The Nigerian Challenge & The Future of Minorities (I) – By Dr. Leonard K. Shilgba

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, Leonard K. Shilgba, PhD, NNP Columnists Monday, September 3rd, 2012

A Basil Chianson Annual Lecture at Benue States University, August 25, 2012

By Dr. Leonard K. Shilgba | Yola, Nigeria | Sept., 3, 2012 – I have been invited to this annual Lecture of the Basil Chianson Foundation to talk on the Nigerian Challenge and the Future of the Minorities. The members of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation have remained true to not only a friend but also to an ideal–Truth always wins, and truth shall ever attract and retain true and dependable friends and loyal fans. I would like to thank the facilitators of this year’s lecture, whose planning and organization skills have made it happen again. Thank you. To the family of our brother Basil, let me say Congratulations! When a deceased has passed away and yet his memory is held not for the wrong reasons, but for the right ones, their family members can be congratulated for being a part of the reason or reasons. I would like to acknowledge the presence of Professor Steve Ugbah. Sir, the fruit of your leadership is more important than the act itself. And may we all partake of that fruit irrespective of whatever differences partakers may have. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for your presence. I am here with my wife, Kemi and the children. And we are very happy to be here.

Today, we live in a society that celebrates money instead of morality, a society whose sense of right and wrong is warped. Our children are confused, seeing repeatedly as society honours the evidently crooked, blatantly corrupt, incorrigibly heartless, and self-confessed gangsters. But it is also people within such a society that can work to change the situation. Angels cannot come to bring about the desired change, man must. And when a man stands up to instigate such necessary change, he wears the face and personality of an angel in the sight of victims of that society’s deleterious values even though the beneficiaries of the corrupting set of values may perceive differently.

Good conscience is very hard to find in the vicinities of public leadership in Nigeria today. The president, governors, local government chairmen, commissioners, ministers of the federal republic, legislators, judges, advisers and assistants in government, Executives of government ministries, departments and agencies, ambassadors, the Nigerian security chiefs, CEOs of businesses, university administrators, and even religious and traditional leaders can hardly say, ” I have lived in all good conscience in the performance of my rightful duties.” And when society has lost its conscience, it has equally lost its humanity. Then injustice reigns, duplicity is celebrated as victory, and social order gets out of order. The representatives of victims of society fight back, bringing about a sense of physical insecurity, which before was heralded by moral insecurity. There are questions we must answer today. And it is my absolute hope that we arrive at answers that at least approximate the right answers, which shall guide us into the future as Nigerians and particularly, Minorities in Nigeria.

What is the Nigerian challenge? What indices determine Minority or Majority group status? Is population or popularity a conclusive index? Is the abundance of natural resources or the lack thereof a relevant factor? Could advancement in education, science or technology, evidenced by the improvement of the environment, automation of tools for work, and comfortable living, include a group of people in the Majority category? If a group of people has the preponderance of highly educated people, appropriately skilled and economically endowed, and yet its physical population is far less than that of another group of people whose elements are pathetically poorly educated or enlightened, and Ill-equipped with relevant skills, would it be ideologically and reasonably right to make a conclusion that the former group is a minority and the latter a majority? Is Minority status a choice or by fate? Is a majority status a natural endowment that cannot be reversed or set aside irrespective of the actions or inactions of its holders? What is the present estate of Nigeria’s Minorities? What is the future of those Minorities in Nigeria if nothing is done by their elements to alter the unwanted or undesired state? What should be the ideal state of those Minorites?

It is my honest hope that we shall find some answers to most of those questions, if not all of them, in today’s lecture.

The Nigerian challenge is to find the requisite will to bring about the state social order mentioned in the second chapter of the 1999 military-instigated constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. In the seventeenth section of the second chapter of the constitution, it is stated as follows: “The state social order is founded on the ideals of freedom, equality and justice.” Moreover, we find in section fourteen of the second chapter of the constitution the eloquent affirmation that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Put together, we can say that the Nigerian challenge is to build a nation where freedom, equality and justice lead, and the welfare and security of citizens follow. It is hypocrisy that prays for peace while mocking justice. It is disingenuous to create circumstances that promote social inequality and economic disharmony and yet claim to govern. What then is the essence of governance if there is absence of peace and economic prosperity in spite? Every man and woman in the corridors of political power must feel a sense of shame and discomfort should the condition of living of their people worsen interminably by degrees.

Seeing that Nigerians are overly religious, let me appeal to this passion. God shall never do for us the things he has already given us the ability to do. Where the will is lacking, we should find it for the necessary task. Deep thinking about the future may help produce the required will. Who was the wealthiest man in the days of Martin Luther King Jr.? Does that person still speak today? When we are gone from the earth, it is not our wealth that shall speak for us; it is the good we did with it. When our shift in the corridors of power is done, neither our titles nor positions of power shall be the enduring trophies, but the legacy of lives improved, the monument of minds we have helped enlighten, and the testimony of children, women, and men that we made genuinely proud of their citizenship shall be the true certification of fulfilment of our destiny.

When Waziri Ibrahim of Borno Emirate indicated interest to contest the 1979 presidential election, he referred to a pact signed between Ahmadu Bello and Kashim Ibrahim (incidentally, his father-in-law) that leadership of the North would be rotated between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Borno Empire. He then argued that it was the turn of a Borno prince to rule. Historical documents show that the geographical area called Nigeria today consisted of separate real estates that were managed by the British after the 1885 Berlin conference, where Africa was shared between colonial powers such as Britain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and France. The occupation of those “estates” was either by deceitful pacts of protection, which made them to be called Protectorates (e.g. the Niger Protectorate and Northern Protectorate), or by outright conquest (e.g. the Lagos Colony).

The name, Nigeria, which was suggested by Flora Shaw in her London Times article of January 8, 1897, was adopted and originally applied ONLY to the Northern Protectorate. Let me quote Ms Shaw: “The name Nigeria, applying to no other part of Africa, may without offence to any neighbours be accepted as co-extensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence, and may serve to differentiate them equally from the colonies of Lagos and the Niger Protectorate on the coast and from the French territories of the Upper Niger.” The Lagos colony and Niger Protectorate, all in the south, were not included in the territories to be called Nigeria! Ms Shaw’s proposal was for a shorter name for the “agglomeration of pagan and Mohamedan States.” Permit me to take you through some bit of history. Some of you may be familiar with this history. But it is one thing to know about something, and quite another to recognize their effect on you and your society. Nigerians need to know important facts about their country and how negatively those have impacted on the journey towards growth and development. Our children need to know about their country and how its history has contributed to its sad story today. If Nigerians will change their country, the majority of her opinion and executive leaders must act like they feel the burden to make a nation out of the strange creation. But what can push them to?

When the basis of any relationship is mundane materialism, such will not stand the test of time. When a lady, for instance, “falls in love” with a man only because he is wealthy, it is a matter of time before relationship tests cause severe strain on that relationship until it snaps. What does 865,000 British pounds at 1900 purchasing power value mean to you today? How would you value this amount over a century later? Suppose that your family was lent this amount of money by a bank more than a century ago on a premium, what do you think the cumulative interest would be today on the principal if it was compounded?

Sir George Tubman Goldie founded the United African Company (UAC) in 1879 to comprise British traders whose activities were along the River Niger, to protect them even as they faced aggressive competition from the French. The company signed many treaties with local chiefs and kings thereafter, and imposed their ownership of those territories. His vision was to add to the British Empire territories of the middle and lower Niger. In 1881 Sir Goldie requested British Prime Minister, Sir William Gladstone for a charter to secure protection from Royal forces, more so when the French operated at the lower Niger (By this time the UAC was renamed National African Company (NAC)). Sir Gladstone declined; but after the Berlin conference (1884-85) where Africa was partitioned among colonial powers, and the consequential acquisition of the lower Niger from French forces, the prime minister conceded, and so in July 1886 a charter was granted, thus changing the name from NAC to the Royal Niger Company, which equally changed the leadership of the company; the governor of the Royal Niger Company became Baron Henry Austin Bruce the same year while Sir George Goldie was his deputy. After the death of Bruce in 1895 Sir George Goldie (whose grave is in Lapai, Niger state) again assumed the leadership of the company. It was during his leadership of the Royal Niger Company that Frederick Lugard was sent to sign numerous treaties with chiefs in the Borgu area (presently, part of this area is in present Nigeria in north western area, and part of it is in Benin republic. The Anglo-French convention of 1898 resolved this partition of Borgu between the French and English powers). It was about a year before 1898 that Flora Shaw (the future wife of Lugard) wrote in the London Times what I have quoted to you.

In 1900 the Royal Niger Company SOLD all its territories to the British Empire for the sum of 865, 000 British pounds! Considering the inflation-related fact that 100 British pounds in 1900 had the purchasing power of about 9636 British pounds in 2011 (check on www.aboutinflation.com), we can conclude that the British Empire paid to the Royal Niger Company more than 83 billion British pounds in present pound value for more than half of present Nigeria. It was then that the Southern Protectorate was formed, which comprised the Lower Niger Protectorate that fell to the British after the Berlin conference, and all former Royal Niger Company territories very much below the Niger (The Lagos colony was joined in 1906, and the Igbo lands after that by threat of force by Governor, Sir Walter Egerton). The Northern Protectorate (formerly, Royal Niger Company Territories) was also formed in 1900, with Frederick as its first governor, who presided until 1906 when he resigned; he was brought back six years later in 1912 as governor of both Northern Protectorate and Southern Protectorate, and to coordinate the amalgamation of the two protectorates, which he successfully accomplished in 1914, and became the first Governor-General of the new Nigeria in 1914 until 1919. This narrative provides a brief historical appreciation to young Nigerians and to not so young, and hopefully, it shines the light on the battle ahead.

Was Great Britain going to just give up on its more than 83 billion pound-investment (with compounded interest) without significant returns? If the answer was No, as it was, what arrangements did Britain make to recoup her investments?

Barely eight years after purchasing large territories of present Nigeria at 865,000 British pounds in 1900 from the Royal Niger Company had it become necessary for the British Empire to start the process of recouping her investments. This, she did by commissioning the British colonial petroleum to explore for oil. Thirty years later Shell D’Arcy was given license to explore for oil in any part of Nigeria. About a year after the last Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir James Robertson took office, the company’s name was changed to Shell-BP Petroleum Nigeria Limited in 1956; this coincided with the company’s discovery of oil in commercial quantities at Oloibiri. The rest is now history as this company presently controls about 60 per cent of Nigeria’s daily crude oil production, and is at the forefront of opposition against the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), whose passage shall free this natural resource (crude oil) for the full benefit of host communities, who have suffered for so long because the British feel they are yet to reap fully their 865,000 pound-investment, which today is worth more than 83 billion British pounds and counting.

According to Wikipedia, “Southern Nigeria was a British protectorate in the coastal areas of modern-day Nigeria, formed in 1900 from union of the Niger Coast Protectorate with territories chartered by the Royal Niger Company below Lokoja on the Niger River. The Lagos colony was added in 1906, and the territory was officially renamed the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In 1914, Southern Nigeria was joined with Northern Nigeria Protectorate to form the single colony of Nigeria. The unification was done for economic reasons rather than political — Northern Nigeria Protectorate had a budget deficit; and the colonial administration sought to use the budget surpluses in Southern Nigeria to offset this deficit.”

To be continued wp_posts

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