What then are Nigeria’s body language and what are her words.
Nigeria’s words, especially from the government at the center, are that we are a Federal Republic of Nigeria with a Federal Government. From that pedestal, the Federal Government rightly advocates for unity amongst the multiple ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
Right from the cradle, the official word communication we get from the government is that we are one people and it does not matter where you come from.
As impressionable children, we believe those words and it works fine until we start formal education and that is when the words begin to conflict with the behavior.
At the Local Education District’s primary school, the first thing the officials and their paper work want to find out is not whether you know your ABCs or your 123s, no! They want to know where you come from. Are you an indigene or a settler?
If you are an indigene you have easier access to primary schools and your school fees are likely to be free, but if you are not an indigene of the state, your parents may have to consider enrolling you in a private school as you might be faced with several obstacles in your bid to enroll in a public school.
But then, some may still believe the words that where you come from does not matter as long as you are a citizen of Nigeria. In your formative years, you really want to believe that.
And then it is time for secondary school and your parents enroll you for the Common Entrance Examinations. You take it and wait for the results to come out and when they do you rush to your best friends house. ‘Guess what, I scored 98 in my exams’. What did you score’? He responds, ‘I scored 59′.
Then, it gets interesting. You cannot get admission into the Secondary School of your choice though you scored 98 points, however, your friend who scores 59 gets in.
‘Daddy, how could this have happened’ you asked your dad, who does his best to explain but ends up stammering, unable to find the words to explain the manufactured reality where 2 + 2 = sometimes 5 and sometimes 7 but never 4.
Your young mind tries to reconcile the reality you are faced with with what you have been told all your life up to that point.
Slowly but surely, the incongruence between Nigeria’s words and her body language begins to take its toll on your psyche.
Well, you end up going to a school that was not your first, second or even third choice.
And then you finish secondary school and apply for a place at any of the public universities through the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board’s University Matriculation Examination (UME) and it is the same old story.
Your cut off mark is specific to your state and not specific to your intelligence.
By this time, you are no longer surprised at Nigeria. Your cynicism is gradually reaching the point of no return. But then the best is yet to come.
After spending six years studying a four year course (ASUU strikes are more common than thunder strikes in Nigeria) you graduate, serve your country for the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corp and then try your luck with the civil service.
You go to your commissioner at the Federal Civil Service Commission’s Head Office in Abuja where you find out that your state has no more quotas.
At this point your understanding of Nigeria is complete. You know where you fit. You know the cards Nigeria has handed to you. From that point on when you hear the current set of leaders mouthing out the platitudes that ‘it does not matter where you come from in Nigeria’ you roll your eyes and mutter a barely audible puh-leeze!
You are now wise to the fact that their moral compass does not always point in the same direction.
This is the reality of Nigeria. I can say this because I am not angling for any political position. I am content with where God has put me. If anybody is foolhardy enough to investigate me for financial misappropriation I will open all my accounts to them.
Many others know that this is the truth, but because it is not politically expedient, they will never say it.
We keep on deceiving ourselves that Nigeria is a genuine Federation and that where you come from does not matter but we all know that is not true.
A friend of mine had a case with the police and he would go to his local police station only to be told they were waiting for Abuja.
That same scenario plays out itself in multiple government agencies be it the Corporate Affairs Commission, or the Nigerian Immigration Service.
Governors are deceived into believing they are some sort of Chief Security Officers of their state when they cannot even command the least police officer in their domain.
The central Government does not even trust the states with vehicle registration.
The Senate
Even the term states is a misnomer when applied to Nigerian states because how can you call an area a state when its financial dependence and literally its existence is tied to the central government?
A state that does not have the power to exploit minerals within its domain is no state. Nigeria’s states are little more than liaison offices of the Central government if truth be told.
States that do not have any ability to enforce their state laws beyond an appeal to a central police are no states. They are completely at the mercy of the center.
Go through our federal constitution and search out where a state governor is entitled to police protection. It will surprise you that there is no such provision in Nigeria’s constitution!
State governors merely enjoy the protection they do at the mercy and pleasure of the President.
If the President chooses, he can legally withhold police protection from a governor and no court of law can compel him to restore it. It’s his privilege and not the governor’s right.
Even a unitary system like the United Kingdom does not function in this manner. Local boroughs in the UK have more powers and authority than a Nigerian state not to talk of towns in the United States of America.
Yes, it might surprise you that every American town has its own police!
And it did not always use to be this way in Nigeria.
Most Nigerians do not have a sense of history and are surprised to learn that before the military struck in 1966, the regions enjoyed many of the freedoms that today’s states have not even began to dream of.
Yes!
The regions also had their own police. They were known as Native Authority police. It was not until the 1960s that these police formations were first regionalised and then nationalized.
But most surprising to modern day Nigerians is the fact that until the military coup of 1966, it was the regions that gave money to the Central government not vice versa!
As a matter of fact, each region kept 50% of its revenue and paid 25% to the Central government then paid the last 25% to a common account which was then shared amongst the three regions (four after the creation of the Midwest Region in August of 1963).
Our Founding Fathers knew what a truly Federal Government should look like and bequeathed that to us at independence. It is no mistake that Nigeria made her most visible economic progress during the years between 1957 when two of the regions attained self government and 1966 when the military struck and introduced a unitary system which they later Christened a Federal Government while leaving the unitary structures in place till today.
I am sure Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Owelle Nnamdi Azikiwe would be turning in their grave every time they hear this system of governance being called a Federal Government.
Alas, we prefer to keep pretending rather than look ourselves in the face and say the truth to each other.
We import food because our population exploded after the discovery of oil. Now that a world without oil is becoming more than a possibility, do we have the courage to ask ourselves what would happen to us?
The United States has reached a deal with Iran and it is only a matter of time before Iran would be allowed to sell its oil to the West without restrictions.
What does this mean for Nigeria? What does this mean for the Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC?
Reverend Thomas Malthus in his magnum opus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, warned of what would happen in a nation where population growth grew faster than her resources. Even worse is what could happen when those resources face a sudden loss of value rather than a gradual one.
But we keep pretending that all is well without considering that if the mould is not reshaped it will keep producing the same vessel no matter whose hand pours the fillers into the mould.
Yet we keep pretending.
How long will that last? Your guess is as good as mine.
Reno Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center. Formerly Special Assistant on New Media to President Jonathan of Nigeria, he is author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, and the new book Why Jesus Wept.
A friend of mine had a case with the police and he would go to his local police station only to be told they were waiting for Abuja.
That same scenario plays out itself in multiple government agencies be it the Corporate Affairs Commission, or the Nigerian Immigration Service.
Governors are deceived into believing they are some sort of Chief Security Officers of their state when they cannot even command the least police officer in their domain.
The central Government does not even trust the states with vehicle registration.
The Senate
Even the term states is a misnomer when applied to Nigerian states because how can you call an area a state when its financial dependence and literally its existence is tied to the central government?
A state that does not have the power to exploit minerals within its domain is no state. Nigeria’s states are little more than liaison offices of the Central government if truth be told.
States that do not have any ability to enforce their state laws beyond an appeal to a central police are no states. They are completely at the mercy of the center.
Go through our federal constitution and search out where a state governor is entitled to police protection. It will surprise you that there is no such provision in Nigeria’s constitution!
State governors merely enjoy the protection they do at the mercy and pleasure of the President.
If the President chooses, he can legally withhold police protection from a governor and no court of law can compel him to restore it. It’s his privilege and not the governor’s right.
Even a unitary system like the United Kingdom does not function in this manner. Local boroughs in the UK have more powers and authority than a Nigerian state not to talk of towns in the United States of America.
Yes, it might surprise you that every American town has its own police!
And it did not always use to be this way in Nigeria.
Most Nigerians do not have a sense of history and are surprised to learn that before the military struck in 1966, the regions enjoyed many of the freedoms that today’s states have not even began to dream of.
Yes!
The regions also had their own police. They were known as Native Authority police. It was not until the 1960s that these police formations were first regionalised and then nationalized.
But most surprising to modern day Nigerians is the fact that until the military coup of 1966, it was the regions that gave money to the Central government not vice versa!
As a matter of fact, each region kept 50% of its revenue and paid 25% to the Central government then paid the last 25% to a common account which was then shared amongst the three regions (four after the creation of the Midwest Region in August of 1963).
Our Founding Fathers knew what a truly Federal Government should look like and bequeathed that to us at independence. It is no mistake that Nigeria made her most visible economic progress during the years between 1957 when two of the regions attained self government and 1966 when the military struck and introduced a unitary system which they later Christened a Federal Government while leaving the unitary structures in place till today.
I am sure Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Owelle Nnamdi Azikiwe would be turning in their grave every time they hear this system of governance being called a Federal Government.
Alas, we prefer to keep pretending rather than look ourselves in the face and say the truth to each other.
We import food because our population exploded after the discovery of oil. Now that a world without oil is becoming more than a possibility, do we have the courage to ask ourselves what would happen to us?
The United States has reached a deal with Iran and it is only a matter of time before Iran would be allowed to sell its oil to the West without restrictions.
What does this mean for Nigeria? What does this mean for the Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC?
Reverend Thomas Malthus in his magnum opus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, warned of what would happen in a nation where population growth grew faster than her resources. Even worse is what could happen when those resources face a sudden loss of value rather than a gradual one.
But we keep pretending that all is well without considering that if the mould is not reshaped it will keep producing the same vessel no matter whose hand pours the fillers into the mould.
Yet we keep pretending.
How long will that last? Your guess is as good as mine.
Reno Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center. Formerly Special Assistant on New Media to President Jonathan of Nigeria, he is author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, and the new book Why Jesus Wept.
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