By Nnamdi Elekwachi
During a 1973 state visit, Gen. Yakubu Gowon presented the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II with a Benin bronze head he had taken from Lagos National Museum without formerly writing the appropriate authorities as was the law then. The artefact, illegally exported to United Kingdom, is believed to have been produced around 1600s.
While we blame Britain for colonialism, let us also remember that there were compradors who aided British commercial and imperial interests long before The Queen ascended the throne.
Questions are: did The Queen raid Lagos by 1973 to loot palaces and places as her ancestors did in 1850s/60s and later with the 19th century coastal chiefs in the Delta regions or did ‘Jack’ Gowon do? Nigeria was not a colony nor were her diverse peoples protected of Her Britannic Majesty’s government in 1973, mind you.
Are there not Nigerians looting their nation just to invest in the UK today?
Colonialism presents a historical scholarship that must be explored, no holds barred. But to it must be added the self-imposed ‘colonialism’ Africa has brought upon herself with failed leadership institutions.
Does the current structure of the Nigerian federation not amount to ‘colonialism’ where: the federal government which is just a single entity gets over 50% from revenue sharing while the states with 36 co-equal subnational governments together with the local councils with 774 co-equal grassroots governments share the paltry remainder? Is it not ‘colonialism’ that the states hijack funds meant for the local councils in the name of State Joint Local Government Account, SJLGA?
Is it not colonialism that exclusionary policies deprive some states in a particularly region opportunities others enjoy as basic?
Meanwhile, even though I do not endorse Prof. Uju Anya’s choice of words, I love the bold conversations they stimulated. Good. Bad. Ugly. History is interested in all of them as all human agencies, rational or otherwise, must be interrogated.