www.stand4islam.blogspot.com: Nigeria: 50 Years Of Colonialism

About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

12 Oct 2010

Nigeria: 50 Years Of Colonialism

The 1st Oct 2010 is the 50th anniversary of Nigeria. 50 years is sufficient time for a nation to formulate and execute far-reaching development programs and achieve many strategic goals. With the correct outlook, Nigeria's 900,000 square kilometers of fertile real estate coupled with its teeming population of 130 million and vast natural resources should have propelled it on an ascending trajectory of sound development and sustainable growth. Regrettably, the reality is far from this. In five decades of self-determination it has little to show that is proportional to the bounties Allah سبحانه وتعالى has blessed it with.

Origins

From the outset, the formation of pre-independence Nigeria implanted seeds of decline, chief among them - tribal division. In 1939 the British colonialists carved out 3 regions dominated by the major tribes of the Igbo from the East, the Yoruba of the West and the Hausa-Fulani of the north resulting in an uneasy coexistence lasting beyond independence. Instead of creating social cohesion, the colonial construct introduced a confused national identity concerning what it means to be Nigerian that is inadequately defined to this day (as attempted by the "federal character principle", formulated in 1975). The absence of a comprehensive and distinct unifying factor amplified the ethnic disparity of over 250 ethno-linguistic groups. The situation remained unresolved until the departure of the British in 1960. Ethnic enmity, vying for political supremacy and military coups and counter coups, became the defining factor of the post independence relationship. The Igbo's attempt to secede from this unstable arrangement ignited the flames of the Biafra Civil War, which lasted from July 1967 to January 1970, claiming nearly 2 million lives to the war and famine.

The Federal system of governing imposed by the colonial masters accentuated the divisions of society contributing to Nigeria's defragmentation. This is most clearly displayed at the Local Government Area (LGA) level which have multiplied six-fold since 1963, from 131 to 774. In the absence of viable options, this weak man-made system drives the disheartened to identify with alternative structures based on faith, ethnicity or region. This exacerbates the issue as it contributes to further breakdown of social cohesion in society, spiraling dangerously into decline. Inter-communal tensions (like the recurring crises in Plateau State) that have caused more than 14,000 deaths since 1999 and displaced more than 3 million are direct outcomes of this. Creeping State failure is a widespread consequence of this cycle.

A system of Failure

Systemic failure has also caused shrinkage of citizen loyalty and gradual disconnection between the public and the State. Consequently, Nigeria's citizens have ceased to expect reliable social services, functioning public utilities, infrastructure, security and corruption-free administration from their government. It is a deplorable, yet common, feature in this resource rich country to discover households generating electricity for personal consumption from generator units, sinking boreholes or wells for water supply and employing private security firms for their safety requirements.

Nigeria's misfortunes were immediately blamed on military dictators that ruled the country for 29 out of the 50 years of its post-independence. Six successful military coups contributed to the crystallization of this opinion. Consequently, tremendous public expectations accompanied the 20 May 1999 transfer of power from General Abubakar's military government to civilian rule of General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd). Nonetheless, the transfer to democracy did little to improve the lot of the majority of the population. High hopes were completely dashed as continuing political malpractice, economic banditry and social frustration were the only ‘dividends of democracy'. Nigerians deplored the new situation observing that corruption was as high as under military rule or even higher. Muted calls to revert to military rule started to surface in some quarters.

The Majority of the population do not see an exit strategy from the ills and social upheavals bedeviling Nigerian society. A sense of hopelessness and despair prevails causing large swathes of the masses to retreat into the comfort of prayer, pursuing religious deliverance from temporal adversity. Religious establishments and networks have sprouted everywhere catering to, or cashing in on, this new spiritual commodity.

The despair of the population is only matched by its extreme level of poverty. The scale of economic decrepitude is most apparent in the oil sector. It is remarkable that a nation, which is the world's seventh largest crude oil producer, has 70 percent of its population eking out a living on less than N150 ($1) a day. Nigeria has earned more than $400 billion in oil revenues since the early 1970's yet it has not transformed into a better standard of living for the masses. Overdependence on oil has skewed the economy rendering once productive areas like agriculture and solid minerals into non-performing sectors. Despite the massive exports of 2.1 million barrels of oil per day Nigeria fails to refine sufficient petroleum products for its own domestic consumption forcing it to resort to importation. An industrialized base to support national development never materialized from the riches gushing from the ground either. Industrialization projects were liable to experience slow and gradual deaths. An ambitious steel industrialization project at Ajaokuta Steel Mills was started in 1979. 31 years later the complex is yet to roll off a single steel sheet, having succumbed to Nigeria's unwritten rule of non-sustainability.

The nation began to unravel from Independence and the subsequent descent into chaos of the first Republic set an unfortunate tone for the future of the country. Nigeria appears doomed to oscillate between the twin disasters of military rule and ‘the democratic experiment'. It is in freefall as the political-elite class scurry to plunder its wealth. Racially based secessionist groups like O'Odua People's Congress (OPC) from the Yoruba and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) of the Igbos emerged, indicating persistent frailty in the governing system of the country.

Islam

Nigeria's chronic problems transcend proposed remedial solutions like constitutional reform, administrative transparency and institution building or mere policy recommendations. What is required is a complete alternative outlook that will transform the foundation of society and change the current systems. This is a practical possibility with historical precedence.

This alternative is Islam, which has a unique propensity to initiate quantum changes in society. This derives from its universal viewpoint that provides solutions to human problems in life. The universal viewpoint, which is the aqeedah, maintains that Allah سبحانه وتعالى created the universe and all that it contains, organizing and sustaining it. Messengers were sent to direct mankind to the recognition of their Creator and subsequent submission to the Organizer of life. Man's devotion and servitude is expressed by his adherence to the systems that resolve the numerous challenges he faces in life. These systems came codified in general principles, rules and regulations best known as the Shari'ah. The widespread misconception that Islam is a limited set of personal beliefs and rituals is a secularized view that truncates its real scope and purpose.

When the Khilafah State applied the Islamic ideology, it completely eradicated tribal discrimination, a source of social friction and division in Nigeria today. It replaced it with the Islamic bond, forming a stable foundation for a cohesive society. History bears witness to this unparalleled success. It transformed peoples, like the Arabs wallowing in the abyss of darkness and bloody tribal feuds, to the elevation of the ideological bond. Consequently, the majority of the peoples which Islam ruled left their religions and entered the deen of Islam willingly and not by force. Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:

لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ

"There is no compulsion in religion." [2:256]

Non-Muslims of Nigeria will not be forced to abandon their religion to embrace the aqeedah of Islam; their lives, rituals, wealth, customs and places of worship are protected. The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

"He who hurts a dhimmi hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys Allah." [Tabarani]

"He who kills a dhimmi enjoying the oath of Allah and the oath of His Messenger, then he has betrayed the oath of Allah so he shall not smell the scent of Jannah; its scent is found the distance of a seventy year march." [Tirmidhi]

Yet the Shari'ah of Islam is applied upon them to solve their societal problems. Islam views man in his capacity as a human being who requires solutions to his problems in life. Non-Muslims in Nigeria taste the bitter pills of insecurity, corruption, resource mismanagement and theft of public wealth by officeholders, similar to Muslims. The Shari'ah of Islam addresses these types of numerous societal problems and solves them comprehensively.

To cite an example, wealth in the Khilafah state is divided into three categories: private property, public property and state property. It is the state that maintains and protects these in accordance with the laws of the Shari'ah.

Focusing on Public property the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

"People are partners in three; Water, Pastures and Fire." [Abu Daud, Ibn Maajah]

The term 'fire' here includes all forms of energy used as fuel in industry. The category of Public ownership includes all minerals whether they are solids like copper, iron or gold, liquid like oil or gaseous like natural gas. The state ensures that every citizen gets his rightful share of public property. Oilfields and the mineral mines in the Khilafah state are not owned by the state where it exercises its will over such resources similar to the Communist system. Nor do individuals own it, as is the case in the Capitalist system.

In Nigeria all oil production is by means of joint ventures with foreign oil companies like between Shell Oil and the government known as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC). Shell Nigeria accounts for fifty percent of Nigerian's total oil production. The company has more than 100 producing oil fields, and a network of more than 6,000 kilometers of pipelines, running through 87 flow stations. Mixing up the categories of property by permitting ownership of public property by private individuals and enterprises on grounds of free market economy, privatization and globalization invariably results in fraud and institutionalized looting of public resources. The primary focus of private business is profit-making, public interests and environmental matters are not accounting measurements on balance sheets. This encourages corruption of officeholders as private companies resort to illegal practices like bribery to obtain favorable contracts or licensing rights. Officeholders collude with private enterprise, using political power to misappropriate valuable resource for personal gain. The Halliburton Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas Project bribery scandal that started in 1994 is an example.

Inadequate oil wealth distribution also illustrates the dangerous outcomes associated with improper classification of property in the current capitalist framework. The ‘derivation principle' designed to address oil revenue allocation since 1960 through to 2004 failed to quell disgruntled elements within the oil producing areas. This contributed to the rise of militant groups like Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) and Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) who seek economic redress through violent means.

The problem is not confined to the economic sphere alone, it manifests in ruling as well. Drawbacks associated with military rule like election rigging, national resource mismanagement and strong-arm politics were found to equally exist in civilian rule also. Between 2000 and 2007 Obasanjo's government spent $16 billion fixing the endless power problems with no results after 7 years except a huge gap in the national reserves. Close scrutiny of these bitter experiences reveals the underlying factor hindering the revival of Nigeria is the continued application of the man-made system ruining the lives of the people.

Islam is the only ideology capable of building society on a sound footing, securing the lives of the people and guaranteeing the rights of citizen's, whether Muslim or not. It is the only alternative left for Nigeria today, the exit strategy from British colonial legacy. Nigeria should not spend another 50 years to learn this fact.

Article written by Abu Abdullah

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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”

[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]

"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"

[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]

"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."

[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]

"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."

[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]

"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."

[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]

“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”

[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]

"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."

[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]

"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."

[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]

“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”

[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]

"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"

[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]

"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."

[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]

"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."

[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']

"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"

[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']

"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.

[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]

"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"

[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]

"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"

[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]

“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”

[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]

“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”

[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]