20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now - Politics - Nairaland
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| 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by santino09: 11:38pm On Sep 16, 2016 |
[1] In the 1951 elections, Aminu Kano's Northern Elements Progressives Union (Nepu) won the elections in the Northern Region but alas the British conspired to ensure that Nepu did not even win one seat. Terrified of the leftwing Aminu Kano, the British colonial authorities introduced election rigging into Nigeria. At the time, British tabloids like the Daily Mirror and Sun carried headlines like: "No to the Red Peril." Nigerians should have rose up en masse against this fraud [2] In 1962, the NPC/NCNC government took a decision to destroy the Action Group. To achieve this end, they jailed its leader Obafemi Awolowo, declared a state of emergency in the Western Region and imposed Ladoke Akintola on the region, introducing violence and the sit-tight syndrome into Nigerian politics [3] At the 1957 and 1958 London Constitutional Conferences, Nigeria's ethnic minorities wanted their own two regions. Joseph Tarka pleaded for the Middle Belt Region, while Harrold Dappa-Biriye and Eyo Ita pleaded for the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers Region. In 1963, when the Midwest Region was created out of the Western Region, these other two regions should have been created too [4] In 1964, the federal elections were terribly rigged. In the Northern Region, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) intimidated numerous candidates form other parties to stand down and also forcefully got a lot of candidates to convert to Islam [5] During the 1965 regional elections, the rigging perpetuated by Ladoke Akintola's Nigerian National Development Party was the worst ever in the history of Nigeria. Candidates who got no more than 10% of the total vote were declared winners [6] In January 1966, when certain young military officers decided to carry out a military coup, they sadly decided to give it an ethnic slant. Emmanuel Ifeajuna was Nnamdi Azikiwe's cousin and had his own agenda which he hid from the likes of Chukwuma Nzeogwu. Some of the northern military officers killed like Joseph Pam and Kur Mohammed, were actually just as anti-Sardauna as the coupists themselves [7] When it became clear that the January 66 coup had failed, Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Donatus Okafor should have freed Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa at Ifo near Abeokuta. had they let him go, he would almost certainly have been able to prevent the violence that followed. With Balewa dead, there was a dangerous power vacuum [8] After Major General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi had put down the Ifeajuna coup, he should have insisted that the senate president Nwafor Orizu swore in Zanna Bukar Dipcharima as prime minister. By assuming power himself, he created the impression that he was one of the coupists [9] Aguiyi Ironsi's Decree 34 of 1966 is the most destructive piece of legislation ever passed in the history of Nigeria. It made Nigeria what he called a "Unitary state" and made the regions no more than local government areas. This unbelievable law which negated everything agreed in 1957 and 1958 at the London Constitutional Conference, created so much ethnic distrust, that we are yet to recover from its effects [10] When the Supreme Military Council met in Aburi in Ghana in 1966, Lt Col's Gowon and Ojukwu should have insisted that a deal be signed. In Gowon's case, it was senior civil servants who rejected his deal, while Ojukwu refused to accept any amendments despite the likes of Phillip Effiong, Hilary Njoku and Alexander Madiebo telling him to do so as he got 70% of what he wanted [11] By May 1968, about 10,000 Igbo children were dying daily. The likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Michael Okpara, Francis Ibiam, Jaja Nwachukwu and the Biafran military leaders urged Ojukwu to accept Gowon's peace deal but he refused. Just imagine how many lives might have been saved as a result [12] At the end of the Civil War in 1970, major General Yakubu Gowon should have announced a return to the 1957/58 formula and stuck to the plan to return to civil rule in 1971 [13] In February 1976 when the Murtala Mohammed regime created 19 states, it should have inserted as part of that decree a clause making state creation only acceptable if the states could fund themselves [14] Likewise in August 1976, the then Obasanjo military administration introduced local government reforms, introducing them as the third tier of government. In a bid to bring government nearer to the people, local government elections held the following December but alas, all the military men in power saw this as an opportunity to get government money, so everyone ensured his village had a local government area, hence we have ended up with 774 local government areas today. At the time, the decree establishing local government areas should have laid down strict criteria such as being self-funding, population, having certain facilities, etc [15] A 49 member Constitution Drafting Committee was appointed in October 1975, produced a draft which was later debated and amended by a partially-elected Constituent Assembly. This body should have insisted on a return to the1957/58 formula [16] In 1978 the PRP, GNPP, NPP and UPN should have merged to create a united opposition rather than operate as fractured parties. Had say Obafemi Awolowo picked Aminu Kanu as his running mate and Ibrahim Waziri as his senate president, with maybe MCK Ajuluchukwu as speaker, they would most likely have won [17] In 1978, the NPN decided to go for the weakest of presidential candidates. There is no way Shehu Shagari would have made a better president than say Maitama Yusuf Sule or Joseph Tarka but alas, he got elected [18] In 1993, Nigerians should have continued their protests against the annulment of elections indefinitely until the military was forced to stand down [19] 1n 1999, Nigerians should have insisted on the prosecution of all past military rulers to draw a line under corruption. It was this failure to do this than resulted in the legitimisation of corruption and the notion that one can get away with stealing with such impunity [20] In 2009 when Boko Haram started its reign of terror, Nigerians turned a blind eye to it, hoping it would go away. Had we shown the kind of revulsion we show to say armed robbery where we publicly execute suspects, maybe they would have been scared out of existence. And we are still making more 2 Likes |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by odiereke(m): 11:41pm On Sep 16, 2016 |
Very good piece of writeup. 1 Like |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by dat9jaguy(m): 11:54pm On Sep 16, 2016 |
Good write up. You carefully avoided wailers and zombies wahala. 1 Like |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by benega: 11:57pm On Sep 16, 2016 |
G |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by STFUand4kMeHARD(m): 12:15am On Sep 17, 2016 |
(21) Voting in a certificateless dulllard. (22) Keeping quiet while watching that same dulllard gradually destroy the country 2 Likes |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by Samiceman: 12:32am On Sep 17, 2016 |
See what Buhari has done to my beloved country.  |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by Blue3k(m): 1:15am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Excellent write up. I would add a few mistakes. 21. taking land and mineral rights away from citezens. Then putting in exclusive rights in federal government. The on going effect was making people no longer have any direct royalty rights and occupiers of land instead of owners. This lack of property rights shows it self pollution and under utilization of resources because of government control because private parties don't utilize it. Then we can site Fulani cattle herder violence because of lack of enforcement of property rights. 22. Not liberalising economy. This would jump start our economy by letting free market take control. The richest countries usually rank highest. http://www.heritage.org/index/about http://www.heritage.org/index/book/chapter-2 http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking 23. Letting government run and control business instead of market. They failed at oil, electricity, Telecom, fertilizer, land and road management. Why don't we privatize it then let government focus on regulations and taxes. 24. True federalism/ fiscal federalism people talk about her. 25. No body resigns or gets fired. How does our grid fail, Oil refineries bearly operating, and roads in terrible conditions and nobody held accountable. 1 Like |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by Harrisee(m): 1:20am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Nice one. Our problems have always been the fact that our leaders made wrong choices. I believe, had Aguiyi Ironsi executed the coupists, it would have gone a long way in pacifying the country. I weep whenever I remember that man, he was a martyr; but I learnt an important lesson from his story. |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by Destined2win: 2:57am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Being lenient with corrupt leaders |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by adconline(m): 3:14am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Rewriting history. Nobody tried to destroy AC, but AC itself. Check AC crisis between Akintola and Awolowo. FG had to declare state of emergency in the SW. |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by HtwoOw: 4:57am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Instead of letting this sink in my people from the yeast are blaming a new administration Ojukwu should have taken that deal, the enmity today wouldn't exist That's the worst mistake ever made in the history of Nigeria |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by adconline(m): 5:36am On Sep 17, 2016 |
HtwoOw:What are you talking about? AG was embroiled in crisis that forced the FG to declare state of emergency, first time it was invoked in Naija politics. I keep telling people that Naija has never been a great country. It has always sacrificed and drawn human blood at every election!! |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by ITbomb(m): 7:53am On Sep 17, 2016 |
26. Stopping the government from handing off the petroleum sector. PDP removed subsidy from petroleum products as part of efforts to liberalised the petroleum sector, Nigerians sponsored by the opposition went protest and nearly crumble the country. Ironically, the same opposition came and remove it when it was already too late 27. Opposition Governors prevented saving money for future use. PDP government established the Sovereign Wealth Fund to save excess crude against any drop in oil prices, the opposition led by Rotimi Amaechi went to court and insisted on sharing the money. When Nigerians should have protested, they never did, the result was each side, government and opposition trying to outspend each other to win elections, thereafter the winner took it all and the loser was made to face EFCC |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by ITbomb(m): 7:56am On Sep 17, 2016 |
HtwoOw: Something had happened before there was a need for a deal. Igbos were killed without reprieve and unfortunately the deal did not address the right to live safely in any part of the country, so even if it were signed, there would still have been problems. For the op list, I disagree with no. 19, Nigeria democracy was still crawling and taking a venture like to prosecute retired soldiers would have been counterproductive. That was the more reason Obasanjo was brought in, to make sure none of that happened. And the more reason Obasanjo settled down to work in spite of the rot left by years of successive military looting. Not Buhari that came and met some working refineries, improved road networks, good telecoms, car manufacturers and still successfully ran the economy aground |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by attackgat: 8:58am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Harrisee: That is nonsense. There are many instances all over the world were it can take over a year to prosecute coup plotters. But Ironsi was killed within 6 months. Another thing about the coup was unlike most coups that happened in Nigeria, this one was againt a civilian regime. Someone like Nzeogwu had huge following in the Army, it would have been a tricky venture for Ironsi to have executed him. Even if Ironsi had executed the Coupist, it still wouldn't have pacified the North because they had already tagged the coup an 'Igbo coup'. If history has taught Nigerians anything, it is that the North are never happy when a Southerner becomes president and they start from day one to plot that persons removal |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by attackgat: 9:02am On Sep 17, 2016 |
HtwoOw: Really? No enemnity would have existed? After 50,000 Igbos, men, women and children were killed in cold blood? It's not about Ojukwu taking the deal but more about Gowon keeping the one he signed with Ojukwu in Ghana. |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by HtwoOw: 9:07am On Sep 17, 2016 |
ITbomb: What happened was ibos led a coup, killed hausas and Yorubas, installed ibo prime minister , meanwhile they tipped the ibo president to the coup , totalitarian military govt led by ibo, the coupists not reprimanded What did you expect? Ibos started everything, hausas was just following thier step |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by HtwoOw: 9:12am On Sep 17, 2016 |
attackgat: You conveniently forgot why they were killed? Ibo coup, first coup in Nigeria, Yoruba, Hausas killed, Hausa prime minister more like current Emir of Kano was killed back then despite the fact that Ibo was the president What did you expect |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by attackgat: 9:29am On Sep 17, 2016 |
HtwoOw: What you also conveniently forgot, or probably don't know is that Igbos have been on the slaughtering table long before that coup. Do you know how many Igbos were slaughtered in the Kano massacre of 1945? How many Igbo were killed in the Jos riots of 1953? How many people died in 'opration wetie' of 64 and 65? Igbos have long been persecuted long before the Nzeogwu coup. 1 Like |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by Nobody: 9:39am On Sep 17, 2016 |
Why didnt you include the massacra of Igbos in the North or it was not part of mistakes made between the time frame you listed? |
| Re: 20 Grave Errors Nigeria And Nigerians Have Made From The Colonial Era Until Now by babyfaceafrica: 9:48am On Sep 17, 2016 |
attackgat:wrong!!..the north are happy with obasanjo...he is popular among them |
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