In the beginning, there was no Nigeria. There were Ijaws, Igbos, Urhobos, Itsekiris, Yorubas, Hausas, Fulanis, Nupes, Kanuris, Ogonis, Gwaris, Katafs, Jukars, Edos, Ibibios, Efiks, Idomas, Tivs, Junkuns, Biroms, Agnas, Ogojas and so on. There were Kingdoms like, Oyo, Calabar, Brass, Itsekiri, Benin, Tiv, Borno, Sokoto Caliphate, Bonny, Opobo, etc. Prior to the British conquest of the different nations making up the present day Nigeria, these Nations were independent nation states - and communities independent of each other and of Britain Contrary to the assertions of some scholars with mischievous motives and intentions, the Federal Structures of Nigeria did not operate from the top to the bottom, but from the bottom to the top. In other words, it was not a question of a country that was originally unitary, being broken into federating units, but of formerly totally independent Kingdoms, Empires, Nations and Autonomous Communities being forcefully brought together, and ending up in a Federal Union. With due respect, Fatayi-Williams, then a Judge of the Supreme Court, was wrong when he stated at a conference in 1976 that unlike most of the older federations, what we did in Nigeria was like unscrambling scrambled eggs. We started as a Unitary State and then opted as a Confederation afterwards. Fatayi-Williams fundamental error was the assumption that the Nations consisting Nigeria did not exist until the British came and conquered them. This gross fallacy forms the grundnorm of the Bala Usman thesis of public deceit. In the second place, it is also clear that it is the coming together of these Autonomous Communities that gave rise to a Federal Government. In other words, the Federal Government is an agency of the Nigerian Nationalities which make up the various States. The subsequent creation of States by Federal Military Governments must be discounted as part of the distortions and mutilations of the true political order, brought about by unlawful military usurpation of power. Nigeria is, therefore, a Federation of former Kingdoms, Empires, States, Nations and Autonomous Communities. It is an irony that in the enlightened age of late 20th and early 21st centuries, when the right of self-determination and freedom from colonialism has been proclaimed and established, Bala Usman and his gang of predatory intellectuals hungry for the oil of the Niger Delta, are advocating the everlasting legitimacy of British colonial legacy for Nigerian Communities. The diabolical objective is obvious: (i) establish that Nigerian Communities have no identity outside the British colonial legacy (ii) show that the Nigerian Federal State is the successor of the British colonial master (iii) it follows that the Federal State is now the colonial master of Nigerian Nationalities and Communities (iv) since the Federal State was handed over to the Hausa-Fulani, it further follows that the Hausa-Fulani are the current colonial masters of the Nations of Nigeria, and therefore, like any other slave master, the owner of the resources of his slaves. For slaves insert Southern Nigeria, with special emphasis on the Niger Delta. -Professor Sagay (SAN), former Head of Law Department of University of Benin.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 09:52:52 +0000
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