NIGERIA IS NOT A NATION YET AND NEVER HAD A LEADER

NIGERIANS: A PEOPLE YEARNING FOR A NATION. By Maj. Gen. John W. T. Gbor (rtd).  

  In 1900 the British Crown took over the administration of three different and uncoordinated colonial forces centered on a colonial governor in Lagos, a foreign Office Council centered at Calabar, and under a Chartered Trading Company centered at Lokoja. The colonization processes from Lagos and Calabar Produced the Southern Protectorate. The one from Lokoja gave birth to the Northern Protectorate. Lord Lugard who had served the British Crown in India was appointed to oversee the two protectorates. From 1900 to 1913 the two territories were governed as two separate territories. The North was surrounded by French colonies of Dahomey, Niger, Chad, and Cameron. Given the 1815 European war of Alsace and Lorraine, the British did not want to risk another European war with France. For fear of the French the British did two things. First they branded the North as Nigeria to distinguish it from the surrounding French interests. This name was approved by the British Parliament in about 1898. Secondly they  closed the northern borders to avoid having any conflict with French interests that could lead to war. As a result of this closure the trans-Saharan trade routes linking the rich cities of Kano and Katsina were blocked. Katsina followed by Kano produced the best cloth for the North African market which was also sold in Portugal and Spain. The Katsina cloth was so popular that Morocco which was its main recipient claimed the ownership of the cloth as its producer. With nothing coming in nor going out Kano and Katsina became broke. Before then Kano used to be the wealthiest Entrepôt south of the Sahara. Faced with this challenge the British could not raise enough money to run the administration of the North. Opening the borders for Kano to regain its wealth was not an option. The British dreaded a possible war with France which might lead to loosing part of Nigeria to a hostile European power. Instead Lord Lugard went to the UK and demanded for money to run Nigeria. He was granted the money given the security situation. The following year he went back to request for more. This time the British Parliament refused to approve any further release of funds on the grounds that in the history of the British Empire, Nigeria was the only colony that had ever benefited from British taxpayer's money. Lugard was asked to go back and sort out Nigeria to take care of herself. Still to open Nigeria's borders would not be in the best security interests of both the colonial authority and the British Government. Meanwhile there was surplus money that had accumulated from the Customs tax on liquor in the Southern Protectorate. Lord Lugard then decided to amalgamate the two protectorates on 1st January 1914. In doing this he transfered the surplus Customs money from the South to cover the North and the name Nigeria to cover the South. The creation of the Nigerian nation was an act of God.                
 From 1914 to 1946 nothing was done to unite and integrate the Nigerian people. There was no single constitution binding Nigerians as people of one nation. By the 1920s and 1930s through missionary efforts many Nigerians became educated. They were hired by the colonial authorities as artisans, taxi drivers, customs officials, police etc. For fear of tribalism individuals hired were sent to areas rather than their own. These educated Nigerians who moved away from home to strange areas discovered the sweetness of Nigeria bad a land with friendly and accommodating human beings. The British were shocked when this educated Nigerians formed the first nucleus of Nigerian nationalism and asked the British for a Nigerian nation. The British were still contemplating what to do with the North and the South when the educated elements demanded for a nation. These were mere artisans, plumbers, electricians, cooks, drivers, customs personnel, police, etc. This is the secret of Nigerian unity to date. Despite the anger demonstrated against educated Africans by Sir Hugh Clifford on 29 December 1920 when he told the Lagos Legislative Council that Nigerians should forget about being a nation and that we will never be a nation, it became inevitable for us to become a nation. Our position was supported by good spirited Britons and the British Crown.       When it became inevitable for us to become a nation Nigerians put up one nationalist front. The nationalists called themselves Nigerians or Africans. Many colonial officers were not comfortable with the spirit of unity demonstrated by the nationalists. Sir Arthur Richards who was considered an expert who knew how to handle and to dismantle nationalists was brought in from Jamaica as the Governor of Nigeria. In order to dismantle our nationalism, in the ever first Nigerian constitution he gave three Regions. This decentralized Nigerian nationalism into the East, the West, and the North. Sir Athur Richards himself boasted that he gave us the Regions in order to truncate our nationalism or what he called, "Centrally minded Nigerians". The idea was to prevent the nationalists from truncating the British Imperial interests in Nigeria.                   Nigeria thus began to practice Regional nationalism instead of National nationalism. We became three nations in one instead of being just one nation as we had started. We resorted to parochialism practicing parochial politics despite the warning by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. We went for our independence as three different countries in one. After 57 years of independence we are still a toddler nation learning how to walk. After many years of independence the majority of Nigerians particularly the youths are tired of being Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Ibibio, Efik, Urhubo, Edo, Tiv, Muslims, Christians, North, South, East, West etc and to be just Nigerians. Nigerians are yearning for a nation and not for ethnicity, religion, nor geopolitical zone. Unfortunately, since 1960 we have had rulers but we have never had a leader who will pull us out of ethnicity, religious and geopolitical divide and mobilize us to be just Nigerians. All these noise about Biafra, Afenifere. Northern Consultative Forum and the so called Northern Youth are strong yearnings for a nation. We need a leadership that will recreate for us a new and the highly desired nation. May God help us.