course notes npc.docx

PAMO UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, PORT HARCOURT **LECTURE NOTES FOR NIGERIAN PEOPLES AND CULTURES (GST 123)** **INTRODUCTION** **The reason for this course can be determined by asking the question "what is the purpose of education"? And I make that question the first (introductory) topic for t...

PAMO UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, PORT HARCOURT **LECTURE NOTES FOR NIGERIAN PEOPLES AND CULTURES (GST 123)** **INTRODUCTION** **The reason for this course can be determined by asking the question "what is the purpose of education"? And I make that question the first (introductory) topic for this course:** **The Purpose of Education** **From its etymology educare/educere, to train up, to build up, the individual for self-actualization and responsible citizenship. Education brings about the self-actualization of the individual through the learning of skills, knowledge, personality development and training for specialty in the arts or sciences. Since the individual is a political animal (zoon politicos) as Aristotle calls man, the self-actualization is not complete without a political dimension.** **The Political Purpose of Education** **The Archbishop of York is famously quoted to have said that the true purpose of education is to produce citizens. This captures the political purpose of education. After all the personal skills and specialized knowledge, without a healthy society made possible by responsible citizenship all education is useless. As Aristotle said, whoever cannot live in society is either a beast or a god. We may add that even the gods live as society. Christianity even makes her God a trinity of persons. And even beasts live in society of their kind. So society is inescapable.** **The political purpose of education is therefore meant to prepare the individual for responsible citizenship in view of a healthy society. This implies a sense of belonging to the State alongside a knowledge of the rights and duties that come with belonging to the State, exercised and protected through participation in civic life and upheld by essential social institutions. Political or citizenship education is often set in the contest of the history of one's nation and world history, which is the arena of all political activities. This is called political history, the history of nations, of their evolution and development.** It is thus understandable why British historian of philosophy Frederick Copleston says that "***We would scarcely call anyone "educated" who had no knowledge whatsoever of history; we all recognize that a man should know something of the history of his own country \[and not of his people?\], its political, social and economic development, its literary and artistic achievements, preferably indeed in the wider setting...of world history"***. This course, Nigerian Peoples and Culture, is therefore important for every Nigerian student because any education that disregards such political history as Nigeria's, or the political history of any nation for that matter, is short-circuited and grossly inadequate. The course is even more important for the tumultuous political condition of Nigeria as a nation, the misery and helplessness with which her citizens contend. As Russian political philosopher V. I. Lenin points out: "the slave who has become aware of his slavery has half ceased to be a slave". The African student who will contribute to the emancipation of Africa must be equipped with knowledge of African political history and be informed of the highlights and dark spots of that history. ### *The focus of this course is an analytic review of the history of Nigeria from pre-colonial and colonial antecedents to postcolonial crisis and the contemporary challenges. It seeks to help the student evaluate Nigeria's journey into nationhood in terms of political organization, economic life, commerce and industry, education and religion, and public service. The objective is to arouse in students the ideals of nationalism, a sense of patriotism, and commitment to civic responsibility in a multicultural society.* ### *Key Concepts: history, culture, politics, economics, expansionism, imperialism, slave-trade, colonialism, feudalism, federalism, ethnicity, domination, dictatorship, revolution, self-determination, human rights, resource-control, social conflict, democracy, corruption, environmental destruction, development, state capture, patriotism and nationalism.* **EUROPEAN-AFRICAN ENCOUNTER PRECEDING THE BIRTH OF MODERN AFRICAN STATES** The political and cultural history of Nigeria in the context of international relations today show that the country is chronically backward. Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Chinweizu's The West and The Rest of US, and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart are but a few of world renown books documenting the socioeconomic, political and cultural ravages of this history. These studies and other available documentation indicate that the birth of Nigeria as a nation is inseparably tied to the socioeconomic and political presence of Europeans, particularly the British on the African continent. It is therefore by chronicling (i.e. a written acct. of events and when they happened) that history that we shall situate Nigeria in world history and underscore its political and cultural limitations, prospects and challenges. A permanent feature of European history since the 15^th^ century has been its restless expansionism. Spurred and emboldened by the gains of the scientific, industrial and political revolutions (the last being most notably represented by the French Revolution), Europe undertook a tireless campaign to explore, assault , loot, occupy, rule and exploit the rest of the world. The birth of modern African States, including Nigeria, comes within this context; and three principal periods of this Europe-Africa encounter, leading to the emergence of modern African nationalism, can be captured as follows: 1. **PERIOD OF TRADE IN GOLD AND SPICES**: This period is dated around 1415, marked by the arrival of Portuguese seafarers on the African coasts, who exchanged cloth and metal ware for gold and ivory and spices from Africans. Formerly *terra incognita*, the Portuguese now traversed the African Coasts in search for gold and pearls and spices. Portuguese domination was soon confronted and overcome by the competing greed's of the English, French and Dutch. 2. **PERIOD OF TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE**: This period is dated 1444 to 1810. 1444 is considered the date the first shipload of slaves was moved out of Africa from the coast of Senegal. 1810 is the year of the dispatch of a naval squadron by the British Crown to West Africa to enforce the end of Slave Trade and to ensure the protection of British legitimate commerce. By the late 16^th^ century the English and the Dutch were using their sea power to traverse the coasts of Africa. The British and the French spent the 17^th^ century competing for possession of the vast North American mainland, though belonging to Spain by papal decree. European assault on the rest of the world yielded them a global empire from the 16^th^ through the 18^th^ centuries, run from Lisbon, Paris, and London, etc. The transatlantic slave trade is about the purchase of Africans by Europeans and the transportation of the former across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas to be used as cheap labor. Estimated 12 million Africans were captured and shipped in chains as possessions owned by European dealers. They worked without remuneration on sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations that supplied raw materials for European industries. Humiliation was important for domination. Hot iron was used to inscribe marks of identity on slaves. They had no rights of any kind; even children born to them were born into slavery. 3. **PERIOD OF LEGITIMATE COMMERCE**: This period can be dated between 1810 and 1960. 1810 has been noted as marking the enforcement of the legitimate commerce period by the Crown in 2 above. Popularly called the Year of Africa, 1960 is significant as the year the highest number of African nations got independence, 17 of them, and therefore can be used to earmark the end of colonialism. The period is branded legitimate commerce in contrast to the illegitimacy of slave trade, though it is questionable how legitimate was the legitimate commerce. The legitimate commerce entailed the use of African labor on African land to produce raw materials (rubber, cocoa, oil palm, coal etc.) needed for European industries to produce consumer goods to be sold in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This, in a word, was colonization. And, as Walter Rodney has analyzed, this colonization of Africa has an indispensable link with the technological transformation of European capitalism. Surplus from African colonialism financed European scientific research and increased Europe's technical capacity to further dominate Africa. **BASIC STRATEGIES OF COLONIAL DOMINATION OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES** The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive Nigeria through Bini Kingdom. According to Hodgkin: "the second half of the century (fifteenth) saw the arrival of the first Europeans in Benin, the Portuguese Ruy de Sequeira in 1472 in Ewuare's reign and Alfonzo de Aviero in 1484 in Ozolua's reign". But it was the British assault on the indigenous Nigerian peoples for the purpose of effecting British legitimate commerce in the 19^th^ century that progressively led to the birth of the Nigerian nation. Nigerian peoples were independent indigenous peoples; including the Hausa, Kanem-Borno, and Nupe to the North; the Igala, Jukun, and the Tiv around the Benue basin popularly called the Middle Belt; the Yoruba, Bini, and Urhobo/Edo to the West; the Igbo and Ogoja to the East; and the Ijaw, Kalabari, Ogoni, and Efik/Ibibio among others at the South base, and a host of nearly 300 relegated and often subjugated peoples called "minorities". The colonial project was effective through a combination of strategies. Basic strategies of the colonial project were trade, education, social welfare, religion, and military might. Let's see them in some details. **Military Assault:** As shall be seen below, military campaign was a major strategy of launching the era of legitimate commerce. The natives were not colonized by agreement. They were assaulted and conquered. The assault was global: in the Opium War (1839-1842) Britain waged war on China in order to force her to buy and consume opium that the British grew in India. The US would assault Japan in 1853 to compel her to open up to western trade. Modern African nations like Nigeria were the product of European military and cultural assault on African indigenous peoples: the Mali, the Ashanti, the Benin, the Yoruba, the Igbo, the Swahili, the Ijaw, the Nupe, the Hausa, the Ogoni. Through what has been called the diplomacy of the gunboats the British overran, conquered and devastated the city-states of the Delta, the kingdoms of Benin and Nupe, the empires of Karnem-Borno and Kanuri, and the towns and villages of Igboland: In 1851, after detailed meddling with the affairs of the town, the British put Lagos under threat of naval bombardment, dethroned and banished King Kosoko, and installed another in his place. In 1861 they dispensed with the puppet rule, annexed the town, and proclaimed Lagos a British colony. By 1885 the Niger Delta states will have been subdued and proclaimed Oil Rivers Protectorate. In 1894 Nana of Warri, for refusing British takeover of his control of trade at Sapele, had his capital Ebrohimi besieged and shelled by ten war ships for a full month until it fell; Nana escaped and later surrendered at Lagos and was tried at Calabar and exiled to Accra. In 1837, for refusing British infringement on the sovereignty of the city-state and for rejecting British domination of its trade, Bonny was besieged by British naval power, King William Dappa Pepple was deposed and banished, first to the offshore island of Fernando Po, and later to the mid-Atlantic island prison of Ascension, and finally to London. In 1897 the British marched on Benin and subdued it. The Oba had refused to give the representatives of the British consul audience on the grounds that he was busy with pressing priestly duties required of him by office. The British emissaries rudely forced their presence upon the Oba. The Oba's lieutenants gunned them down for their effrontery. In response a British column marched on Benin, sacked the city and looted its treasures, dragged Oba Overamwhen off the throne of his ancestors, exiled him and broke the ancient power of that kingdom. At Opopo, for refusing the British to invade his territory hinterlands and for insisting on his right to control all trading activities at the Opobo port, King Jaja was in 1885 tricked unto a ship for discussion on the Queen's position over the issue, thereupon he was arrested and detained and kidnapped to Accra enroute exile at St Vincent in the West Indies. In 1901 they invaded and subdued the Igbo hinterland where they set the Ibinukpabi Oracle of Arochukwu on fire and executed its priests to breakdown the backbone of Igbo resistance. The same is true of New Calabar and Old Calabar (1855), the Nupe Kingdom (1898), the thousand-year-old trans-Sahara trade city-state of Kano (1903), the Karnem-Borno Empire, the Sultanate of Sokoto where the empire of Othman dan Fodio was terminated with the overthrow of Sultan Attahiru Ahmadu in 1903. The conquered territories were annexed into colonies and protectorates to advance the "legitimate" gunboat business of the British under the title of the Royal Niger Company. **Colonial Trade:** Trade was the general pretext under which European colonization of Africa and other parts of the world operated. After effectively overrunning the centuries old empires and kingdoms and emirates of the indigenous peoples of the Niger area, the geographical landmass later to be called Nigeria, the British settled for the "legitimate commerce" of colonialism. This was sealed at the Berlin conference in 1885 (the conference started in 1884 and continued into 1885) were European scramble for African colonies were brought to a round table and the continent was partitioned peaceably like a big Christmas goat by the colonizers. Under the business name of the Royal Niger Company, colonial trade (the so-called legitimate commerce) in "Nigeria" was conducted through usurpation of lands (privatization through unilaterally decided treaties), commercial agriculture, enforcement of forced labour, policies of taxation, all of which were enforced by colonial rule. Natives were used like slaves to provide labour for the commercial farms that produced raw materials to be shipped home (Europe) for factory production so that finished goods can be sold to the rest of the world. **COLONIAL RULE (administration and social welfare)** Colonial rule was a semi-feudal civil administration through the use of warrant chiefs (indirect rule) used to enforce British economic interest represented by the Royal Niger Company. Colonialism was slavery at home. Instead of buying the natives and taking them to plantations oversees, the farms were established on the land of the natives and they were consigned to the same servitude that their forebears had faced in the Americas in previous centuries. The only difference was that the natives were now at home and were paid pittances hardly enough for their sustenance. Natives were encouraged to cultivate cash crops and pay taxes on proceeds. Meanwhile the British had control of the cash crop market, they singularly determined the value of your product and buy it from you at any value so determined by them. Those who couldn't afford the foreign currencies to pay taxes had to learn such anti-cultural behaviors as tax evasion or resort to stealing or robbery to meet the need. Colonial rule was mainly accomplished through the strategy of indirect rule, with its internal policy of divide and rule. While the British sought their avowed economic interests by any means possible, trade and administrative policies were enforced through the warrant chiefs: the emirs and chieftains who were appointed to enforce the will of the white man on the natives. Each protectorate or colony was administered as a network of provinces, divisions and districts. The governor-general of the protectorates, the provincial commissioners, the divisional and district officers were all British colonial personnel. Subservient to these was the native authority of emirs and chiefs whose office it was to cooperate with colonial authorities to deploy every necessary measure, including the use of coercion, to ensure that the subjects, that is, the native populations, produced the resources required by the colonial economy. With the exploitative designs of the colonial system thus structured, colonial rule achieved a new framework of production, distribution and exchange, a colonial political economy. Social welfare (civilizational structures): Various structures of social welfare, including modern transportation and healthcare, banks, hospitals and postal services were palliatives at the service of the colonial project. **Colonial Education:** To facilitate the concept of colonial education lets step back to look at the very idea of colonization. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines colonization (or colonialism) as a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. Colonialism was adopted by European powers as an alternative to slave trade when the latter became widely unpopular in the 19^th^ century, after serving European purposes for 300 years. A related concept to colonialism is imperialism. Like imperialism, colonialism involves political and economic control over a dependent territory. The basic difference however is that while colonialism (from the Latin *colonus*, meaning farmer) involved physical occupation or settlement and cultivation of the territory in question, imperialism (from Latin *imperium*, meaning to command) more generally refers to one country exercising power over another, whether through settlement, sovereignty, or indirect mechanisms of control. It has been said that politics is the fate of man and "education's political character is inextricable from the political nature of man's social existence" (McLaughlin, 1974). The subject of colonial education exposes the political character of education in the light of colonialism. As an instrument of colonization, the colonizing nation implements its own form of schooling within their colonies. Two scholars on colonial education, Gail P. Kelly and Philip G. Altbach (1984) define the process as an attempt "to assist in the consolidation of foreign rule". The idea of assimilation is important to colonial education. Assimilation involves the colonized being forced to conform to the cultures and traditions of the colonizers. Gauri Viswanathan (1988) points out that "cultural assimilation \[is\]... the most effective form of political action" because  "cultural domination works by consent and often precedes conquest by force". Colonizing governments realize that they gain strength not necessarily through physical control, but through mental control. This mental control is implemented through a central intellectual location, the school system, or what Louis Althusser would call an "ideological state apparatus." Kelly and Altbach argue that "colonial schools...sought to extend foreign domination and economic exploitation of the colony" because colonial education is "directed at absorption into the metropole and not separate and independent development of the colonized in their own society and culture". Colonial education strips the colonized people away from their indigenous learning structures and draws them toward the structures of the colonizers. The ultimate goal of colonial education is to control the mindset of the colonized, to reduce them at best to a state of cultural hybridity, to make them willing servants and unwitting workforce of the colonial economy. All colonizers share the idea that education is important in facilitating the assimilation process and effecting the intended purpose of economic domination. [Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o](https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/11/ngugi-wa-thiongo/) (1981), writing from the context of colonized Kenya, sums up the damage that colonial education wreaks on colonized peoples in asserting that the process "annihilate\[s\] a people's belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves. It makes them see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement and it makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that which is furthest removed from themselves". Chinweizu (1975), writing from a Nigerian background likewise insists that colonial education was miseducatioin, a distracting miseducation: Colonial education was the education of the natives undertaken by the colonizers as part of the strategies of effective colonization. It turned out a program of mental slavery, at the service of colonization, in as much as such education was deliberately uncreative and europeanizing. A cultural oppression had been staged. The consequence would be a persistence of mental, cultural and especially economic colonization (Neocolonialism) long after political independence. **Partnership with the Missions** (Religion): A quotation attributed to Desmond Tutu has it that WHEN THE MISSIONARIES CAME TO AFRICA THEY HAD THE BIBLE AND WE HAD THE LAND. THEY SAID 'LET US PRAY'. WE CLOSED OUR EYES, WHEN WE OPENED THEM WE HAD THE BIBLES AND THEY HAD THE LAND. This however does not seem to represent the role of the missions in the colonial project fairly. Perhaps unwittingly, the Christian missionaries (Protestant \[CMS, Methodist, Baptist, etc.\] and Catholic \[RCM\]: German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Irish, British, American, etc.), in the name of evangelism or mission, lent their support to the colonial project through their Gospel denigration of African culture, and the prescription of a Europe-modeled Christianity as the only way to salvation. This impacted negatively through generations of lost culture and tradition of native peoples across Africa. The Missionaries came to propagate the Gospel. They established schools as part of their mission agenda. In fact they established the first schools. The CMS established the first primary school in Nigeria in the year 1843 at Badagry, with the name Nursery of the Infant Church, which was later, renamed St Thomas Anglican Nursery and Primary School. But the racist mindset of the missionaries became useful for colonial purposes. Hence the colonial government saw them as partners, supported their mission schools with funding, with the political motive of advancing colonial education as a strategy for colonial domination. **CULTURAL STATUS OF PRE-NIGERIAN PEOPLES** CULTURE DEFINED According to Edward Taylor, culture is the entire complex of cognitions, beliefs, arts, morality, laws, customs, or any other capacity or habits acquired by man as a member of a society". According to Batista Mundin, culture is the totality of customs, techniques, and values that distinguish a social group, a tribe, a people, a nation: it is the mode of living proper to a society. Generally, culture is a pattern of responses discovered, developed, or invented during the group\'s history of handling problems which arise from interactions among its members, and between them and their environment. KEY POINTS FROM THE DEFINITION 1. Every group has a culture 2. Culture determines the people's identity 3. The destruction of a people's culture is to destroy the people 4. To develop a people, develop their culture PRE-NIGEIRAN PEOPLES **Yoruba** Known for a high degree of political organization and strong military which revolved around the Alafin of Oyo, with highly organized kingdoms united by a common religious center at Ile-Ife, where they arrived between 600 and 1000 AD **Ibos** Lived in small settlements, hamlets and villages, governed by clan heads and council of chiefs and elders with very democratic traditional government without overall kings. Largely farmers and traders and hunters, even a man whose father was poor like Okonkwo of Umofia could work hard and grow rich (Things Fall Apart). **Ijaw** The first settlers in Nigeria, they are settled across the swampy estuaries of the Niger Delta. They are fishermen and traders. They are good at salt making, boat building and pottery. They live in fishing villages but also built impressive townships as headquarters of trade and government like Bonny and Opobo. **Igala** Igala Land, also known as the **Igala Kingdom,** **Kingdom of Idah**, is a pre-colonial West African state, located at the eastern region of the confluence of River Niger and River Benue (Sani, Osuagwu O.,&Njoku 2014) in the middle belt or North-central of Nigeria. The kingdom was founded by the [Igala people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igala_people), with the \"Àtá\" Serves as the Igala emperor, national father and spiritual head, and the capital Of Igala land is at Idah. The Igala Kingdom influenced and has been influenced by the [Yoruba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_people), [Idoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoma_people), [Igbo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_people) and [Jukun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukun_people_(West_Africa)), and is likely made up of descendants of these groups who settled and mixed with the native Igala populations. Traditional Igala society was politically organized as a kingdom. Kings were divine and were surrounded by numerous taboos; they held elaborate courts attended by a host of officials and servants, many of them slaves and eunuchs. All divine kingdoms in Africa had customs that acted as checks on the power of the king. This included a custom in which the queen mother could [chastise](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chastise) the king; she was the only individual who was able to do so under the taboo system. The Àtá\'s court is known as the Ogbede with its head being known as the Ogbe or president of court. The Amedibo are the royal servants and the Amonoji are Àtá\'s eunuchs. The symbols of power are the Royal objects, including the oka (beads), okwu (neck-lace), robe (olawoni), red-cap (olumada), and otihi (flywhisk). Other sacred objects are the Ejubejuailo (The Ata\'s pectoral Mask), Onunu-Ere (royal crown), Unyiale Ata (royal umbrella), Odechi / Okakachi (royal band), Oka kpai Okwu (royal beads) and the Akpa-Ayegba (the stool). The Àtá himself or herself is in-charge of the major sacred objects, shrines and festivals of the Igala people. The Ach\'adu serves as the Chief executive. Another title associated with this post is Oko-Ata (Ata\'s traditional husband. Ach\'adu itself means prime minister) District Officers (onu) and provincial chiefs (Am\'onu) were also in custody of their various shrines, grooves, sacred objects and festivals in their own domains. The hierarchy included District-heads (Am\'onu-ane), clan heads (Gago), village heads (Omadachi) and youth leaders (Achiokolobia). Igalas regard God or Ọjọ́-chàmáchālāà as all knowing and all seeing a similar worldview to that of the Abrahamic faiths that originate in the Middle East which have now started to eclipse traditional faiths. However, to access this God and also, to ascertain what He is saying per time, [Ifa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifa) needs to be consulted. The Ifa is like the Urim and Thurim in [Judaism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism). With it, the mindset of God can be made known on any given matter. To this end, all the demigods especially the natural elements of water and land are given sacrificial offerings periodically. This is done to gain their favour. Another aspect of Faith amongst the Igalas is the [Ibegwu](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ibegwu&action=edit&redlink=1), from Ibo (people) and egwu (dead). The spirits of the departed souls plays an important role in the various clans. It is believed that they see everything and knows everything, hence, they are good in arbitration. The Ibegwu judges the actions of the living, especially in cases of land disputes, [infidelity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infidelity), family disputes and general conducts regarding sex and sexuality (Ibegwu forbids sex in day time, oral sex, brothers sharing same sex partners, etc). However, Ibegwu is only potent on individuals whose families are connected to it. Families that have no ties with Ibegwu do not usually feel their impact. When Ibegwu judges a person of wrong doing, the consequence is the manifestation of diseases that defies medical solution. The Igala have been primarily an agricultural people, growing a wide range of crops typical of the area, including yams, taro, pumpkins, squash, corn (maize), manioc, and peanuts (groundnuts). Palm oil and kernels have become significant as cash crops. **Hausa** Live in a hierarchically organized feudal society with Kano city founded in the 10^th^ century as its headquarters. By the 15^th^ century Kano had become a notable trade center linked across West Africa by the trans-Sahara trade routes plied with caravans. Islam arrived Hausa land in the 14^th^ century, while Karnem- Borno had got it in the 11^th^ century. **GENERALLY**, economic self-sufficiency was the economic standing of the peoples. They grew their own food, traded with surplus for what they could not produce, and built their own houses with local materials. ALSO, moral sanctity made life healthy and meaningful. Environmental serenity made life pleasurable and life expectancy was relatively high. **PRE-INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPMENTS** - In 1900 the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria was established (headquartered in Lokoja), with Frederick Lugard as High Commissioner. - In 1900 the Crown paid off the Royal Niger Company and took over the administration of the Protectorates - In 1906 the Lagos colony (headquartered in Lagos) and the Oil River Protectorate of Southern Nigeria (headquartered in Calabar) were amalgamated into the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria with Lagos as headquarters. The primary aim was to use the financial advantages of the Southern Protectorate to cover the costs of administration and development in the financially weak colony and protectorate of Lagos, then saddled with the white elephant of a railway in need of extension since 1901. - In 1914 the Southern Protectorate was amalgamated with the Northern Protectorate to beget a country, Nigeria, a name coined from the idea of "Niger area", by British journalist and future wife of Sir Lugard, Miss Flora Shaw. Again, the purpose of the merger was purely the economic administration of the colonial regime. The Southern trade was booming while the Northern protectorate was not buoyant enough to pay its bills, thus the amalgamation was considered essential to reduce British Treasury responsibility. It should be noted that the amalgamation was not the beginning of the Nigerian colonial state but the culmination of its development process. - In a Nigeria Council Debate held in Lagos in 1920, Sir Hugh Clifford thus describes Nigeria as it were as "a collection of independent native states, separated from one another by great distances, by difference of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religions barriers". - The Clifford constitutional assembly was held in 1922 - In 1939 there was a splitting of the South into Western and Eastern Provinces. - In 1946 the Arthur Richard Constitution inaugurated regionalism in Nigeria by partitioning the country into Northern, Western and Eastern regions. - The Macpherson Constitution of 1951 promoted greater regional autonomy - A Commission of Inquiry into Minority fears was established in 1957 under the leadership of Henry Willink - Economic development in the colonial state was placed squarely at the service of British crown; the system was not intended for domestic economic development. Banks and other commercial service institutions benefited natives only as after effects. - Infrastructural development of roads, rails, offices complex, and ports authorities were built to facilitate colonial imperial purposes through the easy movement of goods for exportation or for the distribution and sales of imported commodities. They also served the natives only secondarily. - Colonial education also brought about the building of schools and partnered with the missions who built schools (for evangelical purposes) and enhance their administration through funding. This was again primarily for colonial purposes, to enable workers acquire basic literacy and skills needed to perform essential tasks at the service of the colonial system. The curriculum was neither creative nor liberative. - Politically, there was no positive social philosophy in the governance of some 22 million people comprised of a conglomerate of hundreds of tribes and native tongues. This was acknowledged by British author Walter Miller in "Have We Failed in Nigeria?" (1947). The social philosophy lacuna was also criticized by Chief Obafemi Awolowo who in "Path to Nigeria Freedom" (1947) argued for a true federalism to safeguard the interests and progress of all Nigerian peoples, each growing at its own pace and learning from others who excel in respective fields, thus to create a sustainable basis for Nigerian unity. - From 1954 to 1959, as premier of Western Nigeria, Awolowo worked to implement his philosophy of development in the Western region and successfully improved education, agriculture, social services, established the first Tv station in Africa, among other progressive achievements. **UNRESOLVED ISSUES AT INDEPENDENCE** Despite several constitutional adjustments, and especially the London constitutional conference of 1953 and the Lagos constitutional conference of 1954, several crucial issues starred the country in the face at the dawn of independence. These include minority agitations, debate on resource control and regional development, the census controversies, and the political domination of the South by the North, leading to the politicization of ethnicity. Following the British legacy of divide and rule, the politicization of ethnicity naturally became the norm of Nigerian life. Even the very structure and patronage of the first political parties represent this unhealthy inheritance poignantly: the Action Group AG led by Awolowo was Yoruba, the Northern People's Congress NPC led by the Sardauna of Sokoto was Hausa-Fulani, the National Convention for Nigerian Citizens NCNC led by Azikiwe was Ibo. In *Ethnic Politics in Nigeria* Okwudiba Nnoli traces the politicization of ethnicity to the petty bourgeois ambitions of the nation's premier leaders who deployed ethnic sentiments in their crave for political portfolios in order to fortify their privileged positions. He adjudges the Yoruba-based Action Group "the first party of the Nigerian petty bourgeoisie...to be inspired by, founded on, and nourished by ethnic chauvinism and regional parochialism" (1980, p. 155). In his account of the Civil War titled *On A Darkling Plain*, Saro-Wiwa lamented thus of the overplay of ethnicity that characterized the actions of the key players of the politics of the new nation: Very significantly, the Willink Commission of Inquiry into Minority Fears of 1957 did not yield the expected result of the creation of more regions to allay the fears of regional imbalance and complaints of domination by minority tribes. By 1967 the Federal Ministry of Information would acknowledge this as a key factor in the crisis of the nation: "In our common desire to win independence, many vital problems were left unresolved. One of these contending problems was the creation of more states which would have provided a more lasting foundation for the stability of the Federation of Nigeria" (Our Struggle for One Nigeria, Fed. Min. of Info. Lagos, 1967). On the crucial failure to resolve critical pre-independence issues in Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo observed even earlier: It should be noted that Awolowo was particularly insistent on the question of regional imbalance and therefore impracticality of Nigeria to work as a Federation. He considered this the substance of the minority agitations, which, he regretted, the Willink Commission failed to respond adequately to, leaving the nation subject to the whims and caprices of the majority groups, particularly the feudal North, capable of dominating it with what he called "executive and legislative tyranny". Also of crucial import here was the ethnicization of the military, or the politicization of ethnicity in the military. In *The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War* (1980) Alexander Madiebo observes that all military installations were safely in northern hands. He alludes to the introduction of an ethnic quota system of recruitment into the Army shortly before independence. With the purported aim of enforcing "ethnic balance", Northern Nigeria was to provide 60 percent of recruitments into the Army, while the Eastern and Western regions got 15 percent each, and the Midwest 10 percent. Alongside this was an imbalance of military installations in favor the North. Of 20 military installations in the country at the time before and after independence, 16 were in the North, 3 in the West, and only 1 in the East. This shall later be a crucial factor in the course of the civil war. It also promoted a system in which political and ethnic affiliations made nonsense of competence and leadership. It was this struggle of one section of the country to maintain political and military dominance over the rest of the peoples, according to Madiebo, that subsequently degenerated into coup d'états and a bloody civil war. **1960-1970: A DECADE OF BROKEN HOPE** When Nigeria achieved independence from British colonial rule on October 1, 1960, the prospects appeared promising and expectations for the future of the country were high. Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa, and the potential for economic growth was great, buoyed largely by the discovery of commercial quantities of petroleum in the Niger delta region (in Oloibiri, 1958, and other places subsequently). Nigeria was dubbed the "Giant of Africa," and many people both inside and outside the country believed that Nigeria would soon rise to claim a leading position in African and world affairs. Nigeria also saw itself as a beacon of hope and progress for other colonized peoples emerging from the yoke of alien rule. By 1970, however, Nigeria\'s stability and prestige had been greatly damaged by a decade of political corruption, economic underdevelopment, and military coups. Most damaging, however, was the culmination of these problems in a two-and-a-half-year civil war from 1967 to 1970 that rent the country along regional and ethnic lines, killed between 1 and 3 million people, and nearly destroyed the fragile federal bonds that held together the Nigerian state. The most dramatic and decisive events of the decade begins with coup of January 15, 1966 led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. The reason for the coup was the extermination of tribalism, corruption, and nepotism. Madiebo observes that "tribal sentiments had become stronger than national or ideological loyalties". Casualties of the coup included the Prime Minister Sir Abubakir, Premier of Western Nigeria Chief S. Akintola, Finance Minister Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, and the Saudana of Sokoto Sir Amadu Bello. The coup thus brought the first republic to an end as it brought a military national Government headed by Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi. Ironsi appointed military Governors for the four regions: Ojukwu for the East, Ejoor for the Midwest, Katsina for the North and Fajuyi for the West. A second coup was however on the way, the ***counter coup of July 1966***. This coup has been accounted for as resulting from the incompetence of the military government that inherited power in January 1966, especially its lack of a clear realistic political objective, its lack of discipline, and its failure to contain possible reprisal ideas that developed among some northern soldiers who felt the casualties of the January coup were overwhelmingly of northern origin. The July coup got Ironsi killed and replaced by **Yakubu Gowon.** The coup and a series of anti-Igbo massacres led to the declaration of the Biafran Republic by Ojukwu, as a quest for Ibo safety in face of what was perceived as a kind of Igbophobia in Nigeria but in the North especially. It is the battle of the federal government to reject Ibo secession that became the three years civil war. **BEYOND THE WAR: OIL POLITICS AND CORRUPTION** The exploitation and commercial production of crude oil in post-independent and especially post-civil war Nigeria has exerted an enormous pressure on political competition, making quest for control of the vast oil revenues the greatest motivation for political participation, and making the provision of purposeful leadership for the citizenry a secondary and totally neglected matter. A special development in the post war years was the oil boom. After the Yom Kippur War (Arab-Israel War) of 1973 that led to Arab states imposing oil trade embargo on Western countries, oil prices sky-rocketed in favour of Nigeria. It was called oil boom. The result is that there was so much money at the disposal of government that government officials were almost at a loss as to who to spend oil dollars. The result was further deterioration of political culture a host of negative impacts on national development some of which can be identified as follows: 1. **Excessive dependence on oil.** 2. **Corruption.** 3. **Monetization of politics.** 4. **Public service failure.** 5. **Politics of Violence** Meanwhile this politics of violence has effectively threatened the stability of Nigeria and the billions of dollar Western investments and export revenues so vital to her economy and the security of the subregion. **Efforts of government aimed at putting this threat under control include successive establishments of agencies for development of the violently raped region that bears the golden egg:** Niger Delta (Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB), 1961; Niger Delta Rivers Basin Development Authority (NDBDA), 1976; Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), 1992; Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), 2000; Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, 2008) and the amnesty program of disarmament for Niger Delta militants. **POLITICS OF STATE CREATION** **Another interesting chapter of Nigeria's story is the chapter on the politics of State creation. Agitations for State creation resulted from feelings of marginalization (exclusion) by minority peoples even before independence. The Henry Willink Commission of Inquiry into minority fears sought to attend to these threats to the Nigerian polity. The first fruit of these agitations was the Mid-Western region created 1963. The second harvest was the 1967 creation of 12 States on the eve of the civil war. While minority peoples sought in their quest for State creation self-expression and equal participation in national life, the wielders of federal power found in State creation an opportunity to bless their own peoples as well as score some goals of political intrigue. The** 1967 exercise of State Creation by Gowon brought about the emergence of twelve states as follows: 1. North-Western State 2. Kaduna State 3. Kano State 4. North-Eastern State 5. Kwara state 6. Benue-Plateau State 7. Western State 8. East-Central state 9. Lagos State 10. Mid-Western (Bendel) State 11. Cross River State 12. Rivers State In 1976 Gen. Murtala Mohammed would re-create seven states by carving from the existing twelve states that were created by Gen. Gowon. This will result in the birthing of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja from Niger State as the North West states were divided into Niger and Sokoto. In the same order, the Northern Eastern state was divided into Bauchi, Gongola, and Borno. Benue-Plateau was, however, carved into Plateau and Benue. Also, the Western state was separated into three, which were Ondo, Ogun, and Oyo. The East Central states were separated to form Imo and Anambra states. The list of 19 states are as follows: 1. Oyo state 2. Ondo state 3. Cross River state 4. Rivers state 5. Niger state 6. Sokoto state 7. Borno state 8. Kano state 9. Kaduna state 10. Bendel state 11. Ogun state 12. Lagos state 13. Kwara state 14. Gongola state 15. Bauchi state 16. Imo state 17. Anambra state 18. Plateau state 19. Benue state Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, created two new states in 1987: Akwa Ibom and Katsina. Akwa Ibom state was carved out of Cross River state, and Katsina state was carved out of Kaduna state. Nigeria therefore had twenty-one states till August 27, 1991, when Gen. Babangida thought it fit to create another nine state to the existing twenty-one. Adamawa state and Taraba state from Gongola. Enugu state was carved out from Anambra. Edo state and Delta state were created from the then Bendel state. In addition, Yobe was carved out from Borno state, and Jigawa state from Kano. Kebbi state would be carved from Sokoto, and Osun state was created from Oyo state. Gen. Sani Abacha created six more states, on 1st October 1996, following the agitations for States creation which seemed to have doubled. The newly created states include Ebonyi states, which was created from Abia and Enugu(part). Bayelsa state was carved out from Rivers. Nasarawa state was created from Plateau. Zamfara state was created from Sokoto. Gombe state was carved out from Bauchi, and Ekiti state was created from Ondo. Hence the present thirty-six states we have in Nigeria. Captured in terms of the initial three regions we have: **North, 19:** Benue, Gombe, Kogi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kano, Jigawa, Kwara, Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi **East, 9:** Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom **West, 8:** Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Lagos, Delta, Edo **The following motives seem prominent from the foregoing as reasons for State creation by Nigeria's leaders**: response to minority agitation against marginalization, opportunity to enable one's people get huge portions of the national cake, and intrigues to weaken agitating peoples by dividing them or "settling" them. History seems to have proven contestable the assumption that the more States are created the more the peoples will have access to the dividends of government. For instance, despite having the greater chunk of the cake in the politics of State creation, with the greatest number of States than any other region, Northern Nigeria does not have the commensurate provision of educational and healthcare service to justify its advantage in the number of States she has. Similarly, Bayelsa State does not seem to have experienced the expected developmental progress since its creation out of the old Rivers State in 1996. But Bayelsa's twin, Ebonyi State has arguably witnessed visible infrastructural transformation especially in the last few years. It thus appears that the emphasis should be placed more on commitment to leadership than on the endless creation of States. **STATE CAPTURE AND CULTURAL FAILURE** **According to the 14^th^ International Anti-Corruption Conference (Bangkok, 2010), the term "state capture" is now widely used to describe such States that are seized by a small circle of influential people seeking to protect their vested interests. It is about those in power seeking to perpetuate their power through virtual control and manipulation of essential institutions of State against public trust and public good.** **State capture could be achieved by a political party, a cult of corrupt politicians, or a network of businessmen or companies. It is characterized by the illicit amassing of considerable wealth and the paralysis or control of critical State institutions. It is practically a case of abduction of the State, a situation where the State is virtually taken hostage, and placed at the service of corrupt power brokers. \`** **State capture is an extreme situation of power abuse, where political corruption assumes a nightmarish proportion. Among other things, "state capture" secures the dominance and control which the captors have over the State and leaves the population virtually hopeless of possible reformation. It is also called legal corruption in the sense that the captors of the state execute their nefarious activities under the cover of the law which they control.** **The direct consequence of state capture is cultural failure. Culture had been defined as a way of life of the people; the sum total of achievements in the peoples mental and physical endeavour to promote their society through industry, communication, defence, politics and diplomacy, arts and science, etc. Corr\`uption and state capture translate to a deterioration of culture, a total collapse of social progress and civility.** **We recall that prior to colonialism the various "Nigerian" peoples were politically, socially and economically organized for several centuries, each in relation to their environment. Each of them was independent of o thers, and had all the apparatus of government to maintain law and order, administer justice, make war as well as sue for peace, and organise and prosecute peaceful internal and international commerce. These kingdoms and empires and emirates have been described as "city-states" with robust economic life and environmentally sustainable local industries, with neither extreme poverty nor pernicious (deadly) unemployment. Religion was honest and supported the moral fabric of society, today it is largely dishonest.** **As a result of the mindless focus on money and the state capture at the service of political corruption, the Nigerian society has been in a state of progressive retrogression, bringing about a state in which all the frameworks of culture have been undermined, leaving life "poor, nasty and short" as British philosopher Thomas Hobbes has visualized for a society without a government. It is a state of cultural failure, where life has no value. A state of nature, where man is wolf to man (homo lupus hominem). A state of anarchy, where security of life and property is almost at point zero, a situation where life is more unsafe than the most primitive times. A state of war, where everyone seems to be caught up in a war of all against all (bellium omnium contra omnes). A state where as Nigerians put it playfully but painfully, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. It is ultimate national failure, that is, failure to be a country. It is a social disaster.** **The fate of Nigeria in terms of cultural crisis and national failure as we have it today can be summarised in the last lines of Achebe's Things Fall Apart on who the great man Okonkwo, having been destroyed, would thus be buried like a dog. Obierika said ferociously: "that man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; now he will be buried like a dog"** **THE NATIONAL QUESTION AND NATIONAL ORIENTATION** The underlying question of all the problems that Nigeria experienced in the 1960s and has experienced since then is what is often called the "national question." What is Nigeria? Who are Nigerians? How does a country go about developing a meaningful national identity? Have the indigenous peoples conscripted by the British colonial administration in 1914 into Nigeria developed any sense of unity and national patriotism visible in politics and public service and civil conduct? Until the national question is answered and national orientation achieved, national failure stands insurmountable. The foregoing questions point to the challenge of national orientation. National orientation refers to the direction a nation takes or ought to take in pursuit of national interests and overall national development. It begins with conceiving a philosophy or ideological vision of national development. It involves programming a viable, diversified political economy. It translates to a national manifesto that integrates the function of science and technology, the role of cultural values and moral traditions, and the network of rights and duties between the individual and the society, and among individuals. National orientation thus amounts to cultivating the values and spirit of national integration into the individual and the public at large. According to Kwame Gyekye national orientation has to do with how a nation stands or positions itself in terms of a corpus of basic ideas, an underlayer of values, perceptions and fundamental convictions shared by a large section of the society. It has to do with a public philosophy of the political community about its aims and projected achievements. Gyekye argues that an "evolutionary disconnect" exists in formerly colonized nations, a disconnect in political evolution of the society, whereby cultural values are disconnected from national orientation. This discord is naturally an outcome of colonial distortion, but it is also a result of failure of post-colonial leadership to reconnect African nationalism with African cultural values. To be sure, there are neglected African cultural values that should have inspired and enrich national orientation in African nationalism. Examples of such values are captured in the traditional philosophy of the following nations: - In Kenya, **Harambee** (\'All Pull Together\') - In Tanzania, ***Ujamaah*** (\'brotherhood\') - In South Africa, **Ubuntu** (I am because you are) - In Senegal, **Negritude** (black socialism) - Students should add those from their culture The first two concepts refer to the same spirit of communality of working together and cooperation. Ujamaa was vigorously explored by Julius Nyerere as an African socialist philosophy for the post-colony. Ubuntu, about the oneness of personhood, was deployed by Desmond Tutu in conceptualizing the essence of forgiveness and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. Leopold Senghor argued with the notion of negritude to call African nationalism back to traditional black kinship, a socialism that predates colonialism. Guinea Bissau nationalist Amilcar Cabral argues that colonialism had a cultural cleansing as part of its imperial campaign, and so the disruption or disconnect between cultural values and national orientation in modern African nationalism was a deliberate accomplishment following colonial quest to conquer and rule Africa for European advantage. His stand can be captured in his contention that "if imperialist domination has the virtual need to practice ***cultural oppression***, national liberation is necessarily an act of ***culture***". His point is that just as destruction of African culture was used as a tool of colonial domination, so cultural restoration is critical for national development in the post-colony. Sylvanus Udoidem thus maintains in *Values and National Development* (1992) that moral values are crucial for national development. Joseph Omoregbe quips that national development eludes Nigeria because the intellectual giants produced in the physical and social sciences and humanities are but moral dwarfs. These moral values are the cultural aspect of national orientation the absence of which puts a nation on its head. Hence the national policy on education (1977) emphatically prescribes the inculcation of moral values for the survival of both the individual and the society as a key element of the national educational objective. Here we come to an often-missing point: education as tool of national orientation. From Plato to African traditional culture, education was about integration into society, for the fulfilment of the individual, ens socialis (social being), zoon politikos (political animal), and for the welfare of the society, outside of which he cannot survival. Any education that does not prepare the individual to live responsibly in society and contribute reasonably to its prosperity is miseducation. The ethical dimension of education therefore stand imperative in the sense that education cannot achieve its purpose without it. There are various systems of ethics as proposed by philosophers. There is the ethics of duty by Immanuel Kant. There is the ethics of consequences by Jeremy Bentham and J. S. Mill. But the ethical system most adaptive to the educational curriculum since ancient times is called virtue ethics. Aristotle expounded virtue ethics as the ethics of human excellence, whereby the individual is trained to embrace virtuous living for the sake of his or her own personal wellbeing and as preparation for active participation in social life. Such virtues include courage, justice, temperance, etc. the process of cultivating a virtuous life through practice is called habituation. It involves doing virtuous deeds repeatedly till good habits are formed which develop into good character. Beyond the school curriculum, national orientation as a public program of government remains critical for the inculcation of moral and cultural values necessary for national development. Historical precedents in this regard include the WAI (War Against Indiscipline) of the Buhari-Idiagbon administration, the MAMSER (Mass Mobilization for Social Justice and Economic Recovery) of the Babangida regime and the National Orientation Agency. Objectives of the NOA include communicating government policies, staying abreast of public opinion, promoting patriotism, national unity, and development of the Nigerian society. Some of the key values promoted by the above national orientation programs include: - Discipline (respect for order, authority, protocol, commitment to one's duty, keeping to one's promise, and refraining from malpractices and recklessness of all kinds) - Queue culture (waiting in line to be served at one's turn) - Work ethics (man is homo faber, man that works: it is through work that he produces his needs and contributes to the growth of society. Work ethics includes punctuality, commitment to duty, regularity at work, cooperation with others, just remuneration, fair working conditions, responsible use of work time) - Patriotism (love and loyal support of one's country) - Honesty (sincerity of purpose in all things, including action and speech) - Sanitation (responsible use of the environment as the platform for all life) - Courage (strength of character and resolute commitment to a worthy cause despite difficulties, hardship, discouragement, threats, dangers, intimidation, or persecution) - Justice (giving to each their due, not taking more than one's is entitled: fairness) - Students should add others