Our State

 

By Wale Adebanwi

 

In this season in which multiple monologues are masquerading as dialogues regarding how to reconstitute and perhaps rehabilitate the Nigerian State, it is meet that we encourage dialogue on that state, the state (I mean, condition) of the state, and the state (stage and dynamics) of the ‘dialogue’. The Shakespearean play, Hamlet, already points us in the direction of the sad commentary. We can twist what the officer of the palace guard, Marcellus, says in the play after the ghost of the dead king appears, walking over the palace walls: Something is rotten in the State of Nigeria! Whether that ‘something’ is wrong on the surface, or wrong fundamentally - in a way that is integral to the very idea of Nigeria and the way the country was constituted - is another debate.

The present holders of power would want us to believe that this is a surface-level problem which can be solved by “good governance�, “transparency�, “purposeful leadership�, and maybe “total loyalty�. So, they think if they can continue in this state for a few more years, all will be well. They are, of course, deeply embedded in a limited vision of Nigeria as a towering, but lame, country, that functions well enough for their crippling passions to hold sway. But, in many ways, they are helped and sustained by the Brettonwoodian-economistic lexicon of “good governance� that ignores salient political basis for such governance and glosses over the contextual dynamics of economic, political and social retardation. It is against this backdrop that we are told by the present occupiers of the Villa that they are the sovereign; in addition, they remind us constantly that Nigeria is a finished project, sacred and inviolable, and that no one should raise any question on whether the country should and would continue as a single country. This, no doubt, explains their opposition to a national talk-shop with the prefix, “sovereign�. From General Sani Abacha to General Olusegun Obasanjo, the campaign for such a national deliberation was trivialized, if not violated, by the convocation of laughable versions of this much-needed confab. But, as Engels argued long ago, it is when the state becomes alien and distant from the people that it is constituted to embody and represent that it begins to rely more and more desperately on the its sacredness and inviolability. Need we repeat: There is nothing inviolable about Nigeria ab initio, unless the people agree to it.

There is no doubt that Nigeria, as a State, is in a bad state – in bad shape. Is this because she is herself a bad State, a bastard algebra composed by the pathetic colonialist, Fredrick Lugard?

But, let us for a moment consider the word “state� in its many and different meanings. As the lexicographers teach us, a state can mean: “a condition or mode of being, as with regard to circumstances� for example, “a state of confusion�; “a condition of being in a stage or form, as of structure, growth, or development�, for example “the fetal state�; “a mental or emotional condition�, for example “in a manic state� (or, to draw a local example, you can say, “Nigeria is in a rotten state�). Informally, one can also speak of “state� as “a condition of excitement or distress�; while in physics, “state� can mean “the condition of a physical system with regard to phase, form, composition, or structure�, for example, you can say “ice is the solid state of water� (or, to draw on non-physical example, “rottenness is the normal state of Nigeria�). “State� can denote a “social position or rank�; it can also mean ceremony and pomp, like in “foreign leaders dining in state at the Aso Rock Villa�.

Yet, this same word can mean “the supreme public power within a sovereign political entity�, or “the sphere of supreme civil power within a given polity�, for example “matters of state�. Furthermore, the word can denote “a specific mode of government�, like a socialist state; “a body politic, especially one constituting a nation�, like the African states; or “one of the more or less internally autonomous territorial and political units composing a federation under a sovereign government�, like Ogun State. As a transitive verb, to “state� could mean “to set forth in words; to declare�. The synonyms of “state� includes condition, situation and status. Perhaps, the first synonym explains a lot, as Fela teaches in his timeless song, “Army Arrangement�, where he croons that, “suffer dey Africa paparapa, condition dey paparapa….� Fela’s “condition� captures the state of affairs in Africa in which “rich man dey mess (while) poor man dey suffer�. It is precisely the task of reversing the state of the Nigerian State that patriotic voices have been calling for a national deliberation on the state of our state so that it does not end with the country having to lie-in-state.

Basically, what those calling for a national talk-shop are advocating for is the fundamental need for Nigerians in their different modes - religious, ethnic, regional, etc. – to state their case to the state which has hurt and is hurting most of them deeply. It is the irreducible minimum that can guarantee the continued existence of the state; the true expression of the sovereignty of that state, which exists only in the people as a collective. If the people cannot state their case to the state, then it is a bad state.

But those opposed to a national talk-shop are stating, vicariously, that Nigeria is in such a bad state that allowing people to state their cases would lead to the state (Nigeria) lying-in-state. They add that allowing such a talk shop will make it possible for “separatists� to realize what remains presently “States of imagination�, including such as “Biafra�, “Oodua Republic�, “Republic of Niger Delta� - and perhaps “Arewa Republic�. In the context of all these battles, all sorts of ancillary issues have also polarized the State. Take “resource control�, which is one of the issues slated for debate at the national talk-shop. Elements opposed to the reconstitution of Nigeria have even revised the state of affairs in the Niger Delta. For example, Dr. Bala Usman, the recently departed historian, who possessed an almost unequalled ability to trivialize and argument while attempting to deepen it, wrote that the debris that washed down from the north decomposed and formed the fossils that became crude oil in the Niger Delta! This kind of thinking is the product of the state of hysteria in the north, over the “loss of power�, which the semi-literate governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa – whose similarly limited biographer described as a “political colossal (sic)� - captured well when he said, “we want our power back�!

The first group – supporters of national talk-shop - insists that the position that a national talk-shop will lead to the disintegration of Nigeria is a lie; that it is precisely such lying about Nigeria that has conditioned the country to remain in a fetal state, too stunted in her growth for her to meet her manifest destiny as an African power state. Some even go to the extreme to ask what is wrong with dismembering what Joe Klein of TIME magazine would call, a “prohibitively raucous canine nation� that is Nigeria.

Despite the evidence that stares everyone in the face that without such a reconsideration of the state of our State, the state itself, which is already in-state (pregnant), may deliver a monster for all. The present leadership, almost in a manic state, is enjoying the pomp and ceremony of office while the State burns. The leadership seems to be blind to the reality; high officials of the State are staring into a blinding light. Without doubt, this will lead to a state of darkness. The condition we are in now is such that the sinister power bastion might end up sucking the State in.

In reality that power bastion, if we lift the veil, is a politically exhausted, even if also exhaustive, cabal, but one that is - being in its last breath of life - in a manic state. In such a state, even the State can go down the hill for all they care. Which also explains, in part, the new sundering of Nigeria along regional lines. The Southern front that was recently fabricated has been dismissed by some as part of a more elaborate attempt to keep Nigeria in the mire, the state in which she has been for the most part. Or, indeed, some have argued that if this north-south divide is pushed further as we march towards 2007, then the condition of Nigeria might even worsen. But, events and actions of the present power holders have already indicated that the feared state of affairs is upon them - and our State.

As Hamlet says in the (modern text of the) play, Hamlet, “It’s my fate calling me. Every nerve in my body is now as tough as steel. The ghost is still waving me over. Let me go, gentlemen.� Voices of reason might eventually hold back when confronted with the threat of Hamlet: “I swear, if anyone holds me back. I’ll make a ghost of him�. Horatio ponders that it is Hamlet’s imagination that is making him crazy, even while asking: “But what does it all mean, where will it all end?� It was at this point that Marcellus makes his remarkable statement: “It means that something is rotten in the state of Denmark�. Horatio more or less gives up when confronted with that deep reflection. “If that’s true, we should let God take care of it�, says Horatio. “Lif’am for God�, as it is written on the east-bound coach, is a perpetual consolation for Nigerians – whenever they are in a terrible state…

To all those who have lost – and may lose – loved ones in this rotten state, to this rotten system, and the coming rottenness, our condolences….