Nigeria.
The past, the present and the future.
Today we celebrate 59 years of existence and coexistence as a country, but that could not be said of us as a people of different background, culture, religion and ideology.
The beginning; it all started from the colonial invasion and forceful hijacking of our lands and enslavery of our people. Colonialism; that was the term they use, to steal, siphon, exploit us, manipulate and jilt us. It was the biggest fraud you could ever think of (now you know where yahoo, yahoo started from). The fresh proceeds of our agricultural produce; cocoa, cotton, Rubber et ce te ra. Did I forget to tell you that, they took our human power as slaves to build their country, exploited us of natural resources for the industrial age in Europe?
In 1914, the begining gangan.
one chapter that has remained till today controversial and very elusive to candid clarification is the amalgamation of 1914.
The ill-conceived connubial resolution that brought Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria together in 1914 is up till today being debated to be the basis of the problems we are facing as a Nation.
The union which ought to serve as a unifying factor turned out to create an endless animosity between the two protectorates because none of them was prepared for it. Of course, we were not ready for it,we had differences and the almighty presumed white men knew we were not compatible.
It was a union marshaled and carried out without any form of consultation between the South and the North.
The Governor-General Frederick Lugard who took office in 1914 was responsible for overseeing the unification.
Biafra agitation for secession may be right considering all this factors. However, the secession may not be possible if another tribe mostly the Yoruba's are not ready to agitate for same.
If you ask me, amalgamation is the genesis of our problem.
Before you argue with your keyboard on the last paragraph, you probably will agree with me that Nigeria has many problems. These problems are but not limited to: Corruption,
Crime, terrorism (specifically Boko Haram), insurgency, unemployment,
education,university systems,the environment, infrastructure, gender, road accident and the economy.
Very correct, and the same, don't forget that everything is embedded in the Constitution.
That thing we call Constitution is a big scam. The people who made it were selfish enough to know that the constitution will only favor those in power and their allies.
Then boom, as if after independence, and having our independence.
We expected everything to go smooth, little did we know it was white colonialism to black tyranny. We moved from European oppression to the oppression of a fellow Nigerian politicians and military dictators.
Oil discovery in Oloibiri, was expected to be a blessing, legit scam, we are still importing petrol,gas,kerosine and other petroleum product.
Crude oil is a blessing to United Arab Emirate(UAE), Libya, Qatar etc. Well you should be the judge to know if our oil is a _blessing or a curse_.
Before I drop my pen,
let me add this, the psychological part of our problem is our *mentality*.
Our society reserves so much respect for money irrespective of how it is acquired which has made a good number of our traditional rulers to throw caution to the wind as they confer high-profile chieftaincy titles on their ‘children’ who have brought home some of the stolen goodies.
Religious leaders display wealth that cannot be legitimately justified.
We live in a country where we pray for church members who have cancer and need money for chemotherapy while we contribute money for pastors to buy jeep.
Who taught us this type of religion?
We accepted religion even more than the missionaries. Well, I don't want to diverge into the religious aspect so I won't be biased because I will counter many.
I keep my swords till another day.
Our culture places premium on the material at the expense of integrity; hence the mediocrity of our leadership. The psychology of our corruption is rooted in poverty that transcends the material definition.
In conclusion, Americans say "God bless America" but naija we say all sort of curses to our country.
Don't forget if it's good, it's our country, if it's bad, it's our country.
We can't run away from home, be reminded of xenophobic attack in South Africa, the Trump backlashes of Africans; Nigerians precisely and countries making difficult our visa application.
All the above should ring a bell to us that, no place, absolutely no place like home.
```Happy independence day
Nigeria.```
*Martins Adedeji*
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