WE NEED NEW HEROES- 1

Nigeria is a sick nation and there is no denying that fact. Human beings get sick from time to time but there are those who were born with genetic defects which render them more susceptible to certain conditions. Nigeria was forged defective but this is not a quality unique to the largest black nation on the face of the earth; just about every nation was cast with bubbles within.

The separate groups which constitute Nigeria are formidable indeed; I do not believe those who structured the Northern and Southern protectorates thought that one side was destined to subdue the other like a parasitic twin. In the 1940s-50s, Nigerian leaders like their counterparts in other parts of Africa joined in the clamor for an end to colonial dominance in their respective nations. This Pan-African wave was partly initiated by elites who had experienced various degrees of western education as well as exposure to the prevailing ideologies of those times. The agitation was widespread and the colonialists must have realized that the game was up but most of these nations remained connected to the former masters.

Kwame Nkrumah led the charge in Ghana and ensured that the British gave up the Gold Coast earlier than advised. He was well travelled and bagged several degrees including one in theology; he also interacted with Marxists and revolutionaries which ensured that the intelligence agencies of the USA and the United Kingdom hovered around him. The truth is that the young nation which gained independence in 1957 was not equipped with the quality leadership and followership required to thrive. It appears whatever Nkrumah picked up along the way through his sojourns in America and Britain went out the window when tribalism pulled Ghana apart. The nation’s constitution was amended and Nkrumah’s party had sole rights to the presidency.

Emmanuel Ifeajuna, one of the main casts of the January 15 1966 coup in Nigeria was said to have escaped after the coup failed and was welcome into Nkrumah’s country. Nigeria’s military in the early 1960s was like a baby learning to crawl. The fast-tracking of indigenous officers through the ranks must have exposed them to a few radical views at the time during their training. Two teams led by Ifeajuna and Kaduna Nzeogwu took out four of the top ranked Northern officers, two top ranked Western officers, one Eastern officer, the Prime Minister who was from the North, the Western region premier and the minister of finance. The tone of the coupist was revolutionary and they probably had socialist themed programs lined up for Nigeria if they had succeeded or did they actually succeed?

Prime Minister Balewa had visited both Presidents Eisenhower and JF Kennedy prior to his assassination; he appeared to be on the same page with both men as well as with the Commonwealth on issues such to strengthening economic and political ties. On his trip to meet Kennedy in July 1961, the agenda from declassified documents contained discussions on Communist China getting a seat in the United Nations, Cuba, Angola, Congo and South Africa. They also discussed special bases to be set up by US agencies in Kano and Kaduna. There is no doubt that these two global powers had Balewa in their camp and he went about his Rhodesia mission with zest. Nigeria phased out British control over the military in 1963 and with Awolowo in jail for treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government aided by Nkrumah; the young men who had been literally handed the keys to the Brigades’ armories took apart the nation albeit with the aim of reassembling her. They were young and must have thought their mission was important enough to spill blood for.

A dangerous chess game was started that bloody morning and by February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah’s reign ended in Ghana when he had embarked on trips to communist North Vietnam and China. His primitive military with officers fast-tracked to oust the British like it was done in Nigeria took him out of the equation in a palace coup. This coup was apparently backed by the Americans just like eliminations were done few years before that in Congo (1961) and South Vietnam (1963). Many of us who stayed in the Independence Hall of the University of Ibadan may have never thought deeply about the nickname of our hostel when we lived there. That hall of residence was called Katanga republic and it was named after a secessionist region which contributed to the Congo crisis of the early 1960s and cost the life of the UN secretary general of that time.

Congo Kinshasa gained independence from Belgium in July 1960 and in about one month, the constituent groups of the new country reverted to their default settings and two regions with significant mineral assets declared secession leading to a rift between the President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and the 35yrs old Prime minister Patrice Lumumba evidenced by both men announcing his rival’s removal. The situation was also complicated by a mutiny in the army and the man appointed by Lumumba to arrest the situation turned around to apprehend the PM instead, Mobutu eventually handed Lumumba to the breakaway Katanga authorities and he was summarily executed in January 1961. What happened to all their education and Pan Africanism rhetoric? Lumumba called for the help of the UN and then the Soviet Union but he was let down. It seemed everything was all about Uranium, such as was used to build the bombs which were dumped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There was no way the US and her allies were going to let the Soviets get their hands on the prized raw material and Lumumba was the ‘small’ sacrifice to ensure that. Mobutu Sese Seko cannot be said to have practiced democracy in his Zaire but he met with the Queen, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan and Bush Snr. Ibrahim Babaginda also met with the Queen after toppling Major General Buhari.

Everything appears to have been a supremacy battle between capitalism and socialism hence the constant jostling for control over Africa and her resources. Africans looked upon their elite as their heroes but even these men (mainly men) seemed to be only whitewashed tombs embalmed within by tribalism and other like vices. Coups and counter coups became rife and trigger happy young men became readily available to do the bidding of external forces plunging their nations in most cases down really dark pits. The reprisals of July 1966 in Nigeria must have been so gory that I believe participants still alive from that time are ashamed to talk about it. The war came about a year after that and must have provided some justification and local anaesthesia for the heavy-handedness of those few weeks in 1966; after all is fair love in war. The face of the July 1966 coup became the supreme commander in July 1975 and embarked on an aggressive campaign to strengthen Africa; it was not unusual then to tackle the US on the small matters of Rhodesia, South Africa and Angola. I am certain some major players were not comfortable with Murtala Mohammed’s backing of a particular rebel group in Angola and Nigeria’s monetary and material largesse to Angola. A couple of planes and tons of meat later, the 38yrs old Murtala was assassinated in February 1976 with only of the assassins Buka Dimka alleging that it was all for the restoration to power of Yakubu Gowon who was more favorably disposed to the British.

Organized religion had not really played a role in determining the course of Nigerian affairs until probably sometime in the late 1970s (I may be flat wrong). The unfortunate affair of the Nigerian-Biafra civil war did not appear to have been fed by any religious feeder vessels although the Biafran propaganda machinery may have solicited for help based on certain religious ties. Nigeria had a ‘christian’ Supreme commander and was backed by the British but those who fought the war on the federal side did not assembly based on religious affiliation. It is important that all the angles of this ‘avoidable’ war be examined whenever it is discussed in this present age to allow for objectivity. The genetic makeup of this potentially great country was distorted during those dark days and the truth is that all parties had scores to settle even if we agree that a particular people were unjustly treated before, during and after the war. I do not think it will be wise for any aggrieved party to demand for one thing or the other from the others without the willingness to place any deal on the table. That may just be the only way to achieve true reconciliation and free the current and unborn generation of this recycled and stale animosity. Some nations who went through significant chaos and bloodshed have since moved up even if delicately in some cases.