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October 2001
This is the second part of the Essay on Independence Reflection. It derives from the advice of the President of Nigeria on October 1, 2001.
On that day, he advised Nigerians that due to the situation, which he called the 'dismal reality' in which the country found itself, which he underestimated since 1999 that Nigerians should use the opportunity of October 1, 2001 for reflection and not for merriment.
'MISTAKE OF 1960’ A REENACTMENT OF ‘MISTAKE OF 1914’
In this part i.e. PART 11, I shall be relating it to the earlier mistake in the political history of Nigeria, which is called the ‘Mistake of 1914. This is also discussed within the two problems identified in Part 1. It will focus on how to set about tackling them.
For those who might not have had the privilege to read about the genesis of the concept of ‘Mistake of 1914’, let me go back to the history of the concept and how it was used three times in the history of Nigeria, 1953, 1966 and 1993.
1953: I recall the first time the term the ‘Mistake of 1914’ was used by the northern political leader, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto in 1953 over the ‘self-government’ Motion by young Tony Enahoro in March 1953. What the Sardauna was alluding to was that the ‘amalgamation of January 1, 1914 was a mistake’, as the idea of a southerner running the show, was inconsistent with what Britain told the northern political leaders when amalgamation was planned and executed on January 1, 1914.
1966: This ‘Mistake of 1914’ was repeated by the surviving northern political leaders in 1966 following the January military coup. That was when the northern leaders for the second time in the history of Nigeria were faced the prospect of losing the northern leadership, which they thought would be inconsistent with the British Design in Nigeria.
1993: A third occasion was in 1993 when the prospect of a southerner actually becoming a President of Nigeria in spite of the north was imminent. Of course we knew what happened! The combined force of the civilian and military elements of the northern leadership
fought it and succeeded in annulling the election.
TURN OF SOUTH TO REFLECT ON 1914 AND CALL 1914 'A FRAUD'
For the interest of those who are being introduced to this concept of 1914 for the first time, it should be noted that under the British Design, the south was supposed to be the ‘lady of means’ (WIFE) and the north was supposed to be the ‘young man’ (HUSBAND).
Amalgamation was then conceived as a process of bringing about the union or marriage of the ‘young northerner’ and the ‘rich madam from the south’. This was the British plan in 1913 before the implementer, Sir Frederick D. Lugard, a former employee of the Royal Niger Company, who put together the north in the 19th century was named as the Governor General of the two Nigerias; North united and South in pieces or atomized states.
Lord Harcourt, the British Colonial Secretary then issued the wedding license to Sir Frederick Lugard to preside over the wedding. This was what is referred to as the ‘Mistake of 1914’, which the northern leaders wanted dissolved on two occasions in Nigerian history, 1953
and 1966.
CONJUGAL POWER STRUCTURE STATIC
IMPLICATION FOR NIGERIAN POLITICS
That was what the northern political/military leaders feared, if Dr. Alex Ekwueme or Chief Olu Falae was allowed to succeed the junta in 1999.
This was where General Babangida and his cohorts in political crime thought they were being smart; they saw Chief Obasanjo as one they could trust with safeguarding the rampart being guarded by the junta. Of course, they wanted him to do this as his primary assignment and
neglect Nigeria he would be sworn to defend and protect.
Did the political generals who are running away from apologizing to the Nigerian people through the Oputa Commission have to detain Chief MKO unto death in order to achieve their objective? They were playing God; God aborted their self-succession project, which these
political generals supported as a solution to June 12. Yes it did not unfortunately provide for death for General Abacha. But it provided for death for Chief Abiola
from the time of General Babangida, if Chief Abiola stuck to his claim to his mandate.
The petitioners who went to the Oputa Commission to raise question as to the
death of Chief Abiola should have refocused their argument before the Oputa Commission. Their petition should have dealt with the genesis of Chief Abiola’s
problem, the annulment in June 23, 1993. General Babangida should have used the opportunity of the Commission to name the 1001 men he claimed were involved in the
annulment saga that he said he was protecting from harm. They do not need his protection, as they would have liked to use the opportunity of Oputa to bare their
mind.
The Oputa Commission should find out whether they had to kill Chief Abiola in order to balance the equation since the death of their idol and candidate, General Abacha, which was not provided for in their original plan.
No matter what General Babangida says today or whether he appears before the Oputa Commission or whether he refuses to apologize to his countrymen, Nigerians already had since he went to court made up their mind. Does he not know that Nigerians believe that he cannot escape
complicity in the events that led to the death of Chief Abiola and the catalogue of human rights violations under his REAL successor, General Sani Abacha?
Also, no matter what General Abubakar says today, does it not occur to him that he through acts of omission or commission or indiscretion inherited the Abacha’s Gulag? Nigerians believed that General Abubakar did not only make the Gulag his own, he allowed Chief Abiola to be murdered, because he did not want through acts of omission or commission or indiscretion allow Chief Abiola to alter the British Design in Nigeria. Simple!
The northern political leaders short of crying of the ‘Mistake of 1914’ are now calling the IBB masterminded transition including the experiment under General Abubakar as the ‘Mistake of 1999’. How many times will the northern political leaders continue to call
different dates a mistake?
The northern political leaders have since 1999 realized
This was the origin of the ‘political Sharia’ as President Obasanjo calls it. The political Sharia was conceived in 1999 in Zamfara and spread like a wild fire in the north.
WE ARE TODAY SEEING THE AFGHANISTAN ISSUE AS AN ANTI-IGBO-YORUBA AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE IN KANO! OSAMA bin LADEN photograph is all over the north as the savior of the north and most seriously:
When the political Sharia failed, the same forces of destabilization masterminded by the former Head of State, eneral Buhari is campaigning over the Muslim north, that they should vote for their kind or for those who would protect the Islamic religion in future elections.
ther group of destabilization is also at work and wants General Babangida to be a candidate of a non-existent political party or a political association of the orth and challenge President Obasanjo in 2003.
The northern political leaders should look back to how many years they ruled Nigerian and how their misrule contributed to the ARMY OF BEGGARS in the north. They now constitute what Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar rightly warned as constituting a security threat to Nigeria. See The Guardian September 24, 2001 account of the fear expressed by these two distinguished Muslim leaders (Damasani Kano and the Vice President respectively) during the launching of the book, Almajiri and Quaranic Education put together by the Council for Welfare of the Disabled.
ANTI-US,A PLOY FOR NEW AREWA AGENDA OF ANTI-OBASANJO AND REVERSE THE 'MISTAKE OF 1999'
What has anti-US demonstration got to do with anti-Nigerians of other faith and of other ethnic group in Kano? Are they really beggars? Were these not the people mobilized after the Jumat prayer on Friday to fight for the reenactment of the Islamic Republic of Buhari's dream in Nigeria?
These are the army armed by the Muslim Northern Governors to defend the 'faithful' against the infidels, which include the President, a Christian complained about the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)? For the appeal of CAN on the 100 million naira arms imported by the Northern Governors for the defense of their faith credited to the Zamfara Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, see the Vanguard of October 13, 2001.
It should be obvious to the President and the Nigerian people and the US that these children were being armed by the northern Muslim/political leaders who are not happy with the 'Mistake of 1999' and want to reverse it. They are using these children to commit mayhem in Kano in the name of protesting against the US bombing of Afghanistan. I hope the US would draw the distinction between the act of those who want to use any excuse to destabilize the government of President Obasanjo under any guise and the act of genuine protesters and those who are supporting the terrorist. President Obasanjo spoke for Nigeria when he expressed the sympathy of the Nigerian people after the September 11 and when he later expressed his support for the US action thereafter.
I hope readers would see Boston Globe of October 17, 2001 for the account of President Obasanjo visit to these beggars, young children acting in defense of OSAMA and killing southerners in Kano. The number of those who died so far in Afghanistan and in the nearby Pakistan are less than the number killed by the Muslim beggars in Kano.
These are the same Muslim voters to be mobilized to work for the election of IBB and against Obasanjo-Atiku ticket in the name what General Buhari called vote for those who would defend their religion.
The organizers of IBB for 2003 and the campaign for Muslim for 2993 are not reckoning with the fall out of the Oputa Commission. Sometime we forget that Dr. Umaru Dikko is a Muslim and a Fulani like General Buhari; on his instruction Dr. Dikko was drugged by a Jew recruited by a Christian under the auspices of a Nigerian High Commissioner who was a Christian.
This was why I pleaded with Nigerians to refocus the Oputa Commission, because of the relationship between the June 12 and the catalogue of human rights violations in Nigeria. The denial of human dignity to Dr. Dikko should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet by the act of using the normal court by General Buhari. These political generals are playing with The Hague. How I wish President Shehu Shagari would go forward to testify on the way he was treated in detention in the hand of General Buhari in 1984. I wept for the country when President Shagari narrated his ordeal to me in Yabo in Sokoto when I paid him a visit as soon as he was released from detention in 1987 or so, Was Shagari a Muslim and a Fulani like General Buhari?
1976 IS DIFFERENT FROM 1999
The process under which General Obasanjo assumed the position of the military Head of State in 1976 was different from how he became the President in 1999.
It is unfortunate that the northern leaders who are boasting that they made President Obasanjo are confusing the military jacking of the transition program and the PDP with the vote of the Nigerian people on February 27, 1999. It is unfortunate that they still have not acknowledged that Nigerians voted for him and not just by northerners but also by Nigerians ‘in the north’, ‘in the east’ and ‘in the south-south’ massively and to some extent ‘in the southwest’.
They refused to appreciate the enormous international validation of President Obasanjo, which no one in the north could muster.
OBASANJO SHOULD CLAIM A NATIONAL PLATFORM
President Obasanjo should change his base of support not through the Peoples' Democratic Party, but through his good works and open appeal to these various groups in the country.
On October 1, 2001, President Obasanjo should publicly reclaim this national mandate consisting of the Niger-Delta, the Southeast, the Southwest, the North and the Middle-Belt. He should contest the concept; ‘we are all northerners’, because I know from my partisan days in
the Second Republic and from my days as a policy maker in charge of the transition program in short lived Third Republic that there is nothing called one north.
On October 1, 2001, President Obasanjo should have proceeded to address the two lingering political problems since amalgamation or since independence or sine annulment through a NATIONAL CONFERENCE. They are two:
One is how Nigerians are to live together;
Two is how Nigeria is to be governed.
It is sad that after over 40 years of post-independence rule in the hands of Nigerians these two issues are still with us manifesting themselves in various forms such as the politics of religion, the politics of resource control etc.
If I were an adviser to President Obasanjo, I would have urged him that from October 1, 2001, President Obasanjo should set out to correct the ‘Mistake of 1960’ in another way. As Sir James Robertson, the last British Governor General of Nigeria stated in his memoir in 1974, what he wanted Sir Abubakar to do was to form a government, which drew on the membership from all shades of political persuasions from the south. Alliance of two parties was not part of the ‘Independence Settlement’.
But the condition laid down by the pro-North politicians in the NCNC was that they were more anxious in the politics of exclusion than with the politics of inclusion. They just wanted to exclude Chief Awolowo and the AG from the Federal Government than in the formation of a National Government. This would have been what we call ‘Government of National Unity’ for the first four years of an independent Nigeria. That would have been what Joe Snovo used to break the deadlock in South Africa in the post-apartheid South Africa.
Modesty aside, let me praise myself or blow my trumpet; I developed this plan for General Babangida, the military President in June 1993 when he approached me to develop an innovation, a modality for resolving the June 12 fears in the north and among their supporters in the
south. It was a modification of Arend Lijphart approach to consensus building in plural societies. This was before Joe Slovo came up with a variant of that approach in South Africa in 1994. I did not know I was working with half-baked military officers who just refused to think beyond force. Where did that lead Nigeria? Chaos and decay! Is this what General Babangida through his former Vice President wants to revisit on the Nigerian people on the firm belief that Nigerian politicians are purchasable commodities?
The way to resolve the crisis over the June 12 in June 21, 1993, would have been through the Consensual Plan, which would have met the fears of the potential annullists while guaranteeing that the vote of the Nigerian people was allowed to be their voice. This was the ‘Mistake of 1993’, which General Babangida was made to reverse with collaborators from the southern politicians who cannot escape guilt.
A post-military Government like the post-colonial government in 1959/60 or the post-apartheid government in South Africa would have required a Government to which every section of society could consider to be a part.
BACK A NATIONAL PLATFORM WITH AN ALL-PARTY OR AN ALL-NIGERIA GOVERNMENT
I recall my initial appreciation of the 1999 presidential election; I am on record as stating then that Nigerians did not vote for the PDP, but for Chief Obasanjo on the firm belief that he would be able to see them through the lingering political problems. I argued then that
Nigerians did not vote for him because of his capacity to deliver social services or build roads. These are not the problems facing the country today; these problems are only made to assume many manifestations by the lingering political problems.
My question is whether it is late today for President Obasanjo to embark on finding lasting solution to the lingering political problems through the way he puts together a new government? IT IS NOT! This should be a post-2001 approach to the resolution of the two lingering political problems.
It should be obvious to President Obasanjo today that the President’s inability to resolve these problems that is aggravating the social problems.
Of course, the reorganization of the government along the line suggested above is one way to cope with the crisis of succession I posed as ‘After Obasanjo Who/What?
Succession in the hand of one party since independence had never worked in Nigeria. I recall the ‘succession elections’ of 1964 and 1983 organized by a party in power and how they led to monumental crisis. For the ‘succession election’ to succeed in 2003, President Obasanjo should do everything to get all parties committed to
CONCLUSION
The uncertainty in the country today is immense; it affects the Nigerian attitude to the future and it arises from these two fundamental problems. To talk about the future, I am afraid that after over 40 years Nigerian leaders, military and civilian are unable to come to terms
with these two lingering political problems. The many years of military misrule further aggravated these two problems.
PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION IS NO ANSWER
OBASANJO SHOULD MOVE FROM ‘BRIDGE’ TO ‘PROBLEM SOLVER’
President, Sir, may I humbly call on you as the President to lead Nigerians to come up with how Nigerians can live together and how Nigerian can be governed.
The President alone cannot solve these problems. Setting up a Presidential Commission on Security is an attempt to copy the US President’s Homeland Security Department in the White House as the domestic counterpart of the National Security Agency. The US had identified the
source of the problems; President Obasanjo had not accepted that the problems of Nigeria since 1960 are of the two kinds identified above. If the President accepts this, then the solution is a round table conference with the two subjects on the agenda.
Yesterday it was the use of the traditional rulers; this has never been a solution as many of them have been part of the problems since 1960. They unwittingly make themselves loyal to Any Government In Power. (AGIP)
The National Assembly cannot deal with them because the election under which the National Assembly was constituted was constituted before a military-dictated Constitution was forced on it.
2003 UNREALISTIC WITHOUT A SOLUTION TO TWIN PROBLEMS
Enough of the Game; Enough of Drifting; Enough of Fire fighting since 1999! A Stitch in Time Saves Nine. This is the way I see the past, today and the future. This ends my reflection of the Independence Anniversary of October 1, 2001.
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Guides
October 1, 2001: