[Port Harcourt, Nigeria.]

An American writer, Henry Miller, once proposed that history should be taught backwards. In other words, instead of beginning with some historically obscure civilization or era from the indefinite past, we should begin with the all too obvious present, and then build up our understanding and knowledge of events by moving backwards in time, systematically. The motivation being the increase of relevant historical context, because, the more recent a past is, the more directly linked, and hence the more its impact is, on our lives. Alternatively, we could scrutinise history at some definite point in the recent past, building up the picture progressively, right through to the present. ⁽¹⁾ This way, at least the chronology of "past-to-present" would be maintained with reasonable accuracy and consistency. Henry Miller felt that we spend too much of our time learning about periods and people that are practically meaningless, irrelevant, or useless.

Nigerian history, ancient and modern, lends itself to Henry Miller’s hypothesis. We have learned far more about the Songhai Empire, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Queen Amina, the bronze artefacts of Igbo Ukwu, King Jaja of Opobo, Ancient Ife, Bishop Ajayi Crowther, the trans-Saharan slave trade, the Benin Empire, the Kanem Borno Empire, the Arochuckwu Oracle, the Hausa City States, the Kano-Tripoli caravan route, Egyptian Pharaohs, the Zulu Wars, or Prince (Engineer) Henry the Navigator, than we ever learned about ethnic cleansing in Ogoni land, or the depravity of some Nigerian soldiers in the destruction of Odi, or the state-sponsored terrorism that took place at Rumuechem, Zaki-Biam, Choba, and Tse-Adoor, or even the Nigeria-Biafra War, for that matter. Why? Selective amnesia!

Although the past is clearly crucial to the subsistence of the future, perhaps the present, or the very recent past, is somehow more important. Why this fascination with remote antiquity while de-emphasizing the present? Certainly, newspapers, radios, TV stations, and cyberspace, daily churn out sufficient information everywhere on the planet. Therefore, there is by no means an information embargo. There is only an experiential deficit. Nevertheless, why?

It is only a paranoid buffoon, living in an underground neutron bomb-proof nuclear fallout shelter, located deep inside a hermitically sealed cave, who may not have heard of the so-called "Niger Delta Issue", or the "Middle Belt Question". Most adult Nigerians may have heard about Captain Amangala, Captain Tolofari, Major Boro, Major Okar, and Colonel Nyiam, but are they also versed in the recent history of the subject of their convictions, and grievances? Is the history of the Niger Delta region or the Middle Belt ever discussed meaningfully in Nigerian schools, and universities, or offered as courses of their own? How can Nigerians ever convince anyone about their revulsion with Apartheid South Africa’s institutionalised annihilation of the collective self-esteem of all non-Caucasian South Africans, with the clearly chauvinistic imposition of Afrikaans as a compulsory school curriculum, when in Nigeria, secondary schoolchildren who may have neither genetic nor anthropological empathy for Yoruba, or Igbo, or Hausa, or even the slightest curiosity to learn those languages, get those languages forced down their throats, all in the name of "national unity"?

Certainly, most Nigerian schoolchildren, and university students under 32 years of age, know that, once upon a time, there was an event called the Nigeria-Biafra War, indeed, the First Nigerian Civil War. Yet, how much do they really know about it? Have they ever read about it in any approved textbook? Have they conducted research projects of their own about "Isaac Boro’s revolution", the intriguing details of the "Babangida-Dimka encounter at the FRCN studios, Ikoyi", the "Okar coup", the "Diya coup", the "Vatsa coup", the design, and development of "ogbunigwe", and "shore batteries", or the procedures for local fabrication, logistics, and effective operations of mobile petroleum refineries under crisis conditions, as was successfully done in Uzuakoli, Biafra, despite torrential air raids?

We all know about Right Honourable Sir (Dr.) Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir (Alhaji) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Herbert Macaulay, Sir (Alhaji) Ahmadu Bello, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (SAN), General (Dr.) Yakubu Gowon, Eze gburugburu Ndiigbo, Ikemba Nnewi, General (Chief) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Brigadier General (Black Scorpion) Benjamin Adekunle, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Aburi conference, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, Lieutenant General Theophilus Danjuma, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, General Olusegun Aremu Mathew Obasanjo, Major General Mohammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, General Sani Abacha, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, June 12, Aare Kakanfo (Chief) M.K.O. Abiola, former Lieutenant General (Lawyer) Donaldson Oladipupo Diya, Chief Ernest Shonekan (ex-Chairman, UACN), et al. However, we only know about them as packaged by the media, and not necessarily through school, or by ourselves. Therefore, the question remains as to the scope and reliability of our knowledge, and understanding of contemporary Nigeria, particularly the so-called "Niger Delta Issue", or the "Middle Belt Question". Maybe, because of this, the introduction of such curricula at an earlier stage might actually serve to increase understanding among Nigerians, about the country in which they live. But then, an aware crowd is a dangerous crowd. This is the problem.

Our greatest weakness as a nation may very well be our ignorance of ourselves. This naturally cascades into our ignorance of other people, like the "Gambari", "South-Southerners", OPC, "almajiri", "abiku", "ogbanje", Bakassi Boys, "Mbammiri", "Kobokobo", "Nyamiri", "N’gbati", "Okoro", "Mallam", Ogoni, Wawa, "osu", "riverine", "Up-land", "ara oke", or Supreme Egbesu Assembly, indeed, anything that is outside our stereotype of reality, or beyond the comprehension, and conventional wisdom of the dominant ultra-neurotic and vocal groups in Nigeria. By focusing our attention on recent history, we will not only be learning more about our history, we will also be learning more about ourselves. However, entangled with the distractions of stage-managed political frivolity, we can do no more than react with paranoia to every minor perturbation within our immediate environment, with the hope that "everything will be alright, tomorrow, by the special grace of God".

History is both intensely emotional and personal. It is replete with religion, ideology, dogma, doctrine, chauvinism, perfidy, nationalism, defeat, pride, anger, zeal, parochialism, charisma, uncertainty, victory, sabotage, bondage, revenge, resistance, identity, and tragedy. If one is teaching or studying about events that took place some 2,597 years ago and 14,386 kilometres away, it is relatively easy to be emotionally distanced. It is far easier to teach subjects about events or persons from a remote mythical past, since such knowledge have been conveniently investigated, examined, re-examined, dissected, analysed, evaluated, established, and properly adjusted by whoever happens to be presenting them. There is really no room for debate or emotional entanglement with conventional history.

For sure, we can argue about a certain event in Babylon, in faraway antiquity being horrible, or that a certain extraordinarily charismatic British monarch was a kleptomaniac. However, nobody can stand up in a Nigerian classroom today and say, "I think we should really blame Lord Fredrick Lugard for the colonial siege mentality of the Nigerian Police, and their propensity for sadism, extortion and rudeness", or "Why do we send Nigerian soldiers to shoot Nigerians in Nigeria, or to fight in Sierra Leone ,without the due processes of debate, and formal consent of the National Assembly, only for our soldiers to be killed in their hundreds, and be buried either secretly or with full military honours, even in a democratic dispensation?"

Our actions directly influence the unfolding. To a large extent, our national well-being depends on our capacity to both know how today came about, and better understand the development of events in our prevailing reality. We must first know how today came about, by looking very closely at what is happening today, connecting it to what happened yesterday, and identifying linkages with antiquity as appropriate, then feedback any identified procedural adjustments into today’s methods, for the guidance of a desired tomorrow.

Mallam Aminu Kano was an Islamic scholar, an exceptional patriot, and indeed, a Nigerian political role model of high calibre. He lived a simple life that was steeped in the austere traditions of the hierarchical society into which he was born. He studied the Koran under his uncle who was, at one time, the personal Imam to the Emir of Kano. As an adult, Mallam Aminu Kano’s mastery of Islam was such that in 1976, following the assassination of then Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, it was in fact Mallam Aminu Kano who was requested to oversee the funeral process. ⁽²⁾ It is very interesting to note that, today, Mallam Aminu Kano is not necessarily remembered as a dogmatic defender of doctrinaire Islam or conservative traditional authority, but as the fiercest critic of institutionalised feudalism in Northern Nigeria. Yet Nigerians downplay the very glaring pre-eminence of Mallam Aminu Kano in the affairs of their country. Selective amnesia!

Northern Nigeria, since its conversion to Islam in the 15^th century, was divided into centralised emirates, governed through rigid, monolithic, and hierarchical oligarchies led by Emirs. For the British, who actually conquered Northern Nigeria early in the 20^th century, the emirate system, earlier bequeathed by Usman Dan Fodio in 1804, after a Jihad, was indeed a blessing. The fragile political consensus that dictated Britain’s bid for colonial presence in Africa was predicated on the critical need to administer the African portion of its empire at rock bottom minimum cost to the British Treasury, and taxpayer. The most effective way to accomplish that objective, the British thought, was to keep traditional African administrative systems in tact, preferably, in a state of arrested development, programmed degradation, or suspended animation, with a few British administrators firmly positioned on top of them. The less African society changed, the less the cost of their governance, as far as the Colonial Office in London was concerned.

Northern Nigeria, with its clear lines of indigenous authority, became the model on which the British painstakingly designed, pilot-tested, fine-tuned, and ultimately perfected Lord Fredrick Lugard’s Theory of Indirect Rule. Actually, indirect rule was an experiment in coercive cultural relativism. ⁽²⁾ The colonial strategy of indirect rule was neatly packaged in the language of autonomy and suitability, and many Emirs supported indirect rule without reservations. For the British, feudalism was Northern Nigeria’s true culture: It was perfectly suitable, appropriate, and relevant. For the Emirs, the autonomy that indirect rule offered was quite reasonable. The Colonial Office in London wondered if any other ordinary Nigerians, by themselves, could ever conceive of anything better than feudalism. However, for Northern Nigerian anti-colonial nationalists seeking to throw out British colonial nuisance, indirect rule posed a peculiar dilemma.

One school of thought in Northern Nigeria maintained that indirect rule was spurious, despite its camouflage, because the Emirs were extremely corrupted by British influence. A second school of thought put up a more far-reaching argument. It discarded the argument of appropriateness altogether, and argued that the problem was explicitly anchored both on the immorality of colonial rule and on the feudal leadership of most Emirs that conspired with the British to curtail both the individual and collective freedoms of Northern Nigerians. The central issue was not whether Northern Nigeria’s feudal system was just. Feudalism was simply unacceptable. Chikena! Today, this second school of thought remains closely linked with the memory of Mallam Aminu Kano, beyond Kano, beyond Northern Nigeria, and indeed, beyond Nigeria.

Mallam Aminu Kano struggled to introduce secular education into Northern Nigerian schools, to challenge the political disenfranchisement of Northern Nigerian women, and to protect Northern Nigeria’s Christian minorities. Mallam Aminu Kano condemned the selectively authoritarian interpretation of Islamic Law (Sharia) that was propagated by both the Emirs and the British. Repeatedly, British colonial officers rebuffed him. Yet Nigerians appear to have remembered to forget all those concrete and constructive contributions that Mallam Aminu Kano made in the founding of Nigeria. Selective amnesia!

The frequency of air travel and transit residence overseas by General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) translates to about 34% of the executive time of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which, by our projections, would be equivalent to one (1) year, four (4) months, three (3) weeks, and two days, or sixteen (16) months, three (3) weeks, and two (2) days, or seventy (70) weeks, and six (days), or four hundred and ninety-six (496) days that the President of Nigeria would have lived overseas while ruling Nigeria between Saturday, 29 May 1999, and Wednesday, 28 May 2003. Absentee presidency! Executive impunity! Selective amnesia! Political euthanasia!

While the perambulations of General Obasanjo easily attract public attention because of the very high frequency of his choreographed exits and re-entries, from and to Nigeria, the Executive Governor of Jigawa State, His Excellency, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, flies in and out of the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, to and from his overseas-based neo-Government Houses, less often than his President does from and to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. However, the durations of His Excellency, Alhaji Saminu Turaki’s absence from Dutse, his over-glorified Local Government Headquarters of a State capital, have became a cause for heightened concern for his helpless citizens, a cause for worry to the Government and citizens of Nigeria globally, and a very sad betrayal of the clear absence of any meaningful checks and balances in Nigeria’s perpetually nascent, slow-motion transition, from 29 years of military dictatorships, to a sustainable democracy. Governor Turaki rules Jigawa State from virtual self-exile, in cyberspace. He resides overseas, visits Nigeria from time to time, and occasionally maintains contact with Dutse, if time permits him to do so. If not, back to the future, somewhere comfortable, overseas. Executive impunity! Collective euthanasia!

The Executive Governor of Jigawa State, His Excellency, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, governs Jigawa State by means of GSM, satellite phones, cellular telephony, NITEL fixed landlines, e-mails, voice mails, and text massages. After enduring Alhaji Saminu Turaki’s strange technology-driven e-governance for a while, his Deputy Governor had to abdicate in desperation some three months ago. Only recently, the funny and honourable members of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, Dutse, felt thoroughly perplexed, and in fact, appeared visibly scandalised by Governor Turaki’s forty (40) days of continuous stay overseas. And so, they proceeded to impeach their governor. Alhaji Saminu Turaki jetted straight into Nigeria less than two days after his notice of impeachment, right into Dutse, and had some "fruitful discussions" with the supposedly angry members of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, who promptly and patriotically withdrew their impeachment notice, in the combined interests of Nigeria’s "nascent democracy", the "foreign investor attractiveness" of Jigawa State, for the sake of peace, unity, progress, justice, fair play, stability, and the "overall corporate existence of our great country, Nigeria". Ghana must have gone!

Subsequently, like magic, the status quo remained. Once more, as usual, it is "business as usual" in poor Jigawa State. The Executive Governor of Jigawa State, His Excellency, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, like several other state governors across Nigeria, does not give a hoot about the political implications of his licentious governance of poor Jigawa State. The Emirs and royal fathers will take care of all his worries, for a minor fee. Lord Lugard’s formula works. To aggravate the tragicomedy further, the Federal Government of Nigeria intends to dump all the idle tokumbo information technology accoutrements in its custody at the warehouses of the Federal Ministry of (obsolete) Science and (cock-eyed) Technology, to Jigawa State, in view of the outstanding fixation that the Executive Governor of Jigawa State, His Excellency, Alhaji Saminu Turaki, has for high-technology-intensive democracy. God save our gracious rulers and us!

The incumbent Emir of Gwandu, His Royal Highness, Major (Alhaji) Mustapha Jokolo (rtd.), while in active service in the Nigerian Army, was one of the key actors in a clique of military politicians, that treasonably subverted the 1979 Obasanjo Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through their overthrow of the democratically elected government of Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari, at midnight on Saturday, 31 December 1983. Major Mustapha Jokolo was the ADC of Major General Mohammadu Buhari, and a virtual member of the decision-making status quo in post-Shagari Nigeria, until Tuesday, 27 August 1985, for six hundred and five (605) days, approximately 41% of the total tenure of the Presidency of the on-going 4^th Republic. There are many other former soldiers-turned-royal-fathers in Kebbi State, indeed, all over the Federal Republic Nigeria. A lot of them retired as Brigadier Generals, Commodores, Major Generals, Rear Admirals, Air Vice Marshals, Vice Admirals, Air Marshals, and Lieutenant Generals of the Nigerian Armed Forces, with full benefits, privileges, immunities, while at the same time, presiding over the local politics, and religious rituals of large portions of Nigeria, and systematically institutionalising feudalism: warlords, as in pre-Taliban Afghanistan Meanwhile, the four-star generals, all of them, and only them, Grand Commanders of the Federal Republic (GCFR) manoeuvre to get hold of the keys to Aso Rock Villa. The odd man out is the two-star general. This observation is not trivial. Group euthanasia!

His Royal Highness, Major (Alhaji) Jokolo (rtd.), Emir of Gwandu, caught public attention following a celebrated scandal that betrayed the double standards of a self-congratulating, discipline-crusading military junta he guarded zealously. How? He exempted, with reckless impunity, 53 royal suitcases of whatever, from routine customs inspection at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, almost 20 years ago. Today, Major (Emir) Jokolo is the royal father of Gwandu, Kebbi State, and Major General (Alhaji) Mohammadu Buhari, his former boss, we hear, intends to be the civilian president of Nigeria by Thursday, 29 May 2003, at the very latest.

Imagine for a moment, a scenario whereby, what is happening today is linked with what happened in 1999, and then linked with what happened in 1998, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1990, 1985, 1983, 1979, 1976, 1975, 1970, 1967, 1966, 1963, 1960, 1953, 1914, 1900, 1884, 1804, 1564, 1066, 335, 4 BC, 400 BC, 5,000 BC, and way back into remote prehistory. Imagine also that some useful lessons are learnt in the process of our perceptual regression. What then, is the implication of our mind experiment on the socio-political dynamics of Nigeria, beyond Thursday, 29 May 2003? Let us get back to what we know is happening today:

The democratically elected Executive Governor of Kebbi State, His Excellency, Alhaji Adamu Aleiro, celebrated the third year of his administration on Wednesday, 29 May 2002, "Democracy Day", with extraordinary spectacle and frivolity. How? The Emirs of Argungu, Zuru, Yauri, and Gwandu each received the keys to a N28 million limousine as a befitting dividend of democracy, on "Democracy Day 2002" from the first citizen and Executive Governor of Kebbi State. Sub-total: N112 million. Governor (Alhaji) Adamu Aleiro, generously made provision for the running costs of the royal limousines, and added N30 million for each of the four royal fathers to manage to fuel their respective dividends of democracy, for the remainder of 2002, in view of budget constraints. Sub-total: N120 million. Furthermore, Alhaji Adamu Aleiro, the Executive Governor of Kebbi State, topped up his poverty alleviation programme for royal fathers with another N13 million per Emir for refurbishing their humble palaces, and yet another N4 million per Emir to "uplift their offices". Sub-total:N68 million. Grand total: N300 million spent in just one day, "Democracy Day", on four (4) royal fathers only. Certainly, Lord Fredrick Lugard rules, even if indirectly. OK? Collective euthanasia!

Meanwhile, trapped in the insanity-inducing traffic gridlock of Port Harcourt metropolis, a very dilapidated 1975 model of Mercedes Benz, with its smoky exhaust emissions, slugs it out like every other vehicle. The miserable car, with its miserable owner who is statutorily positioned at the "owner’s corner", has a number plate that reads, "His Royal Highness, Chief (N. Dr.) Blah. D. Blah (FNISM), Member of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers". As if to make assurance doubly sure, since the dread of a friendly Nigerian policeman, in hot pursuit of "particulars", is the beginning of omniscience, the standard vehicle number plate of that rickety Mercedes Benz 200 was also positioned behind the funny looking "HRH" logo, which was skilfully inscribed in oil paint on a calabash. Incidentally, "N. Dr." means "native doctor", and "FNISM" is the abbreviation for "Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Sales Management". The going price for the suffix "FNISM" is about US$36 only. By the way, the Nigerian Institute of Sales Management does not exist, although it issues its "Fellowships" like hot pancakes, to whosoever cares to buy them, strictly, and only, from itinerant roadside hawkers in Aba, Enyimba City. Many members of Nigeria’s political elite are FNISM bearers. Ad-hocism! Institutionalised group narcissism!

Now, let us, off the record, compare and contrast the fortunes (or misfortunes) of one royal father, from Eleme, His Royal Highness, Chief (N. Dr.) Blah. D. Blah (FNISM), with another royal father, His Royal Highness, Emir (Major) Jokolo, of Gwandu. We may begin to get a better feel for the "Niger Delta Issue". The details are irrelevant. Selective amnesia!

Adonis Hoffman, a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute, and sometime adviser to General Abacha, recently asserted that the average Nigerian does not really give a damn about politics. ⁽²⁾ Nigerians, he went on, are more concerned about their day-to-day subsistence, that is to say, the real politics of survival. Hoffman’s very sweeping assumptions reveal how much the spirit of indirect rule remains with Nigeria, that continue to distort contextual clarity about Nigeria, and hence, selective amnesia.

Between June 1993 and June 1998, US President Bill Clinton skillfully meandered away from the intense domestic and global pressure for him to impose stiff sanctions on Nigeria’s crude oil exports. He simply waited for the European Union to take the lead. When nobody did, he began to hint that, maybe, restoring Chief M.K.O Abiola’s tragically personalized, and patently ethicized mandate, was not that so very urgent, or even necessary, after all. Maybe. Who knows? All things being equal, things could jolly well take care of themselves neatly, over a period. Actually, Bill Clinton’s seeming reluctance was mainly because of the very intense lobby of the multinational oil and gas giants that flourish in the Niger Delta. However, there was more to it.

General Sani Abacha’s government mounted a massive image laundry effort right inside Bill Clinton’s United States of America, as a counter-strategy. It was Adonis Hoffman who wrote in Foreign Policy in 1995 that, "The United States must be careful not to impose its notions of democracy on a country with traditions, objective conditions, and expectations that are markedly different from its own". Also, one of General Abacha’s staunch supporters and official mouthpiece at that time, now Minister of Information and National Orientation (whatever that extra portfolio means), Professor Jeremiah Gana, repeatedly asserted then that, while Nigeria had its teething problems, Nigerians were carefully figuring things out according to their own culture, at there own pace, and that anything done under undue or uninformed external duress or interference would be artificial and inappropriate. The due "process of learning" an unfolding "home-grown democracy", he philosophised, "takes time, and patience". The presupposition was that "Nigerian culture" is delicate and indivisible concurrently: Either you respect it, or you violate it at your own risk. There is no choice! There is no alternative (T.I.N.A.). Full stop! Period. Selective amnesia! Collective euthanasia!

Nigerian rulers have realised that invoking a nebulous notion of the clash of widely divergent civilizations can easily mask out the noise and turbulence of the sporadic conflicts that rage perennially within the country they govern. The appeal of such fallacious rhetoric is that it sounds reasonable, moderate, modest, and in control. It was quite the exact opposite of the over-exuberant utterances of "undue radicals". The language that Major General Ironsi, Generals Gowon, Mohammed, and Obasanjo, Major General Buhari, Generals Babangida, Abacha, and Abubakar, including the local and foreign military and civilian allies that they used, and continue to use to entrench authoritarianism in Nigeria, is exactly the same language that the British employed to justify their subjugation and subsequent colonisation of Nigerians for 60 years of authoritarianism. In fact, today, Chief (General) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) is actually walking in the exact footsteps of Lord (Colonel) Fredrick Lugard, applying the very rudiments, theory and practice of indirect rule, for example, in his conceptualisation, design, enactment, establishment, and implementation of the Niger Delta Development Commission. Selective amnesia! Collective euthanasia!

The motto of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is predicated on the restoration of the dignity of Man. Shortly after the coup d’état of January 1966, a young Ijaw undergraduate of the University of Nigeria, Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, felt upset enough to want to also restore the dignity of his people, the swamp dwellers of the desolate, despoiled, and decrepit backyard of Nigeria, the "riverine" twilight zone of zero development, gratuitous neglect and inane marginalisation, the Rivers Province of the Niger Delta in Eastern Nigeria: "Mbammiri", the land of strange water spirits, whose peculiar predicament appeared intractable, and whose affairs, despite pre-independence agreements, suddenly seemed to be way outside of the scope of the democratic mandates or priorities of every Federal and Eastern regional governments of the Republic of Nigeria, since independence, on Saturday, 1 October, 1960. Premeditated amnesia!

In a seemingly quixotic frenzy of unrestrained braggadocio, Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro challenged the audacity of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in sustaining the indefinite degradation, and underdevelopment of his part of the map of Nigeria. His revolution was crushed instantly. Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro was openly ridiculed, demonised, and subsequently clamped into jail without much ado by the administration of the then thirty-three years old Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, then Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria. Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro’s kith and kin of "Mbammiri" were equally disparaged, and slighted, as it were, for Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro’s inordinate hallucinations, and suicidal temerity. Just a couple of months later, a most barbaric wave of ethnic cleansing (in 20^th century Africa) took place in Northern Nigeria, starting from Sunday, 29 May 1966, Wednesday, 29 June 1966, culminating a most ignominious assassination of the then Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, on Friday, July 29, 1966, by a cabal of young coup plotters, the pioneer beneficiaries of the dividends of coup plotting, later day elder statesmen, "leaders of thought", business magnates, and US dollar-denominated multi-billionaires, on retirement from active military service to their beloved, united, and indivisible country, Nigeria!

Nigerians are made to swallow a very big lump of èbà on the 29^th day of May, every year, conveniently coincidentally the anniversary of the civilian presidency of the recipient of the surrender note from the then impromptu Head of State of the Republic of Biafra, His Excellency, Major General Philip Effiong, at the end of the "no-victor-no-vanquished" Nigeria-Biafra War, in commemoration of Obasanjo’s very nascent democracy: "Democracy Day" indeed! The same day, 29^th day of May, when a senseless pogrom took place in Northern Nigeria in 1966, is today, Nigeria’s "Democracy Day". Selective amnesia! Group euthanasia!

Beyond 29 July 1966, Nigeria went through several waves of social and political disequilibria. Military politics was at its most Machiavellian for over a period of about one year. Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was released from jail, pardoned of all previous charges of treasonable felony, and co-opted into the military dictatorship of General Yakubu Gowon as the Vice Chairman of the Supreme Military Council, and the Minister of Finance of the same Nigeria he fought so hard to kick out British authoritarian rule, by the lobbying power of the coup plotters of Friday, 29 July 1966.

Suddenly, like magic, the deafening clamours for self-determination by the human beings that inhabit Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro’s part of the map of Nigeria began to make sense, more and more, even if nothing else, at least as a tool of psychological warfare, and territorial military politics of "divide and rule". Consequently, in conformity with Lord Fredrick Lugard’s theory and methodology of indirect rule, Rivers State and eleven others were created. Ad-hocism!

Shortly afterwards, the most vocal and key members of the decision-making status quo in Eastern Nigeria, unilaterally declared Biafra’s independence from Nigeria. To date, the lessons of that fatal error of judgement, of extremely myopic chauvinism, that naively disregarded any need for consensus building with the "Mbammiri" and the "Mmongho" prior to the anticlimax of defeat, and the subsequent systematic dismantlement of the Biafran vision, seems not to have been learned at all. Paradoxically and quite unfortunately, no amount of victimisation, persecution, demonisation, or brutalisation seems to immunise human beings against perpetrating the very same injustice of which they, themselves, were once victims. Selective amnesia! Group euthanasia!

The coup plotters of 29 July 1966 wooed whomever they could, as they firmed up their stranglehold on central power, after having earlier tactlessly proclaimed "Araba!", and questioning the basis of unity of the Nigerian Federation, through the over-exuberant utterances of the then thirty (30) years old head of the military junta, Yakubu Gowon. Almost one year after a mutiny that was complemented with nightmarish periodic ethnic cleansing, Nigeria finally degenerated to a state of full-blown civil war. A realignment of ethnic and regional interests proceeded at full blast across the country. It was at that point that Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro was co-opted into active military service by General Gowon, as a combatant soldier in the 3^rd Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian Army, as a Major. Ad-hocism!

The catalytic effect of Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro on the fortunes of the 3^rd Marine Commando Division cannot be easily wished away. Suddenly, the relatively moribund progress of the Nigerian Army on almost all fronts since the Nigeria-Biafra War, particularly those within the operational jurisdiction of the 3^rd Marine Commando Division, changed dramatically, as city after city, town after town, village after village, and fishing port after fishing port, in the desolate, and decrepit backyard of Nigeria, the "riverine" twilight zone of zero development, in the Niger Delta, were liberated , more or less, by the singular resolve of a little known team of freedom fighters from the Niger Delta, then popularly called, "Commando de Boro", under the charismatic command of Major Isaac Adaka Boro, within the winning 3^rd Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian Army, sequel to which, then Lieutenant Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo took over command as the General Officer Commanding (GCO) 3MCDO. Today, Nigerians are more aware of the exploits of General (Dr.) Yakubu Gowon, Lieutenant General Theophilus Danjuma, Brigadier-General (Black Scorpion) Benjamin Adekunle, Lieutenant General Alani Akinrinade, and General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo. Voluntary amnesia!

On the one hand, very few Nigerians recognise, or even know enough about Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro’s immense contributions to the actualisation of the yearning of self-determination of several earlier generations of citizens of the Niger Delta. On the other hand, the clearly circumstantial evidence of the 48-hour leadership of the Republic of Biafra by Major General Philip Effiong, and similar other cases of palpable paternalistic tolerance of a people who were rabidly stigmatised, accused, or suspected of disloyalty to the spirit of Biafra, constituted enough fool-proof alibis of complicity in the Biafran experiment, with the benefit of selective hindsight. Therein lies the vicious circle of the recursive self-contradiction of keeping Nigeria one, the task that had to be done, by all means necessary, fair or foul:

Certainly, there were no victors, and definitely, there were no vanquished. And so, year in, year out, Nigerians celebrate the 15^th day of January as "Remembrance Day" (or is it "Armed Forces Day"?), celebrating the dividends of victory of the "non-victors", mourning the assassination in January 1966 of civilians like Chief (Omimi Ejo) Festus Okotie-Eboh (Niger Delta), His Excellency, Sir (Alhaji) Tafawa Balewa (North East), Aare (Chief )Samuel Ladoke Akintola (South West), Sir (Alhaji) Ahmadu Bello (North West), and some others, both military and civilian. While the "non-vanquished" mourn the painful loss of a very feasible vision of an egalitarian, progressive and prosperous Black nation, when the then Colonel Obasanjo received His Excellency, Major General Philip Effiong’s certification of the final surrender of the Republic of Biafra. Selective amnesia! Collective euthanasia!

Colonel Anthony Nyiam (rtd.) is the highest-ranking living coup plotter ever from the 17 Southern States of Nigeria, indeed from the so-called Southern Minorities, and one of the leaders of the abortive coup d’état of Sunday, 22 April, 1990, that shattered the complacency of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (GCFR), and also reinforced the bonds of friendship and reciprocal loyalty between General Ibrahim Babangida (GCFR), and General Sani Abacha (GCFR). Colonel Nyiam (rtd.) recently presented a paper that gives an idea or two about the thinking of a group of very upset Nigerians, mostly from the so-called ethnic minorities (north and south of the Rivers Niger and Benue), who challenged the inanity of the status quo in 1990. Below are highlights of his presentation:

From all indications, the uprising of Sunday, 22 April 1990, against the dictatorship of General Babangida (GCFR) was necessitated by the crass insensitivity of successive central governments of Nigeria to the plight of communities in both the solid minerals "endowed" Middle Belt, and in the crude oil and natural gas "endowed" Niger Delta region. It took that rebellion to force General Babangida to rather grudgingly set aside the on-shore/off shore crude oil revenue derivation dichotomy, one of the several mouth-watering dividends of the "non-victors" of the Nigeria-Biafra War, which was initiated by General (Dr.) Yakubu Gowon.

No amount of semantic manipulation of the usual smokescreens of "overall national interest", "nascent democracy", "law and order", "restive youths", "resource endowment", "Sovereign National Conference", "Power Shift", "True Federalism", "marginalisation", "onshore-offshore dichotomy", ad nauseam, ad infinitum, can obscure the fact that the Niger Delta is a militarised colony, whose land and natural resources are shamelessly stolen from their owners, with impunity. Thanks to the Land Use Decree (1979). Voluntary amnesia!

One universally acknowledged principle of federations worldwide is the exclusive control of natural resources by the federating states, within whose boundaries such resources exist. Globally, rights, royalties, licences, and authorisation to explore and/or to exploit natural resources always fall under the jurisdiction of "communities" that are so "endowed". This is the case in the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, India, Norway, Mexico, Chile, the UK, Venezuela, Kuwait, Yugoslavia, Trinidad and Tobago, among several others. Nigeria adamantly sticks out like a sore thumb, as the unique exception to a universal rule. Benign political Alzheimer syndrome!

Worldwide, petroleum refineries and petrochemical complexes are located very close to the coastline for obvious reasons of economic and technical costs optimisation, bulk evacuation of manufactured, intermediate, and waste products, and in some cases, the delivery of imported feedstock. In Nigeria, the military dictatorship of General Obasanjo attracted the amusement of refinery experts, worldwide, when he directed the construction of a multi-feedstock, multi-product, multi-tasking refining and petrochemical complex in Kaduna, some 606 kilometres away from its source of (imported and local) crude oil, via a 16-inch diameter supply pipeline, with a line fill capacity of 74 million litres of dead stock. What a waste.

In 2002, General (Chief) Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo (GCFR), "liberalises" the Nigerian petroleum industry by demanding that only those who can afford to build and operate refineries, each with a minimum capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, may care to apply for the first phase of a multiple obstacle race to obtain a preliminary licence (worth about N6,750,000 or US$50,000), before Stage 2 of the short listing rigmarole, for obtaining a licence to construct, and operate a private refinery. This is happening in a world were private refiners in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and others operate commercial private refineries with skid-mounted plants with refining capacities as low as 1,000 barrels per day. And so, the long-awaited private refineries licence allocation jamboree comes to a predictable end with the issuance of licences to supposedly viable prospective refiners who would run their private refineries profitable from palpably uneconomic distances that are so far removed from viable sources of supply of crude oil feedstock in the Niger Delta region, that one might be wonder if indeed their owners expect Obasanjo to provide them with crude oil, free-of-charge, after they may have spent close to US$1 billion, building fifteen (15) private refineries, each processing 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day, with Nigeria’s crude oil production ceiling at about 1.9 million barrels per day, less 450, 000 barrels per day for the state-owned refineries at Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt. Ad-hocism! Selective amnesia!

Federal asphyxiation of the fundamental democratic and economic rights of the inhabitants of the solid minerals "endowed" communities of the Middle Belt, and those of the crude oil and natural gas "endowed" areas of both the Niger Delta region, and parts of the South Eastern geopolitical zone, is very glaring. This is a recipe for catastrophe. Nigerians must heed the warning signals. There is too much dependence on unelected heads of quasi-autonomous government-ran business enterprises like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as intermediary revenue generators for running all tiers of government in Nigeria, via a covert form of indirect rule, a kind of hydrocarbon emirate!

Such a monopoly of economic power in the hands of a handpicked cabal of technocrats, accountable only to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, runs completely contrary to the spirit of transparency, accountability, probity, and basic democracy. All joint venture agreements between NNPC and various multinational energy companies have come to be used as convenient tools for the rigorous centralisation of economic power by the incumbent President of Nigeria, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo who, incidentally, decreed the NNPC into existence on Friday, 1 April 1977, (All Fools’ Day), by military fiat, and is also the sole administrator of Nigeria’s petroleum industry, a vital industry for Nigeria’s economic survival that, strangely enough, has no ministerial supervision except the hotline directives that endlessly flow from the command the centre at Aso Rock Villa, to NNPC Towers, Abuja, and vice versa. Executive impunity!

The Land Use Decree (1979) contravenes the supremacy of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Quite unfortunately, it is also the brainchild of the present civilian President of Nigeria, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss). The Land Use Decree (1979) suffers principally from the problem of its obnoxiousness and inequity. For a start, the Land Use Decree (1979) is a military imposition. Secondly, the decree is an indirect extension of the elements of the traditional land tenure system that is prevalent in the Northern emirates, now blatantly imposed on the Middle Belt, South East, and Niger Delta regions, which equally have their own customary rights of land use. In essence, Obasanjo’s Land Use Decree only serves the interest of the "non-victors" of the Nigeria-Biafra War, and their friends.

Time after time, foreign governments tamper with the internal politics of Nigeria. Over the years, the intelligence agencies of certain countries have very actively supported most Nigerian military politicians to overthrow democratically elected governments. According to Colonel Anthony Nyiam (rtd.), legendary proclivity of General Ibrahim Badanasi Babangida for coup plotting, and covert connivance in over-heating the Nigerian polity from time to time, were done with a little help from his Western intelligence friends. ⁽³⁾ Moreover, there are hints of foreign complicity in the eventual liquidation of Chief (Alhaji) M.K.O. Abiola.

Earlier this year, a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria averred that the CIA imposed the incumbent Nigerian President on Nigerians. Again, only recently, the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Victor Malu, revealed that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), sacked him mainly to curry favour from the United States of America. He added that a US military team was drafted to gather certain intelligence information that they could not get through their usual means, over the years, especially during the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.

Clearly, the oil "endowed" states of Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Cross River, Imo, and Abia, and commercial transactions "endowed" Lagos State; are overwhelmingly the major sources of Nigeria’s economic strength today, indeed, Nigeria’s "continued corporate existence". Tomorrow, it could be palm oil, tomatoes, chilli, bitumen, cocoa, groundnut, gold, millet, yam, coconut, bananas, beans, firewood, or goats, for all we care. However, for now, there is no consideration for equitable allocation of funds to cater for the meaningful development, sustenance, and maintenance of the infrastructure of those high revenue-generating states. Instead, members of the Nigerian power elite have cornered for themselves, and their local and foreign fronts, facilitated access to money-spinning petroleum prospecting, refining, and marketing licences, creating the opportunities and incentives for them to acquire not only enhanced financial clout, but also opening the doors for them to cultivate lucrative relationships and networks in various trans-national petroleum markets, which boast of some of the most powerful human beings on this planet, enabling closer fraternisation, and reciprocal obligations between Nigeria’s local crude oil mafias, and all manner of powerful individuals and groups across international borders.

Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Chairman of the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, HRVIC, on Tuesday, 21 May 2002, submitted a summary report to the President, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General (Chief) Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo (GCFR). The summary report was followed up with a more detailed report that recommended stiff penalties for government officials that abused (and continue to abuse) state-owned facilities to settle personal scores that degenerate into violating basic, constitutionally guaranteed, and universally accepted human rights. The main report is said to contain far-reaching recommendations on human rights abuses, particularly during the post-independence era of military despots, from 15 January 1966, to 1 October 1979, and from 31 December 1983, to 29 May 1999. For example, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa called for the reopening of certain cases such as the murder, in 1986, of Mr. Dele Giwa, founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine. At any rate, General Ibrahim Babangida (GCFR) has dragged the Federal Government of Nigeria to court in order to restrain it from implementing the recommendations of the HRVIC.

General Babangida is challenging the constitutional basis of the HRVIC. His lawyer said that since the President, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) established the HRVIC, and even appeared before the Commission as defendant and complainant, it would be rather unfair for him to preside over the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations too. Executive impunity! Selective amnesia! Political Alzheimer! Group euthanasia!

Indeed, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss) appeared before the HRVIC both as a petitioner, and as an accused violator of human rights. Obasanjo’s son petitioned the Commission over the arrest, trial, and conviction of General Obasanjo (GCFR), his father, on charges of treasonable felony, and conspiracy to overthrow the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha (GCFR) violently. On the other hand, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti accused General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss) of collusion in the killing of his mother, Mrs. Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti, a pioneer Nigerian nationalist, and Women’s Rights activist. Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti alleged that General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss), as military dictator (for 1,326 days, between Friday, 13 February 1976, and Monday, 1 October 1979), had a hand in the death of his mother, and in the destruction of "Kalakuta Republic", the operational base of his brother, musical legend, and the creator of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

One major highlight of the Commission’s sittings was the intransigence of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (GCFR), and his fellow past Nigeria military dictators, Major General Mohammadu Buhari and General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar (GCFR). The HRVIC even arranged a special hearing, devoid of crowd distractions for the former dictators, but they ignored the kind gesture with undisguised contempt.

General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (GCFR) was summoned to shed more light on the murder of Dele Giwa, on 19 October 1986. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s regime was accused of carrying out that assassination. General Mohammadu Buhari, who ruled the country for 605 days, from the midnight of Saturday, 31 December 1983, to Tuesday, 27 August 1985, was summoned to explain his role in the attempted abduction of Alhaji Umaru Dikko, from the United Kingdom to Nigeria. Similarly, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (GCFR), who was the dictator for 354 days, from Tuesday, 9 June 1998, to Saturday, 29 May 1999, was summoned to clarify his role in the liquidation of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, while in the custody of the government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar. The unbelievable impunity with which those three former dictators bluntly refused to show up before the Commission was very revealing of their mindset. Was it selective amnesia, or group euthanasia? Any way, they were condemned by Nigerians worldwide. Incidentally, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa aptly called them "lawless" bastions, flag bearers and promoters of executive impunity, seemingly unrepentant, nonchalant, and intransigent, but really, very afraid to confront the reality of their past actions! The good old learned gentleman of a Judge simply echoed Nigeria’s pent-up collective affront at the audacity of those generals.

Against General Babangida (GCFR), the HRVIC recommended that the murder of Mr. Dele Giwa should be revisited, and its culprits prosecuted as murderers, to the full extent of the laws of Nigeria. The HRVIC indicted former military dictator Major General Muhammadu Buhari, for his attempt to abduct, cage, and repatriate Alhaji Umaru Dikko from London. Furthermore, the HRVIC believes that General Abdulsalami Abubakar (GCFR), former military dictator of Nigeria between 8 June 1998, and 29 May 1999, has a case to answer on the mysterious sudden death of Chief MKO Abiola, supposedly due to cardiac arrest. The HRVIC believes that if its recommendations were implemented, then peace and reconciliation would return to Nigeria gradually, especially given the sustained brutalisation of the collective will of Nigerians for over 29 cumulative years of military dictatorships in Nigeria. One wonders what the Commission’ verdict on the allegations of gross human rights violations made against General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo, for the 1,326 days that he presided over a military dictatorship in the late 1970s, particularly in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the "unknown" soldiers that inflicted grievous state-sponsored terrorism on the inhabitants of "Kalakuta Republic", Mosalashi, via Ojuelegba, Lagos.

Although this may sound strange, but barely one (1) month before the death of Chief MKO Abiola, supposedly due to cardiac arrest, the then Head of State, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha (GCFR), also suddenly died mysteriously, also supposedly due to cardiac arrest. One wonders how the verdict of General Sani Abacha’s autopsy was arrived at, given the speed of his interment. At any rate, to date, sentiments apart, the government of Nigeria has not made any serious effort at informing the citizens of Nigeria, exactly how their former Head of State, General Sani Abacha (GCFR) died mysteriously. Instead, there has been a general resort to the line of least resistance, the usual avalanche of reasonably accurate rumours, and other escapist insinuations such as the tales of Viagra over-dose, of Indian harlots, of an Igbo "spare tyre" cum girlfriend-in-waiting, permanently on standby at the 5-star NICON Hilton hotel, of poisoned apples, and of cause, the readily available mass opium of "divine intervention". How cheap can life be in Nigeria? Is nothing sacred anymore? If this can happen to a Head of State, what better can we expect for an Attorney General, or an ordinary citizen of Nigeria? Custom-designed amnesia, coupled with collective euthanasia!

Paradoxically, the success or failure of the actualization of the recommendations of the HRVIC report that was submitted by Justice Oputa to General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss), lies squarely on the shoulders of Olusegun Aremu Mathew Obasanjo, himself, a complainant/accuser, a defendant, and final arbiter, for, and on behalf of Nigerians, past, present, and for posterity. Understandably, General Obasanjo cannot be comfortable with the implications of the recommendations of the HRVIC. He is human. How can Obasanjo be put in an awkward situation whereby he would have to pay for all the "abandoned property" in Port Harcourt, Garden City, that were rationed out so generously across the ranks of the officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, probably as post-"no-victor-no-vanquished" war booty, under the able chairmanship of a relatively lower ranking Signals Officer of the Nigerian Army, the then Captain, now distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, Brigadier General David Bonaventure Mark (rtd.), or the frozen bank accounts of Ndiigbo after the First Nigerian Civil War? Today, the citizens of Rivers State have become the convenient scapegoat of misplaced aggression, and cheap demonisation, whenever the hints of "abandoned property" slip out of the minds of the understandably embittered victims of the dispossession of their property, under the direct supervision of the "non-victors". Clearly General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss) does not cherish the bizarre thought of a nightmare scenario in which, one day, some Nigerians may make legitimate claims either against himself, or against his fellow former dictators. Group euthanasia!

Nigerians know that their President, and Commander-in-Chief of their Armed Forces, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR; pss; fss) lacks the political will, the inner conviction, the moral courage, and patriotic zeal to implement the HRVIC report of which he is actually very visibly petrified. Indeed, his vagueness and meandering, culminating in his palpably tasteless rendition of an impromptu apology to Nigerians, assume that once His Excellency, the fasting and praying Messiah, on behalf of himself, and all other past, present and future despots, apologises for all past crimes against Nigerian humanity, everything will be alright. Nigeria will be very kámpé! Unity, faith, peace, and progress will quickly resume their normal course of abundance in a Nigerian polity that would over-flow with forgiveness, goodwill, and total reconciliation (with immediate effect).

President Obasanjo, on Wednesday, 29 May 2002, "Democracy Day", officially apologised for the various human rights abuses committed by himself and his fellow past military dictators, including successive agencies of the Federal and State governments of Nigeria since 1960. Everything will be all right, soon! Oh-shebe-e-e-e, Commando de Boro! To keep Nigeria one, is a task that has been over-done.

And so, what next? "Resource endowment"? "True federalism"? Biafra of the mind? Sovereign National Semantics? Ultimately, Nigeria’s weary history of knee-jerk reaction to events on an ad-hoc basis, including the institutionalisation of premeditated mass amnesia, executive impudence, and structured national self-destruction, urgently needs to be speedily and purposefully reversed, re-engineered, and re-invented, probably, by radical surgery. A memory-less system is an unintelligent system. An unintelligent system is a non-adaptive system. A system that cannot adapt will not survive in the long run. Ultimately, a memory-less system shall die. The problem is "LAND USE". Period. Chikena. O pari. Finito.

Thursday, 13 June 2002.