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Reliving
Nigeria's painful past
April
29, 2007
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Long before there
were ever a coup d' tat and a civil war in Liberia,
there was a civil war and a fatal and bloodless coup
d' tats in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We Liberians thought ours was bad but ask the
Nigerians, at least the ones that are now old enough
to remember the pain and suffering and starvation, would be quick to
narrate why it is not so ideal to go to war, because
over a million people died during that crisis.
The dreaded Biafran civil war of the 1960s was
a menace of monumental proportions. The civil war took
a toil on the Nigerian nation and its innocent people
when Lt. Col. C. O. Ojukwu of the Eastern Region ‘s
Consultative Assembly declared the eastern region a
sovereign and independent republic, proclaiming the
secession of that region from the federal government
with the formation of the Republic of Biafra.
The end of the war briefly spelled hope in
1970, only to take a series of twist and many turns
with the coming and going of military governments that
lived by the bullets and died by the bullets, always
denying the citizens a chance to be what they always
wanted to be in a rich country with untapped natural
resources and potential to become Africa’s success
story.
Pres-elect Yar'Adua
Out-going Pres. Obasanjo
It is unfortunate, however, for a country such
as Nigeria listed as the world’s eight largest oil
exporter, the fifth largest exporter of oil to the
United States, and with a pool of talented and
educated people living in and out of the country to be
a victim of its own doing with bad leaders and
corruption always the culprits for the deteriorating
conditions of that country.
While it is true that corruption is to be
blamed for some of Nigeria’s mounting problem, greed
and the total lack of patriotism on the part of its
“leaders” whose desire to be in power at any cost
only to siphon the country’s resources should also
be blamed.
That’s because the selfish interest of those
so-called leaders often supersede a genuine desire to
truly seek the interest of the Nigerian people, whose
future is uncertain after the recent presidential
election seen as not free and fair, and also seen as
the first transfer of power from one civilian
government to another in the country’s history.
Umaru Yar’Adua of the governing People’s
Democratic Party of out-going President Olusegun
Obasanjo claimed victory at the end of the day. But
his perceived victory is tainted according to local
and international observers, which is dampening the
spirit of unity the president-elect has called for
even as the defeated candidates and others vowed to
fight the electoral results in the court of law.
Despite its latest national challenge, Nigeria
has been good to the Liberian nation and its people, and
Liberians are also grateful to out-going President
Obasanjo for his efforts in getting Charles Taylor out
of the country, and for also allowing his country to
take in hundreds or thousands of Liberian refugees, even though some
of us have not forgiven the way Mr. Obasanjo handled
the Charles Taylor issue when he blatantly refused to
turn him over for prosecution, which left a
bitter taste in our collective mouths before the former dictator was arrested
as he fled Calabar years ago.
However, the political problem in Nigeria
shouldn’t be taken lightly because of the
possibility of the crisis spilling over, which could
have a negative effect on countries in the region by
virtue of Nigeria’s clout supposedly as a regional
power.
There is responsibility for being called a
regional power, and a regional power must also learn
to set its priorities straight by putting its own
house in order before running to fix the next-door
neighbor’s house. Sadly, Nigeria has failed
miserably to put its own house in order, and has left
millions of its citizens dirt-poor and suffering.
Whether it is Mr. Yar’Adua or another person,
the next leader of Nigeria must work very hard to
improve the lives of its citizens, and must also work
very hard to improve the battered image of that
oil-rich nation.
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