By Bisi Lawrence
Independence Day, October the first,1960, came accompanied by wild hopes. Most of the people  did not seem to know exactly what they were expecting . It was clear in some aspects,but was also rather vague generally.

It was said that they would be free of “colonial domination”;that white men would no longer be in a position to lord it over them,because that was not good.

Their  leaders–that is those who had assumed the leadership of the populace –told them so,and they had  no cause to disbelieve them. They had no choice really,and it was so comfortable to go along.It was what everybody was doing.

Some of  the leaders were acknowledged to be well educated ,of course,and that was of a high premium in a society that was just eagerly stepping into bubbling waters of tertiary education .

The people adored these leaders who could make the English language roll out like thunder .Others were very wealthy ,and highly honoured.A few were more impressive than all the others, because they had “fought ” for our   freedom .

We  all realized that they had made great sacrifices  towards the attainment of this thing called “independence ”,and that in  itself  had enhanced its value and increased our desire to acquire it .

I can still remember some of the names –Anthony Enahoro;Osita Agwuna

;Mokwuogu Okoye; Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti;Nkenna Izimiro;Aminu Kano, Bello Ijunmu,Zana Bukar Dipcharima; Peter Osugo;Michael Imodu; Nwanna,and others whose names should be engraved in gold on a  monument at a public site for generations of Nigeria to see,and appreciate ,and be inspired .

They  were our first group of heroes.We are yet to do that .Many of them have been forgotten, their efforts and achievements now enshrouded in a haze of obscurity.

But they had successors.When deceit,divisionism and dictatorship began to set upon our sense of unity and deplete the strength of our being ,providence provided those who did their best to carry on in the   teeth of the   most fearsome ordeal of sanctions.

There are some of   them still with us today ,who are still very vibrant in the facve of brutish intimidation and disregard.  We still have  Femi Falana with us.Pastor Tunde  Bakare is gradually emerging from the sidelines.

There   was  Gani Fawehinmi ,unforgettable,inimitable.And we have to thank God for Wole Soyinka,“a writer  and a fight ”–so he was described at the presentation of his  Nobel Award for Literature ,and so he still is .Before then, he had served a“term ” in detention when the popular slogan was ,“ to keep Nigeria one,is a job that must be done ..”

We hardly knew what to do with our freedom.  We quickly left   the   ideal of justice far behind .We appear to have got the “preposition ” wrong.We took it to be freedom from doing, rather than freedom to do. We were armed with theories,but had never been seriously engaged in practice. We were envious ,for instance , of the former colonial masters who resided in the “Government Reserved Areas”.

The areas   looked so clean .So we wanted   to live in such places,and “independence” afforded us the opportunity .Whereupon, we gradually turned them into virtual slums.

We also inherited a fairly sound educational system from our colonial masters ,but we have succeeded in fairly   ruining it.

We enjoyed the luxury of road transportation ,but willfully neglected its maintenance.
We have deprived ourselves of an effective health delivery service,and turned thriving   hospitals into mere clinics.

We have enthusiastically embraced an immoral way of public life   that puts ethnicity before merit,and cupidity ahead of integrity in all our transactions. And all because we have misinterpreted our freedom to be pro-active, as the liberty to be negative.
And so at fifty,our   nation    is staggering around   like a drunken sailor .We admit the fact .

In the past week,almost all of the people we could call “stakeholders”; in this context,have publicly    Decried the country’s failure in almost   every   progressive endeavour in the first half-century   of   our independence.

That ,of   course,has not deterred those who are always pre-occupied with  wasting our national assets from budgeting huge sums of money   that would be spent on celebrations,while the people are wondering about what is worth celebrating anyway,when all we see around is decay.

What do the people of  the   West   have to jubilate about ,having been pruned to no less   than  two-thirds of their size at independence ?  What has the North to glorify in the disappearance of   those golden groundnut pyramids ?

What is there to fill the hearts   of Easterners with joy,after the fratricidal episode that only showed how   hardy a people they   are, after frittering away a lot  of that hardiness just to survive? That only reflects a part of the glorious past that was unable to address the present.

But money must be spent,no matter how wastefully; noise will be made ,no matter how senselessly;and some joy has to be expressed,no matter how insincerely.  Why?  Because that is along the theme of our distorted sense of values ,our   shamelessness and   the rapacity that moves us to action.

This is the present in which we mock the structures we have built as foundations for our well-being and development.And into what framework do we hope to insert   our future which (with apologies to Professor Wole Soyinka) must address the future ?  Is there any   viable base for our economic growth ?

Do we have a sound foundation   for the health of our   democracy ?Have we any solid plans for the provision of infrastructural   necessities ? This  present will only cast its shadow,but a very dark shadow,on our future existence if we continue as we have done in the past.

At my time of life,I can only think of a future for my   children ,grandchildren   and great-grandchildren –and   wince.When my generation had a future ,we ran with eager   steps to meet it. If you were educated up to secondary school level at that time,you had a choice of jobs all lined up for you ,or great opportunities to “further” your education for a brighter life.

With a university qualification ,you were   thrust into a senior position that routinely   fetched you a car; it was part of the package that could also include lodgings in official quarters–you know,the “GRA”..

The country was opening up with good roads.The railway system, with all its inadequacies , still  functioned.

The idea of democracy was maturing in the minds of the people and the established structures of  governance promised its continuance.  What promise have we been left with,by the fifty years of  our so-called nationhood?

I am not a “prophet of doom”. I prophesy nothing.I would, indeed,rather be the prophet of a boom in our economy ,in our education ,in the fraternal joys of our co-existence,in our cultural revival,in our sports development,in the enrichment of   our spiritual values-but that ,alas, I am not.

This country has been gradually made   so unlovely through bickering ,corruption ,and bad faith that it is becoming almost unlovable and unloving. We continue to put a regrettable distance between reality and us .What is the reality of our existence as a “nation”?

In the main,.we are a conglomeration of nationalities. The hope once lay thin on the ground that we might be unified into “one indivisible ” entity “under God”.Like the United States of America ,we dreamt of being able to beat our chest with the slogan of    E pluribus unum–“One out of many”.

After all,did not Britain emerge from Norman,Saxon ,Welsh,and Scottish extracts?  But our antecedents were not identical to those situations. We are well and truly different ,though we seem not to fully realize how far deep into our psyche that has always been.

An illustration of this occurs in this occurs in the book titled,“Ahmadu Bello”, the biography of the late   Sardauna of Sokoto,Premier of the defunct Northern Rrgion,by John N .Paden.  Permit me to quote the relevant portion.

“Oral tradition has it that in the mid-sixties ,Dr. Azikiwe met with Ahmadu Bello and said, “Let us forget our differences…” To which Ahmadu Bello replied,“No, let us understand our differences .I am a Muslim and a northerner. You   are a Christian and an easterner. By understanding our differences ,we can build unity in our country.”

That is the truth ,the basic fact,of our life as a nation. Zik himself   also actually appreciated that   because he usually spoke about the ideal of “unity in diversity”.  All the same,it   was fashionable to pontificate on the construct of “One Nigeria,” within the three -regional format of  administration   which the   British left us.

However,at that time ,the real power was invested in the leadership   of each of the political parties which   was in power in the regions,to wit,the Northern People ’s Party in the North , the National council of   Nigerian Citizens in the East,and  the Action Group in the   West. We grew up with the   awareness of our differences.

We admitted   them ,and even appreciated them .But we eventually began   to gloss over them until we discarded them ,instead of understanding   them.

But the Sardauna never forgot.That was why,out of his contemporaries,he was only one who never nursed   the desire   of becoming the   Prime Minister of this country,though he had   the opportunity .He yielded   that position to his “deputy” ,Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and remained in the North   as   the Premier.

He thus retained the power in the region,rather than transfer it to the   centre.  It   was the only period of what we now characterize as “true federalism”, when   the federal authority could be exerted only over certain areas administratively.

Some people felt that it was not “patriotic”. They opined that it was divisive ,in that it tended to deter the unity   that would   otherwise have been engendered by   the exaltation of   the “centre”  as the point of unity.

But   the Saduana understood   that you could only be a good Nigerian   by first being a good indigene of your original roots.  History has vindicated   that stand. With the leadership operating a system that was recognized as being ,at least, at par with the federal government,the   North left   no room   for the disastrous rivalry that ensued in the West, or the ugly contention that erupted in the East.

(That is in reference to the Awolowo/Akintola fiasco in the West ,and   the Azikiwe/Eyo Ita confrontation   in the East,respectively.Ahmadu Bello was also able to promote a sense of oneness in the North,that has subsisted to this day. None of the other former regions has that heritage.

And if we may add ,to casually discard the system of rotational preference that “zoning” seeks to foster,would undoubtedly inflict a dent on that inheritance,because it   was through its auspices that the   North was facilitated   to find its place  in the “comity of nationalities” within Nigeria.

We were blessed by those giants of diverse temperaments and visions at   the begining.We should not hold one above the others in leadership qualities. They all respond admirably to   the imperatives of their peculiar circumstances.

But, in these times when there is a clamour   for “true federalism” in Nigeria,our journey from this point on   may be more profitable along the footsteps of   Sir  Ahmadu Bello ,the Sardauna of   Sokoto.

Time out.