When I see many Africans who seemingly want Africa to progress go on about how all Africa's woes were caused by the West, I wonder who they are working for and what their real motives are. It can not be to help Africans of course. Someone based in Europe or Africa taking swipes at Europeans, saying they caused all Africa's woes can not be serious as there is no evidence to support such an assertion.

There are bad Europeans as well as good Europeans just like Africans and most are good because if most were bad, they would have self destruct. It was an European nation, Denmark that laid the foundation of the Japanese military whose navy then went on to destroy the Russian fleet in 1904 being the first time a non European nation will defeat an European nation in battle. It sent shock waves across the world and opened the eyes of Asians to new possibilities. Japan has not stopped ever since and has surpassed most European nations in many respect. Cultures come into contact with each other, rub off each other and come out better. As far as the modern system of doing things is concerned, Europe is being copied by all. Europe copied from England who copied from Spain and improved on it, who copied from the Andalusians who copied from the Romans and Greek/Persians who copied from Egypt and etc etc ad infinitum.

When the British came to West Africa, they came as traders and traded with licenses issued by the existing nations back then as did the Germans, French and others, prior to that, West Africa was conceded to Portugal by the Catholic church and most of the Americas to Spain as a result of an arbitration by the Pope. When Portugal and Spain declined as empires and other European nations rose, the concession to Portugal was ignored and all of them entered the fray to compete for trade. It was not until the 1890s that Nigeria became a part of the British empire like India. It lasted until 1954 in Western Nigeria and it afforded us the opportunity to unite for the first time since the exit of Oduduwa many centuries ago. British colonialism/imperialism lasted for less than 70 years in Nigeria. Nigerians fought for the British empire during the first and second world war and I have late family members that went to those wars. The old system was abandoned and we adopted a parliamentary system like Britain, throwing up Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Prime Minister and chairman of the Action Group. It must be noted that whoever was thrown up would have achieved essentially thesame results. The ancient government structure was still there which was the Ogboni and their function was to brainstorm on how to move the nation forward. Without the Ogboni, a party like the Action Group could not have come into power easily as it was newly formed. The Action Group was Africa's equivalent of Singapore's People's Action Congress led by Lee Kuan Yew.

I now believe that if Chief Awolowo had alligned properly with and deferred to Britain and the US, seeing them as allies instead of inhibitors, the story of Western Nigeria, Nigeria and even Africa would have been different. Chief Awolowo once said he has reasons to believe Great Britain does not have the interest of Nigeria at heart because a colonial officer advised him to prioritise the acquisition of vocational skills by the masses above free and compulsory formal education of the masses. He was shocked, he argued that well educated and enlightened people are more easily administered than others. He said that the incidence confirmed his suspicions and made him to draw a definite line between himself and the British authourities. He however discounted the popular remark of the British PM, Harold Wilson, that Great Britain would be very lucky to have him, Chief Awolowo as Prime Minister of Great Britain. CIA files also credits Chief Awolowo with being an excellent debater. However, Chief Awolowo already drew his conclusion which probably determined the fate of Western Nigeria and Nigeria and maybe Africa. Instead of alligning with Great Britain, he alligned himself with Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah who was removed from power in the middle of the alliance.
It must be noted that in actual fact, technical know how and expertise and not nominal formal education are what builds a nation. You can all be masters degree holders, and not be able to produce basic things in your country. The old USSR experienced series of serious famines when education was top priority in the government's agenda and when most citizens had degrees. The USSR took education more seriously than the USA but the US economy was more efficient than that of the USSR. Many times, the USSR would make certain research breakthroughs but get stuck because there is a missing link which only an industry in the West has developed, they would then deploy capital through Swiss banks to place orders. So, everything is indeed a delicate balancing act. Both Chief Awolowo and the British colonial officer that advised him were right in their own way. The Western capitalists that later became welfarists saw the AG as communists, so the AG distanced themselves from them, leading to the Nigeria and Africa we have today.

However, it was the AG that should have warmed themselves into the hearts of the people who are on a superior pedestal than them, not go about berating them as saboteurs in a shouting match. Of all socialist states that were energetically founded, only Cuba maintains the status today, having no millionaires, but they are managing at a per capita income level that is around the global average. However, the Western state of Nigeria was not a socialist state in the USSR or Cuba sense of it, there were world class millionaires back then but there were also very capital intensive socialist interventions by the state especially in the education and health sector. It was a mixed economy.

Great Britain left an excellent system for Nigeria, unparalleled in the World. A federation of three states, each state, essentially a separate nation in its own right, maintaining a police force and embassies in foreign nations. The premier of each state was more important than most African Presidents and the economy of each state bigger than that of most African nations. The states were moving forward. To create a new state, the interested constituents will petition the House of Representatives through their representatives and a date will be set for a referendum, the result of which would be final. The Midwest was created in this manner without much fuss and if not for the 1966 coup d'etat, the North and the East would have been split in thesame manner as well. Farmers were financially buoyant enough to sponsor their children in European and US universities and there were Europeans and Americans in our universities as well, unlike today that our people are scattered all over the world as economic refugees. A teacher in London would be paid wages similar to a teacher in Ibadan or Ilesa in those days. The civil service was of good standard. There was a minimum wage law in the Western state in 1956. So the British created a good nation for the Yoruba and created an European Union like arrangement called Nigeria, so wherever we have found ourselves today is definitely not the doing of Europeans. This is my grouse with pan Africanists whose sing song is 'Europeans under developed Africa'.

I am an Ijesha man, that is the nation I belong to and we are members of a loose confederation of states, we used to call ourselves 'omo ile kaaro ojiire' and now we call ourselves Yoruba. As an Ijesha man, the British or any European nation have never been our enemies or detractors. Our opponents were the Oyo, the Benin, the Tapa, the Fulani and later Ibadan in recent memory. Those were the people we had to contend with, against whom we mobilized armies and etc. Never Britain or any European nation. The British entered Ijesha land to broker peace after a 16 year long civil war with Ibadan. It was the British that united the Yoruba under one umbrella after over a thousand years. So if people claim they want Africa to move forward but spend all the time abusing Europeans as if they could have done better or as if whatever they are so pissed off about were not done by their own ancestors, even worse things were done by their ancestors, one have to stop and wonder who those kind of people are working for and what exactly do they wish to achieve? No nation can do it alone and there is nothing you want to accuse past Europeans of that past Africans are not guilty of as well and if certain wrongs were committed and the offenders are now late, then you should let the matter rest. Discuss it if you want but don't blame present day Europeans for the inadequacies of past Europeans just as you should not do thesame for Africans. That is the only way to hit the ground running as per nation building.

What Britain left in Nigeria was an arrangement very similar to today's European Union, an arrangement acceptable to all. If we are now stuck with a strange constitution written by the military and so therefore can not move forward, that is entirely our fault and not the fault of Europeans.

Deleted

a massive dose of history u have there @ op.
like someone used to say:
'to be or not to be is up to me'. i hope i got that right.
africans, particularly nigerians, by inference, should look forward to milestone achievements in the arts,industry,science and economy rather than remaining in a mental state of a 'victim and the exploited'

at poster

plz my friend save your fingers tips

the sun must set for us and you and ijesha can carry on to play and talk in years to come

thank you very much

thank you from the bottom of our heart

bye byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Word.

From a fellow Ijesa. Nle Awe!

Beautiful and apt,please permit me to share this to other fellow Africans to read and maybe wake up,you will be fully acknowledged as the real author and this site will be referenced.

herringbone:
Beautiful and apt,please permit me to share this to other fellow Africans to read and maybe wake up,you will be fully acknowledged as the real author and this site will be referenced.

Go ahead. No need to ask permission to share an article on a site like this. I already shared one of your articles.