Nigeria as a commercial interest by Blessing Maduagwu

When the Northern and Southern Protectorates were brought together in what the British called ''Amalgamation'' in 1914, most people did not know that the intention was certainly not for Nigerians to embrace themselves and share their common beliefs and practices. It was purely for economic consideration because the North depended entirely on subventions from the British government which became a huge burden to sustain. As Britain found it increasingly difficult to continue to maintain the north, they decided to amalgamate these protectorates in order to continue to subsidize the north with resources from the south. Railways were constructed to enhance the flow of British goods from the south to the North and not necessarily for Nigerians to travel, meet, hug and exchange pleasantries. All roads and railways led to the sea where goods were first unloaded and then transported to the north. Therefore, the Amalgamation of Nigeria was simply an establishment of a commercial Interest that united territories without its people.

The name Nigeria was coined by Flora Shaw when she published her article in London Times in 1897. In her article, she used the name Nigeria to describe us as ''agglomeration of pagan and Mahamedan States" that was functioning under the official title, "Royal Niger Company Territories". She was obviously looking for a shorter term to make it easier for British politicians and Merchants to understand the particular area she was referring to. Even during the 1884-1885 Berlin West African conference, the four British West African territories which are known today as Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Gambia were chosen because they provided a good environment for trade and commerce. In 1905, Mrs. Flora Shaw published her book titled ''A Tropical Dependency'' where she explained the state of modern Nigeria. What is obvious from this short historical analysis is that no Nigerian was either part of the Berlin West African ''commercial'' conference or part of a team that suggested the name Nigeria. It was borne out of a simple reference to a region by a woman whose romance with Fredrick Lugard gave birth to this union called Nigeria. If this name was probably suggested by Mr. Oladipo from Ogun State, by now, we'd have been fighting one another simply to change it. It was therefore the British that created this environment of blood, where internal racism and killing of one another are both carried out with brazen audacity.

So, we are a commercial Interest because that's our root and the basis for our formation. From 1914 till date, this commercial Interest has been a battle ground for different ethnic nationalities that never knew one another and still do not care to know one another. The reason is because these were already existing nations that the British destroyed and rather than build on the existing platforms and allow these nations to run on their own terms, they created warrant chiefs where there were no chiefs in order to collect taxes. These warrant chiefs were not created to settle disputes between one another because pre-colonial Igboland for instance, neither had kings nor Queens. They were a product of British commercial interest in South Eastern Nigeria. Therefore, to simply amalgamate territories in order to govern them more easily and achieve commercial benefits was a wrong political calculus. The most annoying part of this charade is that modern Nigerian scholars are yet to believe that this amalgamation was never in our own interest. If it was in our own interest, there would not be conflicts and terrorist activities at the scale we have it today, not even a civil war that exposed the innermost depth of our differences. Even those that agree with me that this Amalgamation is a failure are constrained to speak out for fear of losing their jobs or going to prison. They rather keep quiet even when it dawns on them that lives are terribly at risk by uncontrolled activities of home grown terrorists in our neighborhoods.

It is absolutely difficult to fathom why our political office holders believe in one Nigeria and still loot the country. The only reason why endemic corruption persists in Nigeria is because we live in a commercial interest instead of a country. No believer in Nigeria loots his country's national treasury at the expense of the coming generation who would have nothing in their coffers to live on, let alone a country to live in. The recent removal of oil subsidy and the unfolding events of the last few weeks have exposed the true nature and scale of our belief in the present state of Nigeria. It was a referendum on what we want and what we do not want, as well as , an open assessment of government officials who brazenly shortchange their citizens and even kill them when they protest. Nigeria has been so commercialized that governance has become big business where the poor are constantly traded by the rich. A graduate becomes a beggar immediately after leaving school because there is no job. We have a society where men of 25-35 years still depend on their parents for feeding and accommodation, yet we claim we have a vibrant society. Contracts are sold and re-sold to those in government and in the end, those projects for which contracts were given still lie in ruins. If we're a country, we'd have been enjoying constant electricity since 1914 but because we are a commercial interest which our Amalgamation established, we cannot have it. It's better to constantly keep us in the dark, so that government can effectively control our lives. If we could shut down Nigeria with our mobile phones, imagine what having constant electricity will do.

As a commercial interest, we have a budget that is 72% recurrent expenditure and 28% capital expenditure. The idea is that those at the helm of affairs will not approve a budget where they wouldn't benefit. We live in a country where we are not permitted to set agenda on how government should be run. The country has been sold and if you take a look at what we have and what we lack, you'll agree with me that we are enslaved daily with deprivation and destruction of our future. We are denied justice when we do not have a god-father, while our lecturers can easily decide if we graduate or not, irrespective of how good we are and how hard we try. Policemen shoot defenseless citizens for not bribing their way whilst passing by and incarcerate those whose only offence is their protest and demand that Nigeria should be a country. This is a country where the more you steal from the government, the more the society recognizes you and accords you all the necessary privileges while those whose conscience kept them away from stealing public funds are often scorned or killed if they stand in the way of desperate politicians. In our country, public officials use our taxes to campaign for elective positions whilst our roads and schools remain death traps. In developed societies, political office holders raise funds from the public to run their campaigns. The accounts where these funds are kept are often audited to ensure that donors are not hoodwinked. It's only in Nigeria that we do not raise funds to run our campaigns. Our taxes are spent on frivolous projects that do not in any way help the masses whilst proceeds from fuel subsidy were often diverted to serve special interest groups without regards to its attendant ills and direful consequences.

How can we live in a country where we are forgotten and treated like a gob of phlegm when we protest? Is it not time to restructure this commercial interest and make it a country? Have you not observed that developed countries treat Nigeria as a commercial interest instead of a country? Are we not overdue for a Sovereign National Conference? I went back to check the video clips of the protest and saw a stark difference between government officials and the protesting masses. The government officials are so huge and well fed whilst the masses on the street with placards are so thin and conspicuously malnourished. The difference is there for everyone to see. How do our politicians make huge progress in a commercial interest that is certainly not progressing? Just to be appointed by the government to serve in certain positions, ones opponents are killed or kidnapped and we call this a country? If we are truly a country, why don't we place our politicians on salaries instead of these huge allowances that are far too much to build several schools and hospitals in their various impoverished constituencies? Why are the poor constantly subsidizing the rich? Why do we constantly feed those who have so much to feed us? Can someone please stop me from breaking my laptop right now?

I'm now worried by this menace of Boko Haram and what the whole shebang portends. We are now back to face the consequences of amalgamating territories without the people in it. Conflicts are better managed when they are separated from religion, but when it becomes an issue of faith then the battle is much more than bullets can win. The British could not claim that the essence of Amalgamation was to form a nation just like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland came together to form the United Kingdom. Here, people willingly joined the union based on mutual consent, while in the case of Nigeria, territories were amalgamated and forced down our throats. It was never in the interest of the British that Nigeria should be a nation of like-minded people with shared sense of hope, unity and love. The basic interest was simply to feed the British empire with our resources, remove subsidy (Subvention) on the North and make it easier to govern. It was this faulty political calculation that brought us to this edge of the precipice where southerners in the North are fleeing in droves while Northerners in the South have systematically vacated their trading posts. We are truly back to the Pre-Amalgamation status, even though we pretend not to see the handwritings on the wall.

It's this commercial interest that created a precariously dangerous situation in the north where jobless kids have become political pawns and easily brainwashed to be suicide bombers. They are the products of a failed interest which shortchanged them. Prior to 1999, almost all the northern governors campaigned to introduce Sharia Law and they won their votes on the platform of this campaign promise. On assumption of office under Obasanjo's administration, the politics of Sharia became a threat to our national interest and because our politicians have a way of reneging on their promises, this calculus of risk has become inescapable. Even southerners in the north are not there to hug their fellow citizens and embrace the emirs as their chiefs, they're rather there to foster their business interest and this confirms the failure of inter-ethnic marriages and relationships even after nearly 100 years of amalgamation. This also applies to Northerners who are in southern Nigeria. In Nigeria, inter-ethnic movements are driven by commercial interest which was passed down to us through the British amalgamation of pre-colonial territories. We have a trade and profit relationship with one another and that's why inter-ethnic investments are purely driven by commercial purposes. The true Nigerian spirit is so ephemeral that it dies immediately when we are not winning a football match and that's why the military government gave us so much football to play in order to divert our attention from politics. A true Nigeria cannot exist without a vibrant Diaspora group that can elect or remove erring government officials. In reality, we are a failed state abroad, completely disunited and easily charged against one another. This is a Diaspora that is sponsored by the same corrupt government we pretend to fight. After the Occupy protest that united us briefly, we've gone back to our various ethnic group meetings where we know one another more intimately and address ourselves in pure Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ijaw etc. This is where you can measure some level of trust because these people know themselves and they were stuck together before the British introduced this paper marriage we call Amalgamation.

The best way to approach this ugly situation is to urgently convene a sovereign National Conference in order to create a country of our own. We are not living on our own terms and conditions. We are an occupied territory and we must free ourselves from this catastrophic political mistake of 1914 and create a society where everyone is equal. We need a society where public officials will be afraid to steal and where government officials are willing to deliver, even if it means spending their own money. Sometimes too, Countries weigh the implications of living together and decide which direction to follow and save lives and properties. In 1947, Pakistan was created out of India while Eritrea was created out of Ethiopia in 1991. Other nations such as North/South Korea, North/South Sudan have all peacefully separated. Just recently, Scotland proposed a referendum on the future of their Union in the United Kingdom which they joined in 1707, while Tibet is slugging it out with China for political independence. Rather than continuously shed the blood of innocent civilians and echo the beats of a civil war, it is important to re-consider this paper marriage the British officiated. The reason why Biafra was crushed was not to ensure that south easterners will continue to hug and kiss their northern counterparts in the spirit of love and unity. It was simply to ensure that this vast commercial interest will continue to yield profit to the beneficiaries and that's what the British and the Defunct Soviet Union helped to uphold during the war. To continue to kill innocent civilians in the same manner that heralded the civil war and for the same reasons, for which the war was fought, clearly appeals to every conscience that time is fully ripe to either make this paper marriage a real and lasting relationship or reconsider the state of our union.

Blessing Maduagwu is an alumnus of Hult International Business School London (Formally Huron University USA in London).He holds degrees in History and International Relations and writes from New York.