MORE THAN A MYTH.

I have used a part of the text copied here before as a Facebook post but I want to use it again hoping that it'd drive home a message this time around.

The words copied are part of a press statement by Obafemi Awolowo at the Action Group headquarters in Lagos on the 28th of June 1961.

"African Unity is a necessity" is the title of this statement and the part which strikes me the most is that about Africa not affording to behave like the mythical phoenix believing that she can burn and destroy herself before resurrecting from the fire.

Can we replace Africa with Nigeria in this context? There are those (especially 'educated' folks) who are passively or actively wishing that Nigeria burns and disintegrates either to prove a supremacist point or just out of suffering from a bandwagon syndrome. If we ask certain individuals why they detest the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; I'm not certain we'd be able to squeeze out concrete and legitimate reasons from them; they just hate the man mainly because of what they've been reading on social media or due to some autosomal dominant disdain they inherited from their forbears.

I am not one to lump up entire groups of people and stereotype them as all having a common flaw. However, it is my opinion that majority of those who are vehemently opposed to the incumbent administration headed by Mr president have tribe and/ or religion in common and this is significant. There are also those who are opposed simply because of political affiliation or other preexisting sentiments.

John Kerry who currently is the third in line to the American presidency in case of emergency reasons was recently in Nigeria. He met with the president and the 19 Northern governors as well as stopping by in Sokoto to see the Sultan. It is amazing how some people have translated this visit by the American foreign secretary as proof of President Buhari’s 'Islamization agenda'; whatever that means. USA and spreading Islam? Femi Fani-Kayode has recently become the spiritual overseer of many 'Christians' in Nigeria and his recent conspiracy theories should be copied by Nollywood to expand their production capabilities. How anyone pays attention to the high and risen state of FFK is still a mystery I'm trying to solve.

Is it that Nigerians don't have a clue about what Nigeria was or potential is? Do they not know that our exploited resources have in the past been used to develop entire nations? Our artworks still adorn many museums in the United kingdom till today and our blood irrigated Congo Kinshasha, Burma, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Angola got planes, funds and frozen meat from us in the 1970s and apartheid didn't rest from our trouble making.

Gowon paid the salaries of civil servants in another country at one time but by the early 1980s we were caught up in a worsening economic situation alongside other Sub-Saharan nations. The situation must have been so pressing enough for the acting secretary general of the Organization of African Unity to write to the president of the world bank on December 11th, 1984. Dr. Peter Onu conveyed the resolution of the member nations of the OAU to accept the world bank's plan to establish a "special fund for Africa" which was to be financed by certain 'friendly' donor nations. Onu requested for progress report on the establishment of that fund highlighting the economic downturn that confronted the African nations; that sounded desperate to me considering that the OAU had developed a "Lagos Plan of Action" in April 1980 characterized by the creation of an African economic community [like the ECOWAS] liberated from negative trade relations on the global stage; food sufficiency, trade cooperation on the continent and development of transport systems, communication and industry. They said we were not ready and it appears we are still not ready largely because saboteurs have thrived for far too long but I may be wrong. I do not know exactly how the economic crisis of the early 1980s relates to the mismanaged Nigeria of that era but I think there is a chance Nigeria's stability affects the entire continent with respect to economic viability and in modern times, security.

Awo advised us in 1960 to establish large scale ranches in Northern Nigeria and close the educational gap between the North and the South but it appears these counsel still continues to fall on deaf ears. I feel some people are perfectly alright if this status quo remains. When there are calls for livestock grazing areas; the only thing which some people understand is that their land will be seized from them. Land is a resource which ought to be seen as something that'll yield increase whether it's seed sown in it or animals reared upon. Our land area is massive, should we not consider making room for agriculture to thrive upon across the nation? It's not every space that we'll be able to build houses upon; I believe we should trust the government(s) to make appropriate and judicious use of these lands. It's important to note that the main sponsors of bills regarding livestock grazing are actually PDP members.

Agriculture is far more than farming tubers and grains; it is also so more white Fulanis and Red Bororos. Some nations thrive and earn foreign exchange via agriculture and exporting agriculture products as well as indigenously developed technology. Small industries cannot thrive without agriculture; Governor Willy Obiano during a visit to Interfact breweries in Onitsha a few weeks ago announced a 2017 target for the provision of an important raw material from Anambra farms which the operators of the plant had always sourced from South Africa. I'm sure those who heard were unhappy and some Nigerians would have been empowered to sabotage the governor's plans just like other Nigerians do in just about every sector.

If Nigeria succeeds, we all succeed. It is high time certain Nigerians looked at themselves in the mirror to see their self inflicted mutilated faces. Nigeria won't burn and it matter how many times they confess or pray it. Nigeria is a more than a Phoenix; we are not a myth but the real deal. We have weathered every storm and this present incapacitating wave of ethnoreligious and political intolerance is one we can and will ride like we've always done. However, we will rise this time and be that global force with people John F. Kennedy said were her greatest asset.

Let's start being Nigerians again; let's start being human again.

References

Voice of Reason : Selected speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Fagbamigbe publishers Akure. 1981.

Diplomatic soldiering. Joseph N. Garba.