By Echefuna’ R G ONYEBEADI

We needed to graduate first from the colonial bachelor’s school before proceeding to the masters programme. But, while we were still on industrial training and learning on the job without external supervision (1960 – 1966), a mere six years into learning on the job, the military struck and set us several years back politically!

The colonial masters taught and supervised us in the act of governance for 45 years (1914 – 1959), but instead of allowing us to perfect the system on our own, the military struck and took us down to the doldrums of a unitary, autocratic and a totalitarian system with an adulterated alien governance model which was even wrongly copied!

More intriguing was that the military decreed us into a governance system whose educational standard was far lower than what we had and then the decay started!

I recall that as late as the 1970s and maybe early 1980s, American Bachelor’s degrees were equated to our own Higher School Certificate (HSC).

The few Universities we had then weren’t just centres of academic excellence, they were also centers of academic tourism that attracted foreign students and the best of researchers worldwide!

The military took us into the doldrums when the economy of the then Eastern Region was rated as the fastest growing economy in the world; while that of the Western Region had recorded a lot of firsts in Africa and the Northern Region had set the pace in livestock, solid minerals beneficiation and groundnut pyramids!

Our founding leaders gave us a Republican Constitution of FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA but, the military truncated that and forced on us a unitary, autocratic and totalitarian system which was later corrupted with an adulterated alien American presidential system.

Our founding fathers gave us a FEDERATION with autonomous FEDERATING UNITS known as Regions, but the military replaced that by military fiat with arbitrarily created States that are subservient to a very powerful unitary centre.

Our founding leaders handed over to us a Secular State/Country, but the military smuggled in a fraudulent military decree 23 of 1999 which they styled as a constitution with a particular religious bias!

The so called fraudulent 1999 Constitution as severally amended was so much shrouded in secrecy so much so that, Nigerians weren’t privy to it, those who contested elections in 1999 didn’t know anything about it till after they were inaugurated and made to swear to an oath of office to protect and defend the fraud!

The list of the military aberrations that did serious damages to our national psyche and growth to nationhood are unending!

The now much talked about abrogated 1978 national anthem was a military ego trip which was decreed on Nigeria and Nigerians by military fiat!

Indeed, “Nothing is fanciful or romantic there” in the entire military interregnum!

Yes, the “Old National Anthem was given to us by white colonialists”! But, that wasn’t the only thing they gave us. – They gave us a governance system after schooling us in it for 45 years (1914 – 1959)!

They gave us the name of the country “Nigeria”!

They gave us a Lingua Franca, English!

They crafted for us a befitting national anthem that suits our purpose!

They brought and gave us education and much more!

So, why don’t we also discard the name of the country “Nigeria” and the Lingua Franca, English, among others we inherited from them?

Yes, the discarded “ *New national anthem was given to us by Nigerian military junta*”.

The truth is that these set of Nigerians weren’t schooled in the arts, acts and sciences of governance and so, couldn’t have been able to give us what they didn’t have!

They brought their “kill and go” mentality and “blind loyalty” to their command hierarchy into governance for which we are yet to purge ourselves from till date!

So which is better❓An anthem from Nigerian military junta or the one from white colonialists ⁉️⁉️⁉️

My humble submission in this regard is that, if the name of the country “Nigeria” they gave us, by which we are identified globally, is good for us; if the Lingua Franca, English, they gave us is good for us; if the governance system they gave us is good for us; if the educational system they gave us is good for us, etc; then, the national anthem they gave us is also good for us! More so, when the said national anthem addressed the essence of our coexistence in the country!

Otherwise, let’s do away with the name of the country “NIGERIA”!

Let’s also do away with our present Lingua Franca, English! Among others because they are all colonial carryovers!

Let those that are making a mountain out of an ant hill continue to deceive themselves that they are not deceiving themselves!

I so submit!

•Professor Echefuna’ R G ONYEBEADI, the Íñègbèsè of Oligbo Kingdom, is Convener/Coordinator of the of Eminent Elders Forum.

Update news