LORD LUGARD ON NIGERIA – A Realist or Illusionist? By Yemi Obideyi PART 2

Can Nigerians and Africans in general, work with fewer or less incentives than other races? The answer is yes indeed. Right on Nigerian soil, foreigners especially Asians like Indians, Lebanese and Koreans do employ Nigerians, keep them as casual workers for years and do treat them as sub-humans. Poor condition of work, unbridled exposure to high risk and danger in workplaces, inaccessibility to first aid or primary health care, poor wages, job insecurity, inaccessibility to staff discount on company product among others are common or daily experiences of Nigerians.

In many cases, some (opportunists) Nigerians do collaborate with these foreigners to under-pay workers who are Nigerians. These ills found in different sectors of the economy, notably textile, manufacturing, communication, commodities, aviation and hospitality “are not enough to discourage Nigerians” for, as a set is dispensed with unceremoniously, another is ready on the queue “begging to apply”.

 

In the public sector, the Labour unions have had to clash with state governments across the six geo-political zones over enforcement of a minimum wage agreed with the unions long ago. An equivalent of about 113 dollars (18,000 naira) per month is the wage some states in Nigeria claim they find difficult to cough out monthly. Conversely, the subjects daily have to cope with spiraling inflation. For instance, rent in Nigerian cities has gone up by over 3000 (three thousand) percent in the last five years.

In plain language, Nigerians do sell their votes to political party candidates even for a pittance. In the last general election in Lagos for instance, voters were offered and paid 2,000 Naira (about eleven dollars) each in exchange for votes for a particular candidate. Right on the spot, as soon as party logo was ticked or marked right, eleven dollars was given immediately to the voter. In some neighbourhood, politicians shared fresh beef and raw rice in some others. While some voters got about five or three kilogrammes of rice each, others received between one and two kilogrammes, and so it varied for the recipients of beef also.  

To the political party stalwarts who do vote at the primary elections, some candidates dole out between one and three thousand dollars per voter depending on the portfolio or position being contested. Again, findings revealed that the scale of bribery in primary election in Nigeria is usually higher in a state or locality where a political party is considered strong than in the area where it is weak. Thus for about a hundred dollars a month, Nigerians are “enslaved”, particularly in the private sector, from eight o clock in the morning till six or seven in the evening, Monday through Saturday. Also, for less than 12 dollars per person, Nigerians hand over political power to politicians to rule them for four years and sometimes eight years in a roll.

Did Lord Lugard foresee all these as far back as 1926? Was Lugard a seer of some sort? Or how else can one interpret his viewpoint that Nigerians and indeed Africans “love the display of power but do not realize the responsibility expected of them”?

Latest report of the Transparency International revealed that Nigeria is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. The report ranked Nigeria 135^th out of 176 countries. Whether by stroke of divine arrangement or a convergence of coincidences, Nigeria has, in the past 52 years of its political independence, been ruled by men and women from its six geo-political zones. In other words, the ship of the Nigerian State has been steered by leaders or rulers from the core political districts of the nation. 

 NORTH EAST

 Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (P-M) 

 Atiku Abubakar (V-P)

NORTH WEST

Murtala Mohammed

Shehu Shagari

Muhammadu Buhari

Ibrahim Babangida

Sanni Abacha

Abdulsalami Abubakar

Umaru Yar’Adua

NORTH CENTRAL

Yakubu Gowon

Namadi Sambo (V.P)

SOUTH  EAST

 Nnamdi Azikiwe

Aguiyi Ironsi

Alex Ekweme (V-P)

SOUTH WEST

Olusegun Obasanjo

SOUTH SOUTH

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

Eight decades and seven years ago when Lugard, in Dual Mandate, made his analysis of Nigerians and Africans, the first president of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe was just 22 in age, and 34 years less to becoming the number one citizen. The first and only Prime Minister of independent Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was 14 years old. Apparently, the twosome above had not ventured into the game of politics and neither have they an inkling of the terrain of leadership of this nation as at 1926.

(To be continued)