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The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by tayade: 2:21pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Allen Christopher Bertram Bathurst, the 9th Earl of
Bathurst is a British peer whose other title is Lord
Apsley. He and I were colleagues at Harrow School,
the best private school in the United Kingdom, 30
years ago. In 1985 he said the following: ‘’Nigeria is
a toilet of a country where evil reigns’’.
I have never forgotten his insulting remarks. I found
it intriguing that this quintessential member of the
English upper class had the nerve to say such
things to me about my country.
My response to him was equally graphic and frank.
I told him that Nigeria was not a ‘’toilet of a country’’
but that if he insisted on his insolent
characterization then it was a ‘’toilet’’ that was
established by non-other than his British
forefathers who defecated in it and left a horrible
mess before departing from our shores. He found
my response most disconcerting and we almost
came to blows.
Yet I look at what has happened to us in the last 54
years of our existence as an independent nation and
what we have suffered in the last 100 years since
the 1914 amalgamation of the northern and
southern protectorates and I really do wonder.
If the truth must be told, things have not gone too
well for us. I was born in the same year as we
gained our independence and as I ponder and
reflect on the last 54 years all I see is violence,
bloodshed, dashed hopes, lost opportunities and
shattered dreams. I see a brutal civil war in which
two million people died.
I see a string of violent military coups and
repressive military dictatorships and I see
suspicion and division between the peoples of the
north and the south. I see dangerous tensions
between the numerous ethnic nationalities,
continuous strife and sectarian violence. I see
bombings, the slaughter of the innocents, Islamic
fundamentalist rebellions, battle-ready ethnic
militias and bloodthirsty local war lords.
I see economic degradation, decaying
infrastructures, environmental disasters and untold
suffering and hardship. And finally I see poverty and
unemployment, poor quality leadership and a
dysfunctional semi-failed state which is still
struggling to find its true identity.
On October 1st every year we make nostalgic and
inspirational speeches about the ‘’labors of our
heroes past’’ and congratulate one another on our
independence. Yet we refuse to sit back in deep
reflection, take stock of what has really been going
on and carry out an honest and candid appraisal of
our situation.
We are not ‘’a toilet of a country where evil reigns’’
but we must admit that we are in a mess. And the
question is why are we in such a mess, how did we
get there, why have we not been able to get out of it
in 52 years and what role did our former colonial
masters play in creating and sustaining that mess.
If we want to answer these questions we must go
back to the beginning. The problem is that the
British established a faulty foundation for Nigeria
right from the start which they knew could not
produce anything wholesome. The Nigeria that they
handed over to us in 1960 was nothing but an
unworkable artificial state and a “poisoned chalice”.
It was destined to fail right from the outset.
Worse still they handed us that poisoned chalice
with a malicious and mischievous intent and without
any recourse to our people in terms of any form of
a national referendum. The British did the same
thing in varying degrees when they left virtually
each and every one of their other ‘’third world’’
colonies. The most obvious cases however were
Nigeria, the Sudan, India and the nation that was
formerly known as Malaya.
Every single one of these four countries had
monumental problems with sustaining their unity
after independence and all of them, with the
exception of Nigeria, were compelled to break up
into smaller entities before they could bring out the
best in themselves as a people and fully exercise
their human potentials.
Consequently India broke up into three and became
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Sudan broke
into two and became Southern Sudan and the
Sudan and Malaya broke into two and became
Malaysia and Singapore. Nigeria is yet to find the
courage and fortitude to go that far and whether we
will eventually break up or not remains to be seen.
Yet the truth is that when you force two
incompatibles with completely different world views
together into an unhappy marriage, lock the gates of
the house, throw away the keys and bestow
leadership upon a “poor husband” to rule over a
‘’rich wife’’ in perpetuity, you are looking for trouble.
The result of the amalgamation was therefore
predictable. It was either that the “poor
husband” (the north) would fully subjugate and
eventually kill the “rich wife”(the south) or the “rich
wife” would fully subjugate and eventually kill the
“poor husband”. And we are right in the middle of
that struggle for mutual subjugation till today.
In 1960 the British ensured that power was handed
over to the most pliable region at the Federal level
by establishing an alliance with the northern
traditional institutions and political ruling elite and
fixing the census figures in their favor.
Consequently by 1960 we had a situation where the
well-educated, enlightened, progressive and
predominantly Christian south was played out
through intrigue, deceit and fixed census figures
and instead power was given to a fatalistic and
ultra-conservative Muslim north who were
prepared to do anything the British wanted them to
do, who had already overwhelmed and suppressed
their own ethnic and Christian minority groups and
whose major preoccupation was to dominate and
control the entire federation, to keep the south out
of power and to “dip the Koran in the Atlantic
ocean”. It did not stop there.
Even after the British left in 1960 they continued to
meddle in our affairs and they encouraged,
sponsored and supported a string of repressive
military regimes, all of which derived their power
from a northern-controlled army officers corps
whose retired generals are the ones that determine
who will be what in our country. That is our story.
Some have argued that despite the ignoble
intentions of the British we ought to have been able
to sort out our own problems 54 years after they left
us. This is a good point. It does however betray a
tinge of naivety and a lack of appreciation of just
how chronic those problems were right from the
start and just how malevolent a hand the British
dealt us.
I say this because the bitter truth is that the system
in Nigeria cannot be changed simply because the
forces that have controlled our country since 1960
are deeply conservative and the foundation and the
structure upon which she has been established has
been designed in such a way that makes radical
and fundamental change impossible.
Some have compared Nigeria to a badly wounded
leg which can only be healed through restructuring.
It follows that the only way real change can come is
if the country is restructured and power is devolved
from the center.
Unfortunately the Nigerian people do not seem to be
minded to effect this option anytime soon. They
seem to have lost their will to resist inequity,
tyranny and injustice, to insist on determining their
own fate and to fight for their own future.
The relevance of the British today is that they are
not only the architects of this monumental
monstrosity but they are also the ones that have
continued to encourage and support the ruling elite
that runs and sustains it.
If they were being fair to us they would have been
amongst those that have been encouraging the idea
of restructuring our country, devolving power from
the center and effecting a fundamental and radical
change in our attitudes and affairs.
That is precisely what they are doing in the United
Kingdom itself today where power is being
systematically and gradually devolved from the
center at Westminster in England to the hitherto
suppressed and occupied regions of Wales,
Northern Ireland and Scotland.
This is good enough for them yet our erstwhile
colonial masters have never supported a similar
course of action for us. It is for this reason that we
can blame the forefathers of the 9th Earl of Bathurst
almost as much as we can blame ourselves for the
mess that our country is in up until today. |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by Montaque(m): 2:38pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Thought provoking Article. I could feel Duncan Clarke speaking while I was reading. |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by ojmaroni247(m): 2:40pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Ok oh |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by tpiander: 4:15pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Home . |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by Bevista: 5:07pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
FFK has found a new job - writing. He is a cheap hypocrite and dysfunctional bigot. For 16 years, while his party ruled and plundered the country to reckless abandon, he did not see anything wrong with the unity of Nigeria. Infact, they kept saying that "The unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable". They even prevented it from even being discussed at the last conference. Now that he has lost out in political and financial relevance, he wants to fan the embers of disunity. His likes are the major problem of this country. *spits on his head* |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by tucky200(m): 5:09pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
No worry Nnamdi kanu go sign you |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by tayade: 5:29pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
,***big Lol.***
Truth be told. |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by oduastates: 5:42pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Why did he not tell Jonathan this story when he was busy looting the country to death . A food for thought for those who hang one Nigeria on their neck though . Nigeria is doomed the way things are right now . |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by DelGardo: 5:50pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Please stop infesting Nairaland with excrement from this dimwit. *pisses on thread* |
Re: The 9th Earl Of Bathurst And The Nigerian State By Femi Fani-kayode by basilo101: 6:25pm On Sep 15, 2015 |
Bevista:d write up advocated for devolution power frm d center to d region, dats exactly wat PDP wanted to achieve wit d last confab. Rememba FFK was in APC b4 joining PDP afta discovering dia northern and islamic agenda |
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