Review by IKENNA EMEWU
Title – From Tribal Society to Nation-State: A Survey of the National Development of Nigeria (Originally written in Chinese and Translated by Cheng Jiayue)
Publication year – 2024
Publisher – Peter Lang
Pagination – 349
Chapters – 14
Period of focus:
*Pre-colonial – the ancient and indigenous kingdoms
*Colonial – the locust years of cancer
*Post-colonial – an assortment of impossible union
“In June 1885, the British government declared the Niger region a British protectorate, but following the principle of effective occupation established by the Berlin Conference, the powers had to establish real administrative rule in their declared protectorates. At that time, the British government still lacked the conditions for direct administrative rule in the areas along the Oil Rivers and the Niger River.
To address this dilemma, it was determined to use Goldie’s company to exert British rule over the Niger River region. In July 1886, Goldie’s National African Company was granted a royal charter by the British government, which authorized it to exercise political rule, administrative and judicial jurisdiction, and trade and commercial monopoly over the Niger River estuary on behalf of the British government…
“In 1887, the British government declared that all areas under the treaty with the Company were protectorates of the British government. By this decree, the Royal Niger Company became not only a major trading company but the administrative arm of the government in the region. During the British colonial invasion of central and northern Nigeria, the Royal Niger Company acted as the pioneer of colonial exploration.”
Among other narratives, this quote was the catchline on how Britain’s invasion, plunder, intrusion, usurpation, and desecration of this part of the world started. At the height of it all, they created a caricature of a true nation from a blend of disparate nations that existed peacefully on their own. Over 150 years of this false narrative, whatever benefit Nigeria still belongs to the creators of Nigeria – Britain, and not those called citizens of Nigeria.
After all, Nigeria was a creation slanted for the reason of feathering the economic nest of Britain, and never to benefit the people who embody this creation. That has not changed, and reading through this work makes that palpable.
This is a book that is an eye-opener and the totality of the deceit and falsity that birthed Nigeria, a creation which in itself is yet to prove not to be a falsity.
However, away from the maladjustment of Nigeria, the amazing thing about this book is how a foreigner, just having an encounter with Nigeria during his master’s degree course at the University of Lagos became so entrenched in his interest about Nigeria to know the country and its story so well that his book teaches Nigerian the Nigerian history.
By my assessment, this work is one of the most detailed books on Nigeria’s history and by a foreigner, but without an iota of doubt the number one in-depth by a Chinese and an Asian about Nigeria.
The work is a demonstration that Prof. Liu Hongwu’s interest in Nigeria and Africa is beyond a flash-in-the-pan happenstance, but deep-rooted, candid, lucid, and purposeful.
In his opening words of introduction, he wrote that:
“The fifty-four countries on the African continent today, regardless of their size and wealth, all have pasts and histories of their own. If outsiders want to know and understand a country and interact with its people, the best way is to start by knowing its history and learning about its culture.
On the other hand, the founding of contemporary African countries like Nigeria differs from the rebuilding of their former states through decolonization, as was the case with many ancient states in the East. The series of states created in Africa after decolonization, including Nigeria, were newly built rather than rebuilt and newly created rather than restored or revived… Those ancient tribal cultural communities that survived the African slave trade were often arbitrarily dismembered by Western colonizers during the partition and occupation.”
In contrast with his native country’s history, he coached: “However, in a broader historical context, China’s development process today is founded on its developmental achievements accumulated over the three thousand years of civilizational history.”
This is perfectly true, and the intention of bridging the continuity of what ethnic societies of sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria had and causing a hiatus in their growth process is what informed the creation of 54 maladjusted states that split and carved up one ethnic nationality into two or more false states by Europe.
Liu raised a mind boggling question on the existential reality of these states. One of them is on the “Achievements and Deficiencies of State-Building and Political Development of Contemporary African Countries.”
CHAPTER 1
The Natural and Cultural Environment of Nigeria’s State Development
The author took time to go into details of Nigeria’s physical and geographical endowment in all four cardinal points with definite accuracy, a mark of deep research and observation.
He discussed even the myriad languages and ethnicities that make up the country of over 450 languages.
However, on writing, Nigerian cultural groups didn’t have writings that were preserved in antiquity, apart from the Nsibidi which was known and used like a cult script among adherents. It was well known and still in use among members of the Ekpe cult in the Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and some parts of Igbo land up to now.
In the discussion of the Nigerian languages, Liu went to lengths to explore them, especially the ones spoken by large ethnic groups. However, we denounce the tagging of Nigerian languages as ‘primitive’. It is a denigrating and infradig word Europe coined to rate the languages of our people as inferior. From that point, they called them vernacular which they are also not. We would prefer that in this fine and wonderful work, our languages are not dubbed primitive because they have never been that. It is my wish that during the production of the next edition, such an adjective describing Nigerian indigenous languages as primitive would be changed. Primitivity as a word connotes backwardness, unsophisticated, and inadequacy. Such epithet shouldn’t in any way apply to a language that is adequate to express fully intelligible ideas or thoughts of a people.
2
Growth and Decline of Ancient Kingdoms in Nigeria
It focuses on the disparate countries that lived on their own up until the 1914 amalgamation by Britain to form what is known as Nigeria. The documentation was quite apt to note that Nigeria as a state is young, but the original people that make up the young Nigerian entity are on their own old and entrenched nations. It listed Yoruba, Bornu, Bini, Hausa city-states, and what he called the Igbo and Niger Delta countries or states which all existed long before the creation of Nigeria as known today.
3
Ancient Nigerian Cultural Heritage and Its Practical Significance
This chapter zeroes in on the histories of Nigeria’s ancient countries and their manifest concrete cultural footprints or artifacts that help to give a glimpse into what they really were. His list include the Nok culture, Igbo Ukwu chalcolithic, Owo, Ife, Nupe artifacts, those of Bini. Interestingly, Igbo Ukwu, Owo or more precisely, Ife and Bini artifacts are all chalcolithic or bronze, with Igbo Ukwu being the oldest.
Liu noted: “For cultural historians, these ancient cultures of southern Nigeria appeal to them so much because of the following two critical reasons in addition to these cultures’ significant sophistication in terms of economic life, political structure, and knowledge technology.”
Those two reasons he listed include: “First of all, from the perspective of African art history, the plentiful terracotta and bronze sculptures that appeared in these cultures not only reached a very high technical level but also, and more importantly, showed a perfectly realistic approach, a naturalistic aesthetic style, and a rational spirit and humanistic consciousness.
“Second, because of the lack of written records, cultural historians have been disputing the inherent relationship between these cultures that emerged during different periods over more than two thousand years.”
This can’t be better stated. The argument over relationships between the various culture groups and their similar arts in motifs and sophistry, including age may be disputed for the reason adduced, but such hairsplitting may not go too far to cut ice, because beyond the similarity of the concrete art forms, their other cultural manifestations have a lot of similarities among them.
4
Black Slave Trade and the Decline of Ancient Nigerian Civilizations
This is the chapter that touched on the sore point of African history.
Reading through this chapter and topic, Liu explained: “Western colonial powers invaded West Africa. The vast area from the southern coast to the interior, including what later became Nigeria and the adjacent regions, successively became the subject of Western vanquishing and plundering and the key place for the criminal black slave trade and gold plundering. Under Western conquest, the ancient black civilization in Nigeria declined or perished, and the traditional socio-economic life, political pattern, and ethnic structure gradually underwent drastic changes and transformations.”
Again, this work narrated that: “The arrival of the black slave trade period heralded the darkest era of the West African region, including Nigeria. And the Gulf of Guinea in Nigeria was the most war-torn area by the centuries-long black slave trade and slave-raiding wars. The Nigerian coast in the 16th–18th century was once known as the Slave Coast. According to the general view of historians, in the nearly five centuries of the African slave trade, more than a quarter of the black people were captured and sold along the Nigerian coast. So you can imagine what great a disaster Nigeria endured during these four or five hundred years.
In the beginning, European human traffickers came directly to the shores to capture blacks by force or to trade directly with local chiefs with European goods.”
He used the most adequate word such as “invaded West Africa”. The invasion was the right word. As many African historians ask, what would it have been than invasion when someone who claimed to be out to trade came armed with guns, ammunition, sedative drugs, money, and more under the decree of their states and churches? In James Inikori’s book: Forced Migration, Walter Rodney documented that 85% of Africans taken as slaves by Europe were through raids and mass abduction, and 15% through purchase. Unless dealers in guns, people don’t go to their normal business place with guns and hard sedative drugs.
Further down, Liu said: “The black slave trade was a sin and disgrace of modern European civilization and a disaster and catastrophe in African history. This unprecedented disaster and catastrophe lasted for several centuries. In addition to the massive havoc on Africa then, its far-reaching toxicity and extensive damages had a lasting influence on the modern and contemporary history of the whole African continent later on. It is like an internal bleeding wound that has become a historical obstacle to modern Africa’s national and state unity and integration.”
He asked about the casualty list or the extent of human loss suffered in the ordeal, and also gave an answer: “So, how many Africans were sold or killed in the four hundred years? Authoritative expert studies show that four centuries of the Atlantic black slave trade cost Africa up to about 200 million people.”
5
Establishment and Evolution of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria
In this chapter, the author made a vital revelation on how the colonization of the region and the eventual creation of a Nigeria came about. I must admit to Liu that is a piece of history most Nigerians don’t know that a particular individual’s quest for power created the conditions for the fabrication of Nigeria.
He documented: “At the behest of missionaries and British merchants, he asked the British colonialist Beecroft to help him reinstate the throne and promised to sign a treaty with Britain guaranteeing the abolition of the slave trade in Lagos and the introduction of legal trade, especially with Britain. For Beecroft, who was committed to stopping the slave trade in Lagos, Akitoye’s request was undoubtedly an opportunity to establish a regime in Lagos that would help him stop the slave trade and legalize trade. In 1851, Beecroft ordered the British fleet in West Africa to bombard Lagos. After three days of battle, Lagos fell on December 27, 1851, and Kosoko and his cronies fled. Akitoye regained his dominance in Lagos with British support and fulfilled his promise to the British.
The armed occupation of Lagos was a critical first step in the subsequent British conquest of the indigenous nations of Nigeria, and it was the first time that Britain used force against an indigenous black African nation in Nigeria.”
Prof. Liu raised a very important fact of history. So, it was Oba Akitoye’s quest for power to the detriment of his kinsman, Kosoko that led him to sell his kingdom to Britain, and later what is Nigeria today. It is possible that if Akitoye’s avarice for power didn’t drive him that far, Britain may not have had a foothold in Lagos from where it tasted the benefits and expanded with the force of arms to what is now Nigeria.
My position is confirmed by Liu’s further explanation that “But soon, the British were unsatisfied with the mere presence of a consulate in Lagos; they wanted to annex Lagos outright and turn it into a British colony. The British began to make up excuses that annexing Lagos would help stop the slave trade altogether, knowing that the annexation would give them a firm grip on this strategic area and help them expand their business in the Niger region.”
The culmination of this expansionist expedition came to a head when “On January 1, 1900, the day after the British government revoked the charter of the Niger Company, the British Union Jack flag was hoisted in Lokoja, announcing the incorporation of the lands occupied by the Niger Company in the north as the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. At the same time, the Niger Coast Protectorate was renamed the Southern Nigeria Protectorate. In 1906, the British merged the Lagos Colony with the Southern Nigeria Protectorate to form the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In this way, the British established two colonies in Nigeria, one in the north and one in the south,” Liu’s work revealed.
The push occasioned by the Berlin Conference of 1884 yielded the unsavoury dividend to the extent that “By around 1900, almost all of Africa, except Liberia, was divided between Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal. This was the beginning of the colonial era in West Africa and when the colonial system was established. With colonial powers finished carving up West Africa, they had to set up corresponding colonial ruling institutions and formulate and promulgate ruling policies.”
6
Toward National Independence and State-Building
“By the end of the First World War, the Nigerian people waged a massive movement against British colonial rule, and the nationalist consciousness was rapidly kindled and widely spread. After the Second World War, the Nigerian nationalist movement advanced further, and the struggle for national liberation and independence became an increasingly important goal. The movement reached its climax in the 1950s, leading to the termination of British colonial rule and the establishment of the newly independent Nigerian state in 1960.”
This was the reversal period, even though the collateral damage had already cut far deeper than the skin level, with aftermaths that have not abated till today. That is the major focus of this chapter documenting a seeming turnaround.
With time, other incidents of history furthered the quest for liberation as Liu noted that: “After the Second World War ended, the British colonialists enacted the Richardson Constitution in March 1945, attempting to strengthen their rule over the Nigerian colony and suppress the development of the national autonomy movement. This constitution was strongly opposed by the Nigerian people in all sections. Azikiwe led a delegation from the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons to London to protest, asking the British government to revise the constitution.
After the British government turned down their request, strikes and protests erupted throughout Nigeria. More radical groups, such as the Zikist movement, emerged within the organization as young people wished to adopt a more radical approach to achieve
their political goals.
In November 1949, during a strike in Nigeria’s Enugu coal mines, police shot dozens of black miners dead. The bloodshed drove the nationalist movement in Nigeria in a more radical direction, and the slogan demanding full political autonomy and even independence for
Nigeria increasingly became the goal of the struggle for the vast majority of Nigerians.”
When the British knew that their leaving Nigeria was imminent as the people insisted on having their way to freedom, the coloniser hurriedly dropped the Macpherson Constitution which was just two years old, and impaneled a body to draft another, the Lyttleton Constitution to serve their interest before backing out as captured by Liu that “The Lyttleton Constitution was a basic picture of the future political development of the country that British colonists designed for the Nigerian people by their own values, political ideals, and interests before their imminent withdrawal from Nigeria. Its content was thorough and
carefully planned. As a political legacy left by the British at the end of their reign, it constituted the basic framework for Nigeria’s political system and governmental structure after independence. Therefore, it had a complex and far-reaching impact on Nigeria’s subsequent political process and national development. A federal political system with modern Western council politics and multi-party competition at its core was stabilized, with the North dominating and the three regions having considerable independence. In terms of Nigeria’s historical course, this Constitution was also a crucial step toward ultimate independence.”
But the constitution created the grounds for the very first general election in Nigeria in 1954 as a major hallmark.
On October 1, 1960, the agreement for Nigeria to declare Independence was kept, with Britain appointing a British as Governor General as Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister.
“Three years later, on October 1, 1963, the Nigeria Federation was renamed the Federal Republic of Nigeria, abolishing the governor and establishing a republican system to become the first independent sovereign republic within the Commonwealth, with Azikiwe as the first president of the Republic of Nigeria. This republic became known as Nigeria’s First Republic. Of course, at the beginning of independence, the Nigerian people did not foresee the difficulties and challenges ahead of the new state in building the foundations of its existence, consolidating its political unity, and achieving ethnic integration in the country.”
7
Political Structure at the Beginning of Independence and the Political Process in the 1960s
“Declaring a nation and forming a government is never an easy task. It is the result of the struggle of the Nigerian people against colonialism over the years. However, it is an even more difficult and complicated undertaking for this new nation to survive and develop. As Nigeria’s first Prime Minister after independence, Balewa, said, “Independence is not an end in itself; It is the means whereby we are determined to ensure that Nigeria plays her full part in world affairs and whereby Nigerians are enabled to enjoy a higher standard of living both materially and spiritually. In working for independence we are creating a national self-respect”. Indeed, the formation of a new Nigerian concept of statehood and significance, a new Nigerian national sentiment and national pride, is the very spiritual pillar of national development that Nigeria needs most after independence. Nevertheless, it is not easy to build this spiritual pillar.”
The statement was proven right over time, even today, and further to Liu’s writing “Contemporary black African countries like Nigeria are essentially newly created states that were formed not as a result of socio-economic development or ethnic integration processes.
It became a new state by completing decolonization before developing a unified economic life and a unified nation and culture. Therefore, after attaining independence and declaring a new state, these countries had to lay a unified national economic and cultural foundation and create a unified national culture and sentiment for the solid survival of the new
nation.”
That task has been as elusive as it has been impossible till date. As the years go by, the signs get clearer that Nigeria walks backwards away from that goal that has been a retreating reality. It looks just more impossible to achieve with every passing day and year. Today, beyond ethnic divides, class divides widen into gorges and everyone is a victim, especially the lower classes that exist in all the ethnic divides.
The chapter further delved into the ethnicized nature of Nigerian political party system. Even after the military coup interregnum in 1966 up till 1979 when democratic political system return, ethnic political party system return and has not gone anywhere till now. It has crytallized into the fabric of Nigeria’s political nature.
It also documented the unfortunate Biafra or Nigeria Civil War and its attendant genocides. Up to date, the wounds of that war on individuals, ethnic groups, national cohesion, and integration are still open and bleeding.
8
Relentless Efforts to Overcome Tribal Conflict and the Effectiveness
The efforts to overcome this challenge have proved almost impossible. Since 1960, it has been a challenge without a solution and the documentation in this work aptly captured it.
“The central theme of the political process and national development in contemporary Nigeria is to overcome the regional tribalism tendency of isolating and dividing the country and gradually unite the more than two hundred tribes of varying sizes in the country (especially the Hausa-Fulani in the North, the Yoruba in the Southwest, and the Igbo in the Southeast) into a new and modern nation, the Nigerian nation, and gradually cultivate and shape a Nigerian national concept, consciousness, and sentiment among the entire Nigerian people, irrespective of their tribal affiliation, religion, language, and script, or whether they lived in the North or the South.
It is also crucial to form a unified national political system and a capable central government necessary for a modern state as well as corresponding national cultural perceptions and value systems of modern political citizens. The political concept of the people was to be transformed from a tribal and local consciousness to a state and national consciousness,” he observed.
9
The Political Process from the Mid-1960s to the Mid-1980s
In this chapter, I would want an impression corrected about the term Hausa/Fulani in usage. There is no ethnic group by this name. The Fulani hegemonic interest coined it to deceive and subjugate the Hausa like an appendage.
The Hausa and Fulani are two different ethnic groups that live next to each other. The major commonality they have is the religion brought upon the Hausa by the Fulani who came later. By an inexplicable historical happenstance, Fulani the conqueror, though having its own language, is dominated linguistically by the Hausa language. But in the leadership of Nigeria, the Hausa never led Nigeria nor dominated it. They are one of the ethnic groups of Nigeria that have suffered the most denial.
Secondly, the reason for the July 1966 military coup wasn’t because of any lopsided appointments by Ironsi. It was still the smouldering fire of the January 15, 1966 coup which the BBC instigated the rest of Nigeria, especially the North to dub an ‘Igbo coup’ because most of the victim leaders of Nigeria were mainly northerners and no Igbo. But with time and proper information, the leaders and executors of the coup were not only the Igbo. The July coup led by Gowon, Danjuma, etc was a reprisal against the Igbo for the alleged selective killing of northern leaders. Ironsi’s deputy was Ogundipe, a Yoruba.
The instigation and bias of the ‘Igbo Coup’ by BBC was Britain’s policy of dominating Nigeria’s economic resources, and this was demonstrated in the genocide the UK government fueled and executed on the Biafra people. The major oil company in Nigeria tapping crude oil in the Niger Delta and later, including Igbo land was Shell, a British company. The bulk of the oil proceeds of Nigeria still go to Britain. So, by the coup and later the war, they saw the Eastern Region where the Igbo were in the majority as putting their economic benefit at risk, and therefore rallied the rest, especially the North against the East.
The expose by Liu of the turbulent season of Nigeria’s political leadership between 1966 and December 1983 was quite detailed and commendable. Frankly, they were the years of the locusts that ate up the country till now.
No matter the good intentions claimed by the survived coup plotters, the hurry was not commendable and became the undoing of Nigeria’s proper political development. It threw the doors open to fewer mediocres to hijack the political space and reset Nigeria’s movement to retrogression. Even when some of them, like Buhari returned under a disputed election, it was like coming back to conduct the funeral of a death they caused earlier. The coups were exclusively the preserve of the North apart from the first. Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Babangida, Buhari, Abacha, were all northerners, including Dimka who didn’t execute a successful one and by accident of history, Obasanjo who wasn’t part of the coup, but second in command to Mohammed became the beneficiary who took over power.
10
Political Reform in the Babangida Military Government (August 1985–August 1993)
“The never-ending tribal conflicts, successive military coups, and endless political crises cast a shadow on the reality and future of the country. Whether Nigeria was able to rise from these tumultuous political crises became a prerequisite for any development in Nigeria.
Comparatively, the military government that came to power in 1985 ruled the country for a relatively long time. During its eight years, under the leadership of its head, Babangida, the military government undertook a series of important reforms in political development to strengthen the country’s internal cohesion and build a unified and stable modern Nigerian state. These reforms and their effectiveness have been evaluated differently in Nigeria and the international community. Some believe they were mere political maneuvers and gimmicks by Babangida to prolong his rule.”
This content of the chapter, especially the last quoted sentence here is the whole truth about what was erroneously called Babangida’s reforms. The best way to put it is that there were actually no reforms, just drama to remain in power. The way it ended with the aborted freest presidential election was a testifier to the fraud that underlined Babangida’s false reforms.
How sincere would that have been that someone in power who plans to return to democracy would be the one to create two political parties and ask intending people to join the ones they choose? It is unheard of in any democracy that the government forms and names parties and mandates citizens to join. An individual can’t create two political parties and endow them with two different political ideologies or philosophies, the major differentiating factor between political parties.
Liu’s conclusion was that “More and more Nigerian democrats and Western countries saw Babangida’s seven-year “political transition” as a political means and ploy to prolong his autocratic rule, and people became less and less convinced of his political honesty. When 1993 arrived, the scheduled federal government election triggered a nationwide political upheaval that disrupted the entire political reform process,” is profoundly apt and factual.
11
The Political Process from 1993 to 1999
“Babangida’s nearly ten years of efforts to return power to civilians, end the military
regime, and establish the Third Republic and civilian government in Nigeria, came to naught. Thus, an important stage in Nigeria’s political development process that began in the 1980s came to an end, and Nigeria’s political progress was once again in plight.”
It was an abysmal end planned from the beginning to be so.
This was the height of the fraud as “On June 23, Babangida, after consultation with other military figures, annulled the election results on the grounds that the election had been fraudulent and illegal. On June 26, in a radio address to the nation, Babangida announced a new presidential election, in which he asked the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention to identify their respective new presidential candidates by the end of July to continue his program of
returning power to civilians.”
After Babangida was done dribbling Nigeria, Abacha took over, an expedition that also ended nowhere, or maybe it ended somewhere as Liu noted that “While announcing the new constitution, the Abacha military government proposed a three-year plan and timetable for returning power to civilians. According to this plan and schedule, Nigeria would redistribute its administrative regions, register political parties, and elect local governments and councils, state governments and councils, and the National Assembly by the end of 1998. Presidential elections were to be held on August 1, 1998, and the president-elect was to swear in on October 1, 1998, with the military government transitioning to a democratically elected civilian government. In the years that followed, the Abacha military government worked accordingly, but on June 7, 1998, just over a month before the scheduled presidential election, Abacha suddenly died of an illness, and the Nigerian political process was confronted with new challenges and opportunities as a result.”
12
The 1999 Election and the Birth of the Fourth Republic
“In 1999, a new Fourth Republic the Nigerian people and the international community desired was established under the leadership of the Nigerian politician Obasanjo, known as “the political sage of Africa.” It brought new hope to the desperate Nigeria. Many people believed that through their unremitting efforts and struggles, a new and modern Nigerian state would re-emerge in the African continent under the new Fourth Republic leadership with Obasanjo as president and bring new hopes for development to the entire continent.
This was a step of great significance in the political development process of contemporary Nigeria and a new hope for the world brought by Africa as world history was about to open the chapter of the 21st century.”
This is how the chapter which is actually the political chapter Nigeria referred to as the Fourth Republic came into being. The author’s expatiation of the content of this chapter is a testament to his interest in monitoring political leadership in Nigeria.
On the progress of the political season under Obasanjo, Liu noted that:
“Since Obasanjo was a man with experience in governance and highly respected by all walks of life in Nigeria since he first came to power, the internal and external environment was favorable for him to manage the chaotic country. After his return to power, he adjusted his domestic and foreign policies, improved the political system, advocated ethnic reconciliation, and eased social conflicts. Nigeria’s political situation thus gradually stabilized. In his policy programs, Obasanjo mentioned eradicating corruption, establishing the prestige of the government, achieving
ethnic reconciliation, developing the national economy, reducing the debt burden, constructing infrastructure, speeding up poverty alleviation, and announcing the resumption of relevant regulations to ensure the integrity of the government’s work. In order to maintain state stability and achieve ethnic reconciliation, Obasanjo took a series of specific initiatives, including restructuring the government to ensure the smooth delivery of government orders.”
13
The Obasanjo Rule (1999–2007)
The chapter noted that: “When Olusegun Obasanjo returned to power in 1999, he inherited a devastated country that required tantamount efforts for rebuilding,
and the new government faced serious economic, political, social, and religious problems”
Further, Liu’s assertion that “Since Obasanjo was a man with experience in governance and highly respected by all walks of life in Nigeria since he first came to power, the internal and external environment was favorable for him to manage the
chaotic country. After his return to power, he adjusted his domestic and foreign policies, improved the political system, advocated ethnic reconciliation, and eased social conflicts. Nigeria’s political situation thus gradually stabilized,” may prove true, even though it had its hiccups.
In fairness to Liu, even though Obasanjo was seriously vilified by Nigerian during his eight years – 1999-2007, time has however proven him to be the best since the return to democracy 25 years ago. Unfortunately, it seems to move to the worse at any point of change of baton since then.
14
Political Evolution from Yar’Adua to Jonathan (May 2007–2013)
The chapter takes a look at the Yar’Adua days and how it didn’t last long before drama ensued that brought in the deputy, Jonathan to take over power.
It looked at the powerplay by the infamous cabal that hijacked power and insisted on bypassing the constitution on hand over of power when the president is incapacitated.
It took further look on how Jonathan came to power, his election in 2011 and his eventual economic reforms, working with a formidable team of sound economists and experts.
The travails of Jonathan in power is well articulated, including the security challenge by Boko Haram and the force opposition that was bent on wresting power from his at all costs.
It was in Jonathan’s days that Nigeria assumed the official tag of the continent’s largest economy with a GDP of $510 billion.
Conclusion
Having looked through this in-depth work on Nigeria’s history across 150 years, I am amazed at the extent of precise information a foreigner has about Nigeria.
I admit in all modesty that I learned a lot from the book about Nigerian history, especially the pre-amalgamation and immediate post-amalgamation years. I was really educated by Liu through this work.
It is a commendable piece of documentation Nigerian and anyone with interest in Nigeria’s political history needs to pick a copy and read.
The translation was also done in fine, simple and understandable prose.
Looking through the book, I noticed very minimal typographic errors, but a highly commendable accuracy of Nigerian names of the political players. Most of the places had the names rendered in single or surnames only. I would attribute these to the fact that while Chinese names are short and in monosyllables, Nigerian names are longer. That in my thinking could be the reason for the single-name rendering. I would suggest that when a new edition of this work is done, maybe with some updates, the single names as Azikiwe, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Macaulay should be written in full such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun Obasanjo, Herbert Macaulay, etc.
I rate this book quite highly and a product befitting of a professor of international acclaim in the mould of Liu Hongwu, a Chinese foremost expert in China-Africa relations.
