NIGERIANS, QUIT BLAMING “THE MISTAKE OF 1914” FOR COUNTRY’S WOES

With the myriad of problems confronting the country and with some of the problems seemingly on the verge of consuming the young nation, blames are being traded on why things are the way they are. To some the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorate in 1914 was a big mistake and thus it is the reason why the country was not moving forward all these years. To these Nigerians the British created the “fraud that is Nigeria”. Yet the same “fraudulent British” created India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and dominated China whom it imposed the infamous Opium War; as well as a host of other principalities around the world and these nation’s have risen out of the “mistakes” of Britain to become major economic power houses of today’s world. As a matter of fact the economy of China has overtaken that of Britain a long time ago; that is before China rose to become the second biggest economy in the world and is about to overtake the United States as the world’s biggest economy. India with a population of over 1.2 billion and a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation like Nigeria, has the world’s second fastest growing economy after China and has rescued more half of its population from poverty in the last few decades.India’s high tech engineers and software engineers are the most sort after in Silicon Valley(the unofficial world’s capital of software innovators and developers). I read a report recently in Times Magazine where a Silicon Valley software company approached a school in India begging the school to send all of its graduating class of math and physics students to it, that is how good the Indians have become since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. India is the world largest outsourced market for software engineers. In about sixty six years after its independence, Indian engineers are manufacturing cars(not assembling); as a matter of fact an Indian company, Tata, is about to produce the world’s cheapest brand new car; it has the atom bomb. Now contrast India with its neighbor Pakistan which got its independence the same day with India. For those who think if everybody who lives in their society belongs to the same religion there will be peace and prosperity, Pakistan deserves close attention. India before independence in 1947 was one country with Pakistan, but as independence was approaching the Muslims told the British point blank that they want their own country where they would be free to practice their own religion without being dominated by the overwhelming Hindu population. The British kowtow to their pressure and created the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for them. Gandhi wept but the Muslims insist they are going and they had their country. Pakistan like Nigeria had been wrecked within the period by political instability and military coups was routine as in Nigeria until lately. Even though they are almost 100 percent Muslims religious intolerance persists along sectarian line. Today Pakistan is best known as a safe haven for the Talibans who haboured the now dead Osama Bin Ladan; its economy is comatose and its only notable achievement is the building of atom bomb(which is of no economic benefit to it) just because India had done so. But India is far ahead economically and in tolerance which is why it is moving ahead. Although India is overwhelmingly Hindu, but its present prime minister is sikh(a minority religion) such thing would be unthinkable in Pakistan.Pakistan’s last election witnessed several suicide bombings that claimed thousands of lives, because like Nigeria, Pakistani  politicians enjoy political corruption with its violent consequences.

Away from Pakistan and India, now let’s take a look at another success story from the mistake of the British, Singapore. Singapore hosted a trading post of the East India Company in 1819 with permission from the Johor Sultanate. The British obtained sovereignty over the island in 1824 and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826. Occupied by the Japanese in World War 11, Singapore declared independence, uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963, although it was separated from Malaysia two years later. Since then, it has had a massive increase in wealth, and is one of the Four Asian Tigers. Singapore is the world's fourth-leading financial centre, and its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing, which constituted 26% of Singapore's GDP in 2005. In terms of purchasing power parity, Singapore has the third highest per capita income in the world. It has four official languages, English, Malay, Mandrin and Tamil. So it achieved its successes despite its multi-ethnic nature. We all know the story of how Singapore moved from third world to first world. We don’t need to rehearse it here. Every policy maker and student of development in Nigeria should read the book, “From Third World To First, The Singapore Story: 1965-2000”, by Lee Kuan Yew.
In the case of Malaysia, it has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural,  which plays a large role in politics. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while protecting freedom of religion. The government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on English Common Law.

    You can see that we are the cause of our underdevelopment and present crisis including the insurgency, and not “the mistake of 1914”.Our leaders have failed to think outside the box and the result is what we are witnessing and lamenting about. There is a song featuring Sunny Neji that is played quite regularly on AIT recently, the lyrics captures the essence of this piece. It goes like this, “Na we take our hand oooh! take dey kill ourselves ooooh! No be Oyiboooo, No be Oyiboooo…”. The song was a lamentation on the killings going on in the country. But there seem to be light at the end of the tunnel especially as the news came that in the next few years the economy of Lagos can be the same size as that of Ghana and that is due to the purposeful leadership of Governor Fashola. This is also coming at a time when some good news are coming from Anambra State precisely Nnewi, where manufacturing of world standard are evolving and spreading in part due to the favourable economic environment provided by Governor Peter Obi.I see hope in the North too, after this troubled times. I see the North rising to fulfill its potential. We shall get there, let us not lose faith in the Nigerian project. Let’s keep the Nigerian dream alive.