USA Africa Dialogue Series - FIFTY YEARS OF NIGERIAN INDEPENDENCE -A KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY ANTHONY AKINOLA

Fellow compatriots and distinguished guests, it is a great honour and privilege for me to be asked to give a brief keynote address on the occasion of our nation's fifty years of Independence from Great Britain.  You will please permit numerous and inevitable omissions as one tries to race through a history that spans many decades in just a few minutes.

 

The nation we know today as Nigeria came into existence in 1914 when the British colonialists amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates, in what had begun in the latter part of the 19th century as a progressive merger of various communities following epic  but unsuccessful resistance to the incursion of   British forces in some areas.

 

Particularly due to the complexity of the new nation, the British authorities governed through the existing traditional systems.  However, there was a series of constitutional changes in the drive towards modernism.  Significantly, and rightly, the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 tranformed Nigeria into a Federal nation.  What used to be a federation of three historic regions of East, North and West, is today a federation of 36 States.  Our nation is further divided into six geo-political zones which provide accommodation for ethno-sectional communities of more compatible peoples. We inherited the parliamentary system of goverment from the colonial masters, but later changed to the presidential one  with division of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government. This is the   format  of political governance  at the federal, state and local levels

 

Ladies and gentlemen, when we celebrate, mark or acknowledge birthdays, it is not necessarily because we have achieved some extraordinary feat; it is essentially because we are still alive!  Nigerians celebrate today because in spite of all the odds, our nation has remained united and our peoples are determined more than ever before, to make it work.

 

Nigeria represents all the possibilities of collective, human existence.  Those British colonial masters who cobbled together diverse cultures, languages and religious beliefs would, if alive today, marvel at the success of their work.  For Nigeria , if one must be honest, is a lot more diverse than Britain , France and Germany put together.  Our nation  could  have been the original place of that biblical " Tower of Babel " where God gave humanity different languages so that they, in turn, would  appreciate his greatness.  Nigeria   is that unique nation where christians and muslims co-exist in almos-equal proportions--a nation where prejudices against inter-marriages between men and women of diverse backgrounds seem to be disappearing gradually.

 

Diversity itself, it must be said, cannot be a disadvantage.  The great nations of the world, be it Great Britain , the United States of America or France , are becoming more and more diverse by the day.  Diversity has brought greater understanding and respect in the world, as sensible men and women of different races and cultures accept  as a self-evident truth that we are all created equal by Almighty God.

 

Be that as it may, the Nigerian journey to nationhood has not been all plain sailing   The transfer of power from the erstwhile colonialists to indigenous political elites came with new realities.  A series of crises came in rapid succession, as ethnic parties jostled for federal power.  The culmination of the crises of the early years of independence was the Civil War of 1967-70 which destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives.  That we came out of that war ever more determined to co-exist is credit to the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation of our peoples.  We have since the war experienced quite a few more crises; political, ethnic and religious but they all constitute inevitable lessons in nation-building.

 

Nigerians are proud of their nation, we are proud of our geographical importance in the African continent  by virtue of our population and endowments of economic  and human resources. The few occasions  the essence of our nation has been disputed were when a group or groups believe or percieve , rightly or wrongly,  that  they  have been marginalised in the scheme of things The challenge before our policy makers and constitutionalists  is to continue to find ways of ensuring the peaceful co-existence of our different peoples. No nation of the world has  provided a magic  solution to the problems of others. Even when we may borrow ideas from the older and more stable nations of the world , conventional wisdom suggests that the only way to achieve the much desired stability in our nation  is  to adapt suh ideas to  our  own  ethnological realities 

 

The majority of Nigerians are honest people. When a Nigerian has behaved in a manner that is perceived to have tarnished our collective image, the anger or disapproval of the majority could be felt in churches, mosques, public places and in the pages of newspapers.  Nigerians feel aggrieved whenever a member of their community is associated with crime, especially in a foreign country.

 

Nigerians are a very hardworking people who have contributed immensely to industry and intellectualism all over the world.  Nigerians occupy important and enviable positions in all spheres of human endeavour.  Even those who engage in less attractive jobs contribute proudly to the economies of their nation as well as to those of host nations.  There are not just a few men and women who work as cleaners here in Britain in order to be able to sponsor their loved ones at colleges and universities back home.  They should continue to endure the harsh realities of being residents in a foreign country, even when Great Britain where we reside is arguably the fairest and most tolerant nation in the entire universe.   It is you the honest hardworking and law-abiding Nigerians  that  are the unacknowledged heroes and heroines of our society, whose sacrifices for posterity cannot be over-exaggerated.

 

Even as we celebrate Nigeria today, it would be dishonest on our part not to emphasise that there must be a change in the attitudes and orientations of our political elites in particular, if our nation is to realise its full potential.  Corruption and greed have greatly impeded progress in an otherwise not-too-poor African nation.  The growth of democracy has remained stunted, not least because of a history of rigged elections, while past military involvement in politics mostly served the purpose of corrupt Generals. It is iniquitous for a tiny but privileged minority to be obsessed with  dishonestly accumulating wealth for the comfort  of  their own  great, great grandchidren yet unborn while the majority of our peoples wallop in abject poverty.   The political elite must turn over a new leaf for their own sake and for  the sake of our nation  and the forthcoming elections in 2011 provide a great opportunity to convince those "Doubting Thomases" that the Nigerian nation has arrived to take its rightful place in the comity of great nations.  Nigerians and the friends of  Nigeria anxiously await   2011  to herald an era of peaceful, free and fair  elections in our polity , and they   expect that  henceforth  our democracy will serve  the needs of ordinary  people  Democcacy as a superior culture of political governance will be appreciated by our peoples when it is translated to mean affordable, quality education,, safety of life and property, free flowing water, uninterrupted supply of electricity, functioning hospitals, good roads ,shelter for all, among other things . It is only when every Nigerian is made to feel that life itself is worth living that we would have justified the very essence of our independence, the aspirations of our founding fathers and the will of Almighty God.

 

MAY GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

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Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
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http://www.toyinfalola.com/
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