Jonathan’s colonial-mentality awards As a result of his government’s celebration of Nigeria’s 100 years, President Goodluck Jonathan is giving award to three British colonial personalities: Queen of England, Elizabeth II (still living), Fredrick Lugard and Flora Shaw (both dead). Amid a coterie of past Nigerian personalities honoured, many of whom were instrumental in the failure of Nigeria, the award to the British trio seems most outrageous to discerning Nigerians, because in an age when many Nigerians are made aware of the atrocities of British colonial personalities on Nigerian people, Jonathan’s action is the least of what they expected of him. In the words of Harold Smith, a former British colonial officer: “We had betrayed Nigerians and undermined their democracy! We had taken millions of slaves from this area of Africa and shipped them in dehumanising conditions to America, and now we were pretending to be decent; the good old British were giving independence and behaving properly, but we weren’t! It was the same bloody dirty games we had been playing for centuries.” It is on record what William Bowles wrote: “Entire histories have been completely erased from the record. Take for example the British role in Nigeria... a complete account of one of the many ‘hidden histories’ of British machinations on the ‘dark continent’. This particular history haunts Africa to this day and one that the British establishment has yet to pay for, for it resulted in the deaths of millions and almost led to the break-up of Nigeria. The results determined the nature of the Nigeria of today including all the talk about post-colonial ‘corruption’. And, it should not surprise readers that lusting after oil was the primary reason. Despite words and revelations such as the foregoing, it was a surprise to many people that Jonathan would want to honour such personalities as the Queen, the mother of it all; and Lugard and Shaw, her two major randy agents. Some Nigerians are pained by this award, lamenting that while other countries in the region were working round the clock to shake off every colonial hang-over, and to remove every vestige of colonialism in their country, Nigerian government under Jonathan was seeking to glorify it. For instance, the Kwame Nkrumah’s people rejected the name Gold Coast and went back to Ghana; The people of Burkina Faso and Benin Republic rejected Upper Volta and Dahomey respectively, and went back to what they were originally called. Why couldn’t Jonathan have acted in that wise at least than honouring these anti-humanity people? Strictly speaking, President Jonathan should know that nothing justifies this shameless show of colonial mentality; not even the quest for English support for his 2015 ambition. I am appalled!
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 15:57:56 +0000
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