The Eleventh Commandment:: Thou Shalt Not Defraud Thy Nation

Copyright © 2020 Ejike R. Egwuekwe.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-9684-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9683-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:  03/18/2020

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART I

The Part to Political Stability

Chapter 1     Roots of Political Instability

Chapter 2     Colonialism and its Effects

Chapter 3     Neo-Colonialism

Chapter 4     Remnants of Colonialism

Chapter 5     The Need to Decolonize the People

Chapter 6     Military Politics (A Myth or A Reality?)

Chapter 7     Renaissance of Democratic Polity

Chapter 8     Black Man an Accomplice in Defrauding His Own Nation

PART II

The Path to Economic Stability

Chapter 9     Roots of Economic Instability

Chapter 10   Exodus

Chapter 11   The Concept of Nationalism

Chapter 12   Literacy (The Key to Economic and Social Mobility)

PART III

The Path to Administrative Accountability

Chapter 13   Routes to Administrative Accountability

Chapter 14   As It Was In the Beginning

Summary

Bibliography

Endnotes

DEDICATED:

To All good leaders of the world (past, present, and future) for their effort and contribution toward making the world a peaceful place for cohabitation through economic, social, and political solidarity. It is a difficult task, but not impossible.

To My parents Mr. and Mrs. Nebife William Egwuekwe for all they have done for me.

To My daughter, Kaosoluchi Egwuekwe; and in memory of my brother, Celestine Egwuekwe, a loving, caring and dynamic gentleman. When you transitioned into eternal life, you took a piece of my heart with you. Safeguard it for me.

AND

To Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Hilary C. Achunike and Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Ndubueze Fabian Mmagu, for their humility, nobleness, kindness of heart, wisdom, and a cosmic degree of understanding. Men of intelligence, honesty, godliness, and deep-rooted integrity.

If the world were filled with people like them, this book would not be necessary.

Thanks be to You, Creator mine,

Whose skilful hands and divinely thoughts

Moulded my frame without a blame.

You gave me a fleeting flame:

That in my span of life, I may go through strife and hate,

Buttressed with hardship, irony, and fate.

Grant that I live to accept my fate with faith;

And that I offer nothing but love and kindness to mankind.

Rescind from me thoughtless prejudice of any sort;

So that I may live to help the weak,

And learn to serve the poor, the needy, the humble, and the meek,

That when Death wins, I should not miss

That Pathway to eternal glory.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am fully responsible for all the controversies, if any, that this book may evoke.

While it is not intended for such, I am aware that human nature may arouse some emotions, stir some arguments in favour or against any or all the ideas contained herein.

While I am not in the business of trying to please or displease any person or body of persons except saying that which I perceive to be the truth concerning the politico-economic anomalies in our societies, whereof I have given my own suggestions as pertains the remedies, I hereby acknowledge that not everyone will agree with the content thereof.

Some may agree with it in part, some in whole, while others not at all. Some may have better knowledge of the problems and perhaps, also better solutions.

Based on that fact, I welcome criticisms, be they positive or negative, big or small –so long as they are solid, constructive, and challenging – for such could expand by understanding and shed more light in those areas where by knowledge is dim.

I wish to thank the following: Dr. Robert Getz, Professor Emeritus, Political Science Department, State University of New York at Brockport, for the patience he mustered in reading through the manuscript despite his busy schedule.

I am equally indebted to Dr. William Andrews, Professor Emeritus, Political Science Department, SUNY –Brockport, for the advice and encouragement he gave me toward writing this book. Last, but not the least, I will not forget to deliver a basket of gratitude to Dr. Rawle Farley, Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, SUNY Brockport, for granting me interviews in regards to this writing.

INTRODUCTION

He that has abated and aided in the fleecing of his nation has constantly blamed other and Mother Nature for the untold sufferings bequeathed on his folks and kinsmen. Slavery had come and gone. Scramble, partition and colonization of Africa had come and gone. The wound has healed. But the scar is still there. Its effect is marginally more severe than the original wound. Throughout history, colonialism always left impacts, devious at best, and devastating at worst, on the socio political economy as well as the geopolitics of its former colony. The extent to which an individual nation would allow the evil impact of colonialism to dominate, and influence it - socially, culturally, economically, politically, and otherwise, will determine the extent of the growth of such a nation in any, or all of the social attributes mentioned afore.

Hardly in history is there any nation that had not been colonized at one time or another. It no longer should matter that the nations were colonized. History has been made. It has become an indelible part of the history of those nations and NOTHING can be done about it. The history cannot be changed no matter how much fussing, bickering, economy. What we can do to change the negative economic dimension is to keep our shoulders high, strive vehemently to achieve the utmost potential any individual nation can achieve. The United States of America was once under the spell of colonialism. It emancipated itself from such shackles, divested itself of the ugly effects of colonialism, moved ahead and carved itself a world of economic and political might. This could not have been so, had the United States folded its hands and fussed, and fussed, and fussed about the evil perpetrated by the colonial master.

What the colonial-master stole from Africa, subjugated Africa to a perpetual economic blitz. There is no doubt about it. However, what is killing Africa today is none other than Africans in conjunction with the white man, stealing whatever is left of the nation. For the life of me, I have never seen, or heard a reversed scenario whereby the white man steals from his country and deposits in the coffer of a black nation. When natural resources and the like keep flowing from one end of the world to other parts of the world without being replenished from ages to ages, coupled with hash climatic conditions, one should not wonder why that part of the world is still in its dark ages.

Africa was the birthplace of man. Civilization started in Africa, yet Africa is still backward; and is referred to as The dark continent. Africa was endowed with all imaginable natural resources. Africa had the potential of being the most affluent society on earth. It could have been, had it utilized its resources to its beneficial effect. This can still happen, if the fleecing of Africa stops - TODAY, and things get turned around.

African treasure. One does not need to go far to see my point. Listen to the news and see what is happening to the African Elephants in Kenya, diamonds in Sierra Leone, even Artifacts, gold, petroleum, money, from various African nations are being siphoned for onward transmittal to the white man’s country. The foregoing is the periphery of the compendium of this book, A kingdom that divides against itself, how can it stand? For the past five centuries or more, things have been flowing from Africa to the western world ranging from slavery to natural resources to money to artifacts, you name it. What makes it worse is that the black man is helping and abating in the fleecing of his own clamouring, and lamenting we make about what the colonial-master did to our nations’ Military intervention in civil polity is another issue dealing a devastating blow to political and economic developments of the new African nations. It is about time the politicians realized the reasons for military come-backs, and get things done right – to stop history from repeating itself. The contemporary African politicians had been beaten once, and a second, and a third, by the military. The maxim that comes to mind here is, "once beaten, twice, shy. Thus, it is about time our politicians got things done right – so the military would not have any excuse to interfere with the existing political order.

◆ In this book, the name or names of a nation or body of nations are often times used.

Where it so applies, it does not mean I intend to single out such nation or nations. I only used such to illustrate my points.

◆ Although the phrase Thou Shalt Not Defraud Thy Nation in the context of this book centripetally refers to Africa and its peoples, centrifugally it encompasses all nations of the world and its peoples. For, no nation should be defrauded.

◆ Wherever the word our or ours is used in this book, it first refers to all persons of color for Africa is their continent. Second, it refers to all human beings, for Africa being the birthplace of man, is our collective responsibility to rebuild – not destroy.

PART 1

The Part to Political Stability

CHAPTER ONE

Roots of Political Instability

Take a look at the map of Africa. You will notice that its contour represents a shape which reminds one of a ham-bone. To some people this ham-bone has been designed by destiny for the carving knife of European imperialism; to others, it is a question mark which asks whether Europe will live up to its ethical profession of peace and harmony. Yet the paradox of Africa is that its wealth and resources are among the root causes of wars. Since the Berlin Conference, the continent of Africa has been partitioned and dominated by armies of occupation in the guise of political trustees and guardians…¹

-Nnamdi Azikiwe

Of all the five continents of the world Africa is the most politically unstable. This problem has gone on from decade to decade and has eaten deep into the fabric of Africa’s socio-political existence; and the end is not yet in sight. Africa was not created with political instability. As a matter of fact, before the advent of colonialism, Africa was known to have had a cohesive political base, in its own style. For example, as far back as 384 B.C., Upper Libya² had a solid, workable political structure as recognized by Aristotle. During the nineteenth century, Sokoto (Nigeria), under the leadership of Usman dan Fodio, had a vanguard of military and political strength, and a good government over a wide area, leading to the expansion of trade.³

Also, as far back as 400 A.D., the kingdoms of the Western Sudan -Ghana, Mali, Songhay – were remarkable in the degree to which they were able to establish complex political structures that centralized the government of large areas of West Africa. Political superiority here, as often elsewhere, was based on a technological advantage.⁴

Thus, Africa was not without solid political management, nor were they lacking in areas of technology before the Western influence.

Therefore, the political problems in Africa today could be seen as a hangover of the after effects of colonialism. To find solutions to the problems, one has to first study the problems. In analyzing the problems, one finds that they originate from two distinct, but related, facets. While one has a remote colonial connection, the other is tied to the existing political organizations, be they civil or military, democratic or totalitarian, oligarchic or dictatorial. Thus, the extent to which political stability is achieved in a nation depends more on internal, than external, factors. For example, a popular government can command a greater respect and allegiance of its people than an unpopular one.

As the political malaise are said to have had a distant colonial rooting, the problems may not be fully understood without a historical overview of colonialism and its effects on that continent.

As early as 1434, Alonzo Gonzales and his fellow Portuguese merchants had identified Africans as a good commodity for slavery. Soon after, the Spaniards and the Dutch joined. Then followed by the French and the English, respectively. The trade was of immense boom to the traffickers. Their plantations, agriculture, service and industry were at the peak of production with slave labor. The most devastating aspect of the trade is that children of Africa are scattered all over the face of the earth via slavery; the evidence of which can be seen in every nook and cranny of the world. This was the beginning of the debasing of Africa. Heretofore, it has not recovered from the loss of human resources on account of the trade, even as we enter the Twenty-first century.

A passive observer may argue that five-hundred years of lapse is enough for the continent to recover from the losses resulting from slavery. One should bear in mind that the loss of human resources is an irrecoverable loss. The Vacuum created can never be filled. The legitimate question to ask here is, what can be done (to recover some degree of the losses, and/or) to stop further losses of any kind from occurring? Some notable blacks such as Henry Sylvester Williams, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, and W. E. B. DuBois, devised their own solution in an effort to redress the problems facing the black man in their day. Their ideas of the solution varied, ranging from ‘Back-To Africa’ movement to demand for total and unconditional restitution, none of which is effectively applicable to today’s problems in the political-economic arena of the African continent.

Theirs was a dream centered on the unification of blacks, and a fervent effort to wipe out the humiliations suffered by blacks for the past five hundred years.

The problem they were out to solve was that of racism. Their inclination could be summed up in Stanley Allen’s words, for their effort presents in one sense the Negro African poet’s endeavour to recover for his race a normal self-pride, a lost confidence in himself, a world in which he again has a sense of identity and a significant role.⁵ Racialism is still alive and well. It is still practiced in the metropolitan countries even as we march into the Twenty-first century. The burning-down of more than one hundred and fifty black churches in the South and Southwest of the United States between January 1995 and June 1997, in a case in point. Also, the experience one encounters in churches, as whites tend to avoid seating on the same pew occupied by a black fellow, is an indication that as those notable personalities did not solve the race issue, a genius has not been bora who could. The problems between whites and the African race have never dissipated, but rather have exacerbated in other directions.

The debasement of Africa did not end with slavery. No sooner had the trade been abolished, than the merchants found a new exploitative way (colonialism) to replace the abolished trade. From late nineteenth-century, colonialism started and like the slave trade, quickly gathered momentum. With the exception of Liberia which was an American creation, the whole of West Africa was scrambled, partitioned, and colonized from about 1885. Responsible government started to emerge in Africa around 1951, notably in Nigeria and Ghana. Other African nations soon after followed suit in determining self-rule, thus, ending five-hundred-years of direct European exploitation of the continent. It could not be said that the colonialists were willing to relinquish their acquisition of the colonies. They only did so for they had no choice. The nationalists, who were alumni of European and American education, had become African patriots soon after their realization of the colonial exploitation. The colonialists understood this, as well as the economic mess they had dragged the continent into, and that they had not much interest left by hanging on.

Colonialism had a devious effect on the continent and its people. One of its evil attributes was not paying heed to the differences in the language and culture of the various peoples of Africa before lumping them into one nation or another. For example, the peoples of Nigeria comprise a plural society with nearly 250 distinct languages. The peoples’ cultures are also distinct. Thus, the peoples, their languages and cultures, are completely different from each other. Without giving regard to these obvious differences, the peoples of Nigeria were politically lumped together and the area was christened Nigeria (coined from the words: Niger - Area, by Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of lord Lugard). There is no denying the fact that such differences do play a major role in the political unstableness of the area.

Differences in language and culture for one thing do promote fear, mistrust and suspicion. Such problems accentuate ethnocentrism which in turn creates nepotism and favoritism, as each tribe would prefer to deal with its own people