By Chuks OLUIGBO
“Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of guy?” a female
acquaintance asked me the other day on Facebook chat. My answer: “Half full. I
stay positive.” That answer stemmed from my firm belief that the last thing a
man loses in life is hope. As often said, the day a man loses hope, he begins
to die. So, on the basis of hope, I believe that Nigeria will rise again “from
the ashes of yesteryears’ cremation”, to quote my friend Okwy Onyia in a poem
entitled “Still I rise”.
But beyond the hope factor, I sincerely believe that it’s not over
yet for Nigeria. Truth be told, the Nigerian situation – high level insecurity;
unemployment; near absence of governance; completely broken down structure;
dilapidated (and in many cases non-existent) infrastructure in many parts of
the country; housing deficit running in the neighbourhood of 16-17 million;
putrefying corruption in every department of the establishment; abject,
absolute poverty of the greater majority in the midst of plenty all over the
land – is indeed daunting, and it has led many, especially young Nigerians, to
give up on their country. In my interaction with colleagues in the office some
days back, I discovered that virtually everyone has lost hope on Nigeria. “Why
do we need government in this country? Let everybody go back home. If there is
an oil well at your backyard, it is automatically yours,” one of my colleagues
screamed in anger. Another said he did not believe Nigeria would ever be
peaceful until the country is split into as many parts as possible.
Similarly, months back when Anyim Pius Anyim, the secretary to the
Federal Government, unveiled plans for Nigeria’s centenary celebration,
BusinessDay did an editorial entitled “Nigeria: 100 years of amalgamation” in
which it supported the celebration, but pointed out that beyond the euphoria of
celebration is the need to engender greater unity among Nigerians. Not
unexpectedly, all those who commented on the editorial on BusinessDay website
condemned the planned celebration and instead called for immediate dissolution
of what they saw as “an unholy wedlock”.
While these opinions may sound too extreme, it is clear that’s how
bad it has got. Yet, I say Nigeria must be reborn. In spite of these apparently
daunting challenges, I sincerely do not share the “Nigeria-must-break-up”
theory. And this is not on the basis of the assumption that we have lived
together as one nation (have we, really?) for a century. The truth is that
Nigeria has within it both the potential to break up into different nations and
to remain as one country. Where we end up depends on which of these potentials
we decide to explore and exploit.
Nigeria is not yet a nation, as Wole Soyinka et al have maintained.
At best it remains the “mere geographical expression” that the late Obafemi Awolowo
called it many years ago. But Nigeria can be built into a nation.
Unfortunately, I do not see much of nation-building going on in the country.
The elected politicians are still more interested in lining their pockets and
returning themselves in the next round of elections, by hook or by crook, their
abysmal performance in office notwithstanding. But we can actually come
together in a roundtable and begin to decide how to live. The deafening calls
for a sovereign national conference have continued to hit brick walls. Nor is
anybody paying heed to the suggestion in many quarters that only true fiscal
federalism will kill the tension in the country. And these are harsh realities
that we must confront if we truly mean well for this country.
Yet, I see hope for Nigeria. I share the optimism of RW Johnson of
Good Governance Africa in a 2012 article “Nigeria: Lessons from the America
experience” that Nigeria will rise again. Nigeria’s situation, he says, is
uncannily similar to that of the USA in the decades after its civil war, the
age of the “Robber Barons”, men like Mellon, Carnegie, Pierpont Morgan, and
John D. Rockefeller – “a man made so rich by Big Oil that he could openly boast
of having bought three-quarters of all the state legislatures”. There were rampant
corruption, crooked elections, puppet politicians, political jobbery, and
poverty in the South which seemed to breed ignorance, religious extremism, and
terrorist movements like the Ku Klux Klan.
But America did get out of that mess – somehow. “In the North and
West,” writes Johnson, “a new middle class arose – small-town teachers,
lawyers, journalists and other professionals – that resented the dominance of
the great plutocrats, hated the corruption of the big city machines, wanted to
see fair elections and a re-assertion of America’s founding values, with a
general cleaning-up of the system. As this group grew – the Progressives, they
were called – politicians began to emerge who answered to this constituency,
men like Robert La Follette, who was elected as the Progressive governor of
Wisconsin, and Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive governor of New York.
Roosevelt showed his mettle by cleaning up New York and vanquishing the most
powerful machine of all, Tammany Hall. Soon he was on the presidential ticket,
and in 1901-1908 he set about doing on the national level what he had done in
New York. He asserted the power of the presidency and the constitution over all
other forces, quickly became the most popular president since Washington,
brought the great plutocrats to heel by breaking up their trusts and brought in
reforming legislation at every level. His example was followed by both his
Republican and Democrat successors, Taft and Wilson. By 1920 America had been
transformed. Of course, there were still powerful corporations and corruption
never disappeared, but things could never be the same again – and by 1932
Roosevelt’s nephew, Franklin, had been elected president with a promise to
continue much of the Progressive impulse.”
But more importantly, Johnson further writes, “We feel tolerably
sure that Nigeria will follow America’s path; that, first, there will be
progressive governors in a few of Nigeria’s states and that, as they
demonstrate what they can do there, we should see a growing possibility that
one of them will become Nigeria’s president and will do for Nigeria something
of what Theodore Roosevelt did for America.”
Already, this seems to be happening in Nigeria, though in pockets.
First, there is a growing new middle class which is beginning to demand cleaner
and more accountable governance. The January 2012 “Occupy Nigeria” movement is
a standout example. This is accentuated by a new consciousness propelled by the
rise of the social media which is making the generality of the people, particularly
the mobile youths, ask hitherto-unthought-of questions about how their country
is governed. Second, a few state governors have proved themselves worthy of
greater assignments – Babatunde Fashola is a shining example.
Great write up, Chuks! The logic is quite clear and compelling esp with examples of some well-meaning governors. How I wish more of this comes to be!
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