This piece was first published to mark the 52nd Independence Anniversary in 2012. Aside from the fact that we are in an era of positive change, nothing has changed even at 55 which is being marked tomorrow. Rather, our ever corrupt leaders have hauled many more hapless citizens down the abysmal pit of poverty.
Enjoy:
I was in the kindergarten class when Nigeria attained its independence on October 1, 1960. I witnessed the Union Jack being jacked down and the symbol of a new nation – the green-white-green flag – foisted in its place. The late Lord Lugard oversaw the fusion of the Southern and Northern Protectorates. And his wife came up with the name… Nigeria.
There were four arms in the kindergarten class: the Western, Eastern and Northern Region, with an additional arm, the Mid-western Region about three or so years later. But Nigeria was barely perfecting its gaits when, on January 15, 1966, some pack of soldiers with “Animal Farm” mentality took up arms against their fatherland and hunted down (like bush meat) a handful of our founding fathers who fought for our independence. The domino effects of that military adventure will forever resonate in our history books.
Today, the kindergarten class has blossomed into 36 arms. It has also grown with a population of close to 170m pupils as against 50m when the class started in 1960.
Ironically, there has been no commensurate development. Before the attainment of nationhood, the country’s economic mainstay hinged on agriculture. Little was known about the black gold which was struck at Oloibiri in the present-day Bayelsa state about five or so years before colonial subjugation ended in 1960. However, by the time the class clocked 12, the oil boom had set in and there was so much money that the leader of the day declared that the problem of the country was not about the huge cash resources at our disposal but how to “squander” them. And we have been squandering them ever since.
Honestly, my problem with this country since independence has been the way our collective riches are being pillaged. And I have always been on the side of the oppressed. It has been an inherent challenge in me even as a kid. I had watched a movie on the legendary Robin Hood who raised a gang of thieves to rob the rich so that the poor could have a better life. He became my instant hero. So, in my final year at the Baptist Day School, Bode Ijaiye, Abeokuta, I sauntered into the headmaster’s office one morning and sought his permission to raise a gang of robbers among my school mates. Shocked, Mr. Ojejinmi (that was his name) removed his eyeglasses and leaned back on his chair. He massaged the bridge of his nose for a long while. Then, he curiously sized up my tiny frame, trying to find an appropriate response to my request. Should he hand me over to the divisional crime officer? I knew what was going on in his mind: “How could a kid be so bold and stupid as to request for an endorsement from his law-abiding headmaster to organise a felony?” It was fun for me and I enjoyed his being at sea for that moment.
“Sir, it is not what you are thinking,” I assured him, smiling.
“What then do you mean, you head robber?!” He barked as he leaned forward.
I explained to him that I wanted to re-enact Robin Hood as part of the activities marking the school’s Annual Speech and Prize-giving Day. He was amazed at my diabolical sense of humour… even at my age. He nodded his head and granted the request. I eventually raised the gang and together we transformed the school football pitch into a jungle overnight. I also recruited some pupils who acted as the rich and poor folks. Our games master and one other female teacher even volunteered to play the role of the super rich that we robbed. The drama was a hallowing success and as a reward for my robbery initiative, the school gave me an iron bucket, a blanket and five shillings. The appreciative congregation was not left out. They rained coins on us… they saw us as visionary kids that had compassion for the poor and disdain for the rich.
The IBB era threw up the first Robin Hood of Nigeria in the person of robbery kingpin, Lawrence Anini, who robbed the banks and distributed part of the loot to the common folks on the streets. Anini, his gang and their collaborators in the police were eventually caught, tried and executed by firing squad.
In Nigeria today, the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is widening by the seconds. Nature, it is said abhors a vacuum. My eternal apprehension, and as I have always expressed in this space, is that the gulf being created by those who have sworn to corner our patrimony to themselves, their families and friends, will be filled by the Aninis in our midst as exemplified by the current activities of kidnappers, armed robbers, cyber fraudsters, oil thieves and hired assassins. The difference is that the Aninis of today steal to take care of themselves.
However, nature has endowed Nigeria to be among the richest countries under the sun. Paradoxically, over 90 % of its citizens are wallowing in grinding poverty, helplessly.
