Unfortunately, the psychological or the spiritual ruins are more intense. This ruin is found in the high level of despondency, powerlessness, unhappiness, social malaise and upheavals. The sociological and psychological symptoms are seen in the high rates of crime, juvenile delinquency and youth unemployment. They are visible in the permanent haggard lines of pain and sadness on the faces of Nigerian that tell stories of total hopelessness of life for a greater number of the population. The symptoms are visible in the lack of uplifting ambition even among the educated Nigerians and their easy lure into a fairy tale dream that is perpetually seeking economic success through fraudulent business activities. This is the ruin of the Nigeria-state that every Nigerian, except the few in the corridors of power, can describe as a vivid living experience. The ruin captured in the overwhelming and ever paralysing fear of the future, of poverty, of joblessness, of hunger, of homelessness, of health problems, of uncaring government and of its cruel agents. The ruin that is almost physically visible in the death of trust in the polity and in the all-encompassing reign of distrust that has made economic co-operation and social cohesion increasingly difficult in every sphere of human interaction.

Every Nigerian is aware that business partners, bank managers, clerks, civil servants, public office holders, politicians, military officers, traditional rulers, religious leaders and even family members can no longer be trusted. Although, trust is now recognised by eminent economists as an invaluable social capital for any progressive and efficient economy yet it is the scarcest commodity in Nigeria. Several studies and researches have demonstrated that economic and social groups achieve more economically when members trust each other. However, Nigeria, under thirteen years, has become a classic case of a society where everybody is for himself and only God for us all. The degree of distrust has become congenital to the extent that most Nigerians have since stopped trusting God as well.

This is evident in the Nigerian habit that puts God in a safe compartment. Under this arrangement only Friday or Sunday is the visiting holy day whereas other days are taken as free for all kinds of ungodly heinous engagements. It is not uncommon to find that a lot of the professing or practising religious fundamentalists in Nigeria have been associated with crimes, beastly and cruel acts of torture, killing, fleecing, lying and manipulation of fellow citizens for money and for high positions. The pursuit of material success over and above every other laudable virtue has become deep-rooted among all cadres of Nigerians. These are the cankerworms that have eaten deep into the heart of a state. Nigerians are now possessed by a delusion of grandeur where everybody has become obsessed with the pursuit of vainglory and vulgar success. Every Nigerian is desirous to ‘make it’ and to have a ‘good life’ by hook or by crook. This second ruin is the most difficult to diagnose and to cure because it is hidden in the mind. It is the ruin of the soul, the force of all life. A ruined soul translates into a dead life. It has left many Nigerians as living corpses.

These two men toppled the alarmingly despotic, wickedly moralistic and a no-nonsense administration of Buhari-Idiagbon junta. The Buhari-Idiagbon era was an administration that adopted the extreme of a strange kind of fundamentalism. They pursued their own kind of moral beliefs without a care whatsoever about the views, feelings and supports of the members of the society they were trying to save. They expected the society to follow them, not because they have persuaded and convinced the people on the sense and worth of these beliefs and actions but simply because they have decreed it. They couched their administration around coercion and they spiked every official pronouncement of the state with large stuffing of ‘immediate action’, ‘drastic action’ and ‘ruthless action’. They surely put the fear of gun-power on everybody. It was a regime that saw smiling or laughing in society as synonymous to indiscipline. However, Babangida-Abacha junta sacked this administration to the delight of all Nigerians.

Although this singular ‘patriotic’ act of saving a whole nation from the jaw of a manic-government was commendable, it has never stopped many analysts from asking and wanting to know the true reason for this coup d'état. There were many stories from the grapevine but these are yet to be confirmed by Nigerians who were in the inner circle of this regime. This writer as well as many Nigerians is still keen to find answers to the following questions: Is it true that this particular coup was conducted to forestall a purge of known drug barons in the Buhari-Idiagbon administration? Is it true that the coup was planned with the connivance of a ‘big civilian money-bag’ aided by the Saudi Government? Why did Idiagbon keep to himself and why did he refuse to share confidential information on what he knew about this plot until his death? Why did Buhari accept to serve with one of the accomplices that removed him with ignominy from power? Answers to these questions will definitely unveil the hydra-headed monster of political power-game operating in Nigeria. It will reveal the deadly callous liaison and the nature of cash and power relationships that bind the elite of Nigeria together regardless of tribe or tongue. There is definitely more than meets the eye in the profitable symbiotic relationship found between the civilian moneybags and the military gunslingers. Recently, Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia revealed that civilians sponsored even the first coup d’état led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu.

Sadly, the happiness of Nigerians was short lived. It did not take too long before Nigerians detected that they have merely exchanged an open, non-smiling despotic regime with a sly but smiling despotic regime. It was a regime that could be compared to the fable of the house mice, the type that bites the sleeping owner of the house and simultaneously sweetens the wound with its cool breath. The military administration of 1985-1998 bites every Nigerian and inflicted deadly wounds on all except their immediate families and their sycophantic cohorts. Moreover, the deformed institutions they inherited were further bastardised beyond redemption. The institution of government in particular received the deadliest blow of all.

However, democratic government as popularised since the American Revolution of Independence has come to be accepted as a tripartite arrangement of a Legislative branch, an Executive branch and a Judiciary branch. These three arms of government are adjudged as fundamentally equal in rank, distinctly separate in function and crucially interdependent in operation and goals. Unfortunately, during the era under discourse, the killing of legislative arm of government was the first act to be performed at the inception of military administration. Although the judiciary was spared from the guillotine but its legs were amputated and its brains were brutally sucked out. Hence, as a disabled judiciary, it needed the military administration for mobility as well as intelligence. It could not walk unless carried. It could not function unless programmed and authorised on what it should do and how it should be done. Any figment of independence left untouched by the Suspension Decree of the Constitution was adequately taken care of as at when necessary by Ouster Clauses in every decree manufactured by the spin lawyers. As a result of the death of the legislative arm of government and the near-death but paralysed Judiciary, Nigeria was left with an all-powerful Executive Arm of Government.

You can trust the ingenuity of our spin lawyers that quickly and cleverly divided this Executive Arm into two councils. One transformed into the Armed Forces Ruling Council while the other remained as the Executive Council. The Armed Forces Ruling Council drew its members from the Heads of the three Armed Forces plus the Inspector General of Police. They were ably supported and assisted by Military Commandants of Garrisons and some carefully handpicked trusted military officers. This body became the lawmaker, lawgiver, law-protector, law-reviewer, and law-interpreter of the Federation. These men (no woman) became the supreme intelligence, supreme morality, and supreme know-alls for the country. These twenty-something strong odd men became the unquestionable and infallible Supreme Beings of Nigeria. They ably and proficiently took care of national economics, finance, business, commerce, industrial manufacturing, science and technology, mines and power, and every inconceivable social, political and economic problem. These extra-ordinary brilliant and uniquely versatile men found answers from their military hats to every issue that bedevilled the Nigeria nation during this period to the satisfaction of no one but themselves.

It should be mentioned that some of these members also doubled as Ministers of Federal Ministries. What a super-human sacrifice these patriots were called upon to make for their fatherland? This, to me, is the greatest slap of insult ever inflicted on the collective intelligence of a 100 million people. Looking back, this writer can now say with shame and regret that we were like a people under a magic spell. How could we have been so gullible as to believe that these illiterate lots were capable of finding answers to the myriad problems facing Nigeria? These are men that are unable to read or to comprehend a ten-page memo being saddled with thousands and thousands of pages of Memorandum from every Ministry week in and week out. These supermen were expected to study the memos, analyse them and make decisions for law, policy guidelines and implementation costs and schedules. Yet, these are men who ended up as soldiers because of their hatred for books and learning. Even as these lines are being written, this writer still feels very ashamed and very uncomfortable to realise that I am a Nigerian and that all my compatriots and I were dutifully blind to these injustice and rape of intelligence. It is unforgivable that the host of Nigerian neglected the few that realised it and who shouted themselves hoarse. These few men and women of conscience were left unsupported and unprotected and were therefore allowed to be reaped apart by the wolves in khaki clothing.

The second Council, which is now the Executive arm of government, was made up of Cabinet Ministers and Directors-General (Permanent Secretaries). This was the co-ordinating and policy making body for all Federal Government Departments, Parastatals, Boards and Commissions. At the beginning, this body used to meet once a week to discuss Memoranda submitted by each Ministry that needed legislative backing or approval of government. Babangida or Abacha was the Chairman of these two bodies and all the three Heads of Armed Forces were also members. It did not take too long before the Executive Council went into a permanent recess because it burnt itself out by work overload. The coast then became truly clear for the unchallenged sovereign rule of Babangida and later of Abacha. Each favoured Minister would then seek the ear and eye of ‘The President’ for a unilateral approval on any Memo or action of his Ministry. This method was adopted from 1989 upward.

This procedure of seeking the private ear of the ‘president’ allowed the Minister of Health to successfully negotiate an approval for a special salary for medical doctors. This special salary threw the Ministry of Health into unhealthy pandemonium because other medical professionals demanded for similar consideration. The fire is still raging up till now. Apart from this, it also caused tremendous feud and bad blood with other Ministers who could not see the rationale for singling out medical doctors for a special apartheid salary review while neglecting other professionals in the civil service. With this ingenuous approach to governance and management, accountability completely disappeared. There was no longer any check and balance on funds released and methods of disbursements. There was no pattern, no co-ordination, no co-operation between Ministers of Departments and no policy linkage between Ministries. The favoured Ministries like Health, Works, Federal Capital Territory and Defence became flooded with funds and as should be expected, corrupt and shady practices became inevitable.

In short, for thirteen godless years Nigeria had no government. Armed gangsters bestrode the country raping and looting the Federal treasury to their heart’s delight. It was amazing to hear Professor Tam David West in one interview in The Guardian on Sunday defending with gusto what we passed through as a government. The Babangida and Abacha military administration cannot qualify for the name of a government. It is a misnomer to refer to these two administrations as government. It is a misuse of a model label. These two men and their supporters were bandits, marauders, gangsters, and official armed robbers in the true sense of the titles. They were able to do everything they did because they had unchecked access to our guns and armoury. They were neither intelligent nor knowledgeable and neither were they patriotic nor benevolent. They were hoodlums and despots who depended wholly on the use of fear, blackmail, patronage and murder to have and own their ways. It will therefore be a honourable act for all those who took part in these abuses to own up and to offer an unreserved apology to the people of Nigeria.

That any silly professor who served under this administration up till now is yet to see his/her service as a grave misjudgement and a wrong decision on his/her part is a testimony to a lack of true knowledge or wisdom. How any minister, commissioner, civil servant and other public office holder could still decide to play Mr Clean and Innocent beat me hollow. How any of these patriotic Nigerians have failed to see that the Babangida and Abacha administrations were only possible because of their tacit connivance and collusion beggars belief. How can they not see that without their silence, their fear, their hypocritical commitment to truth, goodness, freedom and justice these regimes could not have lasted till they did? How can Nigerian elite refused to accept this period as an ignominious national error and to acknowledge this unforgettable experience as a proof of their foolishness and of the intellectual, moral and ethical emptiness of their minds?

Through patronage and blackmail, these two administrations brought the whole institution of government into disrepute. Ministers learnt fast as soon as they were sworn in to play by the rules of these Machiavellian leaders. Money and positions were exchanged freely to silence dissenting voices. Blackmail was used to keep the services of erring friends and acquaintances that seem to be ready to spill the beans. Innocent Nigerians who refused to play ball were threatened and some were killed. Professor Awa, the penultimate Chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) before Professor Nwosu was heard reporting on the spade of calumny unleashed on him and members of his household after his resignation because he refused to play by their rules. Professor Nwosu also was blackmailed and the documented materials gathered earlier on him were used to silence him into final compliance at the darkest hour of Nigeria in June 1993. The Ani’s cash and carry episode under Abacha should not be treated as a one-off occurrence. It is a revelation of an established institutional practice created by Babangida known in Nigeria as a Settlement Culture/Management. Every public office holder was deliberately compromised and put in a very difficult position. It was a catch-22 situation. Head or tail you lose. If you keep quiet you lose. If you report it you lose. No minister of these two hoodlums escaped from this heinous practice. It was pure and simple blackmail. It was the only way to break the soul of all those that foolishly accepted to serve under them.

Under these two men, Nigeria was like a big bazaar and a casino. The sovereign military monarchies of Babangida and Abacha became the sole administrators of Nigeria. Their words became the law. The spin lawyers of the Ministry of Justice became very proficient as they turn the drifts and dribbles uttered by these men into decrees over night. Yet these learned men and women will also claim, if questioned, that they were merely following directives. Just like the Nazi Germany officials, these learned men and women have no opinion, no conviction, no belief, no conscience, in short, no moral or ethical scruple of any kind. They were pure and simple mere automatons rigidly and mechanically following the rules. As glorified civil servants they have no business challenging the rules, they will argue. It never dawned on these legal luminaries that the military boys were civil servants too. This rape of justice was possible because our learned friends are bereft of the first principle of federalism. They forgot or have no inkling about the fundamental premise on which Nigeria state was built. They have never heard, both in their colleges and in the celebrated Law School of Nigeria, about the inalienable rights of Nigerians to equality, justice and liberty. As the custodian of the third arm of government, rather than be the first to challenge the unconstitutionality of military coups and rule, they were the first institution to give the crucial critical legal assistance in form of Decree that suspends the Constitution they were mandated to protect.

The Ministry of Justice, during this period, concentrated all its energies to the service of the President and to no one else. Every Ministry had draft bills that lay in the cabinet for many years in this ministry without seeing the light of the day unless the ‘president’ or his wife showed a special interest. As from 1986 every Ministry embarked on the project of policy formulation in emulation of Professor Ransome-Kuti, the Minister of Health who pioneered the production of this magic document. The policy document was manufactured after a jamboree called Conference, several committee meetings, and endless specialist workshops and at a great financial cost. The policy document would then move from the Minister to the Council of Minister and like a tortoise to the Armed Forces Ruling Council. Few Ministries were lucky to have their policy back. Most Ministries never saw it again. Those who got the approval of AFRC could not get a legal bill or decree to support the initiatives declared in the document for eventual implementation because the Ministry of Justice had no time for such unglamorous assignments.

In effect for thirteen years, The Federal Government of Nigeria was run without either a constitution or proper legislations. Every Ministry was managed according to the whims of their Minister or Director-General, or Director or anyone who had the clout to arrogate to himself political power in the ministry. It could be the Director of Finance or Budget or even a very junior officer with necessary connection in government. There was no legal backing for most of the activities and services of government. As a result of absence of law for procedural standardisation and limitations of power, there was no way of checking the excesses of public office holders. Most activities of Ministries became self-serving engagements - plans, projects and programmes were embarked upon at the mere hunch of the minister or his cronies. If a multi-million Naira is to be expended, the only thing the minister had to do was to seek a private audience with the ‘president’ and off he went to award the contract. These were military monarchies at their worst and a true example of the sovereign reign of one man. Babangida or Abacha was the sovereign power and the sovereign law. Everything that happened in Nigeria, during the Babangida reign, happened of his name, by his name, for his name and to his name. And Abacha repeated the same performance and method of governance to its worst extreme. In this respect cronyism evolved and developed into a major ideology of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It was clearly and unmistakably an administration of the cronies by the cronies for the cronies. The only thing any Nigerian who wanted a piece of the action at that time had to do, was to beat a path to any of the minor cronies who would satisfy his/her needs or give a powerful reference to a medium or major cronies until the path leads to the ‘president’ himself.

In a nutshell, no government was in place in Nigeria from 1984-1998. The big but empty-headed professors who served under these men should hold their heads in shame. But nay, as typical shameless Nigerians, they are still trying to hoodwink us that what they gave their lives and souls to was a government; that they worked tirelessly for our benefit; and that we, the people of this land, are ingrates who had refused to be thankful. This writer will like to warn them that they will fail if they persist with their fraudulent claims and that we, the common people of Nigeria, shall regard every one of them as sinners and liars that contributed irreparably to our misery, suffering, poverty and hardships. We shall continue to see them as men and women who participated actively in the great debauchery of the state. And we shall continue to hold them responsible for the bloods of the innocent Nigerians that were shed during this shameful episode, until these shallow professors and other elite of our nations confess to their grievous errors.

Despite the efforts of Professor Dotun Philips and others to review the structure and management of the executive arm (civil service) of the government, they failed woefully because these eggheads could not understand the clandestine motives of those at the helm of power. They failed to see that every intelligent Nigerian was been offered a job as a strategic means of blackmailing to pave the way for their easy manipulation as at when necessary. All the good recommendations of this panel and several others were bastardised at the implementation stage because of, the patronage habit of the government that ceaselessly put round pegs in square holes; the careless abandonment of agreed policy directives in mid-stream; the carefully orchestrated instability of tenure of public office holders; the fluidity of public policy initiatives that are never underpinned by any known ideology or debated legislation; and the celebration of mediocrity as a national asset by both the federal sole administrator, alias president, and the other levels of military hierarchy. The mediocrity of the military administration was amply manifested in the large-scale confusion and duplication of roles and functions among several ministries. Some of the common scenarios are Budget department versus National Planning Department; Finance Department versus Central Bank of Nigeria; Ministries versus extra-ministerial Commissions under them, etc. Nobody had a clue about the limitations of power and functions since there were no legislative guidelines.

The problems facing Nigeria as a baby country are definitely man-made and there is no single reason why the gods should be drawn into it at all. But sadly, religion has become the main theme of analysis by many experts. They see the mostly Muslim north and the mostly Christian south and they quickly come to a conclusion that the differences in faith are the root cause of the problems. Of course, religion from time memorial is one of the cheap tools of exploitation by all Machiavellian-type leaders. Tyrannical leaders have never been known to be great lovers of intellectual analysis of problems in their empires. They often prefer to hide under the exigencies of circumstances, propaganda and slogans. Therefore any analysis for that matter, that is geared towards the fundamental questioning of the political, economic or social problems, organisation and institutions of their tyrannised country, regardless of its beneficial effect to their subjects, is forcefully rejected. They see any informed reflection articulated to promote social change as a potential threat to the status quo of the pattern of privileges as well as of the power relations. Hence, it should not be a surprise to find that the so-called Nigerian leaders have couched political, economic and social issues under religious myths and fallacies to frighten the ignorant populace into continued, and if they have their way, perpetual subjection and obedience to their anything but godly rule.

Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, the two musketeers, who captured power in Nigeria from 1985 to 1998, were the products of this myth. They capitalised on the established psychology in the northern part of the country that would support anybody or anything that lays claim to being a defender of the ‘sacred north’, which these two were not. At least this implicit claim was a handy tool for them in their war against the people of Nigeria as they schemed to gain ungodly power and to fulfil their silly egoistic ambitions. It is the contention of this writer that the Nigeria’s political set-up is a fertile ground for soldiers of fortune (or is it misfortune?) as well as clever political rogues to lay siege and prosper on the misfortune of the ever faithful but hapless country men and women who put trust in them. As a result of this covert set-up, the Nigeria’s federal political arrangement, since its inception in 1960, has had its real power jealously hidden from the public view. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems those controlling the Mafiosi-like leadership selection arrangements have sworn never to uphold or respect any Nigerian constitution. It seems this gentlemen of the night are forever mainly driven by a supremacist and fundamentalist clandestine secret agenda that are contrary to the open constitution of Nigeria. This is the set up that has consistently produced rogue military leaders and weak purposeless political leaders.

However, is there any truth in the belief that the common people of Nigeria cannot relate or work or live together because of the differences in religious faith? Is it true that the Northern part of Nigeria is a wholly Islamic region and that it abhors every other person who does not share its beliefs? Can we ask, what is so special about the people of the north that they needed extra-vigilance in order to keep off other people from their perch of Nigeria? When and how did the fear of political domination developed and who are the sponsors of this vile divisive idea? This writer believes that finding answers to these questions will go a long way in unravelling the myth that created the kind of leadership that have bestridden and wrapped Nigeria in fear since independence to the detriment of peace, equality, freedom, justice and development.

As a result of the ungodly rule of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, the last thirteen years in Nigeria witnessed a despicable value reorientation and a grievous barbaric misuse of state power. These two governments committed atrocious and heinous crimes on the peoples and on the institutions of government in Nigeria. It will shock all and sundry when Nigerians who are physically involved in the perpetration of these dastardly deeds eventually find their voices. The revelation will almost dwarf the record of the Nazi Germany of 1939 - 1945. The testimonies will surely come into the open when sanity begins to reign in the land. These incidents cannot and should not be swept under the carpet without the truth being told to prevent a reoccurrence. The psychological damages to both the perpetrators and the victims will be too great for the health of the nation to handle. And unless a healing process is put in place the consequence might lead to a social and political implosion. At the moment, some of the victims of these atrocities are too traumatised even after being released from incarceration to discuss their painful experiences in the hands of friends, work-mates, kinsmen, business-partners and such like close acquaintances who claimed they were acting and working for the greater good of the country.

These two hideous men claimed they were more concerned about the unity and sovereignty of the country than freedom, liberty, constitutional or human rights, justice, rule of law, fair play or other such civilised niceties. They were unyielding in their vain faith that the unity of the country must be preserved even if every dissenting voice has to be cruelly shut by force or blackmail or even death, so be it. It is disheartening to hear the likes of Umaru Shinkafi, former Director-General of the National Security Organisation, a presidential aspirant in 1993 and a Vice-presidential aspirant in 1999, in his published tribute to the memory of Sani Abacha, saying, "Those individuals whom he [Abacha] saw and judged as too determined to undermine Nigeria’s unity of purpose he confronted very forcefully. In these, he never flinched. To me that approach accounted for his stern public image…. Personally, I would say categorically that General Abacha’s preoccupation with preserving Nigeria’s unity, security and sovereignty against any form of subversion in the guise of political freedom or international diplomacy is valid."²

It is therefore valid to lie, murder, put innocent people in jeopardy, torture, maim, incarcerate and engage in all other unspeakable things which Shinkafi knows much about, as he was the first civilian head of the organisation saddled with such great national assignment. Just think about it, if eminent personalities in Nigeria like Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua could be made to go through a cooked-up coup plot, conviction and sentencing all in the name of preserving national unity, then may the good Lord help the poor and ordinary Nigerians who fell by innocent mistakes into the traps set for subversive elements. From the newspaper reports we now learnt that the Nigeria Security agents don’t even wait for their foes to commit the offences alleged anymore: they set traps for the would be offenders! They are now so brilliantly creative in the performance of their duties to the extent that they set traps for the enemies of the state.

Oladipo Diya and others already convicted and sentenced to death for coup d’etat are living examples of such ingenious official masterminds. In the words of Obasanjo concerning his sojourn in the hands of blue-blood patriots, "The conviction as dictated by the highest level of government was parcelled out like wrapped presents on 14^th July 1995 to some citizens of this country who were seen as too dangerous or uncompromising for the comfort of a deceitful, godless, corrupt, soulless, oppressive, murderous, obstinate and wicked regime. The whole exercise was a charade and a cover-up to arrive at a predetermined objective of eliminating and silencing those who refused to be compromised. It was the most iniquitous political act by any government since Nigerian independence."³

Reasonable men and women in Nigeria are asking, and the question is becoming more and more strident of recent, on whose or for what benefit is this unity to which Nigeria as a political entity has been obsessively committed since its amalgamation in 1914? The murmur and query are getting louder, more so when it is noted that every evil being perpetrated by the state agents has been committed in the name of the unity of Nigeria. The question is if the unity of Nigeria is so important, how come ordinary Nigerians seem not to understand it? Do you need high intelligence quotient to decipher that one’s life and every other life in Nigeria cannot survive except there is this elusive but yet ineluctable unity the political overlords hanker about? What is the nature of this unity? Who are the visionaries or prophets who had looked through the magical glass to discover that without this magic wand called unity that Nigeria and the life of every human existence in it are in peril? The word of Immanuel Wallerstein on unity is prescient, "In the abstract, unity is an innocent concept that precludes dissent. But in its concrete manifestation - the desire to create, reinforce or increase the unity of a specific social group - it is far controversial."⁴

The Holy Bible has a passage that says can two people walk together except they first agreed? And there is another popular adage that says, you can drag a horse to the river but you cannot force it to drink if it does not want to. Is this not the character of Nigeria’s political situation? Are the different nationalities, which constitute this geographical space, called Nigeria willing to walk together or have they all agreed to walk together? Are they been dragged along the political highway without their consent? Are they been forced, cajoled, manipulated, blackmailed under duress to follow? Or else... It was once said that, "Holding this country together is not possible except by means of the religion of the Prophet…. If they want political unity let them follow our religion."⁵ Have the attitude, perception and conception of those who made the statement or that of their protégée changed since those words were recorded in 1942 by the Conference of the Northern Chiefs?

The history of national unity started with the 1947 Richard’s Constitution, which stated that one of the three main objectives of the constitution, is "to promote the unity of Nigeria." The other two objectives are, "to provide adequately within that unity for the diverse elements which make up the country" and "to secure greater participation by Africans in the discussion of their affairs."⁶ This is one of the proofs of the British hypocrisy in the affairs of all her colonies. Why is it that it was at the eve of its departure from Nigeria that Britain realised that the unity of Nigeria was important? What is wrong with the established divide and rule strategy that was already in place and working perfectly fine since 1914? What is wrong with the two separate and distinctively different legislative councils that have served the British colonial rule perfectly well in their raping, pillaging and acquisitive functions?

The simple answer is the unity doctrine is one of the booby traps laid out for the all-believing and all-trusting Nigerians. The political goal of unity of diverse nations has never been achieved anywhere in the world peacefully except by murder and rape. In all countries where different nationalities were merged together under one flag, this ignominious experiments were achieved by military conquest. The process has often been hastened by the killing of all the male population in the captured territory and by the merciless abduction and raping of the mourning widows and daughters. In such countries the women population are never trusted because of fear that they carry out a revenge for their murdered husbands and sons. Sex discrimination is therefore craftily worked into the cultural milieu using all kinds of concocted traditional values and superstitions to hold the women down and separate from active participation in the political life. Check your history books if in doubt. This is the political mine field Britain laid out for Nigeria. And, didn’t we fall into it?

For thirty-eight godless years every government in Nigeria has made the unity of Nigeria the first among equals of their national goals to which every other goals were subsumed. As a result of this unity obsession, other goals like economic well being, technological development, justice, law and order, equality and liberty which are more fundamental to the goal of unity or the goal of social cohesion for the overall well being of the nation have suffered in the hands of the oligarchic fundamentalist and the colonial native feudal lords. We could therefore safely remark that the reckless wasteful pursuit of the Nigerian governments in aid of the need to fudge a national unity since 1960 is central to the political problems of Nigeria.

It should be obvious to all discerning people that the political unity, the kind Britain designed for Nigeria, could never be achieved under a climate of cultivated and regularly sustained mistrust except by the use of fear, arson, blackmail and patronage. These are the instruments that were perfected by the two musketeers who stole the highest office in the land. It was political salesmanship galore. Every Nigeria that voiced a different opinion from that of the government of the day was silenced by either a threat to his life, or by blackmail or by outright offer of money and positions. It sure did work, at least for Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha but it failed to achieve the much-touted unity of Nigeria to which every resource available to the country has been diverted since 1960.

To be continued