By Sylvester Odion Akhaine

The enduring design of the neocolonialists is real in the global jungle. Long ago, Nigeria, despite its present skewed state structure, was seen as a future giant. James Robertson, the last Governor-General of Nigeria, said the British tried to design a country that would play a major role on the global stage. Primary and secondary uneven development strategies have crippled the potential giant. Momentary exertions by some Nigerian leaders have always revealed that silver lining.

Balewa’s severance of diplomatic relations with France over the A-Bomb test in the Sahara desert; Murtala Mohammed’s “Africa has come of age” speech; our frontline status in the liberation struggle in Southern Africa, and our bold intervention in Liberia and Sierra Leone are vivid examples. Our faith is tied to the whole continent; a weakened Nigeria will preserve the exploitative relationship that the continent has with the rest of the world.

A weakened leadership will continue to receive the policies of secondary uneven development that reinforces the primary uneven development occasioned by slavery and colonialism. I now throw more light on some of the highlighted moments of greatness by successive leadership in the country.

First is the expectation of the British about their erstwhile colony. During the Second Reading of the Bill on Nigerian independence, July 15, 1960, in the British Parliament, Mr Iain Macleod, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, made this observation about our country “That country, which is, I remind the House again, the most populous State in the continent of Africa, is, of course, extraordinarily diverse in race, religion and in social and economic development.

Therefore, it is not in the least surprising that the political development it has chosen is that of a Federation in three regions, with each region self-governing in its own concerns”. James Robertson, the last Governor-General, also envisioned Nigeria as a great country that would play a prominent role not only in Africa but also in global affairs. The country was perhaps expected to maintain a special relationship with Britain in ways that would be supportive of the global standing of the British.

The first test of Nigeria’s leadership potential came when the French planned and detonated the A-Bomb in the Sahara Desert. Prominent Nigerian leaders, including the Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, warned of repercussions. The matter was even escalated to the British Parliament, which debated it on November 10, 1959 and sought to undermine the grave danger to the continent. However, when the French did, Nigeria severed relations with France. Precisely, on January 5, 1961 a miffed country under the leadership of Balewa ordered the French Ambassador and Embassy staff to leave Nigeria within 48 hours. The situation endured until May 1966.

After the civil war, 1967-1970, Nigeria had become a frontline in the liberation struggles in Africa, especially in the fight against racial rule in Southern Africa. The situation in Angola came to a head, and the Soviet-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), led by Augustino Neto, assumed power in Angola. It was the historical obligation of General Mohammed to flex the Nigerian muscle in galvanising the entire continent for the liberation cause.

The U.S. president, Gerald Ford, had written urging the continental organisation to back the reactionary forces in Angola, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), at the OAU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This elicited a vehement response from General Murtala Mohammed, the Nigerian leader, who then delivered the famous Africa has come of age speech. Here is an excerpt from that great speech delivered on January 11, 1976: “It is of great historical significance that the first extraordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government to be held since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity twelve years ago, is being held on the liberation of Africa.

Angola is merely the excuse being used by those who cannot reconcile themselves to the momentous victories of the forces of African nationalism, to assert their neo-colonialist ambitions on the Continent. Angola merely provides the occasion to recreate the nineteenth-century partition of Africa into spheres of influence, where the predominant consideration will be the interests of the big powers without any consideration for the inalienable rights of the African.

Let us, therefore, make no mistake about the problem which confronts us at this Session: it is not the question of a simple disagreement between Angolans requiring a simple solution in the African tradition. Rather, it is a much deeper danger of extra-African powers in collusion with the inhuman and obnoxious apartheid regime in Pretoria, trying to frustrate the will of a people who, having sustained a heroic struggle against a most brutal colonialist repression, are on the threshold of a glorious dawn of national self-determination.

If the neo-colonialists succeed in Angola, then our hopes for South Africa will have been dashed…. Mr Chairman, Africa has come of age. It is no longer under the orbit of any extra continental power. It should no longer take orders from any country, however powerful. The fortunes of Africa are in our hands to make or mar. For too long have we been kicked around: for too long have we been treated like adolescents who cannot discern their interests and act accordingly.

For too long has it been presumed that the African needs outside ‘experts’ to tell him who his friends are and who his enemies are. The time has come when we should make it clear that we can decide for ourselves; that we know our own interests and how to protect those interests; that we are capable of resolving African problems without presumptuous lessons in ideological dangers which, more often than not, have no relevance for us, nor for the problem at hand”.

To be sure, Nigeria played a great role on the continent. In the late 1980s, the crisis in Liberia and Sierra-Leone, Nigeria again, with her sister countries in the sub-region, especially demonstrated leadership, restoring peace and democracy in sister African countries when it had yet to democratise its home. The General Kobe-led sea-borne landing in Freetown was described by military observers as classical and drew the envy of the apparatchiks in Washington who had never won any peace in contemporary times.

For the countries, Nigeria needed to be taught a lesson; its leadership failed to read the handwriting on the wall and fell into the imperial trap through the received policies from the Bretton Woods. In a century that the United States seeks to claim as its own, would be hegemons must be caught to size. This policy direction is not merely muted but activated. The trying times, insecurity, fit into the imperial designs of undermining potential competitors.

I had thought I would end this stream of thoughts today, but there is an important aspect: the role of illegal mining in the insecurity nexus in the country. I had almost forgotten it, even though I had flagged it in the first part of this very subject. It will now be completed next.

Professor Akhaine lectures in the Department of Political Science, Lagos State
University.