|
 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday,June 14, 2004.
Nigeria on the road to
Yugoslavia (1)
By Bobson Gbinije
We need no
political clairvoyant ritualistic necromancer sunken in prophetic
evocations and possessed by the rhomboidal schmaltzy to know that Nigeria
is gallivanting and junketing on the road to Yugoslavia. The heinous defilement and endangering
of the polity by ethno-religious contretemps, political assassinations, economic brigandage, leadership inertia and
social m�lange portends that Nigeria is cascading down political history,
shows disintegration. God
help us. The kaleidoscopic overview of Nigeria’s socio-economic and
political history shows that the recurrent decimal of senseless killings
and corruption are features of an underlying incapacity to evolve into
one indivisible Nation.
Pre-colonial and
pre-Independence instability: The Lugardian
albatross of 1914 that culminated in the amalgamation of the Northern and
Southern protectorates precipitated the farrago that is in Nigeria today.
Before 1914 the slave trade had already battered the various peoples
within the geographical entity known as Nigeria. The advent of the slave trade and
colonialism compounded our pre-colonial of pre-Independence
instability. But the
abolitionist stance and fight against the slave trade led to the
formation of the ‘Clapham Sect’.
This group included men like William Wilberforce, Buxton, Thomas
Clarkson, James Stephen, Zachary Macaulay and Granville Sharp.
The slave trade was abolished by the
British in 1807 and slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833.
Following the “VIENNA AGREEMENT” OF 1915, France, Spain and Portugal
followed suit. This finally
led to the intensification of efforts to abolish it in Africa. The effort paid off in 1901 when
slave trade was abolished in Ashanti, Gold coast and Northern
Nigeria. It was also
abolished in the Oil River Protectorate, which came into being in August
1891 and in most of Yoruba land after 1893 when the Niger coast
Protectorate was established. The British colonialist wanted to penetrate
into West Africa for political and commercial reasons. They then adopted the
indirect rule system, which is simply the system of-governing in local
affairs through the customary institutions of the people of the area.
When the protectorate of Northern Nigeria was established in 1900, Lord
Lugard was confronted with the arduous task of establishing an affective
administration into the vast region comprising the Fulani Empire and the
Bornu Kingdom. He made use of the existing Fulani traditional structure
of government and upheld the ascendancy of the existing aristocracy.
After the amalgamation of 1914, the
indirect rule system was extended to the Southern provinces of Nigeria.
It was introduced under the Native Authority Ordinance No. 16 of 1916. In
areas where there were recognized traditional institutions and rulers the
system proved successful. But in many parts of Nigeria, especially in
non-Muslim areas of the North, parts of Eastern and Western Nigeria the
indirect rule system, ran into difficulties because of inter tribal wars.
And hence the people had no traditional Chiefs they could readily accept.
The Colonialists resorted to the appointment of Warrant Chiefs who were
responsible for the collection of taxes and raising of revenues. The
Colonialists therefore found functional stability in the Northern and
Eastern institutions. This will later translate into a political
rapprochement between the Northerners and the Colonialists that will
culminate in their being favoured in appointments before and after
independence.
Towards Nationhood: The end of the Second World War (1939- 1945) exposed the
atrocities of the British Colonial Masters and this led to a
recrudescence of the Nigerian renaissance. As early as 1922 Herbert
Macaulay had founded the National Congress of British West Africa that
has been prosecuting the struggle for Nigeria's independence, but the
struggle gained ascendancy because of the revelations of the Second World
War. There was now clamour for constitutional reforms and then
independence. The political engineering process led to the 1946 Richards
constitution, the 1951 Alan Burns constitution, the 1954 Macpherson
constitution, Willinks commission 1957/58 and the 1960 independence
constitution. The constitutional development process has maintained its'
continuity vide the 1979 constitution and the 1999 constitution.
Nigeria has had a chequered
political history from 1946 through 1960 to the present dispensation. In
1945 the governor of Nigeria, Sir Arthur Richards proposed a new
constitution for Nigeria and in 1946 this constitution came into being.
It provided for a legislative council, which consisted of a president
(the governor), eight unofficial members, three nominated officials and
twenty-eight unofficial members. Twenty-four of the latter were nominated
by the three regional assemblies and House of Chiefs. The council was
given powers to legislate for the whole country and in this the Hausa/
Fulanis, Yorubas, Igbos and the minorities were adequately represented.
In the 1951, Alan Burns constitution there
was a marked improvement on the legislative and executive representation
and power for Nigerians, but the peremptorily magisterial way it was
prepared without consultation with the people drew criticisms from
Nigerian Nationalists. In the subsequent epochal federal election the
Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and its allies won 84 of the 90 seats in
the North, where the elections were indirect. The biggest surprise came
in from the West, where the N. C. N. C. haven triumphed in the East won
23 seats to the Action Groups (AG) 18, showing that Nigerian politics was
not completely dominated by tribal factors. The. NCNC gained much of its
support from the Mid-West.
However, since the N. C. N. C ally the
Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU) won no seats in the North there
was still no party with total National support. The curious situation
arose that whilst the N.C.N.C. had the right to choose six federal
ministers having won both the East and West the Northern Peoples Congress
(NPC) had the largest number of seats in the federal house. This fact
curbed the NPC from its original intention of going at it alone in the
federal house, for the presence of six N. C. N. C. ministers made
coalition between the parties unavoidable, if there was to be a
government at all. In Michael Crowthers' book the 'History of Nigeria',
he said Zik turned down an alliance with Awo to form part of a National
Government. The action
group, supported by N. I. P. formed a small opposition. The agreement of
the N. P. C. and the N. C. N. C. whose political views where
diametrically opposed on many issues to work together in the federal
government was perhaps the most significant development in post war
Nigerian politics, since it has proved to be the basis of co-operation in
the first five years of independence. It made national unity possible
even if it has meant that both parties have had to compromise their
political views. The 1957 constitutional conference offered Nigerian
Nationalists the implicit opportunity to proffer a date for Nigeria’s' independence
and not regional autonomy, as was being mouthed by some ethnic
chauvinists.
|
