By Mustapha Omotayo
Apartheid was literally defined as “apartness” which seems inadequate because apartheid in intent and purpose was grander and sophisticated than just keeping black and white South Africans apart. Apartheid in reality implies deliberate and calculated efforts of the White segregationist in South Africa to perpetually deny the natives of South Africa the right to self- government. This denial involves multifarious actions to subjugate, suppress and repress the rights of every South African to freedom of any sort purely on the reason of skin pigmentation.
To be a black man in South Africa during this ignominious era was to have been condemned to interminable agony. No Black South African has a right to operate a business, own a land and at the very least choose freely a preferred area for settlement and habitation. Movement of course was restricted and a form of authorization was required to access certain areas, anything to the contrary was an invitation to gaol by the gatecrasher.
Repression of the people was institutionalized by those who were supposed to be minorities. I used minority here not to represent the migrant status of the White settlers in South Africa during the apartheid era but rather as a representation of their population. The Black South Africans represented over 85% of the total population of South Africa but was made to occupy only 13% of the habitable space. Attempts to expand their space were considered an effrontery punishable by prison sentences and other forms of heinous penalties. Several repressive policies were promulgated as the need arose; laws and policies of varying dimension and scope aimed at pauperizing the black population were enacted and brutally enforced.
In all, Black South Africans were economically, socially and politically violated. They had no freedom of association, movement and speech while also barred from certain types of trades. The only right available to the Black South Africans during the atrocious reign of the White Settlers was the freedom of thought. The Nationalist government attempted to also criminalize this freedom. This was overtly impossible which inadvertently brought about rather ominous consequences for the apartheid establishment.
Freedom of thought was intensely exercised by the different cadres of fighters who fought doggedly along clear ideological leanings towards the emancipation of black South Africans. These fighters include but not limited to the “Madiba” Rohihlala Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Robert Sobukwe and Guer Radebe. In the end apartheid collapsed leaving only its vestiges and the natives of South Africa liberated from the shackles of prolonged and excruciating epoch of oppression.
Nigeria on the other hand did not experienced apartheid during the colonial era. If there was any segregationist proclivity by the colonialists; it was played down significantly and Nigeria attained independence as widely suggested on a platter of gold. At independence, Nigeria was destined for greatness as oil was already discovered in commercial quantity. This singular discovery was expected to propel rapid socio-economic advancement. National progress was meant to be made in leaps and bounds, after all money was not a problem. Prior to the discovery of oil, agriculture was thriving as yields from groundnut were stacked to the point they resemble Egyptian pyramids. Cocoa was equally doing extremely well and oil palm production was second to none in Africa.
The political elites were well educated having studied both at home and abroad. The oratory prowess of Nnamdi Azikiwe was exemplary while the political astuteness of Obafemi Awolowo was astoundingly legendary; the conservative demeanour of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was an envisaged virtue for truthful political leadership. At independence, human and material resources required to lead Nigeria in particular and Africa in general out of the doldrums were available in superfluous abundance.
There was boundless hope for the attainment of our desired greatness. This hope was to become forlorn shortly after independence when the Military whose constitutional responsibility was the protection of the territorial integrity of the Nigerian nation halted our promising democracy. Constitutionalism was suspended, subsequently terminated and ultimately replaced with militarism. The military incursion of course was not without reason; ethno–religious strife was rife in the young Nigerian nation.
Politicians threw caution to the winds as nepotism, bribery and corruption, parochialism, fiscal indiscipline, political hooliganism took centre stage. The Military was to eventually spend almost three decades with few years interregnum of partial democracy. The intervention of the military at every occasion was meant to reverse a peculiar ugly trend but ultimately ended up creating worse situations than when they took over. The various military regimes abused power, institutionalised corruption and created a greedy political class that has constricted the political space thus recycling political positions among themselves ad-infinitum.
These people barely 1% of the total population constituted themselves as the elite class, debasing the lives of Nigerians in a multi-faceted approach. In the business sector, corporate governance and business ethics has been thrown into the wild. Cases abound of reckless abuse of offices and privileges. Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria recently published a list of 217 chronic debtors whose debt profile has held the National economy by the jugular. The political elites are not less culpable, large percentage of funds from the National treasury are cornered through various duplicitous means. Funds in millions of naira are allocated as allowances while billions of naira is equally smuggled into the National budget through the back door for various dodgy constituency projects.
The on-going arms deal probe and the recent budget padding saga in the National Assembly jolted the Citizenry to the reality of the magnitude of corruption that goes on within the political circles. Without doubt the political elites and their cronies in the business sector who altogether are just about 1% of the total population of the Country have incessantly plummeted and cannibalized all our hitherto thriving sectors and institutions thus subjecting the remaining 99% of the populace into abject poverty, penury and perpetual hopelessness. The National minimum wage has remained a paltry =N=18,000 for a significantly long period while our political office holders enjoys perks, allowances, emoluments and salaries consuming in the process a substantial portion of the yearly budget. The middle class that emerged in the early 70s has been suffocated bringing about two distinct classes of haves and haves-not.
The National Bureau of Statistics, one of the many National Institutions performing below expected capacity will perhaps have no data to show the percentage of workers nationwide on a monthly salary of between =N=75,000 and =N=100,000 but without doubt, the percentage will be less than 2% of the total population of 180million people. Only a few sectors of our economy are said to be paying considerably fair salaries, the seemingly fair salaries are soon usurped by the perpetually free-falling naira. The mass of the citizenry; salary earners, peasants and artisans are groaning under the prevailing harsh economic conditions caused by prolonged assault on our collective patrimony by few people. The Country has nose-dived from the splendid days of “money is not the problem of Nigeria but how to spend it” to an inglorious moment of “Nigeria is poor”.
Attempt to explore the gory state of our educational institutions will be tantamount to taking a step toward an endless journey. While the children of the 1% choose the best educational institutions anywhere in the World except Nigeria, the children of the poor have to make do with the poorly funded and badly managed educational system in Nigeria. The health sector is equally not spared in the entrenched decadence, majority of the public health institutions are merely consulting clinics as they lack the basic facilities for proper medical diagnosis. There has been significant increase in the percentage of cancer patients across the Country but as at last check, only Usman Dan-Fodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto has a functional radiotherapy unit. This without doubt subjects several patients and their relatives to untold pain and agony as they traverse the country for post chemotherapy treatment of this dreaded ailment.
The level of unemployment against supposedly available opportunities is an indication of the trajectory of the nation. The Youth segment of the nation constitute a vast majority yet remains the most idle segment, the number of youths who applied for placement into the Nigeria Police Force recently is a confirmation of how deep –rooted the problem of youth unemployment is in the country. In what ways will productivity be stimulated to promote increased per capital income and gross domestic product if the most virile segment of the population are docile and unproductive? To commence a treatise on the state of infrastructure will amount to a willful attempt to render oneself heart broken and dejected. It is just a no go area. The roads are death traps, electricity supply is epileptic, public transportation is practically unavailable.
The similitude of the Nigerian situation can arguably be likened to conditions prevalent during the apartheid era in South Africa when the minority perpetrated grave injustices against the mass of the Citizenry. Nigerians have been socially, politically and economically abused, harassed, repressed and subjugated. The tool of oppression both in apartheid South Africa and “fantastically corrupt” Nigeria is the same; political power. With power in the hands of the minority, policies, systems and structures are created to have unfettered control in shaping the lives of the majority. However, as rightly noted in the earlier part of this discourse, the majority in South Africa created counter policies, systems and structures to wrestle political power. They fought tenaciously for self–emancipation under the dogged leadership of their today’s national heroes.
How will Nigeria replicate South–Africa’s model of struggle toward emancipation? How do we form a broad – based mass movement against corruption in the fold of Africa National Congress? How do we dethrone the subterfuge of ethno-religious inclinations created by the 1% to ceaselessly divide and distract us? Where will our own Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo et al come from?
Without doubt the Nigerian society is not short of heroes who have fought gallantly to challenge the status quo, we cannot forget the likes of Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti, Olufela Anikulapo Kuti, irrepressible Gani Fawehinmi and a host of others too numerous to mention. However, the continuous subjugation of the common man in Nigeria through outlandish schemes by the ruling elites has watered considerably the efforts of these great people. Nigeria need people who can raise the clenched fists and scream their own version of Amandla! which in turn should elicit a reverberating equivalent of Ngawethu!! Nigeria needs people who will confront and uproot corruption and set the sail of the Nigerian ship toward the shore of national re-birth.
Mustapha Omotayo, Ph.D. Email: linkmusty@gmail.com
Twitter handle: @mustylink