The Trials of Igbohos & Kanu: Right of Self Determination and its Limitations under International Law of “uti possidetis juris”

 “One thing is certain: the present edifice called Nigeria as we know it today has come nearly to the end of its life . . . The cracks on its walls are too great for the edifice to continue to stand.”- Hon. (Dr.) Akinola Aguda (The Future of Nigeria: Cracks in the Wall. The Comet Lagos October 1, 2000).

Nigerians home and abroad are waiting for the resolution of 2 pending cases with bated breath. The case of Sunday Igboho at a Beninese court and Nnamdi Kanu at Federal High Court, Abuja. The primary case against these two ethnic agitators is their struggle for secession and freedom from oppression from Nigeria. The cases have been subjected to several adjournments primarily at the instance of the Federal Government of Nigeria whose attorney often seems lost for words, and looking askance at every hearing. This article will seek to answer an important question that will come up during these hearing: Can we say there exists in contemporary international law and practice an inalienable right of self-determination applicable to all peoples subject to oppression, exploitation and subjugation by others?

Article 1 of the International Human Rights Covenants of 1966 makes the right of self-determination available to “all peoples” without any restriction as to their status. The Covenants further places an obligation on all states “including those having responsibilities for the administration of colonial territories to promote the realization of the right to self-determination. Similarly, Article 20(2) of the African Charter refers to both “colonized and oppressed people” as having the right.

The African Commission ruling on application of the foregoing provision of the African Charter in Katangese People’s Congress v. Zaire held that while the request for self-determination lacks merits, the rights of the people of Katanga to their language and culture were inviolable.

Elsewhere in other continents outside Africa, however, the principle of self-determination by components of a nation state has been upheld. For example, the Treaty of the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, 1990 signed by four of the five Permanent members of the Security Council expressly stated that the “German people, freely exercising their right of self-determination, have expressed their will to bring about the Unity of Germany as a state.” Ditto, the Report on the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan where the International Commission of Jurists stated that “if one of the constituent peoples of a state is denied equal rights and is discriminated against, it is submitted that their right of self-determination will revive.”

This principle is borne out of the need to eradicate oppression of peoples and to protect human rights in all circumstances. How can this principle of customary international law be applicable in Europe and Asia but not in Africa-the cradle of all human race? One can therefore conclude that there exist in contemporary international law and practice an inalienable right of self-determination applicable to all peoples subject to oppression, exploitation and subjugation by others.

The purpose of the right of self-determination is to protect communities or groups from oppression and to empower them. The exercise of this right however requires a delicate balancing of interests. Just as there can be no absolute human rights that is not subject to reasonable limitations, the rights of self-determination is subject to the needs of the state to protect the general interests of the society.

The general interests of the international society in maintaining international peace and security place a limitation on the right of self-determination. This interest finds expression in the Latin maxim, “uti possidetis juris” (UPJ-as you possess).  This principle of protection of the territorial integrity of states has its roots in colonialism and the colonial desire to maintain peace necessary for trade and exploitation. The principle subsist in contemporary times as it serves to preserve the boundaries of colonies emerging as States.

The principles got enshrined in Article 6 of the General Assembly’s Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Territories and Peoples 1960 which states that “any attempt at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a county is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” This principle forced Africa countries within the borders stipulated for it at the Berlin Conference of 1885. A conference where no single African was present. A conference called by German Chancellor Bismarck to settle how European countries would claim colonial land in Africa and  a conference called to avoid a war among European nations over African territory.

The fact that this principle continued application have been restricted to Africa is not lost on scholars of neo-colonialism. It was first applied in Congo in 1960 (UN) and then to Biafra/Nigeria in 1967 (OAU), purportedly to maintain the colonial boundaries such that when a colony became independent, it succeeded to the boundaries that had been previously established by the former colonial power. The neo-colonial hue of the principle is illustrated by the adoption of the principle by OAU hegemon in 1964.

It is instructive to note that the Chamber of the International Court of Justice in the Land, Island and Maritime Dispute case (El Salvador v. Honduras) (Merits 1992) cautioned that “uti possidetis juris”  is essentially a retrospective principle investing as international boundaries administrative units intended originally for quite other purposes.” In the Frontier Dispute Case (Burkina Faso v. Mali : 1992), the court justified the application of the principle solely to African countries thus:

“In fact, however, the maintenance of the territorial status quo in Africa is often seen as the wisest course to preserve what has been achieved by people who have struggled for their independence and to avoid a disruption which could deprive the continent of the gains achieved by much sacrifice. The essential requirement of stability in order to survive, to develop and gradually to consolidate their independence in all fields, has induced African states judiciously to consent to the respecting of colonial frontiers and to take account of it in the interpretation of the principle of self-determination of peoples.”

This argument is totally disingenuous as it seeks to use the struggle for independence by the peoples of Africa from colonial yokes to maintain a neo-colonial status quo. The question is why is self-determination good for Germans, Croats and Bangladeshi but not for Africans? To date, the only case in which the world acquiesce to self-determination on the continent is South Sudan and it took a fratricidal Africa’s longest civil war between the government in Khartoum and SPLA/M before the United Nation mandated referendum took place in 2011. The agreement for referendum was signed in Naivasha in 2005 but the war continues to the chagrin of many Africans.

The Organization of African Unity myopic embrace of the idea of the sanctity of colonial territories of member states was used against Biafra in Africa, even though Biafra had satisfied the essential elements of statehood in international law namely, population, government, permanence and a reasonable measure of effectiveness at least for the time it lasted. What it lacked is the recognition of such number states that would have strengthened its claim to statehood at international law. Biafra was only recognized by Tanzania, Gabon, Cote’d Ivoire, Zambia and Haiti.

Over 50 years after the Nigerian Civil War, the idea of an independent and sovereign Biafra would not go away. All through the period of military rule, the idea was swept under the carpet and jackboots of military dictatorship. The fourth republic revived it under MASSOB and now IPOB. As the saying goes, “nothing can stop and idea whose idea has come”. To which I add, it may be delayed but we need to confront it front and center. The idea by some current political fat cats in Abuja that we cannot discuss the terms of our union as a nation is ludicrous.

International law does not equate self-determination to secession. Secession is not the only, even a necessary or an appropriate means of realizing the right of self-determination in many situations and there is a strong presumption against secession in non-colonial situations. It is also true that secession is often sought by ambitious leaders who could not get their way through the will of the people exercised freely via the ballot box. The fact remains that neither Covenants nor any other provisions of international law prohibit minorities from seeking secession where the government no longer represents their interests. As Malone argued, it is only if self-determination cannot be realized within the established state, that secession may be necessary as a last resort.

The recognition by the international community of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia shows that any government which is oppressive to its constituents within its territory may no longer hide under the cloak of territorial integrity as a limitation on the right of self-determination. The recognition of Bangladesh from Pakistan, Singapore from Malaysia and Belize, despite the justifiable claim of Guatemala indicate that uti possidetis juris principle is dead in International law. It is no longer jus cogens!

In order for democracy to thrive, be consolidated and firmly entrenched anywhere, the constituent elements of any given country must evolve through dialogue equitable arrangements and rules of their association. Our current constitutions has a lacunae on the critical issues of self-determination of the peoples of Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria must through meaningful dialogue with its constituent elements guarantee effective and equitable participation of all groups in the political process for it to be a responsive and functional federation of nationalities. Rights of ethnic majorities and minorities must be acknowledged and respected. An atmosphere of healthy competition and responsible sharing of resources that acknowledged derivative rights of indigenous peoples must be honored. This is the path to reducing the tendency towards extremist agitation for self-determination.

The war before the War: How the Voluble Nigerian Press "Sabre Rattling" Contributed to and Needlessly Elongated the Nigerian Civil War

 

Blogging Wale Adebanwi paper titled "The War before the War: The Press and the Nigerian Crisis

 The crucial role of the press in construction, amplification and resolution of societal crisis has been noted by scholars writing from different perspectives and honouring differing theoretical traditions. As the Nigerian military chiefs meeting in Aburi, Ghana in 1967 pointed out, the Nigerian press is at the vortex of politics and it is one of the few institutions that often set the tone and tenor of political debates and what is regarded as political reality.

Yet, the press organizations in Nigeria are representatives of dominant ethno-regional and/or ethno-religious interests contending for ascendancy in the nation's politics. The wars that these newspapers fight are almost always, fought on behalf of dominant ethno-regional or ethno-religious blocs, which was why the Morning Post the defunct federal military government owned newspaper pandering to the interests of the northern-military officers-led government, and the New Nigerian representing the North constituted the greatest impediments to national cohesion for Lt. Col. Odemgwu Ojukwu, the then military governor of the East; for the then head of state, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, the Eastern Nigerian Outlook, owned by the aggrieved Eastern Region was the most guilty of this offence. For Lt. Col. Hassan Katsina, the military governor of the North, teh Outlook was the unbearable proverbial pain in the neck.

The press in Nigeria has always fought war, many of them ennobling, some purely enabling. From its inception in 1859 when Iwe Irohin was founded by Rev. Henry Townsend “to wage war against ignorance, illiteracy and paganism.” The press has often functioned as the “war machine” of disparate interests. Given this backdrop, it has also often been polarized along different lines, the most paramount of which is the establishment/anti-establishment polarity. From the period of Akitoye Ajasa’s Nigerian Pioneer  which a rival paper described as “a lick spittle” , because of its support for the colonial government, these polar-relations have defined the character of the press in Nigerian. However the polar-relations have been defined by and in turn have defined the power relations in the country.

Wale Adebanwi in this paper analyses media discourses in the period preceding the actual outbreak of hostilities –civil war-with a view of highlighting the signifiers of crucial issues that were at stake in the crisis. These signifiers codify the core issues, grievances and viewpoints that were absorbed, elaborated and amplified by the press. Before the first shot was fired, the press had fired several shots in different directions, which provided the impetus, in part, and reflected the other bases, for the civil war.

How did the press reflect the contending issues? What role did the press play? Did the media discourses set the tone and tenor of the crisis and the war that was to follow? What implications do the discourses of this era have for post-war political relations? Unless we look at the events preceding the war, particularly in terms of how they were represented in the media, we cannot fully understand the representations of the war in the post war period, marked as they are by the binary discourses of victory and loss-and the unceasing low-intensity hostilities that continue till the present day.

Wale Adebanwi uses four newspapers’ editorials, data and opinion pages published daily during the period of the Nigerian civil war and concluded that the press is complicit in the passion that characterized the pursuit of the manifold issues that faced the young nation of Nigeria post-independence as they inflated the claims and invested the “canon” of each of the opposing parties “too much sanctity, freedom, unity and morality. The discourses of each of the contending parties advanced by Morning Post (federal government), West African Pilot (East), New Nigerian (North) and Nigerian Tribune (West) editorials reflected more openly and without apologies, the interests they served and protected. He used qualitative methods to analyze no less than 1000 daily editions of the four newspapers with an average of 250 per newspaper. His data includes, 1,200 editorials, 30 front page stories and 5 opinion articles relevant to the crisis.

Wale segmented the discourses into 5 signifiers: Silent Signifiers, Signifiers of Unity, Signifier of fragmentation, Signifiers of Doom and Signifiers of Symbolic Insults.

Silent Signifiers

Silent signifiers are threads that link up other past issues to the matter at hand even without clearly drawing the link, but they are easily linked by the reader who is familiar with the past events.

For example, the idea of unitarism had been pushed vigorously by the West African Pilot (WAP) as articulated by its owner Nnamdi Azikiwe, before independence, and then abandoned it, as Zik joined Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello  in the latter argument’s argument for a federal arrangement. However when Major-General Johnson T. Aguiyi-Ironsi, and Igbo came to power and revived the idea of unitary government, WAP picked up the battle again. Igbo elites post independence supported a centralized government to protect their predominance in commerce in any part of the country and give them the opportunities they crave wherever they are. Here is how WAP captures the introduction of a “unitary budget” for 1966-1967 fiscal year:

“Nigeria’s 1966-1967 Unitary Budget will go down in history as the only realistic fiscal approach to the national problems of this country since independence.”

WAP was silent on the fact that this fits in quite well with the Igbo agenda in national politics “since in fact before independence”. The paper asked the Ironsi government to go further by abolishing the word “federal” attached to Nigeria. If it does, the paper intones:

“the name of the military government of Nigeria will be written in gold as the only Go-Getter Government that brought unity to this country.”

Given the fact that the only other government that Nigeria had had was the northern-elite led Tafawa Balewa government led government, WAP needed not to state that that was not a “go-getter government” that failed to bring “unity”.

Given the tension building up in the country at the time, particularly in the north, which was then the most dissatisfied section of the country, WAP pointedly ignored this, as if everything was normal, as it reported when Ironsi began a country-wide tour-during which he was killed and his regime overthrown- “that we are marching to progress.

This silence was matched by the peculiar silence of the New Nigerian, which also seemed to ignore the tension-or rather, to speculate, did not want to let out the coup-cat from the crisis-bag! In all of July when the tension actually boiled over, NN concentrated on other issues.

Signifiers of Unity

All the newspapers were very elaborate about “Unity”, even though the discourses of “unity” were constructed in the service of the positions that they served. We see this in the way WAP and MP handled this issue of agitation for a Calabar-Ogoja Rivers State. WAP had a lead story announce to minorities in the Igbo East that they have hope of realizing their dreams. This was while Ironsi was still in power. But by the time Gowon came to power and the Igbo began their quest for a separate state, MP began a different discourse of unity:

“All we mean is that personal (read, Lt. Col. Ojukwu) clannish or sectional (read Igbo) interests should be considered subordinate to the overall interest of the nation.”

This preoccupation with fighting for unity did not prevent the MP for instance from somersaulting on its position. On the best political arrangement that will ensure unity in Nigeria, MP under Ironsi insisted that

“The country has suffered too much from tribalism. The people must unite. And the best and only way to achieve this is through a unitary form of government.”

In three months, soon after Gowon came to power, MP was first, reluctant to state categorically, and later, stated emphatically that federal arrangement was the best for Nigeria:

“(First) …Perhaps our unity lies through (sic) a federal system of government.
(Then)…But still, we are convinced that federalism could suit a society such as ours better than a unitary government.”
(Again)…As far as we are concerned, Nigeria needs a federation in which the center is strong enough to strong enough to sustain the nation…One thing is clear to the people of this country and that is their goal-which is the unity of the country.”

As stated earlier, “unity” meant different things to the different newspapers. Unity for the New Nigerian, in the wake of the mass exodus of the Igbo from the North, was a consolation that:

“out of this tragedy has (sic) emerged one great lesson and a guiding principle to generations to come. This that to live as a nation, the maturity of the mind, steadfastness and the appreciation of spiritual values are desirable attitudes, and that these qualities must for in the philosophy on which the new nation must subsist.”

It (NN) surmises further that this unity cannot be imposed by force but slowly and gradually built on goodwill.

For Nigerian Tribune, the release of Awolowo from prison marks the “beginning of new crusade of a new social and political force towards building of a Nigerian nation welded together by genuine unity and strength”.

For WAP, “everyone from every part of the country stands to gain by the spirit of oneness among the people.”

Unity did not, however necessarily translate to national unity, unity discourses were also unity of the ethnic groups/blocs in contention. Tribune for instance quibbled:

“It is high time the Yoruba took a firm stand on a number of issues confronting the region in particular and (the) uneasy federation in general.”

The NN stated that “our leaders at this weeks meeting must bear in mind that they have the support of some twenty-nine million people. They must not fail us.”

While the East was preparing for war in the late 1966, Morning Post stated “Anyone who condones or abets any such move as secession today must be regarded as an accomplice of those who want to sabotage the Nigerian union.”

This “unity” constituted the battle cry of the newspapers even as they pursued different goals in the crisis leading up to the civil war.

Signifiers of Fragmentation

Wale Adebanwi also found signifiers of a county united in its fragmentation. As much as newspapers helped the idea of unity, they also constantly reflected the deep divisions in the country, which lead to the signifiers of doom.

WAP seemed to have captured the polarized nature of the politics of that era when in its attack on an unnamed daily in ‘Northern Nigeria’ (apparently New Nigeria) it charged:

“(I)s trying hard to introduce polemics into the politics of Nigerian again. We have in mind an article published in the 19 April issue of that paper which called for the abrogation of unitarism as a tenet of Nigeria’s reconstruction program … At this stage in our national metamorphosis, we regard it as calculated sabotage or incitement for anybody to do any act overt or covert to engender tribal bitterness or sectional ill feelings. …”

For much of the time, the newspapers also took on one another over some of the crucial issues at stake. For instance, when a British envoy visited the north, New Nigerian expressed the hope that:

“Sir Francis (the British envoy) will learn something of the feelings and opinions of the North regarding international and other issues in which Britain is involved and covey these to the British and if the North has strong feelings on various matters which feature in the headlines, this is the opportunity to pass them on.”

In response, WAP argued vehemently against the internalization of the crisis at this point. It pointed out that Sir Francis is not responsible for reporting feelings in the North to the Head of the Military Government nor is the North the responsibility of the British government. WAP argued further that the editorial exposed where NN stood on the crisis and who its ‘masters’ were. Subsequently, the South based paper called

“Upon the good people of Nigeria who have welcomed the Army take over (sic) to see this issue in its true light and watch out… The only interpretation therefore is that the British envoy is being invited to hear their (Northerners’) grievances, process them and report to Britain. Surely, Britain is not the governing authority unless there is more to it than meets the eye.”

For the NN, the day of mourning for Easterners killed in the pogrom in the north was something “every reasonable and right-thinking Nigerian would loathe’. It asked what while the East mourned those it lost in the aftermath of the July 1966 coup, was it not also important to mourned those who died during the mad outrages of January 1966 (in the Igbo led coup).

WAP in turn advocated that the federal government imposed a collective fine taxable people of the north to ensure that the sum of 27,000 pound sterling was paid to the Easterners displaced by the pogrom in the north.

During negotiation at Aburi in Ghana, the NN preoccupation was not the unity of Nigeria, rather it pressed the leaders of the North not to “seek concession and reach compromise purely for the sake of unity that cannot stand the test of time.”

WAP was diametrically opposed to this stand as it urge the delegates to recognize that the first essential is for an agreement to be reached unanimously on the form of association that can hold the various components of the federation together with a minimum of friction.

The Morning Post will have none of all these pandering to accommodate the grievances of the East. Long before the federal military government thought of taking first a police action, then a small scale military action, and later a full scale military action against the Eastern regional government, MP stated that it felt

“compelled to repeat the call we made a few weeks ago that the government should be ruthless in maintaining the peace in the country.. The Supreme Commander (Gowon therefore should) go all out to crush the saboteurs.”

Signifiers of Doom

The newspapers during this period were also given to predicting doom as consequence either for an action or inaction, for or against the interests that each of the newspapers served.

MP argued that disintegration would “spell disaster for Nigeria… and ends in everlasting sorrow.”

New Nigerian echoes the coming-doom thesis, arguing that the nation trembles on the brink of anarchy and despair. In September 1966, NN states that “A full scale civil war of the most awful kind is a prospect that must be feared and avoided at all costs.”

The Nigerian Tribune (NT) states “ the nation is sitting on a tinderbox.” As tensions rose with discussions over the withdrawal of troops to their region of origin (particularly northern troops in the West), NT argued that “What we (WEST) needs is a crash program to recruit and train not less than 4,300 Yoruba within a few weeks. This will bring the quota of the Yoruba in line with those of other ethnic groups.” NT is emphatic in its call: “Let the Northern troop go.”

When Ojukwu stated the East would not secede “unless it is pushed” , NN states “What is the East up to? Does she mean what she says or is she playing for time? We can’t understand why the East is so apparently intent to inflict more hurt upon itself.

Few months later, NT asked the federal government to face down the East quickly: “if we have the force and the will to bring the East into line by armed intervention, let it be done now with dispatch.” Nigerian Tribune considers both the Hausa north and the Igbo East as potential foolish outsiders who  were contriving to invoke doom on Yorubaland. It further states that Yorubas must not allow people on the lunatic fringe to involve them in the present mass killings and molestation.

WAP emphasized during these difficult times that “until the East is pacified, the question of considering the future association of Nigeria is out of the question.”

Signifiers of Symbolic Insult

Central to the foregoing discourse were strong negative or abusive words and images of the OTHER.

Shortly after the ascendancy of Gowon, WAP wondered at the “strange nationalism” of the NN, which had under Ironsi trumpeted “domination” by the Igbo and was now no longer concerned with domination.

“At one time, domination stunt used to fill the pages of some of these newspapers… These days, domination stunt disappeared ..given way to the kind of oneness desired by the paper.”

The WAP even speculated under Ironsi, given NN’s attitude towards the regime, that “government might be provoked to take precipitate action against it.”

When MP and Daily Sketch (owned by the central ruling party’s ally government in the West) attacked each other in late 1966, WAP described them as “birds of the same nest” which had played identical roles at all material times in the crises that have torn Nigeria apart.” The Pilot states that this vicious circle of government newspapers contains germs of the their own destruction and maybe soon canceling out themselves.

All the rival newspapers were guilty of exaggerating little incidents and creating imaginary stories to suit them. In reference to the famed elocution of Oxford-educated Ojukwu, MP warned that “when all the English of Oxford has been spoken and the British encyclopedia exhausted, the people of Nigeria will still down to finding how best they can live together.”

NN excoriated Pilot for its type of journalism “such an information medium should hag its head in shame for helping to tear the country into pieces.” In a veiled reference to the North which had a preponderance of beggars, the Pilot stated that whether the East got assistance or not after the pogrom, it would survive, since Easterners are not a race of beggars.”

Conclusion

It was clear in the period under review that these journalists saw their media as representatives of the warring regions. Perhaps one major indicator of the acrimonious battle was a two part front page editorial by the Tribune after the collapse of the First Republic titled, “Scrap the Sketch 1 & 2”

The NN put the war before the war in a sharp focus when it noted with unusual candor that even the NN is conscious of its fall from grace, but it has always sought to find the truth. It has not always succeeded … but having said that, let us acknowledge that the Nigeria’s press-even the government-controlled ones- can do much more to restore peace in the country than they are doing.”

As William Connolly observes, drive to wholeness becomes destructive for these newspapers when they all obsessively interpret the cultural identity they participate in to be the best available copy of a true model and place that model above the threshold of legitimate interrogation in politics.” What is required is for us and the organizations we represent is to challenge the reductions, simplifications and selective mobilizations of resentment through which self-proclaimed partisans of the ethnic, group or regional bloc appropriate the most potent symbols of morality, faith virtue and belonging.”

Will history repeat itself? Let us take a page of lesson from history.

Press Freedom and the Nigerian Media Landscape

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." ?????

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle." ?????

If I were to ask you who utter these two statements, you would probably think two different persons. One a friend of press freedom and the other an opponent of free press. Well, you are wrong. These 2 statements were uttered at different times by the same person. The first quote is often trot out by journalist and repeated ad nauseam when some government officials push back against the media. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first statement in a letter to his friend, Edward Carrington in 1787. He made 2 assumptions that is currently subjected to epistemological inquiry: First, will there be newspapers to read for the next generation? Secondly, who is reading newspaper and are they capable of reading them? Let's just say the jury is still out on these 2 posers. 

Now to the second quote, in 1807, the same Thomas Jefferson, wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper by the name, John Norvell to complain about misinformation in newspapers. He further wrote, "I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false."

What brings me to this quotes is none other than the sad and perilous state of the free press in Nigeria. A cursory glance of the major newspapers headline today awash with reports of Big Brothers (BBNaija), English Premiership League, Gulder Ultimate Search etc. You will get to the inner/lower pages of their webpages/newspapers before you find information on the budgetary process, the Pandora expose' and the ongoing war against bandits/Boko Haram. Even when it focuses on hard hitting news, it is no longer uncommon to find 2 newspapers located in the same City contradicts each other on the same facts/reports.

These concerns led me to dig through the history of Nigeria newspapers and free press and what I found astounds me. Nigerian journalism indeed owes more to its colonial origins than it sometimes cares to admit, apologies to Ayo Olukotun. The British heritage as he stated is a paradoxical one, as the vibrancy of the Anglophone West African Press at the beginning easily beats out the tepid and state oriented Francophone African Press. While it is true that Britain allowed in West African the liberties of the British subject including freedom of expression and freedom to travel and study abroad, this is only half the story. For instance, it is well known that the British did place in the way of "the embryonic Nigerian colonial press", several obstacles ranging from censorship laws, to partial  bans and outright proscription, especially when press militancy coincided as it often did, with high tides of political agitation. Is that any different from GEJ or Buhari"s approach to press freedom? I doubt not.

As Olukotun wrote, "We can appreciate this paradoxical legacy by regarding it as an inefficient dictatorship, which had enough latitude for an oppositional press to grow, but yet acted to restrict the expression of liberty when it got assertive enough to challenge imperial hegemony".

The early newspapers such as "Iwe Irohin" (1859) bore the imprint of Christian missionary influence, which in its bid to evangelize Nigerians, educated them and stimulated publishing. But those who argue that the Nigerian press was born in persecution are right, for as early as 1862, Governor H. S. Freeman, had written to the Colonial Office in London asking to be permitted to impose a newspaper tax, which would prevent newspapers from becoming commercial successes. The governor's request was rejected by London, but it served warning that an indigenous  press would not be allowed to mushroom without a fight.

Another early attempt to hinder the burgeoning local press occurred when Governor John Glover, having failed to stifle the London-printed African Times, through outright confiscation, in view of public outcry, arranged for its slow and late delivery by the post office whenever it carried a politically sensitive matter. This brings back to memory the deliberate efforts of General Ibrahim Babangida to deny news paper publishers access to import license they needed for importation of newsprint.

In spite of these early setbacks, the press in Nigeria did grow in leaps, bounds, number and technical proficiency, so much so that over 50 newspapers sprung up between 1880 and the early 1940s featuring such titles as Lagos Times (1880), Eagle and Lagos Critic (1883); Lagos Weekly Record (1891), Chronicle (1908), Nigerian Daily Times (1926) and West African Pilot (1937). 

Two developments worth noting in the early colonial press were the breadth and vitality of the Lagos Weekly Record founded by John Payne Jackson regarded as the authentic precursor of the yet-to-come nationalist press, as well as the spate of colonial laws put in place to  check what was increasingly perceived as "the regime of hostile propaganda against the colonial administration".

Some of the remarkable anti-press legislations of this early period include the 1903 Newspaper Ordinance which imposed a heavy tax on newspaper publishing for instance a mandatory deposit of 250 pounds, the Criminal Code Ordinance of 1961 as well as the Sedition Offences Ordinances of 1909 and 1942 which empowered the judiciary among other things, to send to jail journalists found guilty of provoking disaffection or hatred as defined by the authorities.

The catch, for example about the Seditious Offences Ordinance of 1909 was in its Section 3 which states that:

“Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or tries to excite disaffection, disloyalty or feelings of enmity towards His Majesty or the government established by law in southern Nigerian, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to 2 years, or with a fine or with imprisonment and fine.”

Such clumsy and oppressive laws did not prevent a vigorous press from arising and asserting itself with increasing verve especially from the end of the Second World War. The Azikwe group of newspapers as the saying went “elec-zikified” Nigerian journalism. These newspapers included, among others Eastern Nigerian spokesman, Daily Comet; Eastern Sentinel; Southern Nigerian Defender and Nigerian Monitor.

These newspapers were spread across the nation, thus giving shape to a sense of nationalism in spatial terms. They also popularized banner headlines, used photographs and carried a mass appeal by using simple English. Zik practiced political journalism at its most vitriolic, and a distinguishing feature of the latter colonial press is the rise of the party press in which the leading, regionally based parties owned and controlled newspapers for politically expedient reasons.

It should be noted that not all newspapers in the colonial period were anti-colonial. Some, like Kitoyi Ajasa’s Nigeria Pioneer as well as, to a lesser extent The Daily Times were pro-colonial, while some publications spent more time attacking other nationalists than agitating against colonialism. Overall, however, the agitational strain prevailed and names like Ernest Ikoli, Herbert Macaulay, MCK. Ajuluchukwu, Anthony Enahoro, Babatunde Jose, among others made their reputation and careers from the anti colonial journalism of those times.

The Media and the Build up tot he War 1960-1965

Between 1960 and the collapse of the First Republic, the major newspapers included The Daily Times, The Express and The Post. These three strove to be above the partisan fray that engulfed the other papers, most of which were established as political party mouthpieces.

The North was served mainly by the Nigerian Citizen with a circulation of close to 10,000 and Gaskiya a Hausa language publication. There was also the Kano-based Daily Mail which appeared in both English and Hausa with an estimated circulation of 10,000 and notable for flying pro-Sardauna kites.

The East was well served by the Outlook described by Holman as the spearhead of "NCNC propaganda". There was also the Port Harcourt based Eastern Nigerian Guardian and the Onitsha based Nigerian Spokesman. Chief Festus Okotieboh also floated The Midwest Champion to advance the struggle for the creation of the Midwest Region. In the West, there was The Sketch; The Nigerian Tribune established by the Action Group as well as the pro-NNDP's Imole Owuro. Then, we had The West African Pilot which during the crisis of 1963-1965 adopted a pronounced Pro-UPGA position.

The Legal Environment

The colonial regime was updated and those laws which restricted press freedom during the colonial phase remained on the statute books. Nonetheless, Section 24 of the 1960 constitution states that:

Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.

The impact of this provision is however weakened in subsection 2:

 nothing in this section shall invalidate any law that is reasonable, justifiable in a democratic society in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health."

Although the boundaries of press freedom were put to test by a series of legal suits against newspapers, their impact was weakened because [quote]the tendency was for such cases to follow the contours of party schisms with pro-NCNC papers being taken to court by persons identified with other parties while persons identified with the NCNC or NPC took pro-AG papers to court."- Agbaje[/quote]

Indeed as is widely acknowledged, a feature of that period was the extreme degree of partisanship which the press displayed especially during the AG crisis of 1962-3; the Census Controversy of 1963-4 and the 1964, 1965 election crisis.

As Olatunji Dare laments, 

Even when the intentions of the press were relatively neutral, several obstacles stood in the way of the press performing neutrally... The politicians abused neutrality by making reckless and unproven allegations against their opponents which the neutral press nevertheless felt obliged to print. The neutral press was vulnerable to vengeful reprisal especially in areas where partisanship was the order of the day

In fact, these vengeful refusals became so bad that in 1965, during the election controversy, the Onitsha urban County Council and the Enugu City Council banned the circulation of The Times, The Post and The Sketch. Imaginably, the Ibadan City Council revenged by banning The Pilot, The Tribune and The Daily Times. These setbacks notwithstanding, the press operated with a crusading spirit by struggling against censorship laws such as the Official Secrets Act (1962) and The Newspaper (Amendment) Act of 1964, both of which sought to constrain the press.

Larry Diamond is correct therefore in insisting that the press of the first Republic was the 

most potent institution supporting democratic freedom. There is a tradition of hard-hitting, fearless and independent journalism which was carried over from the colonial days when the press was the spearhead of nationalism. Though most papers are intensely partisan, they have several times agreed with each other and opposed the authorities who sought to restrict freedom of the press or individuals.

As Olukotun and Sonaike testify in 1996 in their book on Babatunde Jose, a robust media tradition in which columnists had a field day satirising or frankly deploring the excesses of the political class was preponderant.

Can this explains the low education rate of Northern Nigeria?

I am usually inspired by comparative history and philosophical thoughts. A recent interview on Slate.com got me thinking about our dear country Nigeria and its many hydra headed problems. When I finished reading the piece, many questions came to mind: Can this idea help explain the low education rates in the Northern Nigeria and the disastrous way bandits and herdsmen saga has played out in the region and Nigeria as a whole? Is there anything we could learn from our history on how to encourage education, particularly girl child education without further triggering the reaction of retreat to violence and terrorism that ISWAP and Boko Haram has unleashed on the state? 

This piece explores these critical question at this particular time in the history of our nation as we celebrate the nation independence. Moreso, now that the North has become the focus of intense critique, violence and banditry backyard.

The phrase inferiority complex was coined by the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler in the early 20th  century. He said that we all feel a sense of inferiority sometimes, but for that to develop into a “complex,” there have to be a couple of elements: a consciousness that you are deemed inferior, which comes at some kind of moment when you realize, “People think I am less than.” Then there are some environmental conditions that make that person who has that moment of realization more likely to develop a “complex”: lack of education, poverty, authoritarian religion. In the wider core North, as a region, all three of those environmental conditions are prevalent. That moment of public consciousness, in this case, often looks like public criticism—times when there’s been intense scrutiny of the region.

If we examine pre and post colonial history of the region, we see these conditions writ large. Adler in his theory explains that individuals that develop an inferiority complex usually respond with one of three different compensations. First, they might deem someone else inferior. Second, they change the rules by which they are deemed inferior. Third, they retreat or escape from the society or institution or community that’s deemed them inferior.

Let me respectfully argued that the whole experience of Northern hegemony penchant for power and the attendant cycle of criticism, then backlash and entrenchment, or changing the rules. This pattern might help us understand the resistance to change, defensiveness, and reflex to turn toward sectarianism, be it Sunni or Shia denomination has dominated Northern culture in the last 120 years. 

In a recent interview in celebration of his birthday, Elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Second Republic politician and ACF member made a stunning revelation on Nigeria's first attempt to get independence. Yakassai said the northern region opposed the motion for Nigeria to be a sovereign state in 1953 because north could not compete with the South. Here’s him in his own words,

“This was because as at 1953, the entire Northern Region, which had 75 per cent of Nigeria’s landmass and about 55 per cent of the country’s population, had only one graduate, Dr. R.A.B Dikko. At the same time, the South had thousands of graduates from different fields of expertise including law, engineering, medicine, administration, social sciences, etc. with about 90 per cent of the public services manpower in the North were made up of expatriates or Nigerians from the southern part of the country. Action Group leaders rejected the compromise proposed by the northern legislator in order to enable the north prepare itself for independence. This is because if Nigeria was granted independence by 1956, the North would be under the control of the civil servants from the South, a situation that will put the North under perpetual domination of the South, particularly people from the Western Region, which had the preponderance of the public servants at the time.”

Take a moment to follow that logic, Northern region would rather be under the yoke of colonialism with its attendant racist policies than fight for independence with the rest of the country. I leave you to draw your own conclusions. If this is not an inferiority complex, I don’t know what else it is. If we follow the elder statesman logic, we could still be waiting for independence today as the North is still far behind in the education of its citizens. 

It is this line of thought that breeds a situation where an insurrection led by largely poor northern youths protesting the killing of their spiritual leader, Mohammed Yusuf, by security forces gave birth to the Boko Haram insurgency which has lasted for several years till date.

The militants have grown from ragtag fighters to a group of well-armed terrorists with international connections. They have increased their list of demands to include an end to Western education, the establishment of an Islamic republic. Designated as one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups, the Boko Haram terrorist group has killed thousands and forced several others to flee their homes.

Lower incomes, lower education levels are at higher rates in the North. Poverty is all over Nigeria, north, south, east and west but it is particularly more pronounced in the North. Those things are true everywhere , but in the North, there is also the historical lack of access to health care, because a lot of the North is rural and poor. There’s a lack of access to doctors, a lack of health insurance, a lack of a concept of preventive health care. All of those numbers lag in the North. The diseases that had long been eliminated all over the World are still menacing people in the North. And yet the region draws more income from the national coffers than any other region. Look at the population of childhood diseases in the North compare to the south. It’s all down to school enrollment and vaccination record in primary school. What is more, elderly people are dying of communicable diseases at higher rates in the North than the South. It might also be because southerners have access to regular doctors than north and yet some states in the North will rather hire foreign medical professions than Nigerian who are non-indigenes.

It is not that some Northern leaders don’t see this as a problem, but they are content to exploit this “us vs them” situation to get the vote of the talakawas. Take for instance, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who probably because he’s term limited, said recently that the greatest evil from open grazing is the inability of herders’ children to get education.

“I have been saying it; is unfortunate that the issue of open grazing have brought a lot of controversy. Trekking from the northern part of this country to the middle belt or central part of this country or to the south, to me, is not acceptable. The children will not be able to have education, which to me it is criminal. The greatest crime in migrating from North to South for grazing is lack of education for the children. As far as I am concerned, that is the greatest crime; you denying somebody education. No Islamic education, no western education, nothing whatsoever; that is why we are in these problems now.”

The only thing the North seems to share with the South is a strong belief in prayer—God will protect, you’re going to die from something, the rewards of heaven are not to be feared. Insha Allah- as God willeth. But it wasn’t so in the South before the rise of pentecostal evangelicalism in the South. But of course there’s just plain tribalism and othering of other races and ethnicities, because for a while when primordial ethnic proclivity started during Obasanjo years, with OPC, APC, MASSOB, it was considered to be the work of politicians. And now IPOB and Yoruba nation activist and militants are threatening to blow up the nation if their separatists desire is not actualized. 

The truth of the matter is these are mostly a reaction to Northern hegemonic tendencies. 

While there has been significantly higher death rate from the hands of bandits in the north (in Kaduna, for instance, the paramount ruler of Atyap Chiefdom, Dominic Yahaya, claimed recently that over 50 villagers lost their lives during sustained attacks on villages within his domain over a four-week period), and fatalities in the northeast, (hotbed of Boko Haram/ISWAP), the violence and gruesome murder is fast spreading to the east and the west. A heart-rending video of the last moments of Dr. Chike Akunyili, the husband of the late Dora Akunyili, former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, also made it into public space. He was shot and killed on the streets of his home state, Anambra on September 28, 2021. His murder was one of several over the last couple of months. Bandits equally invaded Ilesa in Igbomina in southwest, maiming and killing farmers and their household.

One can easily conclude that life is short and brutish in Nigeria of today, be it, north, south, west or East but the daring bandits raids in the North with all the presence of the military operations by the federal government is mind boggling. The initial notion was, that this will soon past away, but more and more states in the north are completely run over by bandits. A federal legislator from the northwest cried out recently that his constituency has been completely obliterated by banditry. So the comparison with the South is non sequitor.

We can readily apply the same recommendations made by Angie Maxwell, a professor of political science and director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas on US southern history/psychology and opposition to vaccination to the Northern menace Nigeria is going through. 

Professor Maxwell, in an interview with Rebecca Onion of Slate (which I adapted for this piece) recommends 2 things provided we are well aware of the role public criticism and ridicule plays, and the defensive compensations that come with it. 

The first thing is: internal messengers, who could lean into the con and give an explanation as to why it makes sense to get Western education now. Saying something that gives people a way out, to save face: The old colonial education wasn’t really that bad, even though they told us it was, and back then I wouldn’t have done it either. But this new era, it’s good for young people. Something to make it OK for young people to show up and say, OK, now I think it’s the right thing to do. We will need Northern upper middle class to stand up and be counted on this score.

The other thing is mandates. I don’t usually like government mandates. I think they should be rare. But I feel like an educational mandate in this case is a way for people to save themselves. A lot of these people are marks of a con, and a mandate, as much as they may hate you for it, could very well save their life, and save the lives of others. We should discard the pretense that northern youths that could not obtain western education will probably get Islamic education. It’s is a false equivalence. The biggest investment in Western education outside the Western Hemisphere is currently being made by Islamic countries like UAE and Saudi Arabia. There’s a reason why Saudi Aramco solar energy research investment is not done in Qatar or Riyadh. China with all its competitive edge still spends more to send its students to western universities. 

In Northern Nigeria, there are some things the government has had to force to make it happen. Mandate compulsory western education if you truly desire to catch up. Islamic education should be complimentary and not a replacement. There’s bound to backlash to such bold policy, a resentment, but it is a necessary evil to break free from this inferiority complex. As a self professed libertarian, I know mandates should be rare but this one is inevitable, especially on something like this, where it affects massive number of poor children.

There will be a political backlash; there will be a price to pay. But it’s worth it.

This write up is inspired by an interview on slate.com

 Here is another update on 2021 summer reading book blogging series:

"The Nigerian Army and the "Liberation of Asaba: A Personal Narrative"- Stanley I. Okafor

 Excerpted from The Nigerian Civil and its Aftermath edited by Osaghae, Onwudiwe & Suberu

"This [is] a personal narrative of what I personally saw of the activities of the Nigerian military in Asaba. ...To describe these events as a nightmare is an understatement. My father, Mr. Nma Okafor, a senior civil servant in the government of what was then the Midwestern State, was killed. Also killed were his junior brother, Mr. Chukwuemeka Okafor, a police officer, and his first cousin, Mr. Sunday Okafor, a technician in self-employment.

My father and his brother were based in Benin City, while his cousin was based in Jos. His cousin returned to Asaba in the wake of the mass killings in the north. My father and his brother returned home just ahead of the arrival of Federal troops in Benin City.

When the fall of Benin City became imminent, my father sent eh rest of the family home to Asaba, while he alone stayed behind in Benin, at his job. The first nightmare of the family was when my father failed to arrive at Asaba with the rest of our people who had fled from Benin when it fell to the Federal troops. We could not sleep during the night. ..I was asked to go in the direction of St. Patrick College (SPC) in case I would see him driving into town. SPC was then at the entry point to Asaba.

We live in Cable Point Asaba, which is the opposite of the town from SPC. Around Catholic Hospital, I saw his car in the distance, driving towards me and as the care moved nearer, I heaved a sigh of relief when I realized it was actually him. The care was completely smeared in mud, as if it had been in a safari rally.

When the fall of Asaba became imminent, some relations came to our house in Cable Point and told my father that we should all go into hiding in the bush, way out of town. He said there was no need for such action. All that was needed was to be polite and friendly to the troops. It turned out that he was wrong.

Before going further with this narrative, it must be stressed that the phrase ‘fall of Asaba’ is misleading. There was hardly any battle for Asaba as the Biafran troops simply retreated into their territory (Biafra) and blew up the Onitsha end of the Niger Bridge to halt the advance of the Federal troops. This makes it even more difficult to figure out the rationale for the scale of the massacres in Asaba. Okocha, (1994) includes a list with 378 names which was compiled by the International Red Cross. But he rightly stressed that the list is not exhaustive, which is correct. For example, my father and Sunday Okafor were listed, whereas Chukwuemeka Okafor was not. Clearly the number of people massacred in Asaba is much larger than 378.

Before the Federal troops entered Asaba, they shelled the town for over twenty four hours from beyond SPC. The pounding was ferocious. As Achuzia (1987) observes, the intensity of the bombardment of Asaba made it obvious that the intention of the Federal troops was total war, and not police action as claimed by the federal government. During the period of the bombardment one could hear the shells whistle overhead then explode beyond our house, with neighboring houses taking direct hits sometimes. We were lucky that none of the shells hit our house. But it was a period of heightened anxiety as we all clustered on the lee side of our house during the day time.

It would appear that the troops entered the town at night because not too long after we woke up with two armed soldiers with fingers on their triggers, entered our compound and ordered everyone to go to the police barracks. As it turned out, the troops were mostly interested in men because the very young, the infirm and the aged were exempted. Thus, my paternal grandmother was spared the ordeal of a four kilometer walk to the police station. In my mind, I thought it was a standard routine procedure, and that at the police barracks the townsmen and women would be addressed by military officers and told what to do and what not to do. But my expectations were shattered when, after some two kilometer walk, somewhere near the Federal Ministry of Labor office on Nnebisi Road, I saw two men, lying flat on their backs, with the tops of their heads blown off, obviously from close range. Brains and blood smeared the ground around their heads. From their outfits one could tell that they were men of one of the white garment churches, probably returning from night prayers. They both wore long white garments, one with a bell in his hand, and the other with a lantern which was still burning.

This sight sent chills down my spine, and I immediately knew that all was not well, contrary to my earlier expectation. I remember walking behind my father most of the way to the barracks, dumbfounded by the gory sight I saw earlier, and not knowing what lay ahead. All along the way, I saw looting by troops. Household items were being loaded onto trucks: cookers, refrigerators, radiograms, furniture etc. Cars were stolen. In other cases car engines were dismantled and loaded onto trucks. When we got to the barracks I lost sight of my father and I never saw him again.

There was a mammoth crowd at the barracks, all sitting on the ground. We were kept there from morning till about 5 p.m. Every once in a while, a soldier would announce if anyone in the crowd knew Mr. X or Mr. Y, promising freedom to whoever would volunteer information and take soldiers to the residence of the named person. The purpose of this offer of freedom was obvious and I am not aware if anyone took up the offer. Also every once in a while someone would be fished out of the crowd, taken to the back of one of the buildings and shot. Thereafter silence would descend on the crowd after an initial but brief outpouring of grief. No one knew who would be next. Death stared everyone in the face.

 At 5 pm or thereabouts, the crowd was asked to disperse, not having had food or water since morning. This turned out to be the beginning of the real tragedy that befell Asaba. People went in different directions. The vast majority headed for the traditional part of the town that the mass killings took place. I did not witness them, but the events have been  well documented (see Okocha, 1994).  I was told the tales of horror by relations  and friends who miraculously escaped the killings. These tales will be addressed briefly later on.

When I got home in Cable Point, I was told that my father had come home earlier, in the company of two or so officers (I cannot remember the exact number now), and that he had taken them back in his car. While in our house, my paternal granny said they were entertained with a bottle of White Horse whisky. They took the remainder of it along with them. Apparently my father was well known to one of the officers. The feeling was that my father was in the company of friends and was therefore safe. Those who saw him leave the barrack in the company of the officers felt the same way. But he was never seen alive again.

Evening came and right came, and my father did not come back. At night we reenacted the vigil we kept when we were expecting him from Benin. At the sound of any vehicle, we would peep through the window only to discover it was a military jeep. Morning came and my mother left home in search of my father. Word had gone round that men were the main targets, and so it was unsafe for me to be out in the streets. Not too long after my mother left home, we saw her coming back, supported on both sides by two people, barely able to walk. The message was clear and we all broke down. My elder brother was working in Shell Port Harcourt when the war broke out and so I was the most senior male at home. I had to pull myself together and comfort my younger ones. My mother was distraught but my paternal granny was highly philosophical about her son’s death.

It is hard to know the circumstances of my father’s death. Was he dispossessed of his car by his ‘friends’, asked to go home and then ran into one of the many murderous bands of soldiers unleashed on Asaba? Was he dragged out of his car and then shot by the ‘friends’ he had earlier entertained at home? Was he killed in the day time or at night? We had no answers to these questions and still do not have answers to them. My mother found his body about one kilometer from our house in the compound of the Udobis, with gunshot wounds on his chest.  Since it was unsafe for men to be out on the streets, I could not see his body and so could not pay my last respects to him. It was the lot of my mother and my granny to clean the body and bury it in a shallow grave at the Udobis. It was there until 1985 when it was exhumed and re-buried in my elder brother compound on the eve of the traditional burial ceremonies for my father.

Back again to 1967. Later in the day that my father’s body was found, we heard a gunshot in the neighboring compound. Women were wailing and crying. A young man had been shot and two elderly men were ordered by the soldiers to dump the body in the Niger. Our house is close to the Niger; about 100 meter from it. Shortly after, the two soldiers crossed into our compound. I was outside the house, along with my elder sister and the younger ones, all of us still in state of shock occasioned by my father’s death. I had my little sister in my arms. One of the soldiers, the leader in fact was clearly of northern extraction. He was a regimental sergeant major (RSM). He was tall, black and big. He was drinking straight from a bottle of beer in one hand while the gun was held with the other.

As he came closer, he ordered me to drop my little sister and follow him to the bank of the Niger. We knew what that meant and we all started begging and pleading for my life. My elder sister was hysterical and asked to be shot instead. As if incensed by our pleas the RSM threw away his bottle of beer (obviously looted from a nearby shop), cocked his gun and asked me to move. At that point I got angry. I was angry because he was incensed by being asked to spare a life. So I put my little sister down and told him we should go. I do not know what happened, but my mother who had been speaking Hausa to the RSM all along must have said something that made him change his mind. What I do know is that at some point my mother gave him #30 pounds. He then warned that I should not be seen by any soldier, either in our compound or on the streets; that they had instructions to shoot and kill any male above five years, and that my younger brother was not even safe.

The rest of my family then decided I should hide in the ceiling. I then went up into the ceiling through the many-hole in the box room. I was provided with cushions form some chairs in our living room. I placed them at the top of one of the living room walls, they were fairly comfortable to sleep on. The ceiling was my home for two weeks,  with potty, face towel and all. I placed the cushions at a vantage point from where I could see the movement of soldiers in and out of the house, and so positioned myself safely in case they decided to shoot into the ceiling during any of their frequent calls. Fortunately our ceiling was never shot into. The soldiers did shoot into ceilings in some homes. It was hot and mosquito-infested up in the ceiling. But these inconveniences meant little in the face of death. After two weeks, when the killings had abated somewhat, I came down from the ceiling and left Asaba with the assistance of the Red Cross.

I escaped the house-to-house killing, which was one dimension of the massacres in Asaba. The greater tragedy was represented by the mass killings. As indicated earlier, these are reasonably well documented (Okocha, 1994). The large crowd that went from the police barracks to the traditional part of the town were joined by many more, and organized an impromptu dance to welcome the soldiers in an obvious effort to placate them. The troops separated the men from the women, and opened fire on the men, killing them in hundreds. All these detailed in (Okocha, 1994). There are mass graves in Asaba, the largest of which is probably the one in Ogbe-Osowa. I hope that someday the international community will come and dig up these mass graves in order to establish the scale of atrocities committed against Asaba people; an urbane, cosmopolitan, non-violent and non-aggressive people. I hope, too that someday the Asaba community will erect a befitting memorial to its sons and daughters murdered in cold blood by federal troops; a memorial with their names boldly inscribed on it.

The crimes and human right abuses perpetrated by the federal troops in Asaba are unimaginable. They murdered, they stole, they looted, they raped. My father’s care was recovered about a year later in Lagos, from an officer who became a military governor of one of the states. Some people were made to dig their own graves into which they were shot. Some were marched to the bank of Niger and shot there. These new strategies were adopted in order to avoid the problem of dealing with large numbers of bodies which the military faced in the killing fields of Ogbesowa. Okocha (1994, p. 65) describes one of the episodes as follows:

We dug another grace for ourselves. Before we were told to jump into the grave, two other brothers came in. One was an undergraduate of Ibadan University, the other was a civil servant. Both of them were dumped into the grave covered. The two were members of the Oyana family, but I have forgotten their first names now. 

Why this Scale of Atrocities

The answer to this question was suggested earlier. The scale of atrocities can be explained in terms of the character of the officers and men of the Nigerian military, and of the boundary effect. Concerning the issue of character, a pertinent question is what manner of humans can kill, loot, steal, and rape with glee and reckless abandon? Maybe psychologists and psychiatrists are best placed to characterize such humans. These are men who have no regard for human life, human rights, human dignity, and the rule of law. These are men for whom impunity and recklessness are central elements of their culture. It is only such men, who can behave the way the federal troops did in Asaba. Clearly a group with this culture should not be in charge of the affairs of humans.

Sadly, Nigeria has been in the hands of this group for more than 50 years. From military to militricians. Do we therefore need to stretch our imagination in order to figure out the origin of the level of violence and the erosion of values that today characterize Nigerian society? Most probably not. From Asaba massacre to Odi massacre, it is one long line of mass murder in a continuum genocidal tendencies and behaviours.

The character of the officers and men of the Nigerian military is the main factor responsible for the tragedy in Asaba and Odi. Other factors are secondary or contingent. These factors would have been insignificant but for the character factor. One of these other factors is the boundary effect. Boundaries are barriers to the movement of people, goods and services. Boundaries can either slow down movement or stop it completely. When this happens, the phenomenon that is moving, crowds or intensifies in the local area. If it is a positive phenomenon, the area benefits. But if it is negative phenomenon, the area is negatively impacted.

The blowing up of the Onitsha end of the Niger Bridge turned the Niger into an effective barrier to movement and so led to the congregation of soldiers in Asaba. They thus had the opportunity and time to commit atrocities. Each time the troops suffered reverses in attempting to cross the Niger, they took it out on Asaba people. Had the troops crossed over to the east in pursuit of Biafran soldiers, the federal troops would not have committed atrocities in Asaba; at least not on the same scale as they did. But the boundary effect is contingent on the character of the troops. A disciplined and highly professional military, whose officers and men have some minimum modicum of civility, will not massacre unarmed civilians simply because they are forced by circumstances to congregate in their midst. Had the character of the Nigerian troops been otherwise, the boundary effect (or any other factor, for that matter) would have been of no consequence. Therefore, the character of Nigerian troops is the fundamental reason why they perpetrated the scale of atrocities they committed in Asaba. The effects of all other factors are contingent.

The tragedy that befell Asaba during the civil war at the hands of Nigerian troops escaped the attention of the world when it happened. The full extent of the tragedy is beginning to come to light as survivors of the gory events tell their stories. The federal government, and indeed Nigeria were lucky that there were no satellite TV networks like CNN during the civil war. The gory event would have been beamed to the world and the outcome of the war may have been different. But it is important that the relics fo the gory events such as the mass graves in Asaba be visited and documented, it is also important that a memorial be erected for the victims of the massacre by the Asaba community.

The kind of humans who committed the atrocities witnessed in Asaba and Odi should never be allowed to be in charge of the affairs of men. Their culture of impunity, disregard for the rule of law and for human dignity is one that is not suitable for governance. The current state of the Nigerian economy and society is largely the aftermath of the dominant role of the military/militricians and their culture in governance. Recent revelations in various panels and commissions clearly indicated that the looting and destruction perpetrated in Asaba and Odi were extended to the resources of the nation.

References

Okocha, E. (1994) Blood on the Niger: An Untold story of the Nigerian Civil War. Lagos: Gom Slam

my commentary italicized

How to kill a nation by destroying the souls of its nationalities

"The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism” – Professor Wole Soyinka. 

 Sometimes what others say about their experience rings home to me. I was particularly disillusioned about events happening in our dear country Nigeria when I read David Brooks most recent column in the New York Times and to my utter surprise and consternation, I found a lot of parallels between what he wrote about America and the ongoing troubles in Nigeria. He wrote, “Great nations thrive by constantly refreshing two great reservoirs of knowledge. The first contains the knowledge from the stories we tell about ourselves. This is the knowledge of who we are as a people, how we got here, what long conflicts bind us together, what we find admirable and dishonourable, what kind of world we hope to build together. This kind of knowledge is not merely factual knowledge. It is a moral framework from which to see the world. Homer taught the ancient Greeks how to perceive their reality. Exodus teaches the Jews how to interpret their struggles and their journey. 

For America, the dominant story has been filled with resonant characters — Irving Berlin and Woody Guthrie, Aaron Burr and Cesar Chavez, Sojourner Truth and Robert Gould Shaw. 

 For Nigeria, the Yorubas see their world through Oduduwa and Obatala who created the world and started from Ife, and thence to Oyo-Ile, Benin etc. Oduduwa was the first divine king of the Yoruba people, and Obatala fashioned the first human beings out of clay. It is said the Yoruba people believe that their civilization began at Ile-Ife where the gods descended to earth. The Yorubas believe all civilizations can trace their roots to a quarter at Ile-Ife, the spiritual but not necessarily the political capital of the World. The stories Yorubas tell themselves help them cope with tragedy, such as the sacking of arguably the most advanced political city-state south of Sahara- Katanga and the internecine wars spurned thereafter. Therefore, the Yorubas honour elders and traditions, understand tragedy and see the need for a strategic long-term view of things compare to Pyrrhic victory. 

 In the Igbo creation myth, the God, Chineke, created man with part of Himself. Here, the God, Igwe, and the Goddess, Ala, (both components of the creator God, Chineke) met and formed human beings, male, and female. This the root of Igbo individualism, if your chi is bound up in the Supreme Being, why should you bow to another chi? 

 According to the Bayajidda legend, the Hausa states were founded by the sons and grandsons of Bayajidda, a prince whose origin differs by tradition but official canon records him as the person who married Daurama, the last Kabara of Daura and heralded the end of the matriarchal monarchs that had erstwhile ruled the Hausa people. According to the most famous version of the story, the story of the Hausa states started with a prince from Baghdad called “Abu Yazid”. When he got to Daura, he went to the house of an old woman and asked her to give him water, but she told him the predicament of the land, how the only well in Daura called kusugu was inhabited by a snake called Sarki, who allowed citizens of Daura to fetch water only on Fridays. Since “Sarki” is the Hausa word for “King”, this may have been a metaphor for a powerful figure. Bayajidda killed Sarki and because of what he had done the queen married him for his bravery. After his marriage to the queen, the people started to call him Bayajidda which means “he didn’t understand (the language) before. This myth helps the Hausas to seamlessly accept their Fulani conquerors in the 19th century and assimilate them. The Fulani have a picturesque creation myth. The Fulani live and die by dairy farming. Not surprisingly, therefore, they believe that the world began as a great globule of milk. Then the god Doondari descended, and from the milk he created stone. In due course, the stone created iron, the iron created fire, the fire created water and the water created air. When this chain reaction was complete and the five elements were in place, Doondari came down a second time and shaped the elements into people. But the people proved to be proud. So Doondari created blindness, and blindness defeated the people. When blindness itself became proud, Doondari created sleep, and sleep defeated blindness. And when sleep, in turn, became too proud, Doondari created worry. And worry defeated sleep. Worry. Like breathing and eating, it is something that all humans do. The Fulani will have their word for it. But they will never tell you what that word is, rather they as nomadic people will use other people’s terms and do things in the same way as people in their host community permit. They blend in easily even though they are constantly transitory in outlook. This myth explains why they value property and ownership far above all others, including human lives. 

 I draw on these small examples to illustrate the divergent perceptions of reality among the over 300 ethnic groups in Nigeria. Ordinarily, such disparities should not work against the creation and formation of a nation, as we see in the USA if they must face a common enemy together, be it, colonialism, war, plagues, or common religion. 

 Nigeria however got its independence from Britain without fighting a single battle. The original plan is for each of the major regions to move for independence at its or her own pace. In the United State of America, the revolutionary wars, as a national experience invited all Americans to share what Walt Whitman calls the passion to contain “the whole vast carnival of stories, to see themselves in its themes and to feel themselves within this story”. This is further accentuated by the commonality in the Declaration of Independence- the quest for freedom, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. This emotional and moral knowledge gives Americans a sense of identity, a sense of ideals to live up to and an appreciation of the values that matter most to its people — equality or prosperity or freedom. Even though blacks and Native Americans were excluded. This shared knowledge helped Americans fighting slavery, colonialism, Jim Crow laws, the right to vote, housing, employment, the right to bear arms as members of a militia and other economic and human rights. Through this, they discover a shared destiny and shared affection for one another. It is a lot easier to rally around a George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr who can draw on this ethos to demand a higher elevation of liberty, prosperity, and a call to a “better angel of our nature” 

Compare that to Nigeria, where joint emotional and moral knowledge is lacking. And an appeal for the education of citizens by Chief Obafemi Awolowo can easily be demagogued by saying he only wants to emphasize the advantages gained by his race being among the first to exposed to Western Education. While one region -Southeast-, sees such call as an opportunity to catch up, and so through its Towns Unions embarked on massive education of its young population through communal efforts. The hegemony in the North perceives such calls scornfully. Given its history and experience in Islamic scholarship at its many Madrasas and as such lost an opportunity to have the best of both worlds- education from East and Western Civilization. 

 The second reservoir of knowledge is propositional knowledge. This is the kind of knowledge we acquire through reason, logical proof, and tight analysis. Some of this knowledge is empirical knowledge that can be established by carefully using evidence. It is the kind of knowledge that made Goodwill Ebele Jonathan called his minister and tribesman, Mr. Orubebe, to order, concede defeat and spare the nation a catastrophe. It is what is missing in America where deluded Trump supporters refuse to acknowledge that you can score more electoral votes than any other previous presidential candidates in history and still lose the election if your opponent in the current election score more votes than you. No, the 2020 election was not stolen, folks! 

 Some of this kind of knowledge is contained in powerful ideas that can be debated, for example, you could argue that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” while someone else posits that the history of mankind is an eternal struggle to bring order and stability to a chaotic existence. David Brooks cites Jonathan Rauch brilliant book “The Constitution of Knowledge,” which states that the acquisition of this kind of knowledge is a collective process. It is not just a group of people commenting on each other’s internet posts or WhatsApp groups. It is a network of institutions — universities, courts, publishers, professional societies, media outlets — that have set up an interlocking set of procedures to hunt for error, weigh the evidence and determine which propositions pass muster. These are the same principles as those of the scientific method. 

An individual may be dumb, Rauch notes, but the whole network is brilliant, so long as everybody in it adheres to certain rules: No one gets the final say (every proposition might be wrong). No claim to personal authority (who you are does not determine the truth of what you say, the evidence does). No retreat to safety (you cannot ban an idea just because it makes you feel unsafe). This is where we struggle most in Nigeria. 

Our educational institutions in Nigeria, seem to be beholden to politician’s whims and caprices. The professor appointed by INEC to monitor presidential elections that “plays the game” for the winners in Presidential and Governorship elections are often the ones that get appointed by the visitors-President and Governors, as vice-chancellors and pro-chancellors. 

It is so bad, recently the Education Minister Adamu Adamu, while announcing the appointment of new pro-chancellors of federal universities  accused some state governors of hijacking the process of appointing vice-chancellors for Federal Universities. Adamu, who enjoined the Governing Councils to take charge and exercise their rights, urged them not to allow outside influence in the selection process of the new vice-chancellors of their institutions.

According to him, the Federal Ministry of Education, under his watch, had not in any way interfered with the selection of any vice-chancellor, he states,

 “I have not talked to any chairman that I have any candidate. Unfortunately, I found out that because of my lack of interest, or because I feel I should allow you (the Council) to exercise your right, it is being hijacked by the governors. It is your right; don’t sell it to them. The law stipulates that and we are giving you full independence, don’t sell it to them. It is, therefore, essential that you familiarise yourselves with the specific laws establishing your university or centre, as well as with other relevant laws of the Federation.

The Governors realized that INEC frequently taps Vice chancellors from regional  federal universities to monitor elections.  The VC in turn appoint university senate members who agree with the political party in powers. So the circle of corruption and debasement of political institutions continues. 

If you doubt me, answer this question: When was the last time our academic institutions produced the likes of Professors Ayodele Awojobi, Segun Osoba, Eskor Toyo, Dipo Fasina. Gadfly who are willing to risk, life, limb, liberty, and comfort to speak truth to power. Those ideas are generated, evaluated, vetted, and refined by professional bodies and trade associations/unions. Institutions such as Nigerian Bar Association (led by Alao Aka Basorun, Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana), Nigerian Medical Association and National Association of Residents Doctors of Nigeria (led by Dr Beko Ransome Kuti), Association of Staff Union of Nigerian Universities ( led by Professor Attahiru Jega), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (led by Frank Ovie Kokori, (NUPENG former General Secretary), Late Wariebi Kojo Agamene (former President of NUPENG), former General Secretary of PENGASSAN, (Chief) Milton Gilchrist Dabibi) to mention but a few. All these organizations in the past set aside demands for personal emoluments for their members to build a national consensus around the struggle of the common man, representative democracy and eventually helped defeat military rule in Nigeria. They pushed the nation and its political leaders to build a better Nigeria. In recent years, politicians realizing the powers inherent in those organizations have infiltrated their ranks, imposed compromised leadership on them who in turn debase the National discourse. We are now paying the consequences for such lack of divergent opinions on the National stage. 

 Today many of us feel that Nigeria is suffering an epistemic crisis. We do not see the same reality. When People say that we often assume the problem is intellectual.Our system of producing propositional knowledge is breaking down. Why can’t those people fact-check themselves? Recently, southern governors resolved to ban open grazing and the movement of cattle by foot, after a meeting in Asaba, Delta state. The immediate response from the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), is an outright false equivalency, in a live interview with Channels Television, he stated that the resolve to ban open grazing by southern governors is equivalent to prohibiting spare parts trading in the north saying that the decision does not align with the provisions of the constitution. Even at the height of the First and Second Republic no minister of the federal republic of Nigeria of Northern extraction will be so banal and openly tribalistic to utter such garbage. And if he or she did, there will be a Balarabe Musa, an Aminu Kanu, or a Bala Usman or Col. Dangiwa Umar who will aggressively push back on such minister. We are now at a fractured place where the head of our justice ministry sees his loyalty to his ethnic group as his primary task and not the nation’s unity. The firestorm of outrage and criticisms which followed this shocking “cow vs Spare parts” comparison and portrayal of Malami’s poor understanding of the Constitution led to questions about the Attorney-General’s fitness for that office. Many believe he is mischievously or ignorantly imputing that the ban on open grazing is the same as the stoppage of individuals’ constitutional freedom of movement. In truth, it is the stoppage of the movement of cows that destroy farms and is partly responsible for the current food inflation. These nomadic herders do not pay tax, something that should be an object of concern for a debt-riddled administration. All the herders do is to destructively trespass into people’s properties which is a felony that should bother the AGF if he were well-meaning. 

 As Vanguard newspaper states, “These and similar utterances by officials of the Muhammadu Buhari administration appear to validate the allegation that the terrorist activities of the herdsmen militias are being officially condoned or even supported.” Just in case you think Malami is alone in making such unguarded utterances, here are more: “Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, blocked a petition from a section of Nigerians in the Diaspora, saying they had no right to comment on insecurity in the country. Danladi Umar, Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, slapped a security guard, and his office called those who showed their displeasure at his public misconduct “Biafra boys”. Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami’s past as an Islamic terrorism sympathiser who issued a “fatwa” that led to the killing of a student, Sunday Achi, was exposed. The presidency exonerated him because he had “repented”- Vanguard 5/31/21. But Information Minister Lai Mohammed, like Donald Trump in the US, does not get away with lies because his followers flunked Epistemology 101. He gets away with his lies because he tells stories of dispossession and imminent loss of power that feel true to many in Aso Rock. They believe the lies they sell to themselves that kids protesting in Lekki are sponsored to topple the tottering regime. They see enemies in newspapers articles that dare criticize people in power. They see enemies in 280-word Twitter posts online. They are insecure because they are fearful of the people’s reaction to the land, they laid waste and the masses impoverished with impunity. Our federal ministers are censorious and intolerant because they lack analytic skills. They see their continued stay in power as derived from their ability to enforce compliance through violence. If they engaged in an argument at all, it is “ad baculum”-force. The fear of losing control makes them shut down public discourse, entrapped by a moral order that feels unsafe and unjust, they order a crackdown on activists by every means possible. The collapse of trust, the rise of animosity — these are emotional, not intellectual problems.

 The real problem is in our system of producing shared stories. If a country can’t tell narratives in which everybody finds an honourable place, then righteous rage will drive people toward tribal narratives that tear it apart. Part of the blame goes to our judicial, educational, professional and trade unionists who abandoned the common cause for their emoluments and comfort and then try to whitewash history by pretending what we practice is democratic. 

 Part of the blame goes to our judiciary whose partisan decisions on election cases contrived to bring us politicians who owe neither allegiance to their constituency nor legitimacy from the voters. Their appointment steeped in controversy and nepotism helped destroys patriotic allegiance to the nation’s unity. 

But let me restate again that the core of our problem is our failure to understand what education is. The electorates are willing to settle for a morsel of bread distributed on Election Day. The masses are easily drawn to politicians’ divisive harangue and ethnic pejorative. “Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions,” David Hume wrote. Once you realize that people are primarily desiring creatures, not rational creatures, you realize that one of the great projects of schooling and culture is to educate the passions. It is to help people learn to feel the proper kind of outrage at injustice, the proper form of reverence before sacrifice, the proper swelling of civic pride, the proper affection for our fellows. 

This knowledge is conveyed not through facts but emotional experiences — stories. Over the past decades, we decimate our public schools’ system and proliferated private schools where the educated/political elites send their kids. Very few of those kids will ever encounter the sons and daughters of the poor and hear the stories of what it means to overcome poverty. They leave those schools for higher institutions abroad and either stay abroad or come back to Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Enugu, or other state capital to serve as ministers, commissioners or special assistants to Imams or General Overseers. They lack empathy for the farmers brutalized by herders because they do not own or ever step on a farm. They cannot see how the problems of kidnappers and armed robbers are concerns of the government because they are ensconced in gilded mansions protected by DSS goons who speaks French and Arabic. Coming back to our need to focus on reason and critical thinking skills — the core of the second reservoir of knowledge, let me admit here that we have got lots of work to do. 

The ability to tell complex stories about us has atrophied. Nothing seems to bind us together anymore. Our long-cherished national soccer team, the Super Eagles of Nigeria, is a shadow of itself. The ability to tell stories in which opposing characters can each possess pieces of the truth, stories in which all characters are embedded in time, at one point in their process of growth, stories rooted in the complexity of real-life and not the dogma of ethnic abstraction is dead. Here again, we can use our soccer history, where is Shooting Stars, Rangers, Mighty Jets, El-Kanemi Warriors, Niger Tornadoes, Stationery Stores etc. they are all in a different state of comatose.  The soul of our nation seems to drift in purgatory right now. 

We are now paying for the neglect and debasement of institutions that could help us find the path out of this quagmire. Now as we watch the presidency and National Assembly try to enforce national unity on a confederate of distressed tribe and tongue, we gasped for breath. Can they do that? Each shocking act of impunity and overreach builds on previous inanity. We see history repeat itself, fugitive’s abduction and shoot out with ethnic agitators. We are spectators in the front row story of our destiny. Our government conveniently forget that legitimacy is not earned through the barrel of the gun. What will history say about this time and our role in it? That you watch as an ethnic demagogue in and out of power and partisans introduce ethnic tirades in our national discourse, debauched and brutalized Nigerian’s will to settle disputes peacefully and democratically? It is time to go back to our historical storytelling roots. It is unfashionable to say so, but Nigeria has the greatest story to tell about itself if we have the maturity to tell it honestly. This long season of anomie will yet pass. I started with Soyinka’s quote and ends with another of his witticism, “The man dies who keeps silent in the face of tyranny.” 

The fate of Nigeria is in our collective hands. Attribution: Let me state here that few of what you read above is original, it is the poignancy of its message that I beckon you to heed. I owe David Brooks (who I rarely agree with) and whose article in NYTimes I disassembled to write this piece, a debt of gratitude.