Being a paper delivered by Mayor Ogbonna Ernest Esq., on the
Students Environmental Assembly Nigeria National Summit held at Delta State
University Abraka from 18th -22nd of March 2014
The
concept and meaning of Colonialism need not be much emphasised anymore,
especially in this part of the world, but the impacts it left in Nigeria has
been and is still the root of our many problems in this country, and therefore
would always remain a topic of discourse.
Firstly,
colonialism brought about the unholy and unsolicited union of many and
different ethnic nationalities into this one un-working entity called Nigeria.
Since this undesired matrimony devoid of any iota of consultation, the problems
of Nigeria have continually remained better imagined than analysed.
Prior
to colonialism, Nigeria has a smooth sailing political structure and system
that soothed and worked perfectly well on our nerves and systems, and everyone
accepted his neighbour as his brother. Our traditional systems were good,
truthful and efficient. Take for instance, in the Eastern part of Nigeria,
there was a working system that, if you do any evil in the society and deny it,
you would be taken to the shrine to swear to an oath and if you lied you would
pay dearly for it. The fear of death made people eschewed evil. But today it is
a different story because our traditional systems have been destroyed and
substituted with one system that we are forcing ourselves to update every day,
and to adapt to.
For
the purpose of this paper, the impacts of colonialism can be seen in the
following pictures-
1. DESTRUCTION
OF OUR NATIVE SYSTEMS- Before the coming of
the white man into this country, our traditional rulers were seen as the height
of honesty and justice. The native system was seen as belonging to the rich and
poor, but today it is for the rich alone, the traditional system is no longer
trusted, our traditional leaders are now the best-selling commodity thatonly
the rich can afford, traceable to their incorporation into the white man’s
system of leadership during the colonial rule. Our traditional leaders are now
more of praise singers who are more interested in where and who would give them
monies and no longer how to dispense just and equitable leadership. Money
politics is now the order of the day and justice has gradually been pushed into
the desert.
2. NEO-COLONIALISM-
This is another form of indirect
colonialism. It simply says that we have colonised you, given you independence,
but we will continue to colonise your economy, political life and every other
aspect of your national life through policies and other indirect forms. The
most painful aspect of Nigeria’s case is that in neo- colonialism, it is always
the country that colonised the other country that still engages in neo
colonialism of the later country, but in Nigeria’s case, it is a different
thing. We are being neo-colonised by Britain, USA, China, etc.
According
to Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, “The Neo-colonialism of today represents imperialism
in its final and perhaps its most dangerous stage. In the past it was possible
to convert a country upon which a neo-colonial regime had been imposed into a
colonial territory (e.g. Egypt in the 19th C). Today this process is
no longer feasible. Old fashioned colonialism is by no means entirely
abolished. It still constitutes an African problem……. The essence of
neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independent
and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its
economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.”
Neo-colonialist
control can be exercised in many forms and shapes, but it is most often exercised
through economic and or monetary means, especially in Africa. This is obvious
by the fact that the western world often creates so many problems for us and
turns around to give us financial aids to solve such problems. This in-turn
ensures our dependence on them. More so, it is no longer news that the USA and
other western powers are interested in the decisions we make (to ensure that
they influence it to favour their whims and caprices), in our politics and
elections (to ensure that they implant who would be easily driven by them).
Many often had the United States threatened to withdraw financial aids to
Nigeria if certain policies and decisions are not allowed to go the U.S way.
The anti-gay law is a recent example of how the US indirectly determines and
wants to continually determine the decisions made by Nigerian government. The
result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation
rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world.
Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap
between the rich and the poor countries of the world. Therefore, when the rich
countries of the world announce the financial investments they make in the
developing countries, it is never for free as they give a dime with one hand
and take ten dollars in return with the other hand, while making us dependent
on their whims and caprices as guide to better future for our country and
continent. Countries like South Africa and Libya took their destinies in their
hand and our story in Nigeria is nowhere near their in the comity of nations.
3. MORAL
BANKRUPTCY- The degree of moral decadence in
Nigerian system has led to the increase in corruption, insecurity and many
social vices in the society. Religion has brought us many good things but it is
not devoid of evil. The terrorism which Nigeria has been going through in many
years now is rooted in love for religion more than love for humanity. The
proliferation of churches and mosques and their uses in dubious acts that
destroy our economy and system cannot be over-emphasised. This was not the case
in pre-colonial Nigeria. This is not far from the reason why our elections are
bloody and our governments corrupt. Once you have a political god-father you
are sure of political position whether or not you are voted for. This was not
the case in pre-colonial Nigeria where fairness and uprightness were the
guiding principles in the society.
It would
be recalled that before the colonial era, we had the emirs, obas, and the
chiefs. There was no political violence and unrest because even if one oba or
emir or chief dies or vacates the offices the successor was already known and
there was no controversy about it neither did people had to kill and main their
opponents in the name of occupying the position. But today, People like Chief
Bola Ige, Funsho Williams to mention a few are nowhere to be found because some
persons felt that they posed a threat to one of their political interests or
the other. Today, kidnappings have become part of our political system without
caring about our moral values anymore. The measurement of morality these days
is how many times you attend the church activities and how fluent you are in
the mosque to pray, all thanks to what we learnt from colonialism.
