power bracket collective energies, and the prevention of social movements and revolutions from establishing.15

What Keeps Oppression in Place

Institutional Power; Economic Power and the threat of institutional or individual violence act as the troika of factors that keep oppression in place.16 In addition, and very importantly, the collusion of the educated classes in the oppression of the masses, has served to perpetuate Nigeria’s state of chaos.

Institutional Power

“Pharr claims that institutional power is often used to oppress marginalized groups. For instance, if Riverine minority groups in Nigeria had more institutional power, they would, clearly, have equitable remuneration from oil revenues. She also claims there is no such thing as reverse discrimination because this requires institutional power to back it up.”17

Economic Power and Control over the state.

Across the globe, economic power ensures control of most institutions. The fact that it takes money to run for office, means that large corporation, and wealthy individuals are the primary funders of political campaigns, political parties, and political candidates.18

Compounding this self-perpetuating murky milieu, in Nigeria, is the fact that ownership of the means of wealth creation, and access to the ownership of appreciating assets, can be best achieved within the ranks of the power groups that own the means of capital in the first place. Pray tell, what is the purpose of privatization of National parastatals and industries, if the only people with the capital to purchase shares, stocks and options, or indeed invest and participate in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, originate to a large extent, from the same oppressive power groups? This may very well explain the almost mad lust for political power, at all costs, often from the least qualified and most desperate of quarters, in Nigerian society.19

It is of great concern to several observers that these same individuals and entities, around whom power concentrates, also own and control most of the mass media; and provide the support for most of the private policy planning networks – the think thanks, research institutes, policy discussion groups, and foundations – which help to set the national policy agenda and to establish policy priorities. The result of the foregoing is an immense bias in the political system favoring large corporations and the economically privileged (a conspicuous group of whom, in Nigeria’s case, possess ill-gotten wealth) in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government.20

The failure of the Nigerian educated classes

The historical eagerness of some educated Nigerians to serve under corrupt regimes and accept secondary roles under mediocre leaders, has to be one of the most tragic pathologies of post independent Nigeria. Some believe that this sad situation has been made possible by a systematic, intentional impoverishment of the educated classes – particularly those that lecture in Nigerian universities - under a series of mainly military regimes, creating a group, albeit small, of “pseudo-intellectuals – greedy, petty, scramblers for materialistic accumulation and illicit power.”

In the Wretched of the Earth, about intellectuals of this ilk, Fanon eloquently posits: “The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle, will give rise to tragic mishaps.” In Nigeria today, we are living witnesses to that tragedy.

The Oppressive Power of the “Cult of Mediocrity”

"It is ill with a people when vicious men are advanced and men of worth are kept under hatches." Ancient Israeli saying

Most pundits will agree that the blame for Nigeria’s dilemma lies squarely at the feet of the incompetent leadership she has endured over most of the past four decades.

A nightmare of an ‘unending stream’ of mediocre leaders, has turned this once burgeoning nation into a ‘cesspool of corruption and ineptitude.’ Easy access to petrodollars has helped fan skyrocketing corruption, particularly in the public sector. A culture of “kickbacks”, government sanctioned bunkering of oil, and the emergence of a corrupt and politically inept leadership, has turned Nigerian into a kleptomaniac’s paradise.

Clearly, most Nigerians will accept that a meritocracy within a Democracy will be best for the nation. A true meritocracy transcends ethnicity, class, creed, and gender. It is the only system that will ensure that the best and brightest run the affairs of the nation – a development that will benefit the majority of the population. Can we not put in place a system that constantly seeks excellence, a process that matches the appropriate position with the most qualified applicant; and finally, a culture that asks questions such as “Is this person the best person for the job?”

Meritocracy will also produce a true leadership cadre – based on the tenets of hard work, discipline and excellence. Many that have run the affairs of Nigeria, historically, have often not been part of a true merit based elite. What we have had instead, are individuals and their corrupt cohorts that “shot themselves into power;” “looted and stole themselves into prominence;” or “rigged themselves into office.” With such mediocrity, how can we expect that anything will be run correctly?

Many Nigerians look upon their leaders who often rig themselves and their cronies into power with distrust, even disdain. So why haven’t we seen sustained, peaceful, organized protest? Is it possible that many Nigerians have come to accept the present chaotic, corrupt system they find themselves in? Is it also possible that some strive, often even fight to sustain this present state of affairs, in the delusional hope that if this dysfunctional system persists, somehow they too will have a greater chance of achieving illicit success - emerging as “big men and women” - than in a Democracy that celebrates meritocracy?

Are we blind to a great intellectual’s crystal clear perception that “corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the fatal stage; and Nigeria will die if we continue to pretend that she is only slightly indisposed?” The ancient Israelites provide profound wisdom for all Nigerians with these words: “It is ill with a people when vicious men are advanced and men of worth are kept under hatches.”

Getting Real: How is Nigeria doing?

The Open Sore of a Continent’ – Wole Soyinka

It is difficult to determine just how badly a country is performing without comparing poverty indices across nations in the world.  Here are some indisputable facts: over 60% of Nigeria’s 150 million inhabitants live in abject poverty, defined by the World Bank as “subsistence on less than $1 a day” – a concept that even a former Nigerian president could not understand!

According to the UN, about $400 billion dollars have been looted from Nigeria’s treasury since independence.22 Today, less than 50 per cent of all Nigerians have access to safe water. Nigerians have a life expectancy that is between 49 and 52 years and infant mortality is over 77 per 1000 births – one of the highest in the world and a figure comparable to that of war torn Afghanistan!

Once described as a middle income nation by the Paris Club, four decades of government corruption, and apathetic followers, has seen Nigeria reclassified as one of the 30 poorest nations in the world! So what kind of leaders and followers do we need for a true transformation in Nigeria…?

SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND EDUCATED FOLLOWERSHIP

The concept of the leadership embodying a sacred trust endowed by well informed followers is an ancient proposition. Historians point to its genesis in ancient Egypt, and later in the Asian civilizations of India and Asian minor. Kautiliya, the renowned strategic thinker from India, published extensively on this subject as far back as the 4^th century B.C. 23 In the treatise, Arthashastra, he posits:

“The King (leader) shall consider as good, not what pleases himself, but what please his subjects (followers)…the king (leader) is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people...”24

Most of the world’s religions – Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity emphasize service and humility in positions of leadership. The teaching of Jesus Christ further expands on this subject: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)25

Robert Greenleaf is widely considered the modern “father of servant leadership intellectual thought.” Greenleaf (1977) described servant leadership in this manner:

"It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons, do they grow while being served, become healthier, more prosperous, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"26

America’s 3^rd president - Thomas Jefferson believed very strongly that America’s success could be achieved only through a high-quality educational system for its citizens, from whom would emerge world class leaders. He held that: “Ignorance and sound self-government could not exist together: the one destroyed the other. A despotic government could restrain its citizens and deprive the people of their liberties only while they were ignorant… Only popular government can safeguard democracy. … Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree....”27

In the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire advances the position that education should be used as a means to consciously shape the person and the society through a process he coins conscientization - “a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that considers people incomplete. According to Freire, this ‘authentic’ approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human.”28 This process considers education an indispensible right for human development and hence societal advancement.

 

SOME IMMEDIATE SUGGESTIONS

Nigerian leaders can halt our downward spiral by effectively controlling and restricting access to the nation’s wealth, i.e. petrodollars that fuel the corruption in the first place, and directing these resources to develop the nations decaying infrastructure – roads, water, and electricity - and educating the masses.

Putting in place a system of checks and balances that makes “corruption inconvenient” – enforcing jail terms for the guilty; mandating unannounced auditing of private and public organizations, companies, and parastatals, by non-government firms with impeccable reputations; making government earnings public; publishing oil corporation account portfolios - costs, expenditures, salaries, budgets, etc. – can have a profound effect in redirecting Nigeria’s downward course and weakening state.  The ripple effects of such a transformation would be felt in a myriad of areas. Most profoundly, it would set the stage, at last, for a generation of leaders who adopt public service to “serve the nation and hence the people, and not to get rich.”

Nigeria depends on oil for 90-95% of export revenues, and over 90% of foreign exchange earnings. Despite its impressive rally at greater than $95 a barrel in recent weeks, oil is a finite source of energy, and fiscal dependence on the sale of fossil fuels is beset with future financial instability, and does not provide the basis for sound economic planning. At some point, the Hubbert curve for world oil will enter the down slope. Extraction will become more expensive and, eventually, this fossil fuel – essential for transport throughout the globe -- will disappear.”29 It behooves the Nigerian government to begin to seek other sources of energy and diversify the sources of revenue.

In his book Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, published in 1981, Professor Amartya Kumar Sen argued against the view that a shortage of food was the most important explanation for famines, but suggested the interplay of social and economic factors to elucidate this phenomenon. The Nobel laureate’s work has made it clear that several African Oil exporters including Nigeria are a collapsed oil market away from famine. Clearly, sustained investment in the manufacturing sector as well as the Agricultural sector while the petrodollars are available would be advisable!

Nigeria, like India, has an elaborate tertiary educational system. Once upon a time, Nigerians with Indian university degrees faced the embarrassing prospect of being demoted to ‘A level status!’ How time has changed… Today, unlike in booming India, however, university graduates of the citadels of higher learning in Nigeria, obtain what a distinguished Nigerian Vice Chancellor has termed “a progressively inferior education,” and face dismal job prospects. Compounding this dismal state of affairs, is the explosion of all sorts of new “colleges and universities” in this milieu of mediocrity!

The universities of Ibadan, Nsukka, ABU, Bayero, Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe, OAU etc. could become sources of intellectual expertise for a homegrown High technology industry that could generate billions of dollars in revenue, if they were to receive appropriate funding from the public and private sectors and attract the immense intellectual capital that exists amongst Nigerians the world over. We must dramatically improve the quality of our educational system from pre-kindergarten to university, if we are to stand a chance at making the “leap forward” from underdevelopment to the club of advanced nations.

The current democratic dispensation provides a novel chance for Nigeria to cultivate a culture of accountability, openness and transparency in government. Sadly, the present disarray at the EFCC, gives one much reason to worry…

OTHER BURNING, UNRESOLVED ISSUES

Many experts believe that Nigeria is doomed as a nation state unless she squarely tackles the myriad problems highlighted in this paper. Perhaps the most crucial (save political ineptitude, corruption and others discussed at length earlier) are the deep divisions sown by the Civil War, the Niger Delta crisis, religious, ethnic intolerance and bigotry, as well as the looming threat of religious, violent fundamentalism!

THE GHOST OF BIAFRA

‘Truth is truth to the end of reckoning’

William Shakespeare - English dramatist, playwright and poet 1564-1616

Four decades after the Nigerian Civil war, there exists an unspoken fear of the word Biafra. Indeed, the mere mention of the Nigerian Civil war, and the fact that the former Biafrans – Igbos, Ibibios, Efik, Ijaw, Ikwere, and other Niger Delta Riverine peoples of Eastern and part of the former Midwestern Nigeria have not been fully integrated into the Nigerian State, elicits antagonistic, almost histrionic reactions from many Nigerians.

“Nigerians of all ethnic groups will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo” wrote Professor Chinua Achebe in his classic political treatise The Trouble with Nigeria, in 1983. The Father of the Nigerian nation, the great “Zik of Africa,” Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, laments this “Igbo Problem” in his brilliant collection - the Civil War Soliloquies published in 1977 this way: 

      For when, at last, did come the trying time,

      We found ourselves so split we could not rhyme.

      The irony was now on my side,

      Alas, your reciprocity is dead.

Other Igbo intellectual giants such as the late distinguished economist Dr Pius Okigbo, in his 1986 Ahiajoku Lecture similarly attributed this phenomenon to a “resentful coma” of an otherwise virile peoples

From the crises in the Niger River Delta to MASSOB, Nigeria is being haunted by the ghost of Biafra, and for the blood it spilt without recompense. Many continue to believe that a series of Nigerian governments - clouded by a wide spread, entrenched anti Biafran hatred and suspicion, shared by some Nigerian groups - have embarked on an unabashed policy of Biafran ethnic marginalization and economic deprivation. The lack of full representative participation of all these highly educated, talented, ethnic groups in Nigerian affairs is seen as a major reason for the present state of affairs of that nation.

Clearly, ethnic bigotry is one of the most primitive forms of prejudice. Nigeria’s diversity is one of her greatest strengths. We must, as a matter of national urgency, co-operate and build a strong, solid nation – a showpiece for the world, and one that we can be proud of. I believe that Nigeria needs to openly discuss ethnic and religious prejudices, and come away with a strategy that "keeps the Genie in the bottle." We need to honestly discuss the civil war, its genesis, and aftermath. We need to be more honest, in order to solve this complex problem.

The Niger Delta Crisis – Environmental Genocide

The Niger River Delta is an environmental disaster zone. Between 1986 and1996, 2.5 million barrels-equal to 10 Exxon Valdez disasters- has been spilled in this region. The burning of 8 million cubic feet of natural gas everyday compounds the environmental catastrophe.30

Two reasons underpin most of the civil unrest in the Niger River Delta area today. The first is the unfair distribution of the country’s annual oil revenues among the Nigerian population, a practice that favors non-oil-producing regions of the country. The second has to do with seething resentment towards the Oil Multinationals, for their role in the devastation of the environment. Although all multinationals have been targeted in the disputes, Shell has been the main focus.

The present democratic dispensation has not brought an end to political uprisings in the area. Civil unrest has resulted in over 10,000 deaths since the transition to democracy, and has resulted in the closures of terminals and flow stations. Karl Meier tells more: “Violence in the Niger River delta, home to a majority of Nigeria's oil reserves, kills about 1,000 people a year, on par with conflicts in Chechnya and Colombia, according to a Shell- funded report…. The 93-page survey also said Shell itself ``feeds'' the violence and may have to leave the area by 2009.”31

Ken Saro Wiwa’s closing remarks to the kangaroo military court that sent him to the gallows, captures the sense of disenchantment and dispossession that the minority Niger-River ethnic groups harbor:

"Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people, who live on a richly endowed land; distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation; angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage; anxious to preserve their right to life and a decent living, and determined to usher into this country as a whole, a fair and just democratic system, which protects everyone and every ethnic group, and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief, and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated."

       
Recent talks between the Nigerian government and key Niger-Delta militant leaders were greeted by the world community with great enthusiasm. However, the recent resurgence of violence in Port Harcourt continues to bring misery and despair to an already devastated region.

Religious Intolerance and Sporadic Murder in North-Central Nigeria

The colossal African American Intellectual W.E.B. Dubois defined the 20^th century’s greatest challenge as the “... the problem of the color line; of the relations between the lighter and darker races of man ...” At the turn of the 21^st century, all indications point to religious intolerance and its corollaries as the greatest obstacle to world peace and stability!

Thomas Kagnaan, chairman of the Committee on Rehabilitation and Reconciliation of Internally Displaced People, recently provided an official death toll from religious violence that has erupted periodically between Muslims and Christians over the past 3 years in the Nigerian north central state of Plateau. A total of 53,787 people perished between September 2001 and May 2004, during sectarian violent clashes, according to committee records. The summary of the casualties suggest that among the dead were 17,459 children, 17,397 women and 18,931 men. Some 281,164 people were displaced during the violence, with 25,129 houses and 1,326 cattle destroyed.32

BORROWING A LEAF (OR TWO) FROM AMERICA

The United States of America is without a doubt the world’s largest and most successful economy. Like Nigeria, its history has not been perfect. America has had to wrestle with its own demons such as slavery, racism, and other grave constitutional, political, and social, intellectual incongruities. Through it all, however, this country of “conscience,” has been able to fashion for itself one of the highest standards of living ever attained in history!

Pundits believe that this success was made possible in part by what has become one of the most admired and effective documents in history – The American Constitution. This intellectual record is the foundation of America’s much celebrated Democracy, an idea borrowed from the ancient Athenians, defined by Lincoln during his mythical Gettysburg Address as “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” and emulated around the world.

America’s prosperity and global dominance today is not accidental. It was meticulously charted by its constitution, protected by its democracy, and guided by a succession of above average to excellent leaders, armed with world class education and imbued (for the most part), with enviable intellectual dexterity. There is much Nigeria’s burgeoning democracy can learn from this great country.

REFERNCES

1 http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/20/jena.six/index.html

“Jena's racial tensions were aggravated in August 2006, when three white teens hung the nooses the day after a group of black students received permission from school administrators to sit under the tree -- a place where white students normally congregated.

The guilty students were briefly suspended from classes, despite the principal's recommendation they be expelled, according to Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.”

“About three months after the nooses were discovered, six teens, dubbed the Jena 6, were accused of beating classmate Justin Barker. The six -- Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Jesse Ray Beard -- were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy, according to LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters.”

“Bell, the only one of the six who remains in jail, was to be sentenced Thursday after convictions for aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to do the same, but both charges have been vacated, awaiting further action by the district attorney.

Charges for Bailey, Jones and Shaw also were reduced to battery and conspiracy when they were arraigned, while Purvis still awaits arraignment. The charges for Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile.”

2 Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, Don't get hung up on nooses in the news, October 17, 2007

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped1017pageoct17,1,4103731.column

3 Picture from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eac-magazine.com/images/stories/
AfricaNigeria/SOMALIA-News.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.eac-magazine.com/en/index
.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D20%26Itemid%3D29&h=
399&w=300&sz=19&hl=en&start=35&um=1&tbnid=arvhd7Dp3R7lOM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=
93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dachebe%2Bnews%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum
%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN within the text of article of Africa is not a country by Chris Ezeh

4 (GDP is defined as the total market value of all the goods and services produced within a country during a specified period, normally one calendar year.)

5 CIA fact book, 2005

6 http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/oppression.htm

These notes give an overview of Pharr’s discussion on Oppression in the United States and the systematic and organized way it can be used to keep power in the hands of a dominant few.

7 Deutsch, M. (1973). The resolution of conflict: Constructive and destructive processes. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Deutsch, M. and Coleman, P.T. (2000). The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and

Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Deutsch, M. and Collins, M.E. (1951). Interracial housing. Minneapolis, MA: University of Minnesota.

8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed

9 Ibid

10 Ibid

11 Deutsch, M. (1973). The resolution of conflict: Constructive and destructive processes. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Deutsch, M. and Coleman, P.T. (2000). The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and

Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Deutsch, M. and Collins, M.E. (1951). Interracial housing. Minneapolis, MA: University of Minnesota.

12 Ibid

13 http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/oppression.htm

These notes give an overview of Pharr’s discussion on Oppression in the United States and the systematic and organized way it can be used to keep power in the hands of a dominant few.

14 Ibid

15 Ibid

16 http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/oppression.htm

These notes give an overview of Pharr’s discussion on Oppression in the United States and the systematic and organized way it can be used to keep power in the hands of a dominant few.

17 Ibid

18 Deutsch, M. (1973). The resolution of conflict: Constructive and destructive processes. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Deutsch, M. and Coleman, P.T. (2000). The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and

Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Deutsch, M. and Collins, M.E. (1951). Interracial housing. Minneapolis, MA: University of Minnesota.

19 Deutsch, M. (1973). The resolution of conflict: Constructive and destructive processes. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Deutsch, M. and Coleman, P.T. (2000). The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and

Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Deutsch, M. and Collins, M.E. (1951). Interracial housing. Minneapolis, MA: University of Minnesota.

20 Ibid.

21 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mediocrity

22 Dulue Mbachu, Nigeria Seeks Domestic Oil Control, Tuesday November 20, 12:05 pm ET, Associated Press.

23 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership

24 Ibid

25 Ibid

26 Ibid

27 http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0600.htm

28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed

29 Paul Roberts, The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World  -- see http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/05/paul_rob_qa.html

and

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618239774/qid=1088948208/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-4591855-6171048.) 

 

30 CIA: Unclassified study of  the Oil industry in Nigeria,

(Web site: http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/deltadawn.html )

31 Karl Meier, Bloomberg News Agency, June 10, 2004

Also Interviews of former Nigerian and Biafran soldiers, diplomats and government officials

31 McCaskie, T. C. 1997. "Nigeria" Africa South of the Sahara 1998 London: Europa.

Nelson, Harold. 1982. Nigeria: a country study Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Nwankwo, Arthur and Samuel Ifejika. 1969. Biafra: the making of a nation New York: Praeger Publishers.

Schabowska, Henryka and Ulf Himmelstrand. 1978. Africa Reports on the Nigerian Crisis; News, Attitudes and Background Information: a study of press performance, government attitude to Biafra and ethno-political integration New York: Africana Publishing Company.

Smock, Audrey. 1971. Ibo Politics: the role of ethnic unions in eastern Nigeria Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

31 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

31 Washington Post (editorial) July 2, 1969

31 http://www.westafricareview.com/war/vol2.2/biafra/bpic.htm

31 Chinua Achebe Collected Poems, Anchor Books, New York, August 2004, p.16

31 'The Dawn of National Reconciliation' - Gowon's Victory Message to the Nation, 15 January 1970  
Broadcast from Lagos, 15 January 1970

31 Ken Wiwa, Preface to: In the shadow of a Saint: A son’s journey to understand his father’s legacy (Steerforth Press, Royalton, VT, 2001)

31 Ibid

32 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/10/mil-041008-irin03.htm

Chidi Chike Achebe MD, MPH, MBA is a Health Care Executive. He was educated at Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale .