The 1st of October marked the sixty-five anniversary of Nigeria’s independence. But the celebration, fanfare and hullabaloo that usually accompanied Independence Day commemoration were cancelled by the Federal Government.
However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, widely and fondly called “Uncle T-Pain” gave a national broadcast.
His address, largely contained tiny grains of truth and long fairy tales. It was full of crass propaganda, garnished with witchcraft statistics, dotted with empty promises, and an unsuccessful gamble in self-glorification. It showed the extreme nihilism of the Tinubu administration and, the miserable, painful and extreme degeneration of politics in Nigeria.
First, the glowing tributes to the “founding heroes and heroines” of Nigeria independence was, at best, an adventure in historical revisionism and political opportunism. No reference was made to the peasants, who fed the nation during the independence struggle.
Mention was not made of women traders, who sold food on credit and cheaply to workers and the city people, and who vilified, sang and, danced against British officers and their Nigerian allies.
Not a single reference was made to students who spearheaded the formation of the first national political party – the National Congress of Nigerians and Cameroons (NCNC), and who participated in anti-colonial protest-demonstrations, and sent fan-letters to nationalist politicians and activists!
No tribute was paid to the youths of the Zikist Movement, who called for: “positive actions”; and “boycott the boycottables”. They were those who demanded withdrawal of loyalty to the government; “no taxation without representation”; and armed struggle against the British colonial forces and their Nigerian allies.
Uncle T-Pain totally ignored workers, who were the first to establish Pan-Nigerian organisations; confronted colonial racism within and outside their workplaces; and demanded improved working and living conditions for themselves and all Nigerians.
How can the President forget workers in the independence struggle, whose strikes and protest-demonstrations paralyzed the colonial economy; and who massively funded political parties, carried anti-colonial messages to rural areas, demystified colonial officials, and acted as the foot soldiers that frontally confronted British colonialism?
Was His Excellency not enlightened that the 1945 General Strike, led by Michael Imoudu, lasted 45 days in the Lagos area, at least 53 days in the Northern and Southern Provinces, and 74 days in the “British” Cameroons?
Was he not briefed that the 1945 General Strike marked a “dramatic opening”, “tremendous event”, “watershed”, “landmark”, and an “outlet for the steam” of workers’ activism and popular political militancy?
To totally ignore the sacrifice of Nigerian students, women, youth and working people in the independence struggles and the making of Nigeria for Nigerians, is most unfortunate.
To pay tributes to “heroes and heroines” while ignoring the decisive roles of the popular masses, is a display of classism, and, therefore, most unfair, unjust, and unpatriotic.
The figures given by the President on the growth of educational institutions are doubtlessly reflective of the the situation on the ground. Nevertheless, they say nothing on how educational institutions are miserably funded, and staff overworked but extremely underpaid staff. They tell us nothing about the book-starved libraries, underequipped classes, empty laboratories and workshops.
The statistics are totally silent on the highly deficient infrastructural facilities in these institutions – most of which have no steady flowing water, no regular electricity supply, and are lacking in substance and quality. Any wonder why our educational institutions are poorly rated nationally, continentally and globally.
Doubtlessly, the decline of our educational institutions, especially the tertiary institutions, began seriously from 1984 and, therefore, predated the inauguration of today’s lumpen democracy. But the terrible, miserable and painful state of Nigeria’s educational institutions has progressively deepened since 1999. That most of politicians send their children to the West to be schooled is a clear manifestation of the decline of our tertiary institutions.
Yet, our educational institutions from 1960 to 1986 competed with the best in the entire globe. Our universities were virtually at par with Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Leeds universities. Comparatively, most United States University degrees were lowly rated, while most Indian University degrees were not recognised by governments. Public primary and secondary schools outshined the private ones. The reverse is case today!
The current administration truly inherited “a near-collapsed economy caused by decades of fiscal policy distortions and misalignment that had impaired real growth.” In a vain-glorification of self, Uncle “T” said his administration witchcraft economism grew the 2025 Gross Domestic Product by 4.23 per cent, outpaced the 3.4 per cent IMF projected growth rate, and reduced inflation to 20.12 per cent.
He further boasted of his government shooting the non-oil revenue to over ₦20 trillion, improving the nation’s fiscal health by reducing our debt service-to-revenue ratio from 97 per cent to below 50 per cent. But how did these “successes” translate into employment, availability of electricity power, and improved conditions living and working?
Did the “successes” alleviate poverty, hunger, diseases and suffering? Definitely, no!!! If anything, Tinubu’s witchcraft economism successfully elevated Nigeria to the first position of people living below extreme poverty-line in Africa; and the second position globally.
Uncle “T”-Pain obviously was untruthful when he said he met the naira at ₦1,900 to $1. Disastrous Buhari left the naira at ₦464.51/$1 in the official market, and ₦762/$1 in the parallel market. “Intelligent” and “industrious” Tinubu humiliated the naira to ₦1,383/$1 at the official market, and ₦1,500/$1 at the parallel market on 28 May, 2024. At a time, the naira was bastardised and battered to ₦1,900/$1 in the parallel market.
That the naira was ₦1,472.2600/$1 on 1 October was not due to any government policy and abracadabra. Rather, it was due to the rising US fiscal deficits, the erosion of US Federal Reserve autonomy, the activities BRICS nations, and the increasing dumping of the dollar for other major currencies and other assets like gold.
Tinubu also lied that his administration is “winning the war against terrorism, banditry and other violent crimes.” Boko Haram terrorism has re-emerged with more vigour and rigour, and is increasingly flowering.
Fulani terrorists, banditry, kidnapping for huge ransom, displacement of people, land grabbing, and installation of Fulani chiefs – “ardo” – in grabbed lands have extended beyond the North-West to the entire Middle-Belt and slowly into the South.
The military, State Security Services, police, Civil Defence and other security services are largely not to be blamed, even though they have collaborators amongst them. They are, in fact, capable of completely neutralising these Luciferian forces and secure our country. They have done it in the past within and outside Nigeria and are capable of doing it now.
But, the political authorities are said to be excessively interfering in their operations, refusing to give them a free hand to neutralise these rapacious, bloody-thirsting and cannibalistic forces. The actions and inactions of governments have generally created the impression that these terrorists have their patrons in the system and, the aristocratic and clerical circles!
The Uncle “T” Pain speech, clearly put, did not soberly and critically reflect the state of the economy, security, and society. It was more of a political masturbation, and a rationalisation of the disastrous effects of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank economic neo-authoritarianism that government has been uncritically, senselessly and recklessly implementing.
In a word, Uncle “T”-Pain’s 65th independence day broadcast was a crass propaganda and a venture in crude historical revisionism, and political nihilism – painfully, at the expense of democracy, development and social justice.
Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]
