HOW AND WHY COLONIAL IMPERIALISM EMPLOYED TRIBALISM, RELIGION AND SECTIONAL AGENDA TO DESTROY NIGERIA’S POSTERITY. Ordinarily,

HOW AND WHY COLONIAL IMPERIALISM EMPLOYED TRIBALISM, RELIGION AND SECTIONAL AGENDA TO DESTROY NIGERIA’S POSTERITY. Ordinarily,

HOW AND WHY COLONIAL IMPERIALISM EMPLOYED TRIBALISM, RELIGION AND SECTIONAL AGENDA TO DESTROY NIGERIA’S POSTERITY. Ordinarily, Nigeria at independence was seen as a virile nation with great human and natural resources capable of elevating her into the enviable class of world power coupled with its rich socio-cultural heritage that blends its diversity to suit the demands of foreign exploration of tourism, adaptation and acceptance. Regrettably, at over 60 years of independence, this expectation had not only been dashed but every inch appeared to be on an abysmal speed lane to the dungeon of politico-economic tsunami. To many, this situation may appear a happenstance but a meticulous recourse to our history affords the knowledge that Nigeria’s problems are by and large a colonial deposit ostensibly for the benefit of some which decidedly had turned out to be the bane of all including the initial beneficiaries. On the other hand, though colonialism affords civilization, it is laced with underlining interest of perpetual servitude and exploitation of economic interest for the utmost benefit of the colonial country. This aim is pursued diversely. For the French, the policies of assimilation and association was the deal while the British employed indirect and direct rule all aiming at making the colony the industrial field, market and raw materials site to feed the colonial country. Before industrialization picked after world war II, the interest of the Brits was centered on the exportation benefits of the coal, tin, cocoa, palm oil and kernel, groundnuts and other cash crops which they can always control even after independence. However, the emergence and dominance of crude oil as the number one energy source after the war with the mass production of petroleum engines coupled with the assurances given by Britain to the US to grant independence to colonies as a condition for the latter to join forces with them in fighting world war II heightened British interest to scheme on how to protect her future interest in the advent of oil prospecting in Nigeria which paid off in 1956. With the existing data they already had in Nigeria about the three major tribes of Igbo, Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba, they readily knew that the organization in the North where the Fulanies have subjugated the Hausas and other minorities and set-up the unipolar caliphate with the sultan at the peak will serve the purpose for future protection of their interest. The Igbo and Yoruba cannot be used for this purpose due to the fact that Igbos are democratically Republican in nature and do not subscribe to a sole administrator like the North as the umunna, umuada, ora obodo, ndi ichie and Eze mmuos have roles to play in community leadership and this cannot be manipulated by or through a single individual or group. The Yorubas though pay much obeisance to the Obas, cannot play this role too due to divergent ways of lives as seen the ijebus and others as well as the dying influence from the defunct Oyo Empire and the sultanate as conquered by the Fulanies. The choice of the Hausa/Fulani North was never to benefit them but ostensibly to use them as a decoy to exploit Nigeria and to do this, something of their interest must be employed to manipulate them with it. At this stage, the Fulanies have shed the idea of forceful propagation of Islamism at least in Nigeria owing to its makeup. The Brits would then sell the idea of resuscitation of Islamic propagation, power and protection in exchange for economic imperialism and dominance. The Igbos as noted earlier are Republican and do not see the Brits as superior humans but a people that are privileged and can be understudied and surpassed. This attribute ordinarily ought to be welcomed and praised by a teacher-colonialist which the British were not. Thus, Britain deduced that Ndigbo most likely will frustrate British interest and being that they had no separate agenda other than self improvement which is mostly showcased, would likely sensitize other Nigerians and Britain would be worse off for it hence Nigeria must be left in the hands of those that would protect their interest. But for this ‘negative’ vibes of Ndigbo as seen by Britain, they were the most qualified in everything to have taken over Nigeria in 1960. To undo Nigeria, the colonial authority deliberately inflated the 1952/1953 census figure of the North as later confessed by Harold Smith sometime around 2010; one of the colonialists that oversaw the census. This figure was used to determine revenue sharing formula, political representation and allocations etc all with the intent to make sure that there must be disunity which definitely would not afford Nigerians the unanimous introspective appraisal to determine the benefit or not of the post-independence relationship with Britain. This joker worked beyond expectation as it has eaten deep into the fabrics and facets of Nigerians diminishing our collective interest to tribalism and from there to nepotism and to immediate family members and cronies making the country a laughing stock among the comity of nations. Today, patriotism appears to be a stupid concept and the nation is seen as a cake to be devoured by the privilege few and ultimately protects the entrenched British interest. This British joker was embraced by Ahmadu Bello who saw it as an opportunity to further Islamic propagation and if need be with the use of force hence the guarantee of protection by Britain. This agenda he replicated in his lieutenants and was being used to destabilize the country immediately after independence as evident in the Western Region and the Tiv uprising of 1964. The coup of January 1966 was meant to stop this unwholesome agenda but Ironsi’s naive and unprepared assumption of power allowed the military wing of this Islamic agenda group to flourish and eventually flush out Ironsi from power, pushed Nigeria to the wrong lane where it hitherto waylays in. One recollects that up to the late 1990s, the North was seen as being privileged with free education, juicy appointments to the total exclusion of others in civil service, military, foreign parastatals and other areas of national interest. This, today appears to be dwindling and even where available is no longer treated as general booty of the North but an exclusive reservation of the privilege class. It is pertinent to point out here that one of the absurdities of this British-joker-North-agenda is education deprivation of the Northern masses who would have been better off had there been an egalitarian society meant for the benefit of all. Even the standard of education in the North (and also in other parts of Nigeria) was reduced drastically as it churned out half-baked certificate holders instead of competent professionals. A good example in this regard would be the comparison of the academic proficiency of the likes of Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, Aminu Kano, Zik, Awo Okpara, Akintola and a host of others with the graduates of today in Nigeria. I am particularly thrilled by the mastery of English registers the alluring diction with which the person mentioned above especially Balewa communicated. The truth is that Nigeria can never be islamized and even the Brits know this but also know that it will cause problems that will unstable the country presenting the room for continuous exploitation without query. Hence, the greatest problem of Nigeria lies in the inability to come together and agree on the path to tow and until that is done, Nigeria’s dreams will always turn out a mirage. Toonna writes from Onitsha.