I am sure there are lots of readers who do not immediately recognize the slogan used as the title to this piece. To them I offer a brief excursion into history. As history goes, this was not a long time ago. But with the speed technology is advancing today, I might as well be talking about the age of the Dinosaurs.

The commercialized version of Thomas Edison’s phonograph (up to the late 1950s) was called the Gramophone. It came in a box. When you opened the box, you would find on the inside of the lid, a picture of the Gramophone and a very attentive dog sitting in front of the imposing conical loudspeaker. The horizontally situated conical loudspeaker was a major feature of the appliance. The caption to this picture was "His Master’s Voice". This is where I have borrowed both the title and the imagery that I want to use to describe the ongoing barbs being thrown around on account of hiring decisions of the Voice of America in Nigeria.

It has been saddening, amusing, enlightening all at once to read in various media, the reactions of Nigerians to the hiring of one Sunday Dare to head the Hausa Service of the Voice of America. From one writer in GAMJI.COM, I sensed a measure of pride in that Hausa is the only Nigerian language that both the British and the Americans have a service for Nigeria. This writer commented that there are a lot of Hausas throughout West Africa and this service was designed to service this ethnic group across the European created countries of West Africa. Another writer correctly pointed out that regardless of who heads the VOA Hausa service, the objective is to advance American, NOT NIGERIAN interests. No one has since disagreed with this observation. However, the barbs continue about the merits of hiring a non- Hausa to head this service.

One would have thought that given the universal acceptance of the primary reason for the existence of this service, the arguments would quickly have veered off to the more important consideration. That is, WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SET UP THE VOICE OF NIGERIA (BRITISH OR AMERICAN) SERVICE to put forward Nigeria’s position to their target foreign audiences? This service would advance Nigeria’s interests which may or may not coincide with American or British interests. Sadly, no one has seen fit to articulate this need. Instead, I see dogs fighting for the position of being closest to the loudspeaker so they could more clearly hear their masters’ voices.

Oh, I am sorry, I keep forgetting that there is no country called Nigeria. If there were such a country, the Niger Delta’s money would have been used to provide clean drinking water and build good roads in Bayelsa instead of a stadium in Abuja. If there was Nigeria, not a dime of the Niger Delta’s oil money would have been "invested" in Nigeria Airways when none of the people who borrowed the first hundred million dollars and could not account for it are still walking free. I could go on but let me stop here.

Let me instead recount an experience I had the year I finished graduate studies at the University of Delaware. I was in the recruiting office looking over the list of companies who were seeking applicants from the graduating classes. It was a banner year for graduates with engineering degrees. There were about four or five undergraduate friends at an adjoining table. Their exuberance was rational given the realistic anticipation of a handsome payoff for the past four years’ effort. They were going over the names of the companies and selecting the ones they would like to work for. One of the companies was ICI. Two of the young men signed up for a time slot with ICI. Then they asked the others if they were going to sign up for ICI. One of them, with utter disdain on his face said, "ICI is a British company. I will not work for a foreign company!"

Those ethnic groups that claim to number in the tens of millions and are found in several countries in Africa, you have failed the African people. By your common ancestry and traditions, you should have fashioned out a workable country in Africa by now for other Africans to take refuge. You should have set the example of liberation for the rest of Africans. Those ethnic groups that are few in numbers and inhabit a limited geographical space, you have failed the African people. You should have fashioned out a small but workable country as an example to other Africans. The best thing in this world did come from Bethlehem, a very small and until then insignificant town.

It is important that some Africans quickly organizes a country that functions properly and Africans everywhere on this planet can point to it with pride. For the nations that are about to come out of the geographical space that the Europeans called Nigeria, remember that there is no more time for business as usual. Let one of you quickly build a country that will shelter Africans from what is coming and serve as the launching pad for the liberation of the continent.

Nigerian Publius

December 2001