Lord Lugard’s Dream, Nigeria 100 Years On: A Sober Celebration? By Samuel Orovwuje

January 1st 2014, the country marks 100 years anniversary of its artificial creation in response to the administrative and economic reality of the British colonial administration at the time. This creation in 1914 is called Nigeria, and its philosopher-king was named Lord Lugard. His country of dream today is among the very few country in the commonwealth that is still in search true federalism and nationhood after 10 decades of its existence. Many years later, this wonderful and beautiful country would become the subject of endless ridicule at national and international media on corruption, terrorism, kidnapping, inept leadership, religious and political intolerance, bad governance, and most recently open letters on the state of affairs! Indeed some of these issues would have been unimaginable in Lugard’s day!

Today’s Nigeria would be unrecognizable to Lord Lugard if he was alive today for many obvious reasons. One is the negative manifestation of the divide and rule politics he bequeathed to us and the manifest drawback to attaining nationhood and above all, the increased agitation for the restructuring of the Nigerian state would most likely leave him bewildered. Does this means that the fundamental principles of nation-building are not achievable in Nigeria?
The centenary celebrations provide Nigerians an opportunity to celebrate some important accomplishments particularly flag independence in 1960, the anniversary is bittersweet as it comes at the same time as the country selfish and self centered political elite and power mongers are jostling for political superiority and relevance for 2015 general elections, that are likely to descend into chaos, if not well managed. Our leaders must tread on the path of caution and restraint in the interest of the nation.
The political cross fire of the ruling elite and the unwholesome alliances and mergers for personal gains also paints a gloomy prognosis of a glorious future and the overt politicisation of governance has hindered real development in the midst of plenty. Furthermore, poverty and insecurity escalating at alarming proportion, which is a sad reality of our country and this, could fall still further as most Nigerians lack access to shelter and livelihoods and above all food security.
This article explores some of the salient and compelling building blocks for the reconstruction of a genuine national identity framework that would be a unifying factor for equitable and people centered national development.
National values and ethos should be our watch words going forward and a clear mandate for the years ahead are the transformative shifts that must underpin a new agenda that drive common goals and related national targets to cover themes of inclusive and sustainable political re-engineering that would focus on the strengthening of good governance which is collapsing rapidly and operating below average performance using international governance index and benchmarks. Nigeria at 100 years is still plagued with high level of financial mismanagement and this is not good for sustainable development and national prosperity. Governance and indeed the national and state leadership require careful monitoring, evaluation and vigilance by all. In short, performance indicators for our leaders would do the country as we prepare for other elections in 2015.
Social institutions like the church and voluntary organisations should be drawn directly into the tasks of nation building. A policy which places a greater reliance on the people while drawing upon government resources as catalyst. Because most social organisations are already in involved social engineering and actions of various sorts. It has become very clear that government alone cannot bring us to prosperity and development. Thus, public policy initiatives must increasingly embody high moral standard that involve the press, the trade unions, transparent private corporations and small businesses.
The ideals of Nigeria democratic capitalism must work in harmony with the three independent and interdependent systems, the political, economic and the moral- cultural systems. Therefore, Nigeria needs to capitalize on its democratic dividend and initiate policies for creating jobs and inclusive and sustainable growth must be a part of the economic transformation agenda. If Nigeria can properly mobilize its young workforce, it can also enjoy the benefits of a great nation like the Asian Tigers. It is evident from international agencies findings and reports that Nigeria is one those fast-growing and large-population economies in the world, but the challenge, however, remains the ability of the Nigeria government and the economy managers to generate real growth and development path that will sufficiently create jobs. Put differently, Nigeria over the next 15 years should rely on its ability to generate a sufficient quantum of job opportunities for its restive youths.
The future is not ordained; it depends very much on what we decide today as a country and a people. In any case, it is certain that we need a Nigerian dream and vision to create a clear and coherent system of policies, programmes, institutions for both the public and private sectors. In my view, the common ground between the government and the people, regardless of political, religious and ethnic sentiments should be a genuine commitment to move the country forward with a purposeful agenda. This requires transparency and clarity of mind on the fundamental issues of federalism and a national rebirth. We must also recognise that strength can be found in diversity and the need to develop strong relationship with the people is paramount at all times. Striking the right balance of diversity, developing national leadership compass and striving for the highest moral and ethical values will help to secure the future of this great country.
While Nigeria’s landmark anniversary of 100 years provides an opportune moment to reflect on the challenges and the various changes that have taken place in the political and governance landscape over the years and the necessity to adapt to new realities in our nation building efforts and it is also important to bear in mind that change is constant and as a people we must rise to the occasion to retooling our nation for a better future. The desire and ambition to uphold the constitution of Nigeria and human dignity should be uppermost as we forge ahead from fragmented and chaotic state to nation where pride and patriotism is the common factor for its unity in diversity.
Lastly, we must make a conscious effort to re-launch the Good people, Great Nation initiative of the former Minister of Information and communication – Dora Akunliyi. Beyond the Millennium city project and the highly politicized centenary country report on women in celebration of the 100 years anniversary, I would like to propose that January 1st every year should be instituted as an act of parliament as Harmony Day in celebration of our common heritage and national aspiration agenda. The day should be used as a national reconciliation mechanism to heal the wounds of the evil seeds of mistrust and the divide and rule politics that was bequeathed to us by the British high command which was carefully executed by lord Lugard and his mistress. Nigeria can be great again and I think that the time is now!