By Bola BOLAWOL
Thursday, Ist October, 2026, Nigeria celebrates its 66th anniversary. Is there anything at all to celebrate? I know opinion will be sharply divided on this score. There are those who will say there is nothing really to celebrate while others will say comme ci, comme ca! Neither good nor bad. There is still cause for cheers all the same, yet some will say. It can be better, but we should be careful not to throw the baby away with the bath water.
In other words, we should appreciate whatever progress has been made while pointing the way forward. Sixty-six years may be a long period in the life of a person but it is like the very first step taken, as the Chinese would say, in a journey of 1000 years. A better way to understand this is to note that there are countries/civilizations that have existed even before the birth of Jesus Christ!
Some of the oldest civilizations/countries in the world are said to be Iran, Egypt, Vietnam, Armenia, China, India, Georgia, Ethiopia, Greece, Japan, San Marino, France, Bulgaria, Nepal, Portugal, Mongolia, Thailand, Andorra, Switzerland, and Spain. Note that except for Egypt, no other African civilization/country is mentioned in the list, but we shall soon return to that.
Iran’s civilisation is traced to c.3200 BCE; Egypt, c. 3100 BCE; Vietnam, c. 2879 BCE; China, c. 2070 BCE; India, c. 2000 BCE; and so on and so forth. Does it then mean that there are no ancient civilizations in Africa that measure up to those mentioned above? How about our ancient empires and kingdoms – Mali empire, Songhai empire; Kush, Azom, and Zimbabwe, among others? A unique feature of the European, Asian and Arabic countries mentioned above is that colonialism and/or military conquest notwithstanding, they have stoutly maintained their distinct cultural identities.
Thank God for archeology: The Iho Eleru (formerly Iwo Eleru) rock shelter in Isarun near Akure, the Ondo state capital, has yielded the oldest known human fossil remains in West Africa, dating back approximately 13,000 years. What this indicates is that there has been human life in that area for a much longer period than is recorded for some of the so-called oldest countries or civilizations of the world. The various bronze heads of Ife and Benin, for instance, showed the superior technological development of our fore-fathers, at some point, compared to Europe and other parts of the world. How come, then, that none of our ancient cities and civilizations are mentioned in the league of Iran, China, Japan, etc.?
The simple reason could be that colonialism erased our pre-colonial history, achievements and identities. Any student of History at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife), who studied at the feet of Dr. Ishola Olomola (as he then was), whom some of us nicknamed “Tekrur” because of the way he produced the name, must have answered the question “Africa has no history: Discuss.”
To them, our history – and existence – started with the coming of the colonialists and their “discovery” of our existence! Thus, it was Mungo Park who “discovered” the River Niger, notwithstanding that he was led to the river by locals (natives) who had lived side-by-side the river for God-knows-when! On our part, we acquiesced in the erasure and have not only carried it forward but have also deepened it. Africans were not the only people subjected to colonial rule or slavery, but while others struggled to maintain their cultural identities, we were just too glad to abandon ours and swallow what the colonizers imposed on us hook-line-and-sinker.
For those who may not know, the Indians, like us in Nigeria, were also colonized by Britain; so also what is today called Pakistan and Bangladesh. Parts of China were at some point colonized by Japan; so also the Korean peninsula (known today as North Korea and South Korea). While those countries threw away the yoke of colonialism, maintained their cultural identities and retraced their history back to pre-colonial days, those of us in Africa have chosen to forgo our pre-colonial history and identities. Gone are our indigenous language, religion, mode of dressing, culture, ways of life, customs, traditions and beliefs. We are happy – in fact, the mark of civilization is when we ape the colonizers and distance ourselves from our roots.
But we should have asked ourselves: Why is it that foreign countries, including ex-colonies like us, teach their children in their own language while we abandon ours and learn instead in the foreign language imposed on us by our erstwhile colonial masters? Those of us who travel abroad for studies must first learn their own language. Is it true that the original idea behind the founding of the then University of Ife by the Obafemi Awolowo government of the Western Region was to conduct learning in the Yoruba language, hence the Motto: For Learning and Culture? But the military struck in 1966 and the rest, as they say, is history! Why have we abandoned our own religion and belief systems for those of foreigners who still keep theirs? Why do we despise everything that is ours but embrace what is theirs, even when it is clear to us that it is not working, and cannot work for us?
When we say Nigeria is 66 years old, it does not mean that the various nations and people making up Nigeria are 66 years old. The Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Bini, Jukun, Kanuri, etc are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. They have also created civilizations that, at their apogee, compared to, even surpassed, anyone mentioned above. When the Lugardian Experiment of 1914, as it is derisively called by those opposed to it, is abandoned, then the various ethnic nationalities making up Nigeria will be free to retrace their history back beyond 1914 to an era that compares favourably with those mentioned above. The contraption called Nigeria is, thus, a prison of sorts and an eraser of history. Nigeria may be 66 years old but the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Bini, Jukun, Igala, Ijaw, Idoma, and many others are certainly not. They are thousands of years older than Nigeria.
And therein lies a fundamental problem: When we say 66 years are but like the twinkle of an eye in the life of a nation, which nation are we referring to? Is it the various nationalities that make up Nigeria? Ahmadu Bello reportedly referred to Nigeria as the “mistake of 1914.” In his book, Path to Nigerian Freedom (1947), Obafemi Awolowo referred to the same Nigeria as “a mere geographical expression.” One Hundred and Twelve (112) years after the amalgamation, has Nigeria stopped being a mistake or a mere geographical expression? Even those who publicly profess their love for Nigeria, are they more than Nnamdi Azikiwe who prefer to live for Nigeria rather than die for it? “Why die for Nigeria when you can live for Nigeria”, Zik was quoted as saying!
In the Olympics, World cup, UEFA and European League competitions, big and small nations compete as sovereign nations. Countries not as big as my native Ondo state compete as nations. Then I wonder why a similar thing cannot happen here. Why shouldn’t the Yoruba have their own nation or country? Why shouldn’t the Igbo have their dream Biafra? Why shouldn’t any other nationality in today’s Nigeria that wants to break away do so and form their own country? Why must we continue to force strange bedfellows to cohabit with bad blood flowing endlessly in their veins?
In the United Kingdom as we speak, the three other components of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are itching to go their separate ways. Scotland has twice failed (in 1979 and 2014) to meet the threshold in the referendum for independence; still, its leaders are making another move. In Spain, Catalonia’s independence movement has not relented. In 2017, it caused a constitutional crisis that nearly forced Spain on its knees.
The Soviet Union behemoth broke into 15 independent countries in December 1991. That break has not prevented Russia, the largest rump of the erstwhile USSR, from retaining its status as a superpower-nation. Comrade-President Jozip Broz Tito’s much-beloved Yugoslavia fought a decade-long and bitter civil war (1991 – 2000) before splitting into six or seven independent countries. In contrast, Czechoslovakia’s “velvet divorce” led to the Czechs and Slovakians peacefully going their separate ways on January 1, 1993.
The “divorce” that separated Singapore and Malaysia was not as pleasant. Malaysia considered Singapore a drag on its economic and political development and expelled it from the federation on August 9, 1965; similar to what Major Gideon Orkar and his fellow coupists wanted to do to some states in the North of the country with their failed coup of April 22, 1990. Singaporean leaders wept after their expulsion. Many thought the end had come for the small, arid and resource-less island. But Singapore’s leaders, led by the iconic Lee Kuan Yew, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and, today, Singapore is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with its GPD surpassing even that of Malaysia. Singapore’s GDP is $659.57 billion while that of Malaysia is $516.4 billion
Let those advocating for the restructuring of Nigeria on the account that the North of this country which, today, is considered a drag on the country, will suffer, take note of this. I advocate for restructuring because I believe it can prove the elusive solution to Nigeria’s problem as it will compel everyone to buckle up and work, putting an end to the present system of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop. With both monkey and baboon rolling up their sleeves and sweating it out – as was the case with Malaysia and Singapore – what a win-win solution that will be!
The alternative to a peaceful resolution of the Nigerian quagmire could be another civil war – God forbid! The experience of the civil war of 1967 – 1970 is there to warn us. If that is not fresh enough, we have seen Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia/Eritrea and, of course, Kosovo. Many of the independent countries mentioned above are not half as big or richly-endowed as the nationalities fighting for their own independent status here in Nigeria – such as Biafra and Oodua.
Seperation has helped India and Pakistan to both become nuclear-power nations. The experience of other countries that parted ways in Europe also points to the fact that separation may not necessarily be a bad idea afterall. It can even prove the catalyst that we need for the rapid socio-economic development that has eluded us for 66 years.
While wishing Nigerians happy celebrations, let us also serve a note of warning that a stitch in time saves nine!
* Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director Editor-in-Chief of THE WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the SUNDAY TRIBUNE newspaper and TREASURES column in the NEW TELEGRAPH newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
BOLAWOLE can be reached on [email protected] 0803 251 0193
