 Published
December, 27th, 2009
It was the Evil Genius himself, Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida who let out the Freudian slip in the heydays of
his military dictatorship that the economy of Nigeria had
defied all economic logic and wondered why the country had
not collapsed. Many Nigerian political leaders, patriotic
and unpatriotic alike, may have wondered in similar vein
either in public or in their closet why nothing works in
Nigeria . Indeed, an average Nigerian is always skeptical of
every governmental initiative as he thinks that it will
follow the same doomed path of failure just as others before
it.
Now, flowing from the above backdrop, it becomes imperative
to ask why the management of Nigeria’s political, economic
and, if I may add, social components of the system does not
always produce the much-desired end result of improving the
welfare and creating happiness for her citizenry?
When a question such as the one above is posed, it is always
very tempting to jump up with explanation bordering largely
on the all pervasive cankerworm of corruption. While one
completely admits that corruption is indeed a cankerworm
ravaging the system, it is however a parochial view as it
overlooks the fundamental causes or factors that leverage
the degeneration of values in the system, which factors are
capable of predisposing an individual in the system to think
only of the benefits he can get from it and nothing about
what to do to improve the system. In explaining the above, a
construct of Nigeria as a group may be helpful. An
individual mechanically existing in a group to which he has
no sense of belonging will find it extremely unattractive to
work to sustain or improve the fortune of that group. Such
an individual inexorably thinks of those benefits he can get
out it even if it means having to milk it completely dry.
Such is the fate of Nigeria in relation to the conduct of
its leadership class nay, its citizenry. Unlike its
counterparts in other climes, it is unfortunate that close
to half a century of its existence, Nigeria is yet to find
its bearing as a country capable of fulfilling the purpose
of its existence to its citizenry. The reason for the above
is no far-fetched. There is no bond or attachment holding
the leadership class to any group cause and in this case,
national cause. I am talking of the abysmal failure of the
leadership class to make any conscious effort at nation
building, as the commanding forces in the successive regimes
all busied themselves in strengthening their attachments to
their respective ethnic cleavages rather than embarking
on nation building.
Nation-building herein conceived refers to all those
conscious governmental welfarist actions targeted at
inculcating a uniform consciousness among its various
peoples with their cultural, historical, linguistic and
territorial diversities, with the aim to evolving a common
identity. Common identity crystallizes where an individual,
as a member of a sovereign entity has imbibed a sense of
belonging and commitment to the realization or sustenance to
the ideals of the system.
Nigeria is in dire need of nationhood. The challenge of
evolving “a nation” as it were, out of the present
geographical entity called Nigeria has become a compelling
imperative. Our status as a sovereign entity is nothing more
than existing in a mere institutional structure with power
to exercise authority within a jurisdictional and
territorial purview. That fact must not be seen as an end in
itself. A country exists in order to realize the ultimate
goal of nationhood, otherwise, it will begin to serve two
unintended but inevitable purposes: one, as a mere
contrivance convenient for the privileged class to exploit
the system for its sole benefit without sparing a thought
for how it could help to improve the system. And, two, a
breeding
ground where hatred for the country is nurtured among the
under-privileged class, owing largely to undelivered dreams
and expectations from the system.
This trend of affairs can only be reversed where, by good
governance, a citizen of Nigeria begins to feel a sense of
partnership in all the initiatives of the government in the
system. In such a situation, the citizenry is easily
galvanized into organizing himself and taking such actions
to support every well meaning initiative of the government
geared towards making the system to work. Otherwise, there
may be no hope of getting to the end of the tunnel in our
collective grope. The present state of affairs where the
welfare (and even lives) of the citizenry count for nothing
to the leadership class will only help to create a sense of
detachment from the system as a whole while greater
allegiance is owed to family, ethnicity and religion at the
expense of national cause.
* CHRIS EDACHE AGBITI, ESQ. IS A PORT-HARCOURT BASED
ATTORNEY IN THE FIRM OF THE AMAZING GRACE PARTNERS, No 320,
(IZZI CORPORATE SUIT), ABA ROAD , PORT-HARCOURT
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