CRY HAVOC (1) NIGERIA IS GOING

??????????CRY HAVOC (1) NIGERIA IS GOING

???????????BY: USMAN AMODU-SHUAIBU

?

???????“Maybe, when we hear the world crying out for peace, we may receive the inspiration to deal with these intractable problems and be able to really devote all our resources to the advancement of mankind by applying those eternal truths which will inevitably persist?long after we ourselves are?utterly forgotten”

-??????Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in a speech delivered to UN Assembly 7th October 1960

?

I cannot claim credit for the title of this piece. If anything, it is a vindication of the the intuitive genius of late Bola Ige for being very fond of using titles such as this in the regular column he wrote for The Nigerian Tribune in an effort to draw the attention of the civilised world to the carnage that was unleashed on Nigeria during the dark days of our military interregnum.

As I reflect on these sad times, two major events of the Bola Ige era resonate with me. The crumbling of the evil regime of Mobutu Sese seko of Zaire after the UNITA rebels led by Laurent Kabila overran him due to a multiplicity of factors some of which we are grappling with in Nigeria today.

?We elected an ailing and doddering President, so droll and senile, he’s decidedly out of his league cerebrally.?Because he is barely aware of himself for the most part, fiendish bravura pervades the placid air at Aso Rock as a sleight of presidential sorcery hold sway. These proxies know how to evade the legal consequences of their moral indiscretions by not only showing loyalty to the president to the detriment of the nation, but by performing it with exhibitionistic glee.

Add to the list; Banditry, kidnapping for ransom, Boko-Haram, religious bigotry, poverty, ethnic nationalism and mutual suspicion, nepotism, corruption and sleaze much to public indignation then you will understand why we are in this mess.

The other major event of that era was the recourse to voting through plebiscite by the Scots for own parliament during the reign of Tony Blair in Great Britain.

?

These two major events of that era albeit, evince mutually contradictory lessons for me as a student of history with robust interest in nonpartisan politics, the economy, human development and governance issues. You do not have to agree with my views. You may do your own research and draw your own conclusions.

As for the first lesson, pray our situation does not degenerate to that point where rebel groups and Bandits will overrun our country. While, for the second, I wish our governments will yield to a plebiscite so our federating units can can vote to take unmitigated charge of their own affairs if only to end this ′name calling′ and ‘blame game’.

?Now to the crux of the matter.?See where we find ourselves today because of a few bigoted, foul-mouthed, infantile and witless twerps who are hell-bent on forcing tribal hegemony, northern supremacy and centralist agenda down our throats. They are after all an integral part of the unexampled venality that the incumbent presidency symbolizes. One wonders if the real objectives of governance cannot be achieved without evoking defiantly boorish and provincial sentiments to outrage our sensibilities?and assault the basic decencies of civilised society?.

Those garrulous regime - apologists who continue to defend the????????????not-too-flattering northern supremacist cum exclusionist agenda that this government embodies should be reminded that the content of the so-called “Dual Mandate” has not been lost on some of the agitators who are calling on the government to deal with the ‘intractable problems’ inherent?in our union by applying ‘those eternal truths’ as one of our revered founding fathers Tafawa Balewa once put it if they wish for this union called Nigeria to remain together otherwise, it will disintegrate sooner than later.

Indeed, for the discerning mind, now is the time to heed the wise counsel of our highly charismatic former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. Our country is calling aloud for peace to use his immortal words once again. He knew what he was talking about in that memorable speech that was eloquently delivered with contemplative calmness by no less a personality and polemicist than the man with the golden voice to the UN Assembly as early as October 1960. Exactly a week after our independence.

Personally, I have always ruminated on the Nigerian condition. - How can a Country be so richly endowed yet so poor? to an extent more than half of its peoples and citizens are struggling with poverty and the basic things of life in a 21st century world? Being acutely aware of Marcus Garvey's admonition that a people who do not know where they are coming from may never know where they are headed, I had to look back at our history for answers.

For those who may be interested in our early Colonial history, you can listen to Ladi Thompson’s Audio Book; “The Devil’s Arithmetic”; (2014). Or read; "The People's Republic"; "Strategy and Tactics of the People's Republic"; Thoughts On The Nigerian Constitution" all by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Or read "People, Politics and Politicians ( 1949 - 1979)" by Chief Bola Ige. Or read The African Revolutionary - Auto Biography of Mallam Aminu Kano. You can also review the more contemporary anthologies of the best of the best of our retired military Generals and thinkers such as the works of General Alabi Isama (Rtd,) "The Nigeria Civil War - Tragedy of Victory" or "The Federal Republic of Nigeria Army - Siege of a Nation" by General M.C Ali ( Rtd.) or "My Dialogue With Nigeria" by General Ipoola Alani Akirinade (Rdt.) And more... They all made interesting reading for me.

The “Dual Mandate” was a strategy and policy document / blueprint crafted by the Leadership Council that supervised British Colonial Expeditions and Voyages around the world before the sun set on the Great British empire.

?The British Colonial Administration ensured it crafted separate Policy Agendas that constitutes the defining principles and visible webs of the relationships and personality of the nationalities in each colony they administered so that their fault lines could be adroitly manipulated and for as long as they could keep the colonies subjugated to the whims and whimsical caprices of the metropolitan government of Great Britain .

The policy document that was used at the founding of Nigeria was called “The Dual Mandate”. It was crafted by deep thinking, self-satisfied, old monied-men like Talban Goldin, Lord Chan dons, Louis Harcourt and others in the late 1870s and handed to Frederick Lord Lugard to implement at the point the British Colonial Government was taking over territories under the control of the Royal Niger Company.

The so-called “Dual Mandate” policy agenda which contains a section devoted to what it called the “Divide and Rule” policy – (a system that is prone to keep failing but never falling so long as the Master was behind pulling the string) was the tool-kit that British Colonial Government used to sustain its (mis)rule with impudence and invidious impunity over our beleaguered nation for close to a century.?

Of course, the policy like most colonial policies of that era took for granted that the master will always be present forever…? to know how to pull the strings from behind the curtains (but not) before the nationalist movements and agitations for self-government was destined to take hold.

To be fair to the inebriated Lord Lugard, he was only brought in at the final stage to supervise and implement the amalgamation treaties forged earlier by Talban Golden. He was not the architect of the Colonial Strategic tool-kit that is today at the root of this????????never-ending conundrum, threatening to tear our union apart.

But, to the effect that the he was Goldin's understudy when the Divide – and – Rule policy was crafted with expansionist mind-sets suited in their view for the heterogeneous nature of the ethnic nationalities in Niger – area (later Nigeria), a factor that almost derailed Lugard’s earlier colonial career exploits in India, and a mistake he was not willing to condone upon assumption of duty in Nigeria, one could hardly possibly completely exonerate the person of such an accomplice in our collective ruin from the challenges we face today… TO BE CONTINUED

???????????????????

?

????

?