NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 3rd - Sunday 9th February. 2025
THE “ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT”
At present, the catchword amongst Nigerians, particularly the Christian community, is “New Nigeria”. Most Christians are eagerly looking forward to a turnaround in the affairs of the country. Further encouraged by prophecy, they are optimistic of the emergence of righteousness, justice, and prosperity in the land. However, while we await the “New Nigeria”, we should ask ourselves, “What happened to the Old Nigeria?” If we do not understand what caused the collapse of the “Old Nigeria”, those same factors could afflict the “New Nigeria.”
The answer to that question will take us to 1913, a year before the Amalgamation of the Northern and the Southern Protectorates in 1914. The Northern Protectorate was receiving annual subvention from the British Crown while the Southern Protectorate was declaring surplus. The colonialists decided to merge both protectorates and use the surplus from the South to fund the deficit from the North.
At a colonial government dinner in 1913, Lord Harcourt (after whom Port Harcourt was named) used metaphor to describe what the colonialists had in mind when he said, “We have released Northern Nigeria from the leading strings of the Treasury. The promising and well-conducted youth is now on an allowance “on his own” and is about to effect an alliance with a Southern Lady of means. I have issued the special license and Sir Frederick Lugard will perform the ceremony. May the union be fruitful and the couple constant! The Nigerians are not designed to be a great “Trust” but a great “Federation”.
A quick analysis of this short quote would reveal some facts about Nigeria. First, to the colonialists, “northern Nigeria” was not a geographical space. It referred to “the promising and well-conducted youth”. Second, southern Nigeria was perceived as a wealthy “lady of means” who would use her wealth to sustain her husband, the “promising and well conducted youth”, in a marriage contracted by the British, so that the British Crown would stop giving him “allowance.” The “promising youth” in that metaphor was the Fulani ethnic stock, and the wealth from the South was meant to be an “allowance” for him. Therefore, to understand Nigerian politics and powerplay, anytime one comes across “north” or “northern” in politics, “Fulani” should reasonably be substituted. As a geo-political expression, the North ceased to exist in 1967 when Gen. Gowon created the 12-states structure. Nevertheless, till today, the term tenaciously dominates politics and power in Nigeria. The North is not a geographical space in Nigerian politics, it is an ethnic group.
The sponsors of the Amalgamation considered their move a masterstroke. Lord Lugard, on 1st January 1914, gushed, “I trust that as one united country, Nigeria will increase in prosperity and wealth and its people in happiness.” On the other hand, the colonial officers in the Southern Protectorate considered the Amalgamation a disastrous move. Ian Nicolson, a Colonial Officer in Lagos castigated the Amalgamation when he described Lugard’s administrative plan as “trampling on all the carefully nursed seedlings of civilized government, law and legislature, and substituting authoritarian adminstrocracy in which the whole emphasis was away from the coast, away from the law and education in its widest sense’ and concludes that Lugard’s amalgamation places Nigeria in a state of arrested development …” Today, Nigerians agonize over the state of the country, but few people realize that the development of Nigeria was arrested 111 years ago.
In mid-1914, six months after the Amalgamation, the Times of Lagos, wrote in an Editorial which said, “The Amalgamation of 1914, is, broadly speaking the conquest and subjugation of Southern Nigeria by Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigerian system, Northern Nigerian laws, Northern Nigerian Land laws, Northern Nigerian Administration, must be made to supersede every system in Southern Nigeria.” If we remember what “North” means, then we shall understand what the Times wrote.
Every attempt to break out of the “arrested development” has been ruthlessly quashed by the North. We shall mention a few instances.
Under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Yorubaland made great developmental strides. Chief Awolowo was implicated in a case of treason and was sent to jail while the North supported Chief Akintola to ferment crisis in the West. To date, the West has not recovered its development pace.
In 1975, Murtala Muhammed as military Head of State conducted a “purge” of the Civil Service in which 10,000 career civil servants were dismissed. Those dismissed were mostly career civil servants of southern extraction. In the outcry that followed, government set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by late Monsignor Pedro Martins, the then Chaplain of the Army. According to Chief Philip Asiodu in a Vanguard interview in 2015, “the debacle of 1975 when 10,000 people were asked to retire or dismissed within two months was unfortunate … that act was quite unjust because there were procedures in the civil service for discipline … Later on, when the late Monsignor Pedro Martin was asked to look into the cases of the dismissals, his Report said that 90% of those dismissed did not deserve dismissals”. For producing such a report, Murtala Muhammed retired Pedro Martins from the Army. The dismissed Federal civil servants were replaced by people from Local Governments in northern Nigeria.
There were two consequences of the purge.
One, corruption entered the Civil Service. Most of the people affected suddenly found themselves without houses, cars, or financial back up. Many of them died an untimely death. Those who survived the purge started putting something aside for the “rainy day”. Presently, the Civil Service in Nigeria is the most corrupt institution in the country.
Second, mediocrity entered the engine room of government. The people brought in from the North were not as educated as those that they had replaced. Today, mediocrity is a standard malaise in Nigeria. The average Nigerian would prefer to patronize imported items than made-in-Nigeria goods because the people know that whatever is ‘made-in-Nigeria’ rarely has quality. The combination of corruption and mediocrity made sure that the development of Nigeria was in a perpetual state of arrest.
One may also mention the admission criteria into government-owned Unity Schools in which candidates from the South were required to score as high as 139 points to gain admission while those from the North were admitted with as low as 14 or 9 points. All of them were expected to sit for the same exams and receive the same certificates upon completion of their studies. Of course, it was ground for mediocrity and corruption. Besides, those from the North freely entered the Civil Service and ran the government!
Those expecting a new Nigeria should understand the malady that killed the Old. The solution is to renegotiate Nigeria, starting with a new Constitution. The current 1999 Constitution (as amended) is a tool of “development arrest”. President Tinubu should summon courage and adopt the draft constitution of the 2014 National Conference. That is the easiest way to a new constitution within the shortest possible time. It would be the first step in breaking the yoke of arrested development. The new constitution should include regional autonomy and a secession clause in which any ethnic group that is no longer interested in the union may exit the Federation. The liberty to leave or stay in the Federation would promote mutual respect and regard for human lives, while the regional autonomy would enable each zone to develop at its own pace.
Renegotiating Nigeria should not be used to play politics of second term. This was the mistake made by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Instead of implementing the report of the National Conference in 2014, he wanted to wait untill after the election in 2015, hoping that he would get a second term. The rest is history. The North was prepared to set the entire country on fire to prevent his second term so that he would not be able to implement the report of the National Conference. Therefore, President Tinubu should do whatever is needed to be done now, to destroy every yoke arresting the development of Nigeria. The starting point would be the constitution. It would be his memorable legacy to Nigeria.
In the meantime, the intercessory community should continue in prayers for the country. It is written, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).
God bless Nigeria.
PRAYER POINTS
1). Ps. 94:20-21
Pray to dismantle the law of iniquity upon which Nigeria was birthed as a country.
2). Isaish 10:27
Pray to destroy every yoke of ‘arrested development’ placed upon Nigeria from 1914.
3). Ps. 11:3
Pray that God would lay a new foundation for Nigeria, to replace the foundation of oppression and injustice upon which the country was birthed in 1914.
4). 1 Cor. 3:11
Pray that Jesus Christ, the eternal Rock of Ages, shall be the new foundation for Nigeria.
5). Ps. 105:24
Pray that God would increase Nigeria greatly and make her stronger than all her enemies locally, and internationally.
6). Zech. 8:9
Pray for wisdom and courage for the government to give Nigeria a new Constitution which will promote righteousness, justice, and equality in Nigeria.
7). Matt. 6:10
Pray that the government of the Kingdom of God shall be established over Nigeria. Amen.
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DAILY INTERDENOMINATIONAL PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
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Passcode: 024184
LINK TO MARATHON PRAYERS ZOOM ROOM
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