Forty years on crutches
March 17 2003
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IN OCTOBER 2000 Nigeria was 40. A golden age she had long dreaded, for one reason — three republics and eleven leaders down the road — 29 years of dictatorship and 11 under jaundiced democratic rule — the country today looks like a prematurely aged woman racked by ethnic, religious, political and social arthritis. This was evident last October, at her 40 th independence anniversary. Before the celebration even ended, violent fighting had erupted in the commercial capital of Lagos, between two of the main ethnic groups – the Hausas and the Yorubas — leaving no less than a hundred people dead.
Ethnic conflict
In today’s Nigeria, from the Muslim-dominated north to the Christian-dominated south, hate and intolerance have become the country’s new reality. Remarkably, 18 months after the end of nearly 20 years of military dictatorship, Nigeria is still tottering on the brink of disaster, having callously transformed herself into a country whose citizens can no longer trust one another. Abject poverty, perpetrated by high level corruption, poor administration, greed, political miscalculations and ethnic distrust – known evils that had dogged the country’s steps for decades – now, more than at any other time in its forty-year existence, has divided the country bitterly. As the gap between the rich and the poor widens and unemployment burgeons, ethnic suspicion has also grown. Since the new president, Olusegun Obasanjo was elected in May 1999, ethnic clashes in five cities have left more than 1,000 people dead and many fleeing their homes.
Since then, ethnic conflicts have erupted in other parts of Nigeria for very trivial reasons. It was in this atmosphere — as if things weren’t bad enough — that the governors of Muslim-dominated states in northern Nigeria, defying pleas, announced that they would introduce the strict Islamic code of the Sharia law in their states, effectively creating a one-nation-two-systems kind of administration. Though they cited the uncontrolled wave of violence in the country, the increasing cases of armed robbery and the general atmosphere of distrust as their reason, some Christians called their action a deliberate show of non-co-operation with the federal authority because, for the first time ever, a non-Muslim had been voted into power. Though Sharia has long been used as the basis of family law in northern Nigeria, the introduction of the strict Islamic code now extends the law to criminal matters which allow amputation of thieves’ hands, stoning of adulterers and so on.
A thorny issue
There have since been panic reactions from non-Muslims in the north; and Christians all over the country say they fear that this might lay the groundwork for the creation of an Islamic state. Religion has always been a thorny issue in Nigeria. In the early 1980s there was an uproar over Nigeria’s attendance of a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) at Fez, Morocco, because the OIC is an organisation of nations internationally designated as Muslim States; and Nigeria is a secular nation.
That problem has remained unsolved. No matter, early in the year 2000, the governor of Zamfara state, in a colourful ceremony attended by other Muslim governors, defied all pleas and became the first to introduce the strict Islamic code of the Sharia law in his state. So far, some eight northern states have either already introduced the law or have declared their intentions to do so soon. From Kaduna to Katsina, from Bauchi to Gombe, from Kano to Zamfara states, the streets have been bathed in the blood of hundreds of protesters, on account of the Sharia. And now, the main ethnic groups have taken matters into their hands. The Yorubas have formed a ‘social and cultural’ group called Odua People’s Congress. Started seven years ago for serious political aims by a certain Dr. Frederick Fasheun, whose political ambitions had been constantly crushed, the OPC now has 20 zonal commanders, each of whom claims to lead 200 armed men. This group, which was responsible for the October violence in Lagos, has resolved, according to its national secretary, Kayode Ogundamisi, that …we are going to protect the Yoruba nation.Euphoria gone
Needless to say that the majority Hausa tribe got the message, and quickly formed its own group, the Arewa People’s Congress for the protection of the north against OPC. The Igbos, seemingly in search of relevance, also formed the Igbo People’s Congress; and, having no ‘violent’ agenda, asked (it’s not clear who in particular) for $8 billion reparations for the injustices of the 31-month Nigerian civil war (in which secessionist Igbo troops, seeking to create a new nation called Biafra, took on the rest of Nigeria and lost). More relevant, perhaps, are the Ijaw and the Ogoni tribes in the Niger Delta, who, without forming any association, have also raised their voices, asking for a greater share of the region’s oil wealth.
Clearly, the euphoria that greeted the end of Abacha’s reign of terror and the return of democracy has washed over. Some diplomats say that even without the senseless tribal clashes, it would still be difficult to right the wrongs of the last military regime alone. Corruption is at its all-time high, health services have collapsed and so has the educational system. While the civil service stands destroyed, nearly all industries operate below capacity and agricultural production is almost non-existent, making Nigeria, with its vast unexplored land, a big food importer.Worse, perhaps, is that this country of 120 million people — the sixth biggest producer of crude oil in the world – continues to suffer unexplainable scarcity of fuel for domestic use, even with its four oil refineries. As a result, many jobless youths in the Niger Delta often vandalised pipe lines in order to steal petrol in plastic containers for sale to desperate motorists. In 1998, in the oil-rich city of Warri, one of such pipe lines exploded, killing nearly a thousand people. And on July 11, last year a similar incident occurred in the village of Adeje (still in Warri) killing 250 people. A week later, another explosion occurred at the same spot. Clearly, this has become a way of life in the Niger Delta. But this, amazingly, has no deterring effect, because, with the constant scarcity of petroleum products in the country, the crushing hunger roaming the area like a witch, coupled with the high rate of joblessness in this area, the leaking pipelines still offer the best chance yet to live.
Always at the crossroads
The country’s social structures have collapsed, beyond scarcity of petroleum products, water supply is erratic and cities suffer constant interruption of power supply. The state-owned electricity company, NEPA, has been so proudly inefficient that its initials are often jocularly translated as ‘Never Expect Power Always’, when they actually stand for ‘National Electric Power Authority.’ If Nigerian industries operate below capacity, part of the blame goes to NEPA, whose inefficiency has made Nigeria the world’s leading importer of generators. Early last year, NEPA took a life — a patient undergoing brain surgery — at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, near Lagos. The patient died when the power running his life support system was cut in the middle of the operation. NEPA was said to have switched power off for unpaid bills.
Nigeria is at crossroads at the moment, as at every other moment in the last 40 years. Democracy has failed to bring the expected political, social and religious stability and President Obasanjo appears overwhelmed by the problem. In 40 years of nationhood, this country appears to have consistently postponed the evil day, though it continues to lurk dangerously nearby. Politicians and leaders of thought have often questioned the wisdom of the country’s continued existence as an ethnic mosaic, in spite of its never-ending tribal divisions.
Yet, Nigeria – though seemingly divided in three geographically, religiously and politically – cannot be easily split in three. The reason being that, beyond the much talked-about three main ethnic groups, several smaller tribes, whose economic importance cannot be overlooked, occupy a prominent role in the heart of the country. It goes without saying that the country’s oil wealth – both on-shore and off-shore – is located within the confines of these smaller tribes. The Niger Delta, the former Rivers state (which included Port Harcourt and the Ogoni territory, where the minority rights activist assassinated in 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa, hailed from) and Cross River state – all of them oil-producing regions – are made up of small tribes that have not been included in political reckoning. Were Nigeria to be split up today they would not willingly team up with any of the big three, because these tribes, whose land produces the country’s wealth, rank among the world’s most impoverished, subdued and suffocated by the arrogance and prominence of the big three.
Rebuilding the nation
This is Obasanjo’s second time at the helm. And his failure to stem the tide of violence and hatred would be judged rather harshly, because now, not only is he saddled with the responsibility of cleaning up the Abacha mess, he is also expected to hold the country together. And for a man elected on the strength of his experience, his inability to address domestic problems would be considered grave. The constant supply of petroleum products and electricity is a must. He also needs to revitalise industry, promote agriculture, provide jobs and move his government away from excessive dependence on just the oil revenue. It must be noted that before oil was discovered, Nigeria’s main exports were palm produce, cocoa and groundnut. All these were abandoned by successive governments after oil was discovered.
Obasanjo must reconstruct Nigeria, by reducing crime and by developing tourism as an alternative source of foreign exchange; because the country’s attitude of total reliance on oil has, so far, made it resemble, as a local adage goes, ‘a one-armed man who can no longer button his shirt.’
Updated on October 06 2016