By Ochereome Nnanna
“(Nigeria) is a strange country – its own political, intellectual and economic leadership are paid agents of other nations” – Obi Nwakanma, in his column, The Orbit in Sunday Vanguard, December 10th 2010.
OF all the things written so far

about Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks reports on Nigeria, the assertion by my colleague and brother above summarises it all.

Nigeria is a country which won independence from the British colonialists on October 1, 1960, and shortly after, voluntarily returned to imperialistic subjugation with America, Western Europe and big multinational businesses as the new overlords.

Our own case was even worse than those of the former French African colonies, where the former colonial master continues to lead otherwise independent nations by the nose, with their eager acquiescence bordering on pride. At least, our African brothers retained only their French masters and her big businesses. In our own case, we acquired new masters.

The WikiLeaks stories about Nigeria expose how our new masters capitalised on the myopia, incompetence, insecurity and corruption among our leaders to goad us in the direction of their self interest and away from asserting the interests of our otherwise independent nation.

Before I go on, let me note that before the online whistleblower made its ground-shaking advent to universal acclaim just a few weeks ago, Nigerians already had a pretty good idea that some of the stories it scooped were happening.

The media has always done its best under the closed circumstances it operates. About twenty five years ago, legendary journalist, Dele Giwa, noted that Nigerians had become “unshockable” given the barrage of scandalous information they were daily deluged with from the media over the misconducts of our leaders.

Recently, we had what could pass for the fore-runners of WikiLeaks, in the online phenomena known as Saharareporters and later, Elendureporters.

These intrepid whistleblowers were roundly criticised by their enemies for showing interest only in issues that were negative about Nigeria and its leaders. They were even persecuted. Perhaps, the exploits of these “nosey parkers” further strengthened the resolve of our National Assembly not to pass the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI Bill).

WikiLeaks has only succeeded in taking us closer to what should pass for facts and figures about how we are being ruled and ruined.

For instance, Madam Turai Yar’ Adua, even if she is being unfairly accused of corruption, was already known in the public domain as one of the most ambitious and materialistic “first ladies” that ever married Nigeria’s number one citizens.

Former Attorney General, Mike Aondoakaa, was well reported as a spoiler of the anti-corruption crusade, even if he is innocent of the allegation of multi-million dollar bribery levelled against him by WikiLeaks.

Also, the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has, right before our eyes in the space of seven months, transformed from a diffident Acting President unsure of the bottled water served in Aso Villa to an ambitious presidential candidate on whose behalf PDP professional fixers are now noisily declaring “no vacancy in Aso Rock” as they did for Obasanjo nine years ago.

Even if the reports credited to former US Ambassador Robin Sanders were not accurate we have seen a president in Goodluck Jonathan who is gradually shifting from an ethnic-inspired presidency to self-repositioning as the man who will “transform Nigeria” putting aside primordial templates of tribalism and regionalism. WikiLeaks may have its warts and carbuncles, but they are important pointers, though we cannot charge anyone to court based on their disclosures.

Even if you doubt these reports, you may find it useful to reflect on why certain aspects of our history ended the ways they did. Why did genuine nationalists fail to gain access to power, and when those who assumed power showed signs of nationalism, they ended in tragedy?

Nigeria is one of the few countries of the Third World that, on achievement of independence, was ruled by the party that was least enthusiastic about freedom from colonialist rule? Why did General Gowon change his mind after signing the Aburi Accord? Why was the North which always wanted to secede suddenly turn to become the foremost defenders of One Nigeria?

Why did the victorious federal side agree to “no victor, no vanquished” even though many hawkish protagonists wanted to exact vengeance? Why did strong, committed nationalist military leaders – General Murtala Muhammed, Major General Muhammadu Buhari and General Sani Abacha – either get thrown out or killed, while pro-West Babangida lasted for his self-chosen eight years?

Why was Abiola poisoned to death a few days after Abacha died suddenly and mysteriously? Why was ECOMOG formed and used in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire? Was it originally our idea? Why was Olusegun Obasanjo brought back to power from prison? Who wrote the original script for it? The answers are not farfetched. Foreign powers were the brains behind these and many other game-changing events in our history.

Let us look at countries that used to be classified as the Third World. Wherever you see countries firmly rejecting the meddlesomeness of the big Western powers and their large corporations, their leaders are invariably classified as “rogue presidents”. Consider the cases of Castro’s Cuba, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, Ahmedinejad’s Iran, Gaddafi’s Libya, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and others.

These were countries where the leadership had demonstrated their unwillingness to be run the way Shell, Halliburton, Siemens, Julius Berger and other multinationals and their parents countries which,  have for centuries, virtually ruled Nigeria by manipulating its leaders.

The question is: after these leaks, what next? It will take a strong, committed nationalist who is not interested in the corrupting influence of foreign powers and big multinationals to be able to politely but firmly say no whenever their interests collide with ours. When shall we have such a leader?