Thursday 28 March 2013

NIGERIA IS A SINKING TITANIC

by Okey Iwuji

 
Titanic story has become a household knowledge to generations born some 100 years after her demise on April 15, 1912 in a deep sea off the coast of Newfoundland, North Atlantic. The unfortunate story became popular than the architect, Thomas Andrews who designed and built the state-of art ship ever celebrated which great prospect in revenue generation in the ship industry was not in doubt due to the luxurious comfort it could afford and number of souls it could accommodate on a single boarding. Besides, the gadgets installed were so wonderful at the time that the designer could boast that even God cannot sink it, without acknowledging flaws human craft could be prone to, in what was considered as master piece of it’s time. White star liner’s desperate quest to be ahead of competitors seems to imply a hasty completion of the ship’s building between 1909 and 1912 which left some flaws.

 

 

Titanic was owned by British white star liner and was reckoned to be about 900 feet long and 100 feet high and the fastest on 30 knots in speed with individualized watertight compartments for which it was accredited as unsinkable in the eyes of the builder. The ship could carry as many as 2,206 passengers and 898 crew members on board on that maiden voyage. Incidentally, this envious vessel which left Southampton England, with pomp and glamour could not sail to it’s expected destination, New York city when it ran into an iceberg that drowned it with about 1,500 of it’s many occupants.

Co-incidentally, the same British coupled Nigeria in 1914, two years after Titanic ended in the belly of an Atlantic Ocean with great eagerness to reap fortunes from it’s abundant human and natural resources to compliment her domestic revenue and to offset her continued trade deficit emanating from the northern axis with that of south. Though, it reaped this fortune for 46 years but seemed dissatisfied when the founding fathers of Nigerian independence came knocking at the door requesting for their freedom. Such men like Pa Nnamdi Azikiwe, Pa Enahoro and Pa Awolowo and host of others.
In pursuit of this economic gains, Britain undermined outstanding differences in culture, language, religious and philosophical believes of the tribal units being fussed into one ship called Nigeria and which began to sink no sooner she left to sail in 1960.
Due to economic interest in the southeast, Britain, Egypt and Russia backed the Nigerian government in weaponry and personnel to crush the seceding Biafra which was perceived as region with independence-front-liners, to restore their control on the region’s newly found oil without doing much to entrench justice and fairness in the politics of the country since after the civil war.

 

 A war that has been described by historians as the worst inhuman and disastrous in a modern age that claimed more than 3,500,000 people through starvation programme which Britain and her allied permitted in utter disregard to rules outlined in Geneva war convention of 1949 which both countries subscribed to.

It must be recalled that 1914 was in heat days when European powers that scrambled and partitioned African territory were tying up their African booties as though bunches of firewood and Britain was in a hurry to tie up her fragmented booties in the west coast of Africa into an entity known today as Nigeria before France and other contending powers could breach into these protectorates. By this effort, Nigeria became big in human and material resources like the titanic, commanding a high population of about fifty million and vast mineral resources spread across the regions by Independence Day.

The competition that existed in the ship industry in United Kingdom that gave birth to this great vessel, titanic, was similar to competition among European nations scramble of Africa that produced Nigeria. Titanic and Nigeria were both products of intense competitions between Cunard and White star liner in one hand and Britain, Russia and France in another hand.

Just as titanic was hastily done to meet the challenges of that time, Nigeria amalgamation was hastily done as well to make administration easy for the overlords. Though the Nationalists could be partly blamed for the haste preceding the Independence that forced unwilling and unready section of the country to be co-opted into the independence project for which opportunity Britain seized to create a big fundamental problem the nation is grappling with till date. While desire to be independent from colonial rule was high in the hearts of founding fathers, they fell to the British bait by accepting to be merged with unready north meant to continue an indirect rule on the new nation and independence front-liners were ready to accept any conditions that would make the white overlords ease out quickly. For if the agitators were insistence on being separate nations and patiently waited for more years, may be the story could have been different today.

 Thomas Andrews-Titanic Builder.

 According to hypotheses, titanic was doomed from the start by it’s design though it was hailed as a-state- of –the –art master piece. The watertight compartment design contained a flaw which analyst think may have been a critical factor in her sinking; while the individual bulkheads were indeed watertight, water could spill from one compartment into another, unlike those of contemporary vessels owned by Cunard. In the same way, the British in desperate desire to cede power to a manipulative stooge introduced corruption and mediocrity into a young nation at the very beginning by compromising census population figure to the favour of the north having promised Sir Ahmadu Bello a 50% seat at the house of parliament as a condition to encourage him accept amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates and even exceeded to 55% to make the north lord over the new nation. Also by installing a grade 2 teacher as a prime minister when great brains were available in large numbers in the Nigerian politics of the time, Britain dug a foundation of mediocrity in governance in Nigeria which is bedeviling the Nigerian state up till tomorrow. Looking back 53 years after, do Britain feel ashamed of the evil seeds of corruption and bloodletting sowed in Nigeria for quest of filthy lucre?

 The British was said to have poisoned the minds of other sections of Nigeria against the Igbos for being outspoken, wise and industrious and accuse them of domineering tendencies thereby creating hate, suspicion and unnecessary bickering from the very first and no wonder her silence during the various massacre of biafrans in the north and supportive role during the war. Britain set up many commission of inquiries into the various genocidal killings in Nigeria of those days and despite the findings went ahead to side Nigerian government against the Biafra state.

 Lord Lugard,Nigeria Amalgamator

The ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to the German government without the consent of the indigenous people of the land based on the treaty of protection signed with the king of bakassi way back 1884 is among recent evidence of fundamental problems the colonial master created for the new nation, Nigeria. Nigeria, on her own and possibly with the aid of her foreign war advisers signed off Bakassi again to Cameroun to block Biafra from accessing the world through the sea and to support the cause of Nigeria. Today, the signing off of the peninsula has become a spate in the eyes of well meaning Nigerians, a source of aggression and axis of death for bakassi people and Nigerians at large from Cameroun neighbour, for which Nigeria will forever live to regret.

 Sir Ahmadu Bello-The Sarduana Of Sokoto.

It was discovered that there was a small coal fire in one of the bunkers of titanic which was alarming, though not an uncommon occurrence on steamships of that time. Stokers hosed down the smoldering coal and shoveled it aside to reach the base of the blaze. After assessing the situation, the captain and chief engineer concluded that it was unlikely it had caused any damage that could affect the hull structure, and the stokers were ordered to continue controlling the fire at sea. According to a theory put forth by a small number of Titanic experts, the fire became uncontrollable after the ship left Southampton, forcing the crew to attempt a full-speed crossing; moving at such a fast pace, they were unable to avoid the fatal collision with the iceberg. According to a British journalist, Michael Nicholson, during the civil war, the war would have been inevitable because of what he referred to as tribal prejudice, jealousy and gang up against the Ibos because of their unity, progress and industry which was helped to full blow by 1966 coup led by Igbo officers. But the zeal of the officers to arrest a monumental corruption, embezzlement and extravagant lifestyles and anarchy of some politicians which became worrisome to all observers of the new republic gave rise to the coup in order to entrench orderliness. Corruption and ethnic prejudice in Nigeria and other contemporary nations of Africa

were like little coals of fire discovered in titanic at that time which went out of control because of negligence. And moving fast to save the situation through the coup of 1966 created bigger problems leading to disintegration as it was wrongly executed and Northern soldiers pretended to misunderstood and misinterpreted the true situation. Whereas Ghana’s coup by flight Lt.Jerry Lawrence successfully curbed corruption but Nigeria’s created multiple coups, deepened corruption, tribal hatred, selfish political class, mediocrity and religious bigotry.

 
Pa Anthony Enahoro-One Of the Nationalists.

 Thomas Andrew’s confidence of an unsinkable ship may have contributed to inadequate precautionary measures in providing a few numbers of 16 lifeboats and 4 Engelhardt collapsible that could accommodate 1,178 people of a ship which capacity when full could carry about 2,435 passengers and 900 crew members totaling about 3,300 people. Though 16 lifeboats and the collapsible were said to exceed British Boards of trade regulations of that time but was inadequate for emergency evacuation amidst confusion and present day standard. Each of the lifeboats was meant to carry 65 persons but some left with fewer than 28 persons because of confusion. The Nigerian government henchmen have over the years adopted some wrong and inadequate safety measures which are thought to keep the titanic entity afloat. These measures include among others; the divide and rule of some ethnic nationalities especially Igbos, marginalization, brutal crushing of opponents who refused to be bought over, playing up ethnic and religious sentiments and recently campaigning against military intervention while leaving out equity, justice, fairness and accountability which is the bane of stability of any nation. It is on these false measures that the drivers of the nation’s doom brag of none divisible Nigeria, like Thomas Andrew’s unsinkable titanic. Yet, what these henchmen have failed to accept is that Nigeria is sinking and need urgent rescue through national dialogue by all ethnic groups in Nigeria. In the face of religious and ethnic tension, with people being killed on daily basis by Boko haram sect, Biafran agitators waxing stronger everyday especially taken the Nigerian state to court seeking for independent state and Bakassi, Ogoni hoisting  indigenous flags declaring autonomy, these self-serving leaders have refused every call for Sovereign national conference,

 Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, one of 1966 coup plotters

 pretending that Nigeria well be better while it gradually falling apart. Can a group of people continue in a nation filled with hatred against one another and bloodletting and remain indivisible?

 What will the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangidas,Obasanjos and Danjumas do when Nigeria finally sinks into the bottomless history notes unprepared since they have refused to accept the through position of things and prepare the minds of Nigerian citizens rather boast their readiness to go back to trenches to keep Nigeria one?

Will they out of shame commit suicide in order to end with Nigeria like Thomas Andrews who for shame of what people will say ended his life with the unsinkable titanic?

Nigeria union compares favourably with the two lovebirds of titanic who would have wished the voyage have no end and moreso ending disastrously. Jack Dawson, a poor young fellow in sizzling romance with a rich Rose Dewitt Bukater was said to have distracted the ship captain who stirred at them in their love nest and losing concentration ran into an iceberg that ended titanic. Jack took advantage of Ross, influence, obsesses, control and would never let her go even when Rose parents became uncomfortable with Jack’s companionship and needed some space, so the poor North and southwest bourgeoises in marriage union with rich south have refused Nigerian people to go their separate ways because of free oil money that lubricates their families and black and white cronies at the expense of our suffocation and cries for freedom. As Jack could no longer hold back Rose in the face of danger so these bourgeoisies  will someday leave indigenous people of Nigeria alone.

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