By Bisi Lawrence
Three speeches by three eminent Nigerians recently crystallized many issues that have puzzled me for a long time.

My difficulty centered on why we may dodge, but cannot entirely avoid the tag of a failed nation, judging by our woeful record which lacks an appreciable measure of progress as a nation in the past fifty years. Please pardon me for having to quote at length from these statements. Stay with me; I’m going somewhere (as the preachers fondly entreat their congregations these days.)

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, at a public function spoke about the challenges that confront our development, which include:

item: ‘’failure to conduct credible elections … : you may, or may not need to ask why, but it’s crystal clear that our electoral system seems to have run away from us. We are no longer in control of it. Several modules have been devised and adopted. A variety has been applied.

But the result has always turned out to be the same. It seemed that the electoral machinery was prone to being interfered with. To remove any hanky-panky, we slammed the tag of “independent” on the National Economic Commission. But the outcome of the electoral process did not fare any better under one title than the other. Hardly any Chairman of the Commission left the position without a stain on his otherwise spotless reputation before he took office.

The immediate past one was almost sentenced to be stoned to death. All of those chairmen could not have been bad on their own. All the systems could not have been faulty on their own either. What always goes wrong then?

Chief Anyaoku’s deposition continues:
item: “the pervasiveness of corruption which continues to drain our treasuries …” there we may have, at least, part of the answer to the above question. Many people glibly describe corruption as the “cankerworm in the fabric of our development”, which is graphic as a characterization.

But not many people have actually seen a ‘cankerworm’ here, and so that leaves the picture rather dim even if distasteful. We may be closer to the view by simply saying that, generally, everyone who is in a position to be corrupt is corrupt – and that includes your driver who would shortchange you without a qualm if you sent him to buy fuel at the gas station.

In fact, we didn’t need any high-blown survey to inform us, recently, that the police are kingpins in this sordid area; everybody, including ‘’those above”, knows that for a fact. The Judiciary has also been complaining about itself for more than a decade, and are still not silent, and the tragedy is that they are joined in these awful misdeeds by other institutions in the dispensation of justice. Listen more to Chief Anyaoku:

item: “the Niger Delta situation”: we have virtually turned the Niger Delta into another country, and the indigenes into citizens of another country. Right now, it is undeniable that the Niger Delta is an issue as an area deserving of a special attention and peculiar treatment.. We all agree that a considerable proportion of the national wealth is mined and taken away from the land.

The “situation” thus created impoverishes the people who feel that a commensurate return of their wealth – and nobody can deny that it is their wealth – is only equitable. So, why does such a simple matter become a colossal issue, giving rise to an armed militancy that has now degenerated into a sub-culture of heinous crimes including the kidnapping of innocent people?

Because there is money, mucky lucre, to be realized from it, that’s why. Chief Anyaoku indeed makes that point among the challenges he enumerates as confronting our development:
item: “the breakdown of our society’s value system, as evidenced in particular in worship of money, leading to rampant ambition to make money by fair or foul means” I am tempted to imitate those loud religious preachers by repeating the last sentence, word for word. But you can read it all over for yourself, and I urge you. Our nation seems to have successfully spoilt the bad name of money.

Turning away from the former (or veteran?) diplomat to the current Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, who was speaking on the same occasion with Chief Anyaoku, the CBN governor described Nigeria’s insufficiencies in the efforts at development, as a “black hole” which frustrates all the advantages of this country’s natural resources. The renowned economist moaned.

Item: “we produced cotton, yet our textiles plants are not working: … “ yes, the textile plants are not working in the factory because the cotton plants are no longer being grown as before on the farms. Remember the groundnut pyramids, which were a landmark on the plains of Kano?

And the cocoa hills which imbued the countryside of the old Western Region with a distinctive pride? Well, as the “black gold” began to flow, these agricultural resources began to dry up. But in that is contained the real calamity. Read on:

item: “we produce crude oil, we import petroleum products” … Ah! That is the “black gold”, that displaced almost all the resources of the nation. We are yet to know what to do with it even now, it would seem, except siphon the sweetness of it into some greedy mouths that successfully hamper us from reviving our refineries

Item: “we have hide and skin, we don’t have leather products.” And we have had that for decades before Independence; the universally acclaimed “morocco” leather was, in fact, Nigerian in origin. So we have been at this business of shunning national progress for quite some time, because it was for the purpose of cheating the nation that some Nigerian traders, in effect, gave away the good image of their nation.

Finally, Pat Utomi has also been speaking. He came into the limelight as someone to be reckoned with when he was one of the Presidential candidates, and has remained there ever since. He picked on the theme of leadership; you might summarize his submissions by saying,
‘’Nigeria – poor leadership, little development.” But it cannot be that alone, since democracy would appear to have given the leadership to the people.

It is then not the Electoral system, defective as it may be either; nor even the entire system of government, imperfect as it has been proved by circumstances. “The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves” (if you’ll pardon my Shakespeare) that we have floundered so dismally, so pitifully.

To us was handed a well-balanced system of government, the rich core of which we gorged out with the bayonet of a bewildering succession of military governments. We finally arrived at this unprofitable form of governance which sapped our potentials and has made a mockery of our “democracy”. We inherited a God-given source of wealth, which only produced in us an insufferable appetite for greed and internecine strife. We said we fought a war of unity which has left us with a heritage of distrust..

All this has brought home to me the essence of the failure of Nigeria. It is really the failure of Nigerians. It is not so much the case of a failed nation, as that of a failed people. Wole Soyinka must have meant just that when he spoke of a “wasted generation”. We have frittered away our opportunities, our resources, and indeed ourselves. And much of the past fifty years belongs to us, all of us who are now above the age of seventy – we, the” wasteful generation” .
a deserved honour

The good professor, Tam David-West, is said to have rejected the offer of a national honour. He has his reasons. Since my former boss, Chinua Achebe, gracefully said, ‘’No, thank you,” to the Federal Government, the gesture has become not unfamiliar. The first Nigerian who turned away from national honours, as I recall, was a lady, Mrs. Winifred McEwen, nee Onipede, a Social Service official.

She was very explicit about her displeasure, stating that the Order of the Niger, OON, was a bit below her status. One tended to agree with this professional who matched her fine academic accomplishments with an uncommon application to her duties, in which she showed a lot of creativity and verve.

All the same, national honours have seldom met with rebuff, though one or two have met with some controversy, or the slight lift of an eyebrow. On one occasion, a gentleman was offered a second one that was lower in rank than the earlier. He did not seem to take kindly to that expression of depreciation in the official estimate of his value. Of recent, the awards seem to be made according to the level of political office.

While that may be admissible in one or two cases, one has felt that a record of sterling service should accompany such consideration.

There also seemed to be a touch of precipitate action at times. We made that observation particularly in the case of the Honourable Dimeji Bankole, Speaker of the House of Representative, when he was awarded the Commander of the Federal Republic, CGR, which is the highest but two of the honours.

He had not even spent a year or so in office. The honour appeared to have been offered in tandem with his elevation to the political position. We felt it was rather hasty, although some members of the House, on the other hand, grumbled that the President of the Senate received a higher award.

But even that was no less hasty, in our view. We wondered at that time, what would happen if he failed at the job – which we do not pray for, of course. But now we know. Anything may happen.

After all, his predecessor who did not serve a very successful tenure is said to be in line for national honours now. On the other hand, a former Inspector-General of Police who stumbled along the way, is said on the other line – that for the withdrawal of the honour he was awarded, rather hastily too at that time, we might add.

One is however tickled by the news that the diminutive actor, Aki Chinedu is soon to be honoured as a Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is a role model, among other attainments. But to make this accolade fly, it should be given the other wing, shouldn’t it?
Time out..