The Political
“Essentially, the post-military political leadership was non-visionary, selfish, totally corrupt, self-opinionated and to put it casually, sadist. These politicians only saw politics as a means of enriching themselves.”
The political elite that led Nigeria into independence were the same elite that took over power concurrently. Nationalistic, charismatic, brash, experienced in the art of politics, comparatively incompatible, they served Nigeria with all their might, all their skills, and all their focus and attention necessary to wean a new structure “where no man is oppressed”- irrespective of their individual differences and nuances.
Zik, Awo, Ahmadu Bello and their acolytes- they were all devoted to one purpose- the unity and development of Nigeria. But there were two snags- first, as independence approached, the focus of these leaders changed. It became not a struggle to chase off the oppressive Britons, (a scenario that already seemed as achieved), but a focus that sought to answer the question, “What are the spoils of independence for me, and for my people?” To use the current language, the focus became, “how do we share the national cake so that I can get a larger share than the others, not how can the national cake be baked by all of us, to make it bigger and bigger”.
Negative statements made in days of conflict started sprouting up. “The mistake of 1914” became a sing-song. “The domination of Nigeria is a matter of time”, another one and Nigeria is only a mere geographic expression, yet another one.
The second snag was the fact that the assumptions made by Britain in the building up of the country called Nigeria did not match the realities on the ground. The administrative policy of indirect rule was imposed on diverse people with diverse cultures, with disastrous and divisive consequences. The merger of the south and the north in 1914 “For administrative purposes” resulted only in the rest of the south being exploited for the development of the north, a case of the monkey working and the baboon benefiting from a farmers toils.
Treating the north with a silver spoon politically, curdling that region like a favoured son annoy other sons both in theory and in practice, did not appeal to the south as right, reasonable or fair.
The seed for disaster was already planted even before the cheers of “Nigeria we hail thee” had died down.
But be all these as they may, the political degradation of Nigeria did not commence with the nationalist/political elite, who in any case, were booted out of power by the Army in 1966, for before there were channeled out, they had made their own contribution. They had won independence from Britain, they had set up a country, they had accepted and developed a democratic system of government and they had established a political culture that apparently ran on competition rather than conflict. Yes, these Nationalist had their faults- corruption to a level, unacceptable intrigues, the utilization of ethnocentric platforms to achieve personal objectives. But compared to what happened later, the political elite of that age was made up of angels!
Then came 1966 and the degradation of Nigeria politically fully began.
In 1966 the army intervened and aside from the 1979 to 1983 Shagari interregnum the army ruled the country from 1966 to 1999.
To give the devil his due, the army intervention of January 1966 was welcomed by all and sundry, while the army intervention of July 1966 was welcomed by those who felt offended by the January coup.
The January 1966 coup was welcomed because the political crisis between 1963 and 1966 had become unacceptable to the Nigerian public and that public was ready to accept any alternative that would restore peace. The rejected 1963 census described as “worse than useless” by Dr. Michael Okpara, the riot and killings engineered in the west by the conflicts between Awolowo and Akintola, the rabid, tribalistic hype by Akintola and the realignment of political forces that created the Nigerian National Alliance ( NNA) and the United progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) coalesced to produce the fuel that led to the agitation for a sack of the political elite.
Thus as the Army stepped in, everyone was happy. It was “Happy New Year” on the street of Lagos even in January 16, 1966. I was a witness. Just as it was “Happy New August” on the first of August of the same Year when Gowon and his boys had occupied the seat of power in Lagos.
Army rule is an aberration and is an illegitimate means of changing a government. It is therefore both illegal and illegitimate. Those who carry out Military coups make up a mess of themselves when they argue that they are saviours of the people, that they come to remove corruption from the political system, that they come to expunge bad governance etc. This is all hogwash, because the same people end up becoming worse rulers especially in those ills which they protest to be having panacea for. And as an irony, if sections of the same army attempt to overthrow them they now cast such sections as traitors to the nation, rebels to the country and send them to their graves. An Illegal, illegitimate system that had no business being in government accuses another illegal, illegitimates for illegality and illegitimacy!
An amusing aspect of this scenario is that the Army, once in power does not lack apostles. Those in opposition will rally to their defense, political jobbers will rally in defense of the Army, the business community, ever ready to profit from any circumstance will stand up in defense, and political vampires will stand out to “eat” the crumbs fallen from the Army table.
Regrettably, some Intellectuals will sharpen their theories and invent words to suit theory with reality.
Dr. Teslin Elias for example, stated that though Army rule was illegal, the Army can establish its own legality and legitimacy.
Double speak, by a respected legal luminary who rose to establish the law faculty at the University of Lagos and rose to the position of the Attorney General of the Nigerian State. If the Army can one early morning sack a government and establish its own legitimacy and legality, why do you say Army rule is illegal and illegitimate?
The coming of Army rule substituted dictatorship for democracy and therefore began the real political degeneration of the Nigerian political culture and system.
The legislative and executive arms of government were abolished. Decrees and Edicts became laws like Armed men became the enforcers of laws – the political executive harsh laws were decreed as the Army lived up to its posture of toughness, rigidity, and brigandage. A Buhari had 4 young lives ended on the stakes for drugs, and the same military ruler had a young journalist sent to jail for publishing (the prosecutor called him a publisher – to tally with the details of the law) the names of would-be appointees by the same government! Who asked him to pre-empt the dictator?
Furthermore, the executive became reckless. A Buhari had no qualms in the great Awolowo`s house and cart away files and materials with careless abandon. What he has done with them today, I do not know.
During the war, hundreds and thousands were killed not necessarily in direct confrontations, but in mopping up operations which only involve extra operational operations to kill as many civilians as possible- Asaba being an outstanding example which is marked every year!
High profile and mysterious death took place out of executive orders in the military regime, outstanding among them being the Mrs. Abiola and Dele Giwa murders during the Abacha and Babagida regimes respectively. There were also other murders during the Obasango regime, headed by the murder of the Attorney-General of the federation, the orator of Ibadan Bola Ige.
A third aspect of political degeneration during the Army regime was the silent withering away of the basic freedoms as enshrined in the constitution. Theoretically this freedoms were not withdrawn, but realistically they were not enforced. And if enforced, there were selective enforcements. We have mentioned the fact that Buhari himself boasted then that he would temper with free speech and free publication, which he indeed tempered with. Subtle attempts were made at upholding the tenets of the Islamic religion over and above those of other religions with such attempts being made through incentives and even through structural constructions. Mosques were built in official places especially by the federal governments in federal offices. Babangida edged Nigeria towards the global Islamic body now known as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and indeed attended as Nigeria`s president, the meeting of the world congress of Islamic state - a move, Tinubu has followed in contradiction of the Nigerian Constitution which makes Nigeria a secular state.
In furtherance of the political degeneration syndrome as operational in the Army regimes, the judiciary, although not abolished by the Army, was not sacrosanct. Before Army rule, the judiciary was respected as if it was God. One could boast about equity, fairness and justice from Nigerian court. With Army rule when it came to civil cases maybe you were sure of justice but when it came to state related cases whether civil or criminal you could not get 100% certainty that justice would be sustained. Even if it was, the Army might not implement the judicial decision.
The last reflection on the degeneration of the Nigerian State during the long period of the Army rule can be found in the civil service, in the parastatals and in the Nigerian Police.
Corruption was the lingua franca in these establishments.
The fact of political degradation in the Nigerian State can be evidenced in the fact that Nigeria made only one valid credible development all through the years of Army rule -it ended up with more states and more local governments. These became agencies and beacons of infrastructural development.
Apart from this, it was stupor all the way. Witness the imposition of the 1999 constitution which has proven to be an albatross on Nigeria`s neck. Witness the wasted millions in the building of offices for 2 political parties and the contesting of a nullified election on the whims and caprizes of a cabal of the Army -a cabal that, with some civilian members, still imposes itself on Nigeria. And witness the injustices involved in the use of the army to terrorize people, detain or even kill innocent civilians. The army often times set up panels to probe this incident of misbehavior by undesirable elements within the fold. But it was all a show. The political degeneration of the state had taken its toll. It was either a judgement that would return an “unknown soldier” verdict for the destruction of the kuti family house, or a road show about whether to accept an IMF loan or not when it had been decided that it would not be or a show to install the Structural Adjustment Programme as instructed from above and endorsed by the IMF and world bank.
Thus, Nigeria went down the hill politically, and her political culture was the loser for it.
There was a loss of faith in the system; political values suffered.
There was little input into the system, demands were mute and stultified owing to the fear of army brutality. Nigeria`s image at home and abroad dipped.
After army rule came politics in 1999 that is (apart from the Shagari days as mentioned above). If political degradation was prevalent in army rule, it became gargantuan in post military days. If it was mole hill in the days of uniform, it became a mountain in the “Agbada” years which we are still witnessing. There was a relapse into the worst type of political leadership Nigeria has been visited with. A few light would be seen in the horizon, sparks of excellence existed here and there – a few inspirational actions by Obasanjo, Yar`Adua`s benevolence, bold attempts by Goodluck Jonathan, star performances by Ngozi-Iweala and her foreign “legion” -but essentially, the post-military political leadership was non-visionary, selfish, totally corrupt, self-opinionated and to put it casually, sadist. These politicians only saw politics as a means of enriching themselves. In a milieu where there are no ideological parties, they jumped from party to party, without qualms, without any scruples. Office holders among them stole the)) country`s money and jumped into the arms of the ruling party to avoid the gallows. The ruling parties, comrades- in arms – would accept them, will rehabilitate with positions, and the circus will continue. Such people are occupying the highest official positions today in Nigeria the executive arm of this post-military political leadership have become so lionized that it has cornered Nigeria into comatose in terms of political development. It utilizes the forces of coercion to bamboozle the people, it has utilize and utilizes the legislative and judiciary to do it bidding, and the electoral bodies are just errand boys for what has blossomed into a veritable dictatorship. The details are all awash everywhere, and will be collated later in a book format - ‘’The political of Nigeria’’.
This is just what we have emphasized that since independence, Nigeria fallen into political degradation, bad leadership, owing to the greedy attitude and irresponsibility of political leaders.
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