100 YEARS OF DECIET, INEQUALITIES, INJUSTICE AND BAD - TopicsExpress

100 YEARS OF DECIET, INEQUALITIES, INJUSTICE AND BAD CONSCIENCE. In 1914, the British merged their two large protectorates of a wild collection of disparate Negro people, for strictly administrative purposes. The people were not consulted and in any case, their consent was not needed as they were largely a business concern to the British. As I have said elsewhere, the area making up present Nigeria were peopled by many Kingdoms and Empires who had varying systems of government dating back to hundreds of years, some even at least two thousand years before the British came. The Borno Empire for instance covered places and people who are currently in Borno State, Yobe State, Adamawa, and parts of Cameroun and Chad. The Benin Empire covered most parts of southern Nigeria, including parts of Kogi and Taraba, and extending to parts of present republics of Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The ancient Benin Kingdom already had a full parliamentary system of government as far back as 1400 AD, long before the British implemented parliamentary system in the 18th century. There were also the Oyo empire, the Hausa Kingdoms of Zaria, Kano and much later the Sokoto caliphate. The various communities of Ndigbo also had their own system of governance. My point above is that the various Nations making up Nigeria existed independently, with different systems, governments, cultures, beliefs and creed. For me, it was a disservice to lump all these entities together and proclaim them a Country, without their consent, without their inputs. Countries cannot be decreed into existence. People evolve into a Country organically. In our case, there was no chance to evolve, hence what we have on our hands currently! The problem of forceful amalgamation of people into a Country may be better appreciated with this vivid picture- forcefully amalgamate Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Holland and Spain under a unitary system of government and let us see what the outcome would be. Each time I think of this scenario, I can only see chaos, disintegration, fierce competition for scarce resources and laxity by the people and the component entities to create; all of which have sadly been the lot of Nigeria since 1960 when she got her independence from the colonialists. Nigeria is a classic example of the tower of Babel- everybody is speaking at the same time, nobody understands the other. When there is no understanding, how can there be synergy? When there is no synergy how can the ecosystem work? When the ecosystem does not work, how can there be growth? What happens when there is no growth? I live that question for you to answer? As a result of the inabilities of Nigerians to listen to themselves due to their diversities and the forced union, Nigeria seems to be on auto pilot, the people cannot agree on the way to go as emphasis is more on consuming than on production. HOW DID WE GET HERE? ...TO BE CONTINUED