As a new administration takes over from the Buhari’s Presidency this month, it is needful to call the attention of Nigerians to some rising fears in several quarters. Friday, 13 June, 2008, The Guardian newspaper published a letter by Ethnic Nationalities Movement, titled: Abacha and Nigeria, written on behalf of the Movement by one S. Asemota, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Two vital issues were raised in that letters namely: an alert by one Matthew Parris about The New Scramble for Africa, and mindless looting of Nigeria’s wealth by foreigners through local collaborators.
The Times (Online news), April 19, 2008, gave sad and uncomfortable details about possible re-colonisation of African nations in the next 50 years, by external powers, using “Black gangster governments” for the purpose. Strategies used by modern imperialist powers include mindless “raping” of African countries blessed with mineral oil, gas and other resources, under various clever guises. Such strategies are dressed up and arranged as “helping Africans to help themselves” and ranging from loans to “humanitarian aids and services. What Matthew Parris described as “Black gangster governments” included top military and security strong men and politicians, who “rig elections and buy their ways into political offices”. There were also suggestions about how to “buy your own gang”; “give it support, munitions, bribes and protection to keep the roads and airports open; and it pays you with access to resources”. That write-up was a mockery of Africa!
The second issue raised by the Ethnic Nationalities Movement in 2008, was the spirited and hypocritical defence and image laundering of late General Sani Abacha by some former military heads of state. Despite overwhelming evidence that Abacha looted Nigeria’s common patrimony, his military friends sought to build up his image and exonerate him of any wrong doing. The Ethnic Nationalities Movement wondered if friends of Abacha were not openly advocating gangsterism as a norm in Nigeria! The letter of the Ethnic Nationalities Movement went on to say: “Gangsterism has permeated all the facets of our public life … and further compromise honest and hardworking Nigerians who want and were working for a better Nigeria”. There were allegations of ethnicity or nepotism in the dispensation of justice, in addition to “looting the nation’s treasuring, dominated by politicians who are alleged to have obtained ‘security’ clearance”. That letter ended with an assertion that “we of the Ethnic Nationalities Movement say with emphasis that Nigeria will not be re-colonised either by foreigners of by gangster leaders”. What a patriotic vow!
While patriotic Nigerians are urged to revisit and study The Times Online write-up by Matthew Parris and the Letter of the Ethnic Nationalities Movement (2008), it is also needful to do further reflections. Apart from the fact that banditry and terrorism have been on the increase in Nigeria since 2008, there have also been a growing rate of corrupt practices and ineffectiveness of the nation’s vital institutions. Rather than address them head-on, the tendency is to play-down or gloss over them. An example of playing down on serious national issues is the alleged statement of President Buhari that the PDP and Labour Party Presidential candidates who lost out in the last election were “over-confident”. Why not allow issues of contention and alleged miscarriage of justice be dealt with in an open court according to the rule of law? Gangsterism in governance, according to Parris, would include the use of blusters, subterfuge and bribed agents of the establishment, to undermine justice. While emphasis is placed on peace as a necessity for development, little is said about injustice being a leading form of violence and gangsterism.
A Buddhist monk who moved over to London in 1980, from Afghanistan, revealed many things about modern system of imperialism and recolonisation. Apart from the use of religious extremism and ethnic chauvinism as weapons of aggression, there is also a global tendency to prey upon and push the weak and meek to the wall. Thus sponsors of bandits and terrorists often use religion and ethnicity as bridges to go into weak regions that have rich mineral resources. Religious and ethnic conflicts in Afghanistan were sponsored, to allow oil and gas to flow to elsewhere.
When former President, Olusegun Obasanjo alerted Nigerians about Islamisation and Fulanisation agenda some years ago, not many Nigerians knew the role of cattle and agitation for Shariah Law in that mission. Similarly, not many Nigerians know that behind various projects, programmes and policies were the consolidation and delivery of a political economy that would make fuel subsidy a jinx. A nation’s political economy is jinxed where the rich resources of the nation are under external control by faceless groups in collaboration with “Black gangster governments”. The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will pass on the jinx of removal of subsidy on petroleum products to the next government. It would be futile to ask why Nigeria would continue to refine and import petroleum product from abroad, while there are local refineries that would not function effectively. Gangsterist plot!
It would be of little use to ask why there are extremes of wealth and poverty in Nigeria, with abundant natural and manpower resources. The Buddhist monk mentioned earlier, revealed that the global economy is jinxed in such a way that less than 20 per cent of the population will continue to control and enjoy 80 per cent of available resources. How the mechanism is operated and sustained passes all understanding! What the 89-year-old monk did was to give me volumes I and II of Voyagers: The Secret Amenti, in response to my questions. The issue of re-colonisation of weak nations is a self-inflicted system of enslavement which is usually facilitated by many factors, especially where people are “fantastically corrupt”. We require neither sermon nor subterfuge, but bitter and sad experiences, to learn” the Secrets of Amenti”. Neither has the Petroleum Industry Act removed the jinx in the oil and gas sector.

Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.