The amalgamation happened in the house behind us. And like Job in the Bible, many Nigerians – caught in the punishing grip of modern Nigeria, with its many, many afflictions – like to curse that day their country was born. Some even go as far as saying it is the circumstances of its birth that has doomed the country. Ah! This is like saying a child conceived out of wedlock, or as a result of rape, is cursed.
No. This is not my faith. That a man is bound by the circumstances of his birth. This is not my faith. That those who were born slaves cannot give birth to kings. Or that those who were born kings cannot give birth to slaves. You see? We are not prisoners of our past. No. Whether as individuals or as a collective, we are heirs to the common heritage of all human beings. And that is the capacity to imagine a future for ourselves radically from our past.
Yes. If Lugard had known that, by his actions in this house, he would be calling into existence the potential of, one day, uniting 200 million assertive black Africans under one flag, he would not have done it. If he had foreseen Fela, and the global cultural force that is Afrobeat. That his descendants would dance to this music. That, one day, the spiritual centre of the world’s major faiths would shift – by the sheer number of worshippers – to this country he was creating… That its citizens would be loud. That even in poverty, they would break records. And their writers would tell unforgettable stories, stories that would turn the English language into a Nigerian colony. If he had foreseen these things, he would not have done it.
If he had foreseen Zik… If he had foreseen that the imperialist vision of milking this African colony for hundreds of years would not last 50. That within 46 years of amalgamation, the people of this country would have mastered his ways so well they would be scuttling his constitutions and demanding new ones. Yes. If he had forseen Sa’adu Zungur… If he had foreseen that the walls he encouraged between North and South were not as unbridgeable as he thought. That a Muslim could align with a Christian. That a Fulani could be mayor in Enugu. Yes. If he had thought for a second that the black African was capable at all of inter-ethnic collaboration within a powerful, well-situated, modern state. Yes. If he had forseen these things, he would not have done it.
But he did it because he believed the worst about us. He believed we were too ignorant, too divided, too tied to kinship and blood loyalties, too lazy, too corrupt, too greedy for short-term material gain, too illiterate, too poor, too incapable of mastering the modern art of state-craft; to ever take advantage of a state like this. Yes. He did it because he believed there would never be Nigerians. That was why Lugard created Nigeria. That was why he signed that document.
And that is why I took this picture. Because Lugard was wrong. Yes. Out of the crucible of coups and war, of riot and protest, of Andrew checking out and Soyinka chanting, ‘I love my country, I no go lie. For inside am, I go live and die’. Out of the crucible of federal government colleges and NYSC, of no light and broken roads, of Rashidi Yekini holding the net and shouting to the heavens, and Tobi Amusan hurdling to gold. Yes. Out of the crucible of excruciating time and unpredictable chance, we have emerged. We are emerging. Nigerians. And our past shall not be our future.
If you share this faith, then come let us fellowship together. Come and see…
The Made In Nigeria (MIN) Poetry Show lands in Calabar…
Date: Sat. 20 Aug 2022
Time: 4pm
Venue: Gomays Plaza Hotel, 90 Atekong Drive, Calabar
Tkts: N2k regular. N1k students/corpers/anyone with a PVC
