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Nigeria celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence on October 1. With 200 million people, the largest population in Africa, the country is blessed with abundant natural resources. But it has yet to reach its full development potential to meet the aspirations of its people and compete economically on the world stage.
Modern Nigeria dates back to 1914, when British colonial masters merged the Colonia de Lagos with the protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria. But it was on October 1, 1960 when the country gained its independence, becoming a republic in 1963.
Nigeria adopted a parliamentary system of government. Initially, executive powers fell to the prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, while Nnamdi Azikiwe became president, a largely ceremonial post.
The country was divided into three regions: North, South and East, each governed by a Prime Minister.
Nigeria had a bicameral legislature at the national level, based in Lagos, while each region had its own unicameral legislature.
The Tafawa Balewa administration ruled the country for six years before being overthrown by the military in 1966. Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi assumed the post of Head of State, but his administration was short-lived; Colonel Yakubu Gowon organized a counterattack and assumed leadership.
Biafra war
Aguiyi-Ironsi’s ouster led to Nigeria’s civil war when Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka “Emeka” Odumegwu-Ojukwu led some military officers and soldiers to establish the separatist Republic of Biafra in 1967, an action that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. people.
Colonel Gowon, himself a Northerner, led the Nigerian army offensive against Biafra. His name, “Gowon” became an acronym that means “Continue with One Nigeria”. The Biafra war ended on January 15, 1970.
Gowon declared at the end of the war that “there was neither victor nor vanquished”. In addition, he introduced the policy of the 3Rs: rehabilitation, reintegration and reconstruction for the Ibos, the majority population in the south-eastern region of Nigeria who had supported the independence of Biafra.
Since 1970, Nigeria has suffered a succession of military regimes led successively by, among others, Murtala Muhammed / Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari / Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Sani Abacha / Abdusalami Abubakar.
Since the coup that ended the country’s first republic, each administration came with the stated goal of fighting corruption and correcting the ills of the previous government, but for the most part they ended up worse than the previous administration.
The Yakubu Gowon government, despite the civil war, enjoyed an oil boom and built an enormous amount of infrastructure, but refused to hand it over to a civil administration, a refusal that led to its overthrow by the Murtala-Obasanjo regime. .
General Murtala Muhammed’s tenure as Military Head of State lasted shortly after his assassination, but Obasanjo took over and handed over control to Shehu Shagari in 1979. It was the Murtala administration that first purged corrupt public officials and also initiated a plan to relocate the country’s capital. to Abuja which was carried out under the military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida.
Shehu Shagari’s second republic ended after the 1983 elections. The opposition alleged fraud and the military cited corruption among government officials as the reason for their coup.
From Buhari to Babangida to Abacha
Muhammadu Buhari’s military administration jailed hundreds of politicians for alleged corruption, but an insider hit ousted Buhari 20 months after he took power. Ibrahim Babangida became president.
Many Nigerians view the Babangida administration as the government that institutionalized corruption among public officials.
The government also benefited from another oil boom as a result of the Iraq war, but the administration never accounted for millions of dollars from oil sales.
Babangida can be credited with establishing infrastructure and also moving the nation’s capital, finally, to Abuja from Lagos.
His plan to install a civil administration failed. More political unrest plagued Nigeria in the following years, with one military coup after another preventing the advent of a civilian government.
In 1993, Chief MKO Abiola was believed to have won the presidential election. Under pressure, he resigned and installed a weak interim government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan.
Inevitably, Shonekan was soon overthrown by another senior officer, this time General Sani Abacha.
Under Abacha, Nigeria faced international sanctions and pressure to incorporate a civil administration.
Following Abacha’s death, funds worth millions of dollars were discovered in various banks around the world. Efforts to repatriate the stolen money continue.
General Abdusalami Abubakar hastily organized the 1999 elections and Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president. Obasanjo became a civilian president and worked hard to relaunch Nigeria internationally. It managed to obtain a debt forgiveness that gave Nigeria a breather, but one of its biggest failures was its inability to provide enough power, despite spending $ 30 million, an action that still haunts the country.
Boko Haram insurgency
Obasanjo’s successor, Umaru Musa Yar Adua, did not live long due to poor health and was replaced by Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan’s administration was marked by the Boko Haram insurgency, which to this day continues to cause death and destruction in the north of the country. One of the most traumatic episodes was the kidnapping of more than 250 Chibok schoolgirls, some of whom have yet to be counted.
Corruption scandals also tarnished Jonathan’s tenure.
The Buhari administration, despite its promise to crack down on corruption, is also slightly better off than previous governments. It also faces the current threat from Boko Haram.
Before the discovery of oil, the mainstays of the Nigerian economy were agriculture, tin, and the iron ore known as columbite. Oil revenues were used by successive administrations to build infrastructure.
But oil became a curse for Nigeria, as governments neglected agriculture and other development potentials to rely heavily on raw materials whose profits created massive corruption among government officials.
Bad leadership, widespread corruption, ethnic rivalry and conflict, religious crises were some of the main obstacles that hampered Nigeria’s development and provoked mistrust and suspicion among its people.
The advent of the Niger Delta militancy, the Odua People’s Congress, the OPC group in the southwest, the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, armed bandits in the northwest, the recurring clashes between herders and farmers in the center of Nigeria and kidnappings for ransom. it caused the massacre of thousands of people and also shook the institutional foundations of the country.
At 60, Nigeria has yet to realize its full potential as a united entity, as groups and sections of the country continue to clamor for a national conference to renegotiate the foundations of Nigerian unity.
Even with democratic administration underway, some people feel they are underrepresented at the level where crucial decisions are made, hence the continued agitation for conferences to address issues that threaten the very existence of the country.
