Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

According to a children's book about Sir Cecil Rhodes, as at 1959, Southern Rhodesia had already been tamed, civilised and well groomed by the British. Several thousands of White Britons had settled there and made it their home. By the late 1950s, Southern Rhodesia had well planned cities and townships, with concrete residential facilities, tall office blocks, factories, airports, railways, beautiful parks and gardens, and was a flourishing new member of the British Commonwealth. Prior to the arrival of Cecil Rhodes, it was only cannibals, wild savages and very dangerous animals that inhabited that portion of Africa. The Rhodesian phenomenon started with the vision of one young Briton called, Cecil Rhodes. Almost forty-six (46) years ago, Sir Cecil Rhodes was re-packaged as a British super-hero, 54 years after his death. In short, Sir Cecil Rhodes, the designer and discoverer of the defunct colony of Southern Rhodesia, present day Zimbabwe, died of a heart attack exactly 100 years ago.

Sir Cecil Rhodes was born in 1853, in Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, the fifth son of a seemingly very randy vicar. A sickly adolescent, he was sent to a warmer climate in his brother's farm in South Africa. Both brothers soon got really deep into the business of exploring and exploiting South Africa's vast mineral resources. Their dreams were amply rewarded. As a student at Oxford University, young Cecil Rhodes regularly returned to South Africa on holidays, to attend to his very lucrative mining business which, by his mid-thirties, had made him, the equivalent of a (US$) multi-billionaire, by today's global standards of assessment of individual net worth.

It is unbelievable that, at barely 38 years of age, Cecil Rhodes controlled over 90% of the world's known reserves of diamonds. He had also secured two other key positions as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and President of the British South Africa Company, which was quite similar to the Royal Niger Company and the old East India Company. He blatantly pursued expansionist business and territorial dreams, while literally operating outside of the control of the Her Britannic Majesty’s Colonial Office in London. His patriotic endeavours yielded the establishment of brand new colonies such as Malawi (former Nyasaland), Zambia (former Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (former Southern Rhodesia) for Great Britain.

Sir Cecil Rhodes imprinted his imperial ego on Southern Africa by constructing giant dams, railways, new cities and towns. However, his expansionist passions were not always appreciated back home in Britain. Cecil Rhodes’ logic was predicated on the thinking that Great Britain was/is only a tiny island nation state whose position and very survival depended strongly on trading with (or short-changing) its various customers and dependent colonies worldwide. It must therefore be abundantly obvious that, to be sustainable as an imperial power, Great British had to decisively address the mandatory demands of territorial extension and assured custody of British colonies, which, incidentally, were seen to be knee-deep in barbarism. At least, that was Sir Cecil Rhodes’ thinking about Africans in the late 19^th century.

One hundred years after his death in March 1902, Sir Cecil Rhodes’ name is typically related more with academic excellence, through Oxford University’s Rhodes Scholarship Scheme than with racism, genocide, and various other crimes against African humanity: It is relatively easier to demonise later day White racists in Zimbabwe, like Ian Smith than Sir Cecil Rhodes. It will be recalled that it was this same Cecil Rhodes who pioneered the racially biased "land grabbing" that is now at the core of Zimbabwe's sorry state of deep-seated anomie. It was Cecil Rhodes who, at 34 years of age, told the House of Assembly in Cape Town that "the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of South Africa". In less formal settings, Sir Cecil Rhodes made overtly racist utterances of his preference of "land to niggers", with reckless abandon.

In 1896, Cecil Rhodes was linked with the unsuccessful Jameson Raid, an illegal attempt at forcefully annexing the Transvaal territory, leading to a bitter Boer War that lasted about three (3) years. His status and public image in Great Britain subsequently nose-dived. A documented account of his personality provides some useful insight into defects in his integrity, namely: bribery and corruption; negligence of duty; allegations of extreme impunity, unprincipled behaviour; and habitual brutalisation of Africans. His lifelong companion Dr. L.S. Jameson, also one-time Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and the leader of the ill-fated Jameson fiasco, revealed that one of Cecil Rhodes' favourite pastimes on Sundays was to go into a compound where he had built a swimming pool for the natives, and throw in pieces of shilling coins into the pool for them to dive and retrieve. He knew enough of their vernacular to communicate freely with them. His African subjects looked up to him, and indeed, truly worshipped him as the "great White man."

Sir Cecil Rhodes schemed his way into prosperity within a lawless frontier environment, and then used his fortunes to sponsor private incursions into Southern and Eastern Africa. He shaped and controlled public opinion through his ownership of newspapers. He brokered secret and somewhat privatised treaties, often gave and took bribes, and, from time to time, used personally hired and trained militia to exterminate his African and Dutch opponents, seizing close to one million square miles of prime value lands from their owners, all for the sake of the British Empire. However, back home in the UK, he was regarded with some distrust. When it suited him, he worked against Britain's imperial interests, without any qualms. For him, international trading and imperial expansion went hand-in-hand; with similar goals, visions, and modus operandi. Indeed, the Cecil Rhodes phenomenon preceded Coca-Cola, Shell, IBM, McDonald's, BP, CNN, Kentucky Fried Chicken, ExxonMobil, and Microsoft Corporation.

Oxford University did quite a lot of image laundering for Cecil Rhodes. In 1899, the university, with its long and solid history of accepting financial and material assistance from super-rich aristocrats and various other morally bankrupt billionaires across the world, agreed to administer a less surreptitious and duly white-washed version of Cecil Rhodes’ Will, three (3) good years before his death, through a scholarship scheme. The first batch of Rhodes Scholars were selected in 1903. Subsequent generations of Rhodes Scholars include such men as Sir Arnold Smith (the very first Secretary General of the Commonwealth), Bernard Rogers (the NATO Supreme Commander), Stansfield Turner (Director, CIA), and Bill Clinton (immediate past US President).

Progressively, even moderate political opinion in Great Britain, Western Europe and North America eulogised Cecil Rhodes' methods and style. Even Adolf Hitler admired him. In fact, by his own estimation, Sir Cecil Rhodes envisaged that he would annex the planets of the Solar System, if he could, and endure in human memory for at least 4,000 years! When, in 1877, he first made his will, he persuaded its executors to use his fortune to establish a secret society that would ultimately place every nook and cranny in Planet Earth under British colonial domination. He envisioned a world in which British settlers would occupy Africa, the Middle East, South America, the Pacific, Australasia, South East Asia, China and Japan, before restoring both the United States of America and Canada to proper colonial rule, under a British Imperial World Government. Indeed, Sir Cecil Rhodes was deeply fixated on the notion of an ultimate destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race. He stuck adamantly to the fact that Great Britain badly needed suitable, brand new territories to settle its ever expanding population permanently, and thus provide markets for goods and services from the UK, the workshop of the world then. His vision was a mercantile utopia in which Great Britain, a nation of shopkeepers, and "buying and selling" entrepreneurs, occupied African territories, by right, and also effectively fill them to the brim with "Made in England "goods. How very brilliant!

Sir Cecil Rhodes suffered a fatal cardiac arrest in March 1902. The notices of his death were vague. Newspapers worldwide cited obituaries and reports of public grief in South Africa, but only few British editors approved of his stewardship in Africa unreservedly. The Times of London commented that, though Sir Cecil Rhodes had done more than most of his contemporaries in placing before the imagination of Britons, a clear model of their Imperial destiny as a race, it hoped Britons could forget certain other aspects of his life. Empire-builders such as Sir Cecil Rhodes, The Times pleaded, attracted as much disgust as praise: Such persons were simultaneously admired passionately, and also seen as stumbling blocks that provoke some measure of revulsion, sometimes of extreme dislike, in direct proportion to their success.

Cecil Rhodes' reputation is as complex and sensitive as that of his life and career in Africa. Curiously, his sexuality was one of the major question marks. Despite the aggressively seductive overtures of one Polish prostitute and forger called, Princess Catherine, Sir Cecil Rhodes was indifferent to her. Sir Cecil Rhodes had a strange entourage of young men, known as "Rhodes' Lambs". His most intense relationships were with men like his secretary, Mr. Neville Pickering (who died in his arms), and Dr. L. S. Jameson, whom he met at the diamond mines in Kimberley (where they shared a quiet little bachelor residence). In 1911, Rhodes's former private secretary wrote a biography of his late employer in order to counter certain ugly references to his private life. However, that did not stop tongues from wagging.

For close to 100 years since his death, Sir Cecil Rhodes has been revered as national super- hero in Britain. Today, he is closer to being a national embarrassment for the British, although there are several memorials in his honour at his village of origin in Hertfordshire, England. At Oxford University, his statue adorns Oriel College, while the Rhodes Trust is in based in Rhodes House. London’s Kensington Gardens has a statue that is based on the theme of Sir Cecil Rhodes’ memorial in Cape Town: a naked man on horse back!

Understandably, the excruciatingly traumatising memory of Sir Cecil Rhodes is strongly resented in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the very territories that once bore his name. In January 2002, delegates at the last Pan African Congress argued that the problems confronting President Robert Mugabe were indeed designed by British colonialism, whose principal agent, Sir Cecil Rhodes, forcefully acquired land for White British settlers. When Zimbabwe finally attained independence in 1980, the name of Cecil Rhodes was obliterated, without delay, from the map of the world for ever. Quite a relief, it must have been!

Along with railways, dams and trunk roads, the British, particularly Sir Cecil Rhodes, imported a culture of suppression of free speech, punitive levies and taxes, audacious extortion or violent grabbing of land strictly along ethnic or racial lines, and the engagement/deployment of armed gangsters and mercenaries for assassinating political opponents. Definitely, President Robert Mugabe must have learnt a lesson or two from that jolly old boy of Oxford University, and paradigm English gentleman, Sir Cecil Rhodes!

The name of Lord Fredrick Lugard will always be linked with Nigeria. Nigerians will continue to ask themselves what part this gentleman played in their history. Lord Lugard left Nigeria in 1918 and was generally regarded by Nigerians, in line with the opinions of his colleagues at the Colonial Office, as a compulsive bully. Very likely, no single Nigerian may have spared a thought for Lord Lugard, let alone thought well of him on Independence Day, October 1, 1960. His name remains affixed to an avenue in Ikoyi, Lagos. Lord Fredrick Lugard kept a posture of a military man, right until he died. He also retained the vigour of his movements and the direct and resolute stare of a man used to military command. Certainly, old soldiers can never die!

The stereotype of Lord Fredrick Lugard is one of an apparently schizoid personality. Colonial Office legend has it that, on his first expedition into the geographic terrain that he later transfigured (by force) into United Nigeria, he was actually hit by a poisoned arrow in the head. This might account for his notoriously rotten moods and vile temper, including his aversion for friendship. Fredrick Lugard was legendary for being intransigent and controversial. Although he spent 6 years in Nigeria as Governor-General, the durations of his leaves in England were practically almost everlasting. On the contrary, he never permitted the thought of long leaves for any of his subordinate staff in Nigeria.

Lord Fredrick Lugard's style was basically combative. He always preferred confrontation to dialogue, as befitted a conquering retired officer of Her Britannic Majesty’s Royal Army. Lord Lugard could never be wrong. There was always a good reason why he made so many cock-ups and achieved little or nothing through out his tenure as Governor-General of United Nigeria for 6 years. Lord Fredrick Lugard married Flora (nee Shaw), a one time Colonial Correspondent of The Times of London.

One major problem, in Lord Lugard’s time, was the widespread ignorance about Africa in Great Britain. When the "progressives" and "liberals" finally agreed to accept that imperialism was indeed a bad thing, getting out of Africa was their remedy for all of Britain’s African headaches. Given the state of anarchy in former British West Africa, paradoxically, it now seems perfectly OK to regret the exit of the British. Because of ignorance about the Africa, alias Dark Continent, the Colonial Office in London literally and sometimes, actually got away with daylight robbery and murder. Lord Lugard and his successors told very horrible lies, regrettably with the full backing of Her Majesty’s Government, and newspaper editors easily got mystified and flabbergasted: Everything was duly "adjusted" to ensure that everything was indeed all right. Lord Lugard was ultra-kámpé.

Lord Lugard, with a little help from his wife, Flora, (who incidentally was also an expert liar), fabricated tales that ultimately hardened British attitudes towards Nigeria till date: Palpably simplistic lies that may be summarised as follows: Semitic-looking Moslem from the North equals good. Negroid Christian from the South equals bad. The lie that was pushed, right from the very start of Lord Lugard's colonial military occupation of Nigeria, and painstakingly sustained throughout the sixty years of British colonisation, was that the North was the real Nigeria, and the South was at best a marginal irritant and an appendage. In essence, Lord Lugard proclaimed Nigeria as his personal brainwave, and the Nigeria that had known the British and other Europeans in various facades for several centuries prior to Lord Lugard’s posting to the Northern Protectorate of Nigeria, was, to him, an aberration and a eyesore. It spoiled Lugard’s story to be told that Lagos Colony or indeed, the Coastal Kingdoms of the Southern Protectorate were enlightened (even by British standards) and were relatively civilised places with schools, newspapers and Christian (sometimes Africanised) churches.

The first writer of note to blow the whistle on the Lugards, and their voodoo historical record keeping, was Mr. Ian Nicolson. Lord Fredrick Lugard, a Commander of the British Empire, felt that things like justice should never get in the way of effective colonial decision-making. Justice was part of military discipline. In other words, he could take the law into his own hands, whenever he so chose. Sir James Robertson, the last British colonial Governor-General of Nigeria, wholeheartedly subscribed to the same ideology. If elections would put the wrong people into power, it was necessary to "re-engineer" or even rig them so that his loyal boys won. If anybody ever dared to protest, they were speedily silenced. Lord Fredrick Lugard summarily executed Nigerians as if he were killing mosquitoes. Sir James Robertson was once officially reprimanded for following Lord Lugard’s foot prints, hanging Nigerians for trivial offences, as if for fun.

Lord Lugard really despised Black people generally, and his Nigerians subjects, particularly. Amazingly, today, Fredrick Lugard’s tradition lingers on at Oxford University, as a memorial to contemptible treason. Academics who play down the effect of a seemingly satanic British policy in colonial and post- colonial Nigeria, such as the rigging of the Independence Elections and the accompanying ghastly loss of life, report selectively about that period. They deliberately ignore the manner in which British officials, academics, and others down-played their role in inciting Northern Nigerians to ethnic cleansing in the North in the early 1950s, in 1966 and beyond.

Essentially, a coup d’état by some British-trained Majors had ended, and legitimate power successfully entrenched, with a smooth hand-over from the then Senate President to Major General J.T. Aguiyi-Ironsi. At that point only a handful of lives had been lost. From the records, there had been general jubilation at the overthrow of Nigeria’s drifting 1^st Republic, just like after every successful change of government in Nigeria, whether by force or through (usually rigged) elections. The role of the British in the events which followed was crucial, but almost nothing useful will be found in the writings of British experts on this subject. The British had invariably sentenced Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to a certain death when they rigged the general elections in his favour at Independence. He paid the supreme price for that criminal act with his life in January 1966. With the loss of their accomplices, the British struck out against all those they felt, masterminded the overthrow of their beloved and chosen Nigerian successors.

First Lady Flora Lugard once contrasted the "higher types" found in the Northern provinces with the "cannibal pagans" of the South. To Her Excellency, Flora, the nearer a native’s natural habitat to the Atlantic Ocean, the worse the native type: i.e. diabolical witches and wizards, sorcerers, idol worshipers, fetish savages, nymphomaniacs, pirates, thieves and illicit gin drunkards, who were indeed no better than their country: a lunatic asylum, governed by the inmates! Lord Fredric and First Lady Flora Lugard were just virulently racist. Few followers of Lord Lugard still hang on at Oxford University. This does not necessarily imply tolerance of his rabid xenophobia, but more due to their ignorance about his activities in Africa, and the general paucity of intellectual integrity and rigour among his later-day fans.

For the records, Lord Fredrick Lugard modelled his Amalgamation Project after his conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate and the rest of Northern Nigeria. Certainly, British colonisation of Southern Nigeria did not include the grabbing of lands from communities or even individuals. The British called the region "Protectorate" because the colonial government claimed (honestly or deceitfully) that it was protecting its peoples and lands from hostile attacks, for the benefit of the "natives." Everywhere in the Southern Protectorate, British colonial officers negotiated and leased parcels of land from diverse communities in signed agreements that were accepted and respected even in British courts. Why then would the British lease lands from Southern Nigeria if the privileges of colonising the Southern Protectorate also included both the official grabbing of its land and the control of its resources there-under? The British duly signed "treaties of protection," with various coastal Kingdoms in the Niger Delta. None of those treaties mentioned the right of conquest (liberation) or acquisition (grabbing) of lands or the control of agricultural, fisheries or mineral resources from those communities.

Lord Frederick Lugard conquered the Sokoto Caliphate, and much of Northern Nigeria, by force of arms, and then imposed conditions that were, more or less, replications of what Fulani invasions had earlier achieved. The early 19^th century Fulani conquest of the Hausa City States climaxed with the grabbing of Hausa lands by a centralised Fulani monolithic theocratic state. Frederick Lugard simply mimicked the Fulani conquerors by grabbing the lands in the North. Lord Lugard’s repeated attempts at extending that formula of land grabbing to the Southern Protectorate was robustly resisted everywhere, during and after Amalgamation.

It was under General Olusegun Obasanjo that the Land Use Decree was imposed on all Nigerians in 1978 by military fiat. It would be quite interesting to sample Chief (General) Olusegun Obasanjo’s "objective" appraisal of the impact of his Land Use Decree (1978), and by extension his role in Nigerian history, almost a quarter of a century after.

In a sense, the common links, through time and space, between Sir Cecil Rhodes, Lord Fredrick Lugard, President Robert Mugabe, and Chief (General) Olusegun Obasanjo are "Land Use", and a touch of military combat/guerrilla warfare experience and expertise: in other words, macho territoriality!