Where would Nigeria be today if...?

Where would Nigeria be today if Nnamdi Azikiwe had stayed back in the West and provided a rallying point for his teeming supporters, in that Region, who were even more disappointed with the way their votes were rubbished by the cross-carpeting episode? He would have kept his supporters together to confront the unsavoury actions, of the cross-carpeters, politically. His reaction in running back to his ethnic enclave created another problem for that Eastern Region. He ousted a minority as the Party Leader and created a strong disenchantment and a crisis of relevance in Eyo Ita's minority group as well as in other minority groups of that Region. That crisis dogged the Region and led to the COR state movement and the Adaka Boro uprising. In fact, it sealed the fate of Biafra; Biafra was stillborn even before conception..

Had Eyo Ita formed the government for the party he led to victory, would those dissents have been fostered? At least in that Region, a feeling of camaraderie, of oneness, would have been enthroned in the polity. In the same vein, if Zik had stayed in the West to fight on, the Western Region would have sustained their epoch-making and commendable rejection of an ethnically-grounded Party; Nigeria would have turned out differently.

As for Obafemi Awolowo, where would Nigeria have been today if he had accepted the loss in the Election and prepared to lead a formidable opposition in that Western Region that would have kept the ruling party on their toes and his party as a credible alternative? He would have enthroned the culture of running back to the drawing board and living to fight another day, instead of encouraging the cross-carpeting of members of other political parties to his to enable him form the government there.

Had Zik, who operated in the West as a native, speaking the language idiomatically, formed the government for the Party he led to victory, would the continuous crisis thereafter in that linguistically homogeneous Region have occurred? At least in that Region, the concept of Power to the People and culture of electoral democracy would have taken proper root instead of the subsequent sloganeering that has been trying to replace deep-seated perceptions and empirical conclusions.

The Western wetie crisis, which eventually led to the debilitating Military intervention, flowed from the incongruities of that cross-carpeting episode; the people learnt that their votes do not count in choosing their leader and the politicians confirmed that the end justifies the means. For the polity, unbridled desperation for power has been enthroned, the voters be damned.

As for Ahmadu Bello, where would Nigeria be today, if he had accepted his preachment to Zik and understood the difference between the North and the South in terms of Western-educational exposure? The culture of favouritism introduced to address his fear of educational inadequacy in his North in order to have Independence, need not have arisen since it reduced the scholarly excellence of the northern elites in the estimation of their peers. That culture subsists till today and continues to undermine the Nigerian polity decisively.

Had Sarduana accelerated Western education, especially in the core North, to close that gap fast while allowing other Nigerians, especially the Northern minorities who had early exposure to Western education, to fill up for the North in critical appointments without discrimination, the Tiv uprising and other feelings of domination that cropped up in the minorities would not have been fostered, meritocracy would have been enthroned in the psyche of the citizens. We may even have gotten our Independence earlier and, who knows, the Independence date would have been more favourable.

Mostly, it affected the polity in many ways. First, the beneficiaries do not see the need to exert themselves, to compete equitably, for positions in the polity. Secondly, and most importantly, it created strong disenchantment in the people of other Regions who are passed over for the less-qualified in the name of balancing. Lastly, the otherwise suitably-qualified Northerners are forced to work extra hard in order to prove they are eminently qualified for the position they are holding in the polity. In the end no one gained, and most importantly, Nigeria lost; it did not engender any nationalistic feeling in the citizens of Nigeria as that pervasive equity on which nationhood is anchored, was subverted.

Having identified and analysed momentous missteps of our founding fathers, how much did individual Nigerians contribute to hobbling Nigeria? Your comments are very much expected, as usual, and would be appreciated.