Nigeria’s Miserable “BRINCS” Ambition -By Ochereome Nnanna

At independence in 1960, Nigeria was widely projected to emerge as one of the top performing economies among the then Third World. Because of its enormous human and natural resource base, Nigeria was definitely expected to lead Africa and provide the stepping stones for the continent’s smaller countries to move up.

It was because Nigeria failed to meet these expectations that former Ghanaian revolutionary leader, Jerry J Rawlings, once famously called Nigeria “big for nothing”.

Back then, it was estimated that a group of new arrivals from the formerly colonised countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, would rise to challenge the dominance of the West. These were Brazil, Russia, India, Nigeria, China and South Africa, BRINCS. Russia, then existing as the head of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, was already a military superpower along with the United States. But it has never been a major economic power due to its habitual low quality industrial products. The structure of its economy was more like those of many Third World countries like Nigeria.

Russia was the only one among these promising economies which did not experience colonialism or foreign imperialism. China was colonised by Japan and partially by the West. India was a colony of the British Empire, just as Nigeria was. Brazil was a Portuguese colony. South Africa was colonised by the Dutch which became the only European colonial power that fused into its former colony. Today, we have BRICS countries with Nigeria missing.

The major objective of today’s BRICS is to neutralise or even replace the economic dominance of the West, particularly the use of the American Dollar as the universal currency. BRICS has invited many other countries to join their gang-up. Notable among these are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iran.

The BRICS countries and some of those they have invited are former colonies or Third World countries which have made their independence count. China is close to overtaking the United States as the world’s largest economy, with equal pace in military and space technology dominance. India has surpassed its former colonial master, Britain, in the size of its economy. South Africa has put its colonial/Apartheid past behind, with the Black majority in firm control of the country’s political superstructure, while the Whites rule the economy and industry.

Nigeria has served notice that she will like to join the BRICS within two years. Unfortunately, if that happens, BRICS will not be renamed BRINCS as originally purported. Nigeria will be a backbencher in more ways than one. It will be a late joiner and not a founding father. Joiners always have to abide by the rules set down by the founders until they are rooted enough to push for possible or necessary changes.

Secondly, unlike the core members of the body, Nigeria is a net dependent polity and economy. It either owes, or is struggling to borrow heavily from China, Russia and India. It depends on these countries for their technological and engineering expertise to build its infrastructure and strategic industries such as bridges, roads, railways, airports, refineries and steel mills.

That dependency syndrome was a disease sown into Nigeria’s fabric by the departing British colonial masters so that Nigeria would never be truly independent. Unlike members of the BRICS group, Nigeria is ruled by an elite which has no moral rooting or regard for civilised principles such as the rule of law.

The Oputa Panel in 2001 invited former heads of state, Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari to testify over their roles in the human rights abuses that happened under their regimes. They refused to attend, and they got away with it. China, India, Brazil and South Africa have each put their former leaders on trial for misconducts. In Nigeria, only the dead Sani Abacha was a “looter”.

Nigeria is so weak that it cannot secure its territory against ragtag groups of bandits and herdsmen terrorists roaming its gaping ungoverned spaces. These same criminals, who were indulged by the Buhari regime because of tribal links, are responsible for Nigeria’s current inability to feed itself. Which of the BRICS countries depends on foreign imports to feed their population? Nigeria has oil but cannot carry out simple oil refining.

Nigeria is weak and failing because it has refused to go back to the form that produced results before the Biafra-Nigeria War. Before the war, Nigeria was a strong federation with semi-autonomous regions. Each of these prefectures grew in leaps and bounds. Within six years, everybody was seeing the Nigerian future possibility. That was why our name featured prominently among the putative “BRINCS”.

But after the war, the local Nigerian elite reduced Nigeria to a centralised federation because of the oil factor. The rulers, supported by their Western masters, dissolved the regions and took control of the oil. They will never let go until the age of the oil is over.

There is always a relationship between form and function. A flying object like an aeroplane must have an aerodynamic form. But, in Nigeria, an object built like a truck is expected to fly! Despite repeated failures, we still continue in our foolery, because the ruling establishment is happy the way it is.

Obviously, Nigerian leaders are joining BRICS to prospect for opportunities to borrow easy loans. Yusuf Tugarr, the Foreign Affairs Minister, says Nigeria will join any group where there are opportunities. They call it “multiple alignment” as opposed to the old concept of “nonalignment”.

Will BRICS admit any country that will not join in its war against the US Dollar?

That is a story for another day. All we are saying here is that without regaining its full independence, reasserting its territorial sovereignty and becoming once again economically-productive, Nigeria will join any global group only with a bowl in hand. A beggar at every party.