Efio-Ita Nyok|28 October 2015|6:30am
The thesis this article intends to defend is that since Nigeria was free before the trio of Slavery, Colonialism & Western Imperial Capitalism, and whereas Britain subjected her to the evils of direct colonialism -a testament of primitive social development on the part of the coloniser, it stands to reason then that during the era of colonisation, it is not the colonised that was in bondage; rather, it was the coloniser that was because colonisation is a dimension of gross social underdevelopment! It follows to submit in categorical terms that it was the coloniser-Britain that was free, albeit, for a while, from the shackles and shambles of social development. Again, the fact that Nigeria could compel her masters to exit her geopolitical space suggest very strongly that she was developed socio-politically inferring. Thus, it was the coloniser that was free in 1 October 1960 not the colonised.
It is alleged that Nigeria acquired her independence from Great Britain in 1960. To my mind, this is one myth that has to be consciously and very passionately rebuffed. We owe the next generation the responsibility of uprooting that fathom of Western mind from their psyche. It is high time we expunge that colonial rubbish from the curricular of our educational system. Our children deserve better doses of truth!
To begin with Dr. Walter Rodney, the Caribbean author of the seminal piece, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa(1972), has made the point and I quote: 'Strictly speaking, the African only became a slave when he reached a society where he worked as a slave. Before that he was first a free man…' and the Swiss philosopher namely J. J. Rousseau accentuated this submission when he submitted that, 'man is born free…". Accordingly, it is safe to deposit that Africa and by inclusion Nigeria was free long before the advent of the International trade in Slave (1500-1885), Colonialism (1885-1960s) and Western Imperial Capitalism(1960-present). The later represent the triple evils that happened to Africa nay Nigeria. And Nigeria could never remain the same again taking cognizance of the profound impact of these trio-of-an-evil.
Or, if you disagree with my thesis, could anyone validly contend with the fact that the nine traditional stools of national relevance in Nigeria, to wit, the
*Sultan of Sokoto
*Ooni of Ife
*Oba of Benin
*Emir of Kano
*Oba of Lagos
*Obi of Onitsha
*Olubadon of Ibadan
*Obong of Calabar, and
*Olu of Warri
Were highly developed ethnicities, something synonymous with ancient civilisations? Could we logically say that for instance, Sokoto, Benin, Ife, and the emirate of Kano, etc were not empires in their regard? If not for anything, these societies had robust economies, enviable political systems and mind boggling cultures. At least it has been established world over by scholars that these traditional societies evolved that quality of socioeconomic, sociopolitical and sociocultural civilisations independently before the advent of the West on Black soil. In essence, we were free because we developed independently.
Recently, I am more inclined to argue that there are three basic dimensions of (any) society, namely, economy, politics, and culture. I call them the 3D of Society because in these three all of society and social relations and transactions are summed up and adequately understood and interpreted. Of these three, the most prominent or conspicuous in terms of materiality proximity is -economy. As such we are more likely to perceive and interpret reality from the perspective of socioeconomic categories. What is more, when we talk of development, what impinges more on our consciousness more than any is socioeconomic development to the abject neglect of the other two: politics and culture. We fail to talk of a holistic approach to development namely social development, which embraces economy, politics and culture all in one breath.
If we were to go by the holistic approach of social development then it would be obvious that Europe was underdeveloped especially in relation to Africa nay Nigeria. During the international trade in slave that lasted for four centuries Africans where sold into slavery through Kidnapping, violence, raiding, war, etc. During colonisation, our resources were siphoned to the metropolis of the West. This resulted in enviable quanta and materially concrete progress on the part of the west and gross underdevelopment on the part of the colonised. Even in this era of imperial international capitalism, bourgeois capitalist regimes resident in western Europe and North America are ripping off and living of the meager resources of third world societies especially Africa nay Nigeria. This, to my mind, is a dimension of western social underdevelopment.
They accomplish this through their appendages such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, etc -bourgeois systems that arbitrarily fulfil the biddings of their principals. A case in point is the expired fathom referred to as Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). Which third world society did that configuration developed in a millennial sense? Britain and America would tie their disbursement of grants recognised by the MDGs to their cultural categories which Africa does not acquiesce in? They denied Nigeria and Kenya aids to combat HIV/AIDS because these states are opposed to the gospel of the LGBT adherents. Now they've transmogrified to Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs): what are they sustaining? The bourgeois bullying disposition!
Another case in point is the reaction of the IMF boss to the ministerial line up of President Muhamadu Buhari where she observed that Buhari's cabinet would lack an 'economic star'. For her an 'economic star' is that 'minister of finance' that is Western-schooled probably of Oxbridge who would acquiesce in the idea of deregulation of the Nigerian economy. This is the star! A star of the west but not a champion of his immediate constituency. This is gross social underdevelopment in the sense that one society thinks it right to survive through the downfall of the other. Must the west thrive economically, politically and culturally to the absolute detriment of their host, Nigeria(and third world societies at large).
Nigeria was and is free! However, we must accentuate our independence by deliberately disengaging from the international imperial capitalist system. Anything contrary to this is neo slavery-cum-neo colonialism to the detriment of Nigeria and the entire black race but to the advantage of the west.
