Dreams of Nigeria evolving into a cohesive nation-state with citizenship rights that enhance unity and sense of brotherhood have increasingly become unrealistic. To harbour such dreams the way the country goes at the moment is at best illusional. That may be sad but it is the way it is. Most other declarations to the contrary are deceptive politics.
Nigeria was not always a bad dream. There was basis for hope and healthy dreams about the place, until myopic irridentism and rogue tendencies overcame the land. It is getting worse by the day.
It is amazing how fast things change. Events of the last half year will go down in history as some of the most devastating of the corrosive strikes at the fragile foundation that has successfully held Nigeria together. Of course, the period in reference was preceded and is indeed part of the most shallow, clannish, anti-social and cynical regime the country has had. A multi-ethnic society aspiring to achieve cohesion will never have a worse entanglement. It happened, anyway.
The extent of the devastation the Muhammadu Buhari government left on Nigeria can only get clearer with time. When the Bishop of the Sokoto Archdiocese of the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, spoke recently of the depth of the multifaceted corruption in the Buhari regime, he was merely scratching the surface. The cut is far deeper and more pervasive than the prelate could articulate in one outing.
In place of the prospective nation-state the foster fathers of Nigeria sought to build, the country has now been carved out and is still being carved out into swaths of ethnic estates and new fiefdoms. The lords of these estates and their foot soldiers increasingly brook no observance of the dictates of a modern nation-state, even with the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural composition of the country.
The actual nature and viability of the unfolding Nigeria that is being erected by mindless triumphalist-promoters can only be properly seen with time. For now, all that seems to matter to the promoters of the cleavages is to take charge of their enclave first.
About a fortnight ago, coming in through the cultural end of things, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, lashed out in frustration and protestation at the emir of Ilorin, Sulu Gambari, for taking a step the laureate considered damaging to multi-culturalism in a federal Nigeria. The emir, through surrogate groups, had cancelled the celebration of a festival known as Isese, a traditional Yoruba celebration.
In an open letter he ended with a poetic reminder to the emir that he is neither omniscient nor omnipotent, Prof. Soyinka excoriated the emir for “the truncation of a people’s traditional festival”. This, he said, was not only an affront to him, it was a crime against the cultural heritage of all humanity.
Soyinka expressed disgust at the bigotry and intolerance manifest in the stoppage by the authorities at Ilorin of the festival and the right of some citizens. He bemoaned “the sad reality of a troubled society where community is sacrificed to bigotry.” “Must we turn the turban of enlightenment into a crown of bigotry?” he asked. “And in a society whose very constitution that supposedly governs us all guarantees freedom of belief, association and movement?”
The Nobel laureate continued, “It is action of this nature, perpetrated in obscure as well as prominent outlets of the nation, that turns a young generation into mindless monsters, ever ready to swarm out and kill, kill, kill…”
Prof. Soyinka was deeply offended that Ilorin cannot allow the observance of traditional celebration of the Yoruba, because of consideration of Islamic sensibilities, whereas in Abu Dhabi, in the heart of the Islamic faith today, he is involved in programmes that are promoting mixed menus of cultural beliefs and adherence. Why should Ilorin be different? Why should Nigeria be different? This is the question.
Emir Sulu Gambari, himself also a man of letters, did reply Soyinka. Although he explained that maintaining peace in Ilorin was the primary motive of his action, the main punch line of his response was steeped in history and politics, an open wound of a history. By reminding Soyinka that there are three Shehus in the Nigerian space and Shehu Alimi, with his dynasty in Ilorin, is one, the emir was passing a loaded message. That is a less than veiled reference to the bitter loss of Ilorin by the Yoruba to the Fulani. The message was clear: Ilorin is not your own anymore. The matter of who owns Ilorin is, however, not the focus here. The fate of Nigeria as a modern state with citizenship rights guaranteed by the constitution is.
It is understandable that Soyinka, being a man of culture, was incensed by the closing of the Ilorin space to the Isese festival. If the laureate spared time to look beyond Ilorin and the issue of culture and Isese, he would have been shocked at what he would see in Lagos. There, in what used to be Nigeria’s capital city,Soyinka would have found a more odious, blatant and repugnant show of political triumphalism, marking a new phase of assault on whatever the constitution of Nigeria offered to Nigerians in form of freedom to live and thrive under the law.
Bulldozers have been busy in Lagos in recent times, tearing down the investment of citizens. The message, in this instance, more vicious and damning is; go away, this is our space, not your own. To hell with whatever the Consrtitution provides! For the victims of the unconscionable assault, substantially the Igbo, who by orientation and inclination build up and develop where ever they go, the contempt for property law and any provision of freedom to live and do business across Nigeria, is clear.They are being told that there is nothing like ownership of property in Nigeria, away from people’s ethnic enclave. That is the new spirit of the Nigeria of the day.
As the machines in Lagos tore down structures erected with sweat and billions of Naira, the owners of the buildings reportedly look on helplessly, watched over by scores of uniformed policemen, whose presence speak of full authorization. Every strike by the bulldozers symbolically mark a major strike at the foundation of the Nigerian state. It also marked the defeat of the vision and many years effort by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Yinka Odumakin and many others for an alignment of the East and West of Nigeria in the overall stability of the country. Now, there is a new model in place. Time will bear out its viability.
It is easier to destroy than to build. The real damage of the bulldozers tearing down Igbo entrepreneurs investment in Lagos is not to the buildings or to the individuals. Something deeper is being destroyed. Trust. Affection. And all that. To those who feel triumphant at the moment, all that amounts to nothing more than sentiment. It is not difficult to see however, that the cost of the mindless acts is enormous. And it will be paid in full. There is no doubt about that.
In the very quotable words of Prof. Soyinka to Emir Gambari, “Long after you and I are gone, generations will continue to endure the effects of present anomalies, pretensions, hypocrisies, will continue to harvest the bitter fruits of the seeds of discord being sown by their forebears”…..These words should be conspicuously hung on the walls of the offices and homes of all political leaders of Nigeria today. May be the bigots will read these words and think twice.