The Nigerian Journey: Freedom and Unity at 61 -By Ademola Adeegbe

We can no more think of excusing the hand of God in the Nigerian journey. Our history has thus been strategically marked with His grace. This does not have to do with anyone being an atheist or a theist. Indeed, God has taken us this far, since 1960; our survival story witnesses to this.

Meanwhile, the zeal of youth that pushed our national heroes to struggle for our national freedom, is not just a freak. They knew it that freedom is well merited for a people, who share a reasonable past, in culture, and in trade, before the European incursion. On this day the 1st of October, as we celebrate our independence anniversary, we should have to reflect deeply on the concept of freedom, the values of unity, and the labour of our “heroes past”.

We the people have walked through the valley of the shadow of disruption and destruction, but we have held on as a people. Our leaders have done even the impossible, and we the citizens have displayed the immeasurable, through crises, through Civil War, through agitations as well as through resolutions and tolerance, all in an attempt to keep the narrative so interesting. We cannot fall again, that is my song, because our unity and democracy is building up some resiliency.

Fellow Nigerians, or say, Citizens of Nigeria, our freedom is not a fun, not a comic, and not a pastime. It is a business we all are meant for, in our lives. This is why it has had a historical process. The Portuguese shipped through the Atlantic at the turn of the 15th century, to discover us. That laid a foundation for European exploration, mission, trade and colonialism. That foundation bestowed upon us, beauty and bereavements. The journey from the 15th century led us through the Atlantic Slave Trade, the greatest crime the Europeans ever committed against the African dignity. But never forget that, shamefully, some of our chiefs profited from it.

And it also today has given the African Americans their place in the acclaimed New Order of the Ages. To cure the woes of Slave Trade, colonialism was introduced, in a way to restore the African dignity. I certainly salute those who resisted colonialism in its evolutionary decades, for their believe in self determination; I equally salute those who did not resist it, for their believe in cross civilization. 

But the Atlantic Charter in 1941 changed the lyrics of history by bestowing the right of self determination to all people. Thanks to the Americans, the anti-colonial Britons and most importantly, our Nigerian Nationalists. Peace be with them all, if in life and if in death, because he who works for the freedom of fellows, has the greatest of the heavens.

When on the 15th of January, 1966, a group of military men struck upon the state machinery in Nigeria, they disrupted our freedom. To this day, some still believe that it was a good way to uproot the British system and create ours. I do not share that believe, because democracy in its simplest definitions, remains the best achievement of man in state affairs. A Tanzanian proverb says that he who uses force, is afraid of reasoning. That was who those military men were.

We went on to suffer under that rule, dormantly and actively, until the great General Abdulsalami Abubakar restored our democracy in 1999. Thanks to the Late Chief MKO Abiola who died in the quest for the Nigerian mandate. He shall rest in perfect peace. No thanks to any military ruler who did not work towards transition to democracy.

They shall not know rest. 

Late General Murtala wanted democracy for us but they cut his life short; Baba Obansanjo remains a great man for handing our mandate back to Shehu Shagari; Abdulsalami Abubakar, remains a veritable leader of the Pax Nigeriana. The presidential descendants of the 1999 Constitution, from Obasanjo, to Yar’adua, to Jonathan, to Buhari, have all done so much to build a nation of freedom. But for them and for us, there are still more lands to conquer, if by the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we love to sing “Freedom at last”.

Let us not sing the song of disunity again in the land. Although, Awolowo once said, that God did not create Nigeria, only the British did. I want to say, that the voice of man is the voice of God. I can conveniently say that the Lugardian Amalgamation of 1914 is such a blessing. But if anyone still think that the best for us as a nation is to break up in tribal pieces, note that not even the tribes possess unity within themselves. If for instance we ever have an Oduduwa republic, I cannot believe that a second Yoruba Civil War series wouldn’t come in place. So, why can’t we just keep on working out the Nigerian project just like it has taken the United States over 200 years now, to keep building up on her foundation of several European tribes, thousands of Indian nations, and millions of immigrants. Today we all know, that all tribes of the world have at least a representative unit in the USA, and still that country isn’t breaking up, even after a Civil War and a Civil Rights Movement.

As a nation we can move on, ever with our ups and with our downs. All that is most important is commitment on the part of our leaders and determination on the part of every citizen. Owele Rochas Okorocha assesses why he can never think of breaking away from Nigeria, and notes that it is about his connection to the Fulani, Yoruba and Hausa students of his Rochas Okorocha Foundation College of Africa. If a man would go that far, how much more our great nation. 

Let us all place our active hands on desk, and lift the nation up together. Let freedom be our call and let unity be our song. Let no one take them from us and let us teach them to the coming generation.

In conclusion:Nigeria we hail theeOur own dear native landThough tribe and tongue may differIn brotherhood we standNigerians all are proud to serveOur sovereign motherland.

©Ademola J. Adeegbe       (Lord MacCrown)