Political journey laced with mines

In the aftermath of the Napoleon wars, the British expanded her trade relations with the Nigerian interior and in 1885, British claims over parts of West Africa was internationally recognised, leading to the formation of the Royal Niger Company under the leadership of Sir Goldie Taubman.

On January 1, 1901, Nigeria became a protectorate of the British, a part of the British Empire, the foremost world power at that time. Then we had the Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria and the Colony of Lagos.

In 1914, the protectorates and the colony were united by Sir Fredrick Lugard to become the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, a name authored by Lugard’s wife.

Administratively, the country was divided into the Southern and Northern Protectorates and Colony of Lagos. However, western education, and rapid economic development took root more in the South than in the North and this has remained and has continued to affect the political life of Nigeria till today.

After the two World Wars, the growth of Nigerian nationalism led to the push for autonomy and successive constitutions promulgated by the British authority moved the country towards self-government, which was premised on a representative and increasingly, federal basis.

The Federation of Nigeria came into existence on October 1, 1954 and following the great wave of agitation for self-government that swept through the length and breadth of Africa in the mid 20th century, the British on October 27, 1958 agreed that Nigeria would become an independent state on October 1, 1960.

Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960 under a constitution that provided for a parliamentary government fashioned after the British model. Jaja Wachukwu, who replaced Sir Fredrick Metcalfe, became the first Nigerian Speaker of the Nigerian Parliament, which was also then called the House of Representatives, from 1959 to 1960.

In the pre-independence era, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the premier of the Western Region, while the late Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto was the premier of the Northern Region and the late Chief Michael Opara was the premier of the Eastern Region

Independence As the Speaker of the House, Wachukwu received the Instrument of Independence, also known as ‘Freedom Charter’ from the Queen of England’s representative, Princess Alexandra of Kent at the independence ceremonies.

At independence, Nigeria had exclusive powers in defence, foreign relations, commercial and fiscal policy. The Queen of England still remain the Head of State and legislative powers were vested in a bicameral legislature while executive powers were vested in a prime minister and his cabinet and the Federal Supreme Court exercise judicial powers.

Political parties in the pre-independence and independence and to a large extent, the post independence eras however reflected the three major ethnic groups that made up the Nigerian state. The Nigerian Peoples Congress (NPC) represented the conservative, Muslim, largely Hausa and Fulani interests that dominated the Northern Region; the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) represented the interests of the Igbo and Christian-dominated people of the Eastern Region and the Action Group (AG), which was a left-leaning party represented the interests of the Yoruba people in the West.

In the 1959 election, held in preparation for independence, the NPC, which represented what was alleged to be three quarters of the land mass and half the population of Nigeria captured 134 seats in the 312-seat parliament, the NCNC won 89 seats and the AG obtained 73 seats.

Nigeria’s first national government was formed by the alliance between the NPC and the NCNC and the AG became the opposition party. At independence, it was widely expected that the leader of the NPC, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, would become the prime minister of the newly independent state and its newly formed government, but Bello chose to remain as the premier of the North and selected Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to become Nigeria’s first Prime Minister.

The charismatic leader of the Yorubadominated AG, Awolowo, became leader of the opposition, but this was not to last as in 1962, a faction broke out of the AG, under the leadership of late Ladoke Akintola, who was the premier of the West. The Akintola faction argued that the Yoruba was losing its pre-eminent position in business in the country to the Igbo, largely due to the NCNC’s alliance with the Federal Government under the NPC. Balewa aligned with Akintola and sought to have the AG as part of the government, but the AG leadership under Awolowo disagreed. Akintola was removed and replaced by Moses Majekodunmi.

When the Western Region parliament met to ratify the change, riot broke out in the House, leading to the breaking of the mace and the eventual declaration of state of emergency in the West. The Federal Government arrested Awolowo and some members of his faction and charged them with treason.

Akintola returned to head a coalition government in the West and the AG became an opposition party in its own enclave.

The First Republic 
Nigeria proclaimed itself the Federal Republic of Nigeria on October 1, 1963 and the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first Governor-General of the Nigerian state became the country’s first president. Ethnic and religious friction continued to be intensified largely due to the differences in the economic and educational development that existed between the North and the South.

A new pro-Federal Government party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), was founded and it took over in the West. But, allegation of rigging trailed the 1965 election. Earlier, Awolowo was imprisoned for treasonable felony.

A new realignment of political forces took place, with the dominant NPC entering into an alliance with the NNDP and thus left the NCNC to join forces with the remnants of the AG.

The events following the 1965 election would plunge the country into a needless civil war, following widespread violence that erupted in the West, when the AG discovered to its chagrin that it had elected pro-Federal Government representatives.

Entered the military
On January 15, 1966, a group of young military officers, mainly of the rank of Major of mostly Eastern extraction overthrew the NPC-NNDP coalition government in a military coup d’état and assassinated the premiers of the North and West, Bello and Akintola respectively.

This led to a counter-coup by Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, which was unable to quell the agitations and rife that the first coup engendered. His attempt to unify the country through the promulgation of Decree 34, which sought to jettison the existing federal structure and the failure of the Ironsi government to put in place a constitution acceptable to the various segments of the country and the renaming of the country to Republic of Nigeria on May 24, 1966 led to nationwide riots which brought about the Yakubu Gowon-led coup in July 1966.

The subsequent massacre of the Igbo in the North led to increasing secessionist sentiments. Gowon, in an attempt to foster unity, divided the four existing regions into 12 states, but the Igbo insisted on autonomy for the East.

The Civil War
Buoyed by sentiment expressed by his kinsmen, on May 30, 1967, the military governor of the Eastern Region, Lt. Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared the independence of the Federal Republic of Biafra. This led to a 30-month civil war in which over 3.5 million lives, mostly starving children, were lost. The war came to an end due to the capitulation of the Igbo in 1970, with the famous ‘no victor, no vanquished’ speech by Gowon and the acceptance of the Instrument of Surrender by the Biafra.

Nigeria witnessed an unprecedented economic and infrastructural development after the civil war following the rise in the price of crude oil in the international market between 1973 and 1974.

Reneging on his promise to return the country to civil rule by 1976, Gowon was overthrown in a bloodless coup led by the late Gen. Murtala Muhammed and a group of officers who also accused Gowon of corruption on July 29, 1975. The Muhammed regime announced a transition timetable to terminate on October 1, 1979, when civilian government would be enthroned in the country.

On February 13, 1976, another group of officers assassinated Muhammed in an attempt to wrestle power from the junta, but the coup was rebuffed and Muhammed’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo became the Head of State. He kept faith with the transition to civil rule programme and on October 1, 1979, the Second Republic was born.

Second Republic
Following the lift of ban on political parties, five parties, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), led by late Chief Adisa Akinloye; Unity Party of Nigeria UPN), led by Awolowo; Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), led by late Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri; Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), led by the late Azikiwe and the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), led by Mallam Aminu Kano, participated in the 1979 elections, which produced Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the NPN as president. He was sworn in on October 1, 1979 as the first President and Commanderin- Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The National Advance Party (NAP) led by Dr. Tunji Braithwaite joined the five political parties to contest for the 1983 elections.

The NPN won in seven states of Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Rivers and Sokoto; the UPN claimed the Western states of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Bendel states; the NPP claimed the two Eastern states of Anambra and Imo; the PRP also claimed two states of Kano and Kaduna while the GNPP clinched Gongola State.

The new constitution jettisoned the Westminster parliamentary system of government of the First Republic for a United States of America-styled presidential system of government. It mandated that party and cabinet positions reflect the ‘federal character’ of the country and also mandated political parties to register their presence in at least two-thirds of the states of the federation. The constitution also provided that each state should have at least one cabinet minister representing it, a practice that has subsists till date.

Perhaps, unlike what we have today where all the political parties in the country cannot differentiate their ideologies and manifestoes, the UPN and the PRP presented the most coherent plan of action during the electioneering of 1979, refusing to build coalition of comfort but that of cooperation among like-minded individuals and organisations.

The 1983 elections, alleged to be rigged massively by the ruling NPN, which won 12 states and huge majority in the National Assembly and which sparked widespread violence led to the truncation of the Second Republic by the military once again. A group of military officers sent the Shagari administration packing and announced Major General Muhammadu Buhari as head of the junta, which accused the civilian administration of losing grip of the nation.

The Buhari junta violated human rights and clamped almost all the serving governors in detention.

The junta was also to be sent packing by the third ranking member of its Supreme Military Council (SMC), General Ibrahim Babangida, who accused the Buhari regime of misuse of power, violations of human rights and failure to stem the descent of the economy into an abyss.

The aborted Third Republic
Babangida pledged that his junta would return the country to civilian rule by 1990, a date that was later extended to 1993. He also constituted a Constituent Assembly, which in 1989 fashioned out a constitution for the country. In October 1989, the Babangida administration established two political parties – the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC).

But the Babangida transition suffered so many hiccups with the disqualification of prominent politicians that included the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. But in December 1990, the first round of elections were held to elect representatives at the local government level, with low turnout but devoid of violence, the SDP won majority of the local government councils, although the NRC also made a strong showing.

State elections were conducted in December 1991 and these were followed by National Assembly elections and the presidential election was held on June 12, 1993, but the scheduled inauguration of the new president fixed for August 27, 1993 was truncated with the annulment of the presidential election on June 23, 1993 under the guise of several litigations trailing the election.

The annulment threw Nigeria into an unprecedented turmoil, leading to the loss of over 100 lives before IBB finally stepped aside on August 27, 1993 and handed over power to an interim government headed by Earnest Shonekan, a businessman turned politician, who was to be at the helm of affairs till February, 1994 when new elections would be conducted.

The June 12, 1993 election adjudged internationally and locally to be the freest in the annals of election in the country, became a watershed in the historical and political history of Nigeria and have continued to generate passion and controversy till date.

The presumed winner of the election, late Chief M. K. O. Abiola, eventually ended up and died in detention after several efforts to reclaim his mandate were unsuccessful. On November 17, 1993, the lameduck Shonekan interim government was to come to an end when the Minister of Defence, General Sani Abacha overthrew it and proclaimed himself the Head of State.

The Abacha/Abdusalami Abubakar years
General Abacha forced the Shonekan interim administration to resign on November 17, 1993, following what he described as his attempt to arrest the slide into anarchy in the country. Following his takeover, Abacha disbanded all democratic institutions already in place and appointed military governors to take over at the states.

He began his own transition programme by legislating into existence five political parties that were later to be described as ‘five leprous fingers of the same hand’, which adopted him as their candidate for the presidential election. Abacha’s plan to transmute from a military dictator to civilian president came to an abrupt end on June 8, 1998, following his death due to a heart attack he suffered and was replaced by General Abdulsalami Abubakar on June 9, 1998.

Abubakar announced almost immediately the transition programme, which ended military rule on May 29, 1999, with the handing over of power to an elected President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.

Three political parties were registered by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the elections in 1999 and they were: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All Peoples Party (APP). The AD and the APP entered into an alliance for the presidential alliance and this led to the emergence of Olu Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Minister of Finance to slug it out with the PDP candidate, former Head of State, Obasanjo.

The Fourth Republic 
The emergence of the present democratic experiment ended a 16-year long consecutive military dictatorship. Obasanjo was elected president and was inaugurated on May 29, 1999. The PDP also won majority in the National Assembly. The AD, regarded by many as an offshoot of the defunct UPN lay claim to the West, now known as South-West, by winning all the six states in the zone. The PDP won the majority states which include: Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba,. The AD won in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states while the APP won in Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara states.

Despite the challenges of nationhood which confronted the nascent democracy of the Fourth Republic, Nigeria had continued to forge ahead and had seen 13 years of unbroken democratic experience, following the return of Obasanjo for a second term as president in 2003, the election of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as president in 2007 and the elevation of his vice, Goodluck Jonathan, first as acting president following the absence of Yar’Adua as a result of ill-health and president following the demise of Yar’Adua on May 5, 2009 and his subsequent election as president in 2011 for a fresh four-year term.

As Nigeria celebrates 52 years of nationhood as an independent nation, political analysts believe that the country has yet to be economically and even politically independent, especially on the backdrop of its dependence on external forces for its survival as a nation.

The massive wealth that the nation has been blessed with has not reflected in the lives of its people as they continued to live in abject poverty and penury. When will the Nigerian people reach the proverbial Promised Land? That is the million naira question begging for urgent answers!

Source: National Mirror