Africa and the challenge of Nigeria, By Richard Mammah

The past week was a most auspicious one for Nigeria as for Africa. On the one hand, it witnessed a flurry of primaries exercises that engaged political gladiators seeking to participate in Nigeria’s most critical 2023 polls.

And on the other, it was the week of Africa Day, the annual commemoration of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 which also doubles as a day of reflections on the progress or otherwise of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.

In their own ways, both occasions witnessed their fair share of hand-wringing. But they also equally contained possibilities of progress that could be built on.

While the primaries demonstrated once again the long-running problems of the Nigerian political process as evidenced by such perennial challenges as monetary inducement of electors and the arm-twisting of aspirants from ‘disadvantaged political blocs,’ it also witnessed the fight back for example of Mr Peter Obi, who miffed over the challenges of plowing the hard rocks of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, simply walked out on the party. As at press time, he had established a fresh berth in the Labour Party with feelers coming in that he would very likely continue to pursue his now established presidential aspiration on the platform of that equally registered political party.

On the broader pan-African front, the seventh edition of the annual Africa Day Colloquium convened by The Difference Newspapers and partners was held at the Oak Gardens Event Centre, Isheri, Lagos.

While the event provided an opportunity for Nigeria to plug into the continental momentum of that day – as could be gleaned from its theme: ‘Getting the Giant to roar again’ – it was also evident that Nigerian matters were indeed not only going to be on the front-burner, but that there was also likely going to be a preliminary contestation of the ‘giant’ tag. And the session did not disappoint as the resultant communique from the event underscores:
That it is most important that steps continue to be taken to dispel the growing climate of ignorance among our people about their history and pan-African linkages. We must get our history right.

That as part of getting our history right, it is important to critically situate and highlight the fact that the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates was firstly, not a Nigerian but an alien project whose intentions and execution continue to have distorting effects.

That Nigeria yet occupies a prime place in the African experience and the resolution of its political and social challenges would have a booster effect on the dignity and self-worth of all people of African descent.

That Nigeria is at the moment a crippled giant, one with troubled institutions, a questionable constitution and inchoate social order requiring very deliberate acts of visionary reformulation and strategic reconstruction.

That at the centre of the crisis of Nigeria is a selfish elite that has even been most atrocious in projecting and advancing what ordinarily should have been its enlightened self-interest.

That the current manifestations of widespread poverty, violence and state failure are outcrops of this manifest inability of the country’s elite to develop a fitting and workable governance plan for the country.

That there is therefore an urgent need for the development of a foundational creed, an inclusive vision of Nigeria that is acceptable to its diverse peoples, and the cultivation and aggregation of a true nation-building elite in the country whose task is principally to build a true giant of Africa – along the lines of best practices in Federalism – and make it work.

That the nation is in dire need of a structure reset while the elite need to be schooled on what to do with power.

That in realisation of this, every step be taken to ensure the replacement of the extant Lugardian Architecture that has continued to constrain Nigeria’s political evolution and its replacement with a more agreeable, consensually negotiated and development-inclined Nigerian Project. That the new giant should place utmost premium on building its peoples and their capacities.’

Four decades ago, a Nigerian Head of State had addressed the Organisation of African Union Summit of Heads of States and affirmed that ‘Africa has come of age.’ Did he speak too early?

Whichever way it goes, one thing is clear, given its size and scale, the resolution of the political and social challenges of Nigeria would invariably be a real booster for achieving the great aspirations of African peoples for their continent and indeed all people of African descent from all over the world.

Richard Mammah wrote from Lagos