Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Prof Ango Abdullahi, yesterday declared that Nigeria was in dire need of fundamental political and economic reforms as the legal instrument that established it as a country in 1914, expired 10 years ago......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
Abdullahi, who stated this at the National Dialogue on a Home Grown Parliamentary System of Government held in Abuja, disclosed that the edict which led to the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates by the British colonial authorities in 1914 was meant to expire after 100 years.
He explained that when the British brought together the diverse ethno-lingual groups they met on ground and named the territory Nigeria, it was on the projection that the people would develop into a model nation state.
According to him, the edict setting up the country, gave a time frame within which the country will grow into an indissoluble state or fail and the groups go their separate ways. “Nigeria was born in 1914. It was the product of an edict made by the colonial officers that were largely military in consultation with a few of our elders. Just five or six of them.
These included the Sultan (of Sokoto ) of that period; the Shehu of Borno of that period; the Alafin of Oyo of that period; the Obong of Calabar of that time and the other names that I have forgotten – just five of them. “They sat down and looked at the developments that were taking place in the colonised area – Lagos, Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria.
The North was conquered in 1903. So, by 1914 the colonial masters from Britain wanted to solidify their gains so that they could more easily exploit the resources of the colony. That is how they sat down and decided that they would amalgamate the Lagos Colony and the South and the North into one country.
The wife of Lord Frederick Luggard, the Governor General at that time, gave us the name Nigeria, a name derived from the Niger Area. “In the edict, if you read it, it is very clear that we were being encouraged as people from various backgrounds to come together and build a nation called Nigeria.
Our leaders at that time were encouraged to try but were advised by the edict that we should’ve monitored the progress over the years but the life of the edict was to last for a 100 years.
This means that the edict expired in 2014 which is 100 years from its formation. But the question now is that this is 2024 and perhaps this kind of dialogue reminds us that we have a history that started in 1914.
“In the conclusion of that edict, it said that if we failed to build a country that we can call our own and be proud of, by the expiration of that period the various components that were in that amalgamation could go their separate ways.
Go and check; that is what you will find. The edict tells us to either do what is right or if we can’t do what is right we can decide to go our separate ways,” he said.
Apparently dissatisfied with the pace of development in Nigeria since independence in 1960, Abdullahi lamented that 64 years later Nigeria can only boast of 3,000 megawatts of electricity for a population of over 200 million people.
He said that the current situation in the power sector is enough evidence that Nigeria had failed to live up to the expectation of its founding fathers.
The dialogue featured several guest speakers who tried to examine the pros and cons of the Presidential and Parliamentary systems of government with a view to getting Nigerian to choose which one would be better for the country.
