Nigeria @ 58 Avoiding the fate of the Titanic
By Jide Ajani
THESIS
The avoidable disaster that befell RMS Titanic may be waiting in the wings to befall the Nigerian state. Yes or no?
INTRODUCTION: RMS TITANIC & NIGERIA
IN effectively engaging the above, there are cogent and verifiable parallels that can be drawn from the fate that befell the Titanic – a cruise ship that signposted the latest technological advancement of its era, even in its majesty, awesomeness and unrivalled attributes – and the Nigerian state – a country which, at independence, presented itself to the world as a unique entity that encapsulated the aspirations and potential greatness of the black race, with its size, resources and population.team-rolled, the Titanic was awe-inspiring in its magnificence, yet it came with all the contradictions that proved fatal, very fatal. Then, there is Nigeria, a country of hundreds of tribes and tongues that differ; admittedly the most populous black nation on Earth, yet, packs with its potentialities dysfunctional contradictions that are at once non-progressive and subversive.
“Titanic could carry 3,547 people in speed and comfort, and was built on a hitherto unprecedented scale. Her reciprocating engines were the largest that had ever been built, standing 40 feet (12m) high and with cylinders 9 feet (2.7m) in diameter requiring the burning of 600 long tonnes (610 t) of coal per day. Her passenger accommodation, especially the First Class section, was said to be “of unrivalled extent and magnificence”, indicated by the fares that First Class accommodation commanded. The Parlour Suites (the most expensive and most luxurious suites on the ship), with private promenade, cost over US$4,350 (equivalent to $110, 310 in 2017) for a one-way transatlantic passage. Even Third Class, though considerably less luxurious than Second and First Classes, was unusually comfortable by contemporary standards and was supplied with plentiful quantities of good food, providing its passengers with better conditions than many of them had experienced at home, according to its profile”, according to records.
For a ship that was called the ‘ship of dreams’, and a nation that was dubbed the ‘giant of Africa’, there was something decidedly surreal and delusional about both. Fabled as the ship that even ‘God cannot destroy’, RMS Titanic was sunk by an iceberg on its path – yet, vigilance and rigour on the part of the crew members, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee (lookouts reporting iceberg) and Captain of the ship, Edward John Smith, could have aided better navigation, thereby avoiding the collision with the iceberg that led to the sinking of the greatest creation by the hand of man.
Sinking of the greatest creation
Without engaging in sophistry and needless circumlocution, Nigeria, too, headed for its iceberg just before and immediately after independence with what was thought to be the near-self-serving worldview of some of her founding fathers like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello, at a time patriotism, clear-headedness and a rededication to simple civility were all that were needed to avoid the disaster as doom loomed. In fact, what were thought to be self-serving instincts at independence pale into insignificance in the face of the recklessness on steroids that is the lot of today’s political class across board.
Warnings
On its maiden voyage, the cruise ship left the Port of Southampton for New York on Wednesday, April 10, 1912. And it was a British passenger liner. For Nigeria, she began her journey in nationhood on October 1, 1960, some 48 years after the Titanic set sail. Until independence, Nigeria was a British colony. The Titanic did not just stray into the path of an iceberg nor did an iceberg just become obstructive, there had been six warning signs almost a day before the tragedy.
In fact, according to records, “on April 14, 1912, Titanic’s radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on Titanic had begun to notice during the afternoon. The ice conditions in the North Atlantic were the worst for any April in the previous 50 years (which was the reason the lookouts were unaware that they were about to steam into a line of drifting ice several miles wide and many miles long)”. By the same token, there had also been early signs that there were landmines laid by the British before granting independence to Nigeria, part of which remotely led to the 30-month civil war between 1967 and 1970.
Tragically, virtually all the conditions precedent that led to the war of the 1960s, appear to be replaying all over again today. Specifically, earlier in the decade, some participants at an event by the US Department of State came to the conclusion that, based on certain parameters, Nigeria may cease to exist as “we know it” beyond 2015. The nation dodged the bullet.
Journey to perdition
Even with the warning messages, the lookouts underestimated the consequence and the deadly outcome of the Titanic hitting the iceberg. The same thing can be said of this nation, where an over-simplification of the state of economic and political crises that Nigeria is in, should be a lesson to serve as guide for the political leadership to properly conduct the affairs of state with more patriotic verve. Even now, the Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, and HSBC, a global financial group, had sent out another series of warnings which have been pooh-poohed by the Federal Government of Nigeria. But what made the story of the Titanic so pathetic was the confusion that ensued just before and in the immediate aftermath of its collision with the iceberg. Perhaps, had calmness and not panic prevailed, the very early actions of the First Officer, William Murdoch, and the Quartermaster, Robert Hichens, could have saved the Titanic from the collision. On April 14, between 23:40 and April 15, 02:20, the Titanic sank. More than 1,500 lives were lost.
That same way, the early military adventurers, the five majors, who thought they were on a mission to rescue Nigeria, gambled the military into partisan politics, thereby, enthroning a regime of perpetual instability and a debasement of values ever since. The actions and inactions of the succeeding military regimes, indirectly, led to the civil war which claimed millions of lives.
Near-emptiness of strategic thinking
Yet, since after the war in 1970, and despite the billions of petrol-dollars Nigeria earned, the infrastructural level of the nation is today worse than it was immediately after independence. With its many firsts in Africa – television station, stadium and other infrastructural amenities that bested what obtained in east Asia – Nigeria appeared set on a journey to greatness.
But whereas other nations have adapted to their own natural disasters like typhoons, hurricanes and storm systems, Nigeria’s natural disaster appears to be its leadership. In fact, it was this that prompted the late Professor Chinua Achebe to conclude that Nigeria’s problem is simply one of leadership – political leadership – for in businesses and other spheres of life, Nigerians have been known to excel.
To locate the trajectory between bad leadership and the nation’s underdevelopment, an observer only needs to understand the complex web of the commitment to the pursuit of political power among the political elite and the near-emptiness of strategic thinking, cluelessness or sheer self-serving nepotic agenda of leaders since. For, the motion, which ought to enthrone the egalitarian entity that a nation should be, is almost always engaged either in reverse order or simply static.
Indeed, in the preface to the 2001 book, THIS HOUSE HAS FALLEN (Nigeria in Crisis), by Karl Maier, the late social scientist, Professor Claude Ake, attempts to explain why Nigeria remains decidedly underdeveloped. According to Ake, “the only long term solution in Nigeria to the crises that arise in a multi-ethnic-state is for the various parties, however many they may be, to sit down and negotiate how they want to govern themselves and how they want to share their resources, and to decide whether they ultimately want to live together. Until they begin that process of reconciliation, at best Nigeria will lurch from crisis to crisis. At worst it will fall apart”. Falling apart is the fate that befell the Titanic.
And if there was any individual or political party expected to be capable of pulling Nigeria from the brink, it was Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress, APC, because it ousted a sitting government after 16 years. As if heeding Ake’s call, their campaign centred on the need to achieve the end game of what the late professor talked about – restructuring. Unfortunately, however, the staccato response coming from the party creates an illusory visage of deception and swindle. But the wrongs can still be righted. Even after setting up a committee to produce a document on restructuring at the height of the clamour, the party has since junked its own document, just as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo continues to make the case why good governance and not restructuring is Nigeria’s immediate problem.
With Nigeria set for general elections next February, Nigerians are hoping to go to the polls. But even that is imperilled because the budget for the elections, presented late to the National Assembly, is yet to be passed. The Electoral Act, as proposed for amendment, that is meant to serve as a navigational aid for the elections, is yet to be passed. Then there is the headship of the Senate and the House of Representatives by legislators who have dumped the APC, the ruling party at the federal level, for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. This is creating tension and the APC leaders are threatening to remove the Senate President and the Speaker by any means. There have also been defections from other parties to the APC.
Whereas the ruling party exhibits some intolerance, the opposition party continues to make reckless pronouncements. That is not all. The economy is anything but rosy. Members of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which, in English, means, “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”, otherwise known as Boko Haram, just killed a midwife. And the group is threatening to kill two other midwives in their custody, as well as the Dapchi girl, Leah Sharibu.
Cocktail of crises
The terror group continues to attack villages and towns. And whereas insurgency pervades the North-East, criminals continue to rustle cows and kill in the North-West. In the North-Central, herders/farmers’ conflicts continue, claiming lives and livelihood. In fact, there are fears that famine may be knocking on the door as most farming communities are deserted. Add to this the recent flooding and washing away of farmlands in many states. The police, on its part, choose how they want to protect and serve. The Department of State Service, DSS, until the sacking of Lawal Daura, its DG, operated with poor professionalism. All these represent a cocktail of crises. Meanwhile, within each crisis lies the solution. And the trend can be reversed if the political elite can summon the commitment and courage needed to do the right thing. It is not just about patriotism or integrity or anti-corruption.
It is about putting Nigeria above every other consideration. If this is done, Nigeria can avoid the fate of the Titanic. Otherwise the prognoses come with consequences and outcomes that could be deadly to fathom. At 58 years of nationhood, Nigeria and Nigerians do not deserve the fate of RMS Titanic.
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