As Nigeria gets set for another general election a couple of days from now, PhotoNews Magazine reviewed, an interview granted by the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), General John Gbor (rtd) who provides insight into the nation’s struggle towards greatness where hie also speaks passionately about making Nigeria prosperous again if elected president. 

Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2019 general elections John Gbor has hinted among other things his drive towards becoming Nigeria’s number one citizen. In a chart with this medium on the nation,s 55 independence anniversary, the Gen. Maintained that,Nigerians, have persistently lived together and remained united as one indivisible nation despite the British colonial contraption of the country. 

We have had a series of unpleasant developments, some of which threatened our peaceful coexistence and our political stability. The nation had experienced many successful and abortive military coups.

 Military intervention led to the emergence of many military leaders beginning from Major General J. T. U. Aguyi-Ironsi in January 1966 to General Abdusalaami Abubuakar who finally handed over to a democratically elected Government in 1999.

Undeniably, we have not fared well. The unity we have attained did not come easy. It came at the expense of many beautiful lives lost. Military intervention in the nation’s polity led to loss of many Nigerians including military personnel and civilians. 

A number of our national leaders from different parts of the country who really meant well for our dear country and dedicated themselves for our future wellbeing were killed. Our actions plunged the nation into a bitter Civil War which resulted to loss of lives and the destruction of property. 

Looking back, the several military coups, the killing of our leaders and other fellow citizens, the Civil War, the Niger Delta Unrest, the Maitatsine Uprising, and the current Boko Haram Terrorism in the North-East, were all unnecessary. Human actions, good or bad are the product of the mindset of the actors. Culture, defined as how members of any given society feel, think, and act is responsible for how members of a society feel, and think. In other words, human actions are principally determined by what they put on their minds and the mind, in turn is fed by the accumulated cultural traits of the given society.

The confusion which led Nigerians to the irrational thinking which in turn resulted to the despicable and unpleasant actions against some of our members is due to lack of knowledge and understanding of one another as a people of one nation bound under one destiny. 

The British put together peoples of different nationalities as members of one nation but for a period of over thirty years, did nothing to integrate the various ethnic groups. We did not really know ourselves as we remained ignorant of one another. 

Knowledge based on facts triggers understanding. In the absence of factual knowledge, humans tend to depend on myths to interpret alien cultures and behaviour. Myths about aliens are largely misleading and actions based on myths, rather than on facts, are generally deplorable. 

Where knowledge and understanding are lacking ignorance, which operates outside the realm of wisdom, takes control of the society and human actions, based on false assumptions are, for the most part, irrational. This means that both the leadership and followership of any given society that is bound in ignorance are liable to taking irrational actions.

The Nigerian people were ignorant of one another as from the outset the colonial administration did not provide the opportunity for them to properly integrate, know and understand themselves. 

The inability of Nigerians to know, understand and trust one another was due to the British colonial contrivance of a nation that was loosely put together without any deliberate effort at integrating the people. 

The administrative structure based on the Native Authority (NA) system and the arbitrarily created Provincial Units which operated without an all-Nigerian Constitution to bind the people together, did not allow for beneficial interaction of the various Nigerian ethnic nationalities.

By 1939 Nigeria was re-structured into three Groups of Provinces. These were the Western, the Eastern, and the Northern Groups of Provinces. While Nigerians were being administered and educated in their Native Authority and Provincial Units, there was no single Nigerian Constitution that governed the peoples of the Northern and the SouthernProtectorates which were amalgamated into one nation since 

since 1914. 

The first all-Nigerian Constitution, the Richard Constitution, introduced in 1946 only helped to deepen the previously existing Nigerians’

ignorance of one another’s culture and behaviour. Nigerians were not given any meaningful opportunity with one another, as no effort, whatsoever was made to allow for a beneficial integration Nigerians of the Northern and the Southern extractions between 1914 and 1945.

This gave room to mythologies which crystallized into the culture of ignorance, confusion, suspicion, and distrust. This has become Nigeria’s endemic cultural problem which hinders the successful take off of the country as a great nation of Africa. Unfortunately for Nigeria, but beneficial to the imperialists, for the British contrivance served their imperial interest so that they will, forever colonize Nigerians, send their stolen wealth to British and other European banks in compliance with the way the country was designed and wired. We were designed with a wrong worldview to toil and struggle fore European survival forever.

 The strong desire for Nigerian nationhood the educated  demonstrated through the emerging spirit of nationalism, immediately  threatened British imperial interest in Nigeria. Remembering the American Revolution against British imperial interest in their former American colony and the agitation that were going on in Jamaica, British colonial administration took steps to effectively checkmate the the growing spirit of Nigerian nationalism. The Nationalists, referred to as the central minded Nigerians, were considered as enemies of British imperial interest in Nigeria and Africa. 

Their actions were a threat to the British colonial officers who were at the centre of the British colonial office in Lagos. Something had to be done to terminate Nigeria’s spirit of nationalism which was inimical to British imperial interest.

Europeans in Nigeria were apprehensive of educated Nigerians on several issues. However, they were particularly irritated by their strong desire to dress, speak and eat like the English men. They Particularly detested their attitude of imitating and aspiring to be like “English Gentleman” Which was the highest social class in England. 

There were lower classes in the UK such as the cook, the farmer, the butcher, and others which the educated Nigerians shunned to imitate. Instead, they imitated the English Gentleman in his mode of dress, speech, and food type. The British administration in Nigeria became apprehensive of the educated Nigerian’s emerging nationalism. 

To choose to imitate the English Gentleman instead of the English cook or farmer was viewed as a tall ambition that must be terminated. The point here is that the attitudes of educated Nigerians were very disturbing to the British people resident in Nigeria, and therefore, what informed British  subsequent decisions on the structuring and administration of Nigeria was their concern to truncate Nigerian nationalism and the excess ambition of the educated Nigerians. To achieve this singular objective the British focused on how best strategies to handle, manipulate, and subdue Nigerian nationalism.

The British contraption of Nigeria was then designed, not only to truncate the educated Nigerians’ spirit of nationalism, patriotism, and commitment but also to keep them asunder in order to delay the processes of national unity and integration. Nigeria was thus to be created a nation without soul. 

From 1914 the year of the amalgamation of the North and the South, the British did not evolve, not even a single Constitution that would bring all Nigerians together in order to know, to understand, and to trust one another as citizens of one nation until in 1946, some 32 years after. Thirty-two years is a long enough period for the culture of ignorance to thrive and sufficiently crystallize for Nigerians to accept whatever foreigners tell them about themselves. The educational system was focused on the knowledge of Europe at the expense of that of Nigeria and Africa.

The first “all-Nigerian Constitution” known as the Richards Constitution was imposed on Nigerians in 1946. Sir Arthur Richards was known to have effectively subjugated nationalists in Jamaica. Looking around, the British found in him the most suitable Briton to be assigned the task to subjugate ‘the centrally minded Nigerians’ and to truncate Nigerian nationalism and along with it, national commitment and patriotism. Nigeria was thus designed as a nation that its citizens were completely devoid of patriotism and commitment to national values.

The British did not conceive this idea because they were bad people. They did so because they loved their country and they had to take decisions that were in the best interest of the future wellbeing of the British Imperial Power. Besides, what brought them to the shores of Africa was not to establish powerful African nations. What brought them here was to improve their eiconomic wellbeing and the future wellbeing of their citizens. It is left for Nigeria to recreate herself into a well integrated, politically stable, a well united and a prosperous nation. Nigeria, as it is, was designed and created for sharing and for the taking, and that is why Nigerians do no not consider corruption is as a big deal. The mistake our leaders made is the wrong assumption that we already have a nation ready to take off. This our ship cannot take off until we recreate ourselves and recondition our minds to recapture our stolen soul.

In the contraption of Nigeria, the very first all-Nigeria Constitution of 1946, Sir Arthur Richards schemed the 1939 “ Western, Eastern, and Northern Group of Provinces” into Regions. Nigerian nationalism of the 1920s, 1930s and the first half of the 1940s focused on the centrality and unity of Nigeria. This informed our nationalists to advocate for numerous states. Despite General Yakubu Gowon’s creation of the Twelve State Structure and the subsequent states created by other Nigerian leaders, Nigerians still perceive the former regions as God given. Little do they know that, those regions were given to us as a clog in our wheel of progress and also, to truncate our spirit of nationalism and national cohesiveness.

Richards’ idea of Regional Governments was to Nigerian nationalism and to encourage “regional” or “parochial” nationalism. The retardation of the nationalists’ effort at “National Nationalism” in favour of parochial nationalism was to give the British imperial power a breathing space in Lagos. The practice of parochial nationalism grew into the culture of parochial politics which led to lack of national commitment and the unabated corruption. Our nationalists advocated for the creation of states and looked forward to the establishment of a federal system of government.

Today, when some ignorant and fortune seekers are advocating for secession based on the British regional arrangements, they are actually conforming to the whims of Sir Arthur Richards’ colonial contraption which forced the regions on us. He boasted that he did so to truncate our nationalism in order to curb the activities of “centrally minded Nigerians” whose interest was to harass and eventually unseat the imperial power in Lagos. This constitution was resented by Nigerian nationalists. Chief Obafemi Awolowo referred to it as a “new contrivance”. Some groups spoke of boycotting Legislative Council elections as a protest against the constitution. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay launched a continued protest and demonstration against the constitution. In 1967 General Yakubu Gowon gave us States as a step towards the recreation of Nigeria but some mischievous and uninformed people seeking cheap popularity, in want of what to do, are still talking or revisiting the divisive and misleading language of Sir Arthur Richards.

The regional or parochial political thinking led us to the numerous military coups, counter coups, the civil war, the Niger Delta unrest, and many other unpleasant developments. All these have happened as a result of the removal of the spirit of nationalism and patriotism which in turn is responsible for lack of commitment to our dear nation. Lack of patriotism and national commitment are in turn responsible to the unprecedented high level of corruption which made Nigeria the most corrupt nation on earth. Nigeria’s corruption cuts across religious and ethnic boundaries. It defiles all professional ethics.

It also defiles all educational levels and standards. No one, no matter how highly or lowly placed is immune to corruption in the Nigerian society. 

This is largely in response to the type of nation the British contrived for Nigeria. We were designed as a loose nation for the acquisition of industrial raw materials and for the dumping of European industrial products. An early supporter of British imperialism in Africa in the 1890s urged his Government and said, “Think of the benefit that it would be to England in increasing markets for manufactured goods and receiving additional produce in return;…” 

Nigerian’s wealth and raw materials are, therefore, meant to be used in Europe by Europeans, for they are not meant to be processed and used here in country. 

This explains why Nigerians quickly rush to send Nigeria’s stolen funds to European Banks in overseas where Nigeria’s monetary resources were designed originally to be used. No Nigerian government has given it a serious thought to reverse this trend.

The issue of Nigeria’s corruption is pathetic. Nigerians are neither too highly nor too lowly placed to steal government monetary resources. Nigeria’s money is for the taking so that no one is neither too little nor too big to steal. People fight for National position in order to position themselves strategically to access the nation’s monetary resources to commandeer as much as they are able to see, for what you see is yours to take. To perfect in the corruption which has become a very lucrative business, Nigerians have deliberately distorted what the British put in place as a system or the standard way of operating government. This distortion has left us to be operating a system-less system in a supposedly, a decent Nigerian nation that has been rendered helpless to become a nation-less nation. Those who have distorted the system and made Nigeria a nation-less nation believe that what exists, perhaps as “a geographical expression” is only there to serve their personal interest. They cannot pause for a second to think of the numerous youths we have in all parts of the country, and neither do they ever think of the wellbeing of future generations of Nigerians.

To this category of Nigerians, who indeed are in the majority, Nigeria exists only as a nation where those of them who have access to the nation’s wealth through appointment are the chosen ones by God to help themselves as much as possible at the expense of the unfortunate and poor citizens without appointments.

Nigerians steal great amounts of the nation’s wealth without any feeling of guilt. This is understood because to them they are not doing anything wrong. They are only conforming exactly with what Nigeria was designed for (to share, to take, and to steal). This is the predicament of a nation without soul. The truncation of Nigerian nationalism by the Richards Constitution in 1946 made the center of Nigeria unattractive. People came from the Regions to the centre only to take whatever they could to their respective Regions. This culture of taking and sharing degenerated into the outright stealing for self gratification. Those involved in the misappropriation of the nation’s wealth feel that stealing government resources is not a big deal. Unfortunately, all of them are highly positioned men and women of the national society. Those who successfully steal from the common goods of the society are congratulated, hailed and worshipped as heroes.

The ultimate effect of the unabated stealing of the nation’s wealth is to make Nigeria a toddler. 

The ultimate effect of the unabated stealing of the nation’s wealth is to make Nigeria a toddler. We must do our best to put behind us this obnoxious culture of stealing and create for ourselves a New Nigeria that is not just a “geographical expression” or a “nation-less nation” operating a “system-less system”. We must create a Nigeria that, in the words of Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, an ardent Nigerian nationalist, a Nigeria that is “undivided and indivisible”. We must work towards the realization of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s dream when he said, “Nigeria is no longer a geographical expression but a historical fact...Our stand is that Nigeria is a nation in the emergence and that this political union which has been forged on the anvil of British rule is indissoluble and perpetual”. Sir Ahmadu Bello, the premier of the Northern Region in his address to the Northern House of Assembly said, “I wish to state categorically, my belief in the unity of this country, for there are more things that unite us than divide us”. We must adhere to our founding fathers to sustain the perpetuity of Nigeria.