By Ibraheem Dooba
When President Muhammadu Buhari stood at the grand finale of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Edo governorship election campaign in Benin (on September 6 2016) to proclaim that APC would make Nigeria “great again,” it was with the assumption that the nation was great previously. When the 19 Northern States’ Pentecostal Bishops Forum visited Aso Rock within the same week and beseeched the leaders to make Nigeria “great again,” they also assumed that Nigeria was great in the past. Archbishop John Praise Daniel, the chairman said: “they should not stop to get who can help in our economic recovery to ensure everything goes on well so that this country can bounce back as a great nation.”
Which leaves but one question outstanding: was Nigeria great before?
These two unrelated events gave the impression that the leaders and their followers are united on the question of our greatness – that we are not great now, but we were before; but these statements left me scratching my head. So I thought of enlisting the help of my friends. And I’ve found that the easiest way to do that is to post a question on the social media. With my modest following of about 9,000 people between Twitter and Facebook, there’s an impressive diversity: the professors, the patriots, women, youth, men, the religious scholars and those of us who listen to their sermons.
From this mix, one could extract insights that you’d never otherwise thought of in a thousand years. Thus, I posted the following: “Was Nigeria ever a great country? If yes, when?”
Some responded with “never,” but on average, the comments said: “Yes indeed, Nigeria was great in the First Republic in the 1960s, during the time of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Zik, Sardauna and Awolowo.” Today, I challenge this perception.
In this article, I’m going to argue that the leadership of the First Republic which we so lovingly crave its repetition was actually peopled by patriots of dubious intentions and lily-livered opportunists. Yet, I believe that we have the potential to be great; and I believe that such greatness is worth fighting for, but first, we must recognize that there’s nothing impressive about us now or before and work towards the Nigeria we want for our future.
But first, let’s define our terms. What is great? To answer the first question, we could say that as recently as in the 1990s there were countries in Africa which respected Nigeria as a big brother. From this, we know that other nationals liked and respected Nigerians in the past, probably due to our extroversion and confidence.
But did any independent country want to be Nigeria? Lee Kuan Yew’s impression of Nigeria when he visited in the 1960s may partly answer that question. To give context, Lee desperately searched for a model to adopt for the independent Singapore. In search of survival, he rigged a referendum so that his country could join Malaysia. And when that union failed in 1965, he literally (and openly) cried. But when he came to Nigeria, his impression of Nigeria (after interactions with government functionaries) was that of unserious people. Therefore, he had nothing to borrow from Nigeria.
Of course you could argue that we helped other African countries such as Rhodesia, South Africa and accommodated people like Thabo Mbeki in Ibadan, but these were desperate countries in search of protection and money.
As for the second question, the question of patriotism, I’ll show here that the leaders were rather selfish. Of course one would concede that many of our leaders gave their lives for the country: Akintola, the premier of Western Nigeria, Sardauna, premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Tafawa Balewa and a few others.
However, a letter from Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was in London during the first military coup of 1966, to Aguiyi Ironsi, the first military head of state, left an impression in a young Nigerian like me that even at the top, there were individuals who didn’t care much for the country. “Since this is a Herculean task which must be undertaken by all of us who are interested in the peace and stability of our Federal Republic,” Azikiwe wrote in the letter to Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi, “I now inform you of my desire to return home immediately in order to be in position to discharge any duty, constitutional or otherwise, in which my services may be required.”
Constitutional or otherwise! You may note that while Zik scribbled his letter in England, two premiers were already killed. His prime minister was still missing, yet there was nowhere in the letter where he mentioned them. But he wanted a role for himself – constitutional or otherwise! Now take a deep breath and ponder that. It’s my opinion that this puts a question mark on Zik’s patriotic credentials.
There you have it. Nigeria is not great. Not even close. Of course in rare cases, we encounter a man whose greatness exceeds his faults. But that’s not the case with Nigeria. Of course we’ve had flashes of brilliance – even genius – in sports and other vocations. But every country has those. You’re not great on account of a flash.
Instead, right from the beginning, we allow crooks to be our leaders, refuse to accept responsibilities and instead, found fault with the colonial rulers. These are not attributes of greatness. Consequently, nobody wants to be like us, nobody wanted to be like us. Therefore, we are not great. We were never great. However, there’s still opportunity for greatness if we take responsibility and stop allowing crooks to prey upon us and then invite God to clean up their mess.
Dooba wrote from Abuja via [email protected]
