Nigerians Unite Against Past Colonial Sabotage: We Can Neutralize Treacherous Character (part 2)
“United we Stand and Divided we Fall”
An age old axiomatic saying
As a continuation of Part One of this exercise, it is important and good that Nigerians, old and young, male and female, that they know exactly the nature of the injury inflicted on the Nigeria nation and its people. It is only of recent that the British are confessing their criminal acts in Nigeria. Harold Wilson is saying that he was now 80 years old therefore he does not want to go to his grave with the sin in his heart.
In his own words of Harold Smith said,
“Despite seeing vast land with no human but cattle in the north, we still gave the north 55 million instead of 32 million. This was to be used to maintain their majority votes and future power bid. The West without Lagos was the most populous in Nigeria at the time but we ignored that. We seriously encouraged the north to go the military. We believed that the south may attend western education, but future leaders will always come from military background. Their traditional rulers were made influential and super human. The northerners were given accelerated promotions both in the military and civil service to justify their superiority over south. Everything was to work against the south. We truncated their good plan for their future. ‘I was very sorry for the A.G.: It was a great party too much for African standard. We planned to destroy Awolowo and Azikiwe well, the west and the east’. And sowed the seed of discord among them. We tricked Azikiwe into accepting to be president having known that Balewa is the main man with power. Awolowo has to go to jail to cripple his genius plans for a greater Nigeria”
When he was asked as to what he now sees in the northern leaders, he said,
“If they have any agenda in Nigeria at all, sadly it is only for the north, and nothing for Nigeria. Nigeria, a great nation was not crippled nor because of military juntas or corrupt leaders alone, but by the British and American fear of Nigeria great future.”
Again, in his words,
“Instead of defusing the time bombs planted by the British, the north is planting more mines.” (See Mr. O. A. Olagbaiye, MBBS, FRCS; Nigeria ‘hidden Agenda – An Excerpt, Harold Wilson. 2013)
British modus operandi, in other words, the way they went about doing
what evils they did in Nigeria
The amalgamation of the South and the North had taken place in 1914. Between this time, 1914 and 1949, the British officers in the country have studied Nigeria and the people very well. They found and understood that Nigeria is the power-house of Africa; that Nigeria and Nigerians left alone with what Oghena, Osinegba (God) had allotted to them on this Earth and in this life, that the sky would be the limit in everything they desire to do on Earth. For this reason and with their extreme dislike and fear of Black Africans, and with racial prejudice against Nigeria and its people, the British developed unholy plans known only to the British. They knew those who were intellectually capable of controlling the affairs of Nigeria. However, in order to ensure that Britain’s “hidden agenda” on Nigeria was in operation for ever without fail, the British colonial officers in Nigeria started to implement their hidden plans. The plan had been through census enumeration with which they apportioned the greatest figures of 55 million as the population of the then north in a place where such number of persons was not available or in existence. The census counts were conducted in a staggered manner between 1950 and 1953, to further ensure division in the country through numbers. If Britain wanted Nigeria to remain one peaceful country, the census count should not have been staggered; the enumeration should have been carried out in all the then regions once and at the same time. It is how and where fraudulency in census count began in Nigeria, and the British taught the then north how to inflate the figure of their population whenever there is head count in Nigeria.
These head counts were carried out by the British under the supervision of John Macpherson who was the colonial Governor General of Nigeria at that time. According to the History of Population census in Nigeria, (Sherif, April 26, 2018), Lagos province conducted its census between 1950 and 1951; Northern Region, between May and July 1952, the West and Mid-west Region, between December 1952 and January 1953, and the Eastern Region conducted its census in May, June and August 1953. I am aware of this particular census exercise. I was in Standard 3, Elementary when this population count took place. There was controversy about the outcome, and it was at the end of counting that the news came out that the North was more populated than the entire South of Nigeria. It was from the census fraudulent figures that the political imbalance emerged in our federation that is now calling for a restructuring. It is from Britain’s 55 million for the then north instead of the actual 32 million in population that apportioned to the North 50% of parliamentary representation in our House of Representatives. This was the beginning of the weaker section of the country dominating and controlling in everything done in Nigeria. From the creation of states to Federal allocation of grants and other Federal resources that have always been based on the nonexistent population figures; this political imbalance is what has denied Nigeria the utilization of the overwhelming human intellectual capacity that the county possessed causing the developmental problems for Nigeria and Nigerians, in Nigeria.
But no one actually knew or was conscious of how and why the problem came about especially that the patriots and architects of our nation’s Independence, who knew what political freedom meant, were treacherously displaced upon Independence by colonizers. In the words of Harold Smith,
“We tricked Azikiwe in to accepting to be president having
known that Balewa will be the main man with power.”
The Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, “Zik of Africa,” the father of modern Nigerian nationalism, who knew all along what Independence meant for the Nigeria and Africa of his dream, and who fought tenaciously to ensure that Nigeria maintained the size and the population it eventually becomes was tricked by the British to become the first Governor General of Nigeria, the first Black man to hold such an Office in Black Africa, instead of Prime Minister with executive power. The Office of governor general in Nigeria was a representative of the Imperial Power, Britain, therefore has no executive power in practice. Chief Obafemi Awolowo the No 2 man after Azikiwe, and the first Premier of West and Midwestern Region of Nigeria was liquidated by the British treachery. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was jailed for treasonable felony, The Sadaunar of Sokoto, Sir Alhamadu Bello, the first Premier of the Northern Region who did not quite know what Independence meant, as a result, he was the preferred friend of the British people and government. The dead cannot be defamed, but we now know why he was so honoured with the title, “Member of the British Empire” which automatically grants one with that title as “Sir.” Consequent upon this friendship, Britain decided on the above hidden agenda with which they deny power to those who could have wisely used it in the interest of Nigeria and Africa. It is the misplaced political power in the hands of those who knew nothing about what political independence meant, that gave them, the British, the opportunity and room to continue to exploit Nigeria and its resources to this day
From the above stated recent confessions of the British colonial officers in Nigeria at that time,
it is clear as to how we got to where we are today. Our way out of the mess that the treacherous British placed on our path is very important. There is no more time to cry over spilled milk, (my wife, Emota would say.) Nigerians remain indigenous, cultural and traditional people. We can always be able to redeem ourselves. We have enough intellectuals who have refused to go into our kind of politics, politics of do or die; politics in which informed minds are defeated at the poll by uninformed and ignorant persons. The table needs and must be turned around, now.
The table needs to turn urgently beginning with the love of ourselves like no one has ever seen before. We need to love ourselves like the Chinese, the British and the Americans love themselves which is why long time ago, for example, when under the auspices of USAID or the World Bank, America gave us aid, they must attach technical assistance with which they would spend more than half of the total money to pay their citizens whom they call experts and technical assistants to implement the program. Nigeria ended up owing and pay America more than the money actually loaned. The British did the same thing; they did not care of the perennial damage to Nigeria and Nigerians as long as the Britons or Brits looted our wealth at Nigerians expense and pains. Now the Chinese have come. They offer to help us build our vital infrastructures, but they must bring all their people to execute the projects while millions of Nigerians do not have jobs or employment to have a decent life. These aberrations must change in the interest of Nigerians, and those Nigerians who in ignorance and unconscious minds agreed to the aberrations must vacate the political arena for Nigeria to grow holistically.
In conclusion of this treatise, and in the name of our Oghena, Osinegba, Olorun Olodumare, Chineke, Ubangidi God, the Supreme Architect of our World and who is in the heart of every man and woman, young and old; let me call on Nigerian intellectuals, past presidents, elders of this nation who were present when the deceitful British people were in control in this our country to not look away; that we must now not keep quiet when our country is crying for help. The traditionalists and the native diviners must not fold their arms when Nigeria needs us now than ever. The Witches and Wizards of our land, one must thank you first, for ensuring that the election of 2015 was peaceful, and that what you all did to ensure that Nigeria is still standing firm as ever is still needed at this time. But you can still not afford to watch when Nigerians are again asking for help to ensure that Nigeria remains a viable option for Africa. Most importantly, the Mothers and Fathers of this blessed nation, Nigeria, the Traditional Rulers who are the custodians of the cultures of our land before the Whiteman came, must wake up to their responsibilities.
May the good Spirit of our land and continent preserve us and keep us together stronger and more loyal to ourselves and loving in the New Year; and may our enemies fall before us, now and forever. Amen, Itse. Please watch out for P3 which contains our 10 point recommendations for Nigeria and Nigerians to live, exist and prosper as they should in the comity of nation and with peoples of the progressive world.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2019.
Omoh T. Ojior, Ph.D., FRC, is a Professor of Political Science/Executive Director/CEO Onima Institute for Development USA, Inc. [email protected]: 404-740-5597