Stop Blaming the West

Stop Blaming the West

By Chuks Oluigbo

IT was Martin Luther King Jnr. who once asserted that the level of oppression does not depend on the oppressor but on the oppressed. In other words, until the one under oppression rises to say no, enough is enough, oppression is wont to continue because freedom is not given; it is taken. The late Reggae maestro, Bob Marley re-echoed this same point in his 'Redemption Song' when he sang that 'none but ourselves can free our minds'. Regrettably, many Nigerians seem not to have internalised the message contained in these axioms.

Fifty years after the end of colonialism, fifty good years since the British left us to our own devices, many Nigerians still blame Europe and America for everything that is wrong with our system politically, socially, and more especially economically, particularly with the present state of economic recession in the country. They quickly cite slave trade and colonialism, and when you remind them that the former ended over 200 years ago, and the latter close to half a century ago, they quickly tell you again that colonialism has survived in the form of neo-colonialism, which is simply old wine in new wine skin. But again, the question is: can neo-colonialism work without the involvement of insiders? Political economy experts and analysts have explained, having studied the internal dynamics of neo-colonialism, that neo-colonialism cannot exist or survive without the active participation of internal collaborators, the so-called bourgeoisie class.

But again, if one takes the argument from another angle, assuming we decide to blame colonialism for Nigeria's plight, many questions readily come to mind. Importantly, was it only Nigeria that was colonised? It is on record that only two African countries escaped colonisation: Ethiopia and Liberia. Every other part of Africa was colonised, and yet they have forged ahead. Look at Ghana, Nigeria's next door neighbour. What about South Africa where the white man built a home and refused to leave, and even segregated against the true owners of the land through that obnoxious policy called Apartheid? Yet South Africa has grown to become the biggest economy in Black Africa. America too was colonised. Americans fought and regained freedom in 1776, just like Nigeria did in 1960. The American dream was their propelling force and continues to urge them on. But could we really talk about a Nigerian dream? I doubt.

In the present circumstances, the argument that the West is responsible for Nigeria's, and by extension, Africa's inability to break through the perpetual cycle of poverty can no longer be sustained. We agree that colonialism put paid to an ongoing process, that of Africa's development. As many scholars have argued, if the slave trade had not happened, and if Africa had not been colonised but left alone to develop at its own pace, then things would have been different. Sound logic, one would say. But that is just an opinion. On the other hand, others too have called for re-colonisation, if that is possible, basing their argument on the assumption that we were better off in the colonial days than we are now. That is another opinion too. And opinions are free.

In truth, the slave trade and colonialism affected Africa negatively, but we have wept enough. From Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth to Kwame Nkrumah's Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism to Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa; from Chinweizu's The West and the Rest of Us to Daniel Offiong's Imperialism and Dependency and Globalisation: Post Neo-dependency and Poverty in Africa down to our own dear Claude Ake's Political Economy of Africa, I think we have really lamented enough. This is time for action, time to take the bull by the horn. It is time to evolve new approaches to solving social, political and economic problems of this country. It is time to evolve leaders who have the will to take us out of the present economic quagmire and lead us to the Promised Land, leaders who are altruistic and who are ready to make sacrifices for the betterment of this nation. One million years of tears cannot and will not solve our problems.

Good a thing 2011 is around the corner. We need leaders who can, like Stalin did in the defunct Soviet Union, tell us the bold truth about our situation: 'We are one hundred years behind the rest of the world. We have ten years to catch up. We either do this or they will exterminate us', not leaders who keep reminding us of our position as the giant of Africa when we well know that we are a mere giant with feet of clay.

In concluding this, I would like to quote elaborately, as food for thought, from R.C. Eze's International Law and Political Realism, where he urges Nigeria, and indeed the rest of the Third World thus: 'Instead of sitting down and blaming European countries for their predicaments, preaching morality in world politics... orally condemning the USA or other powerful states for lording it over one weaker country or the other... crying against imperialism and the like, seeking membership of UN Security Council (without the economic-techno-military capability), etc, the leaders of Third World countries should as a matter of urgency embark on nationalistic programmes directed towards genuine socio-economic, political and military advancement that will enable them participate as relatively equal actors in global politics devoid of being pawns in the chessboard of the prevailing political realism in international relations.'This is what we must do, and the time to do it is now. To continue to lament about how the West has continued to plunder us is analogous to a child who killed both parents only to later plead for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.