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October 1st, 1963: the forgotten, yet important anniversary

There are significant differences between being the subjects of a sovereign king or queen, and being a citizen of a sovereign state. As subjects of…

There are significant differences between being the subjects of a sovereign king or queen, and being a citizen of a sovereign state. As subjects of the colonial territory called Nigeria, we owed allegiance to the Queen and had some privileges. Republic Day 1963 witnessed a shift in our allegiance to a state, headed by a president who is there by virtue of our consent as citizens, elected to represent us, and whose stay in office is based on his agreeing to serve us.
Subjects owe their allegiance to a sovereign and are governed by the sovereign’s laws, whereas citizens owe allegiance to the community and are entitled to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the basic arrangements agreed to (the constitution) and the protections provided under its laws. Thus, the difference between citizen and subject lies both in where an individual places their allegiance: subjects (to a sovereign) and citizens (to a state; to a republic), as well as how that sovereignty comes about.
A subject’s role is merely to obey the government which is there by force of arms or on the claims to some divine or birthrights. A citizen however, participates in the democratic processes of creating the government, which is in effect an extension of hopes and aspirations of the whole community. The citizen must also obey legitimate laws, stay informed, and continuously let the government know what he/she wants. All these are civic duties that strengthen the republic.
This is all part of Civic Education 101, so forgive me for bringing it up again, but it goes to the heart of our problem. For far too long, our political leaders have behaved as monarchical rulers, not as elected leaders put there by us, to serve us. They see themselves as successors to the Queen of England, and us as merely their loyal subjects. Am I exaggerating? Think again. How many times have you seen Nigerians calling their newly appointed or elected friends and relatives by their names? Have we not heard of commissioners crawling just to approach the governor to hand him a letter or a memo? How many ministers or even generals sit on the floor when they pay “courtesy calls” on Madam, not to talk of going to see the Oga pata-pata? Elected leaders have been turned into demigods by our reverence, greed; or is it our fear? The first resolution for today should be to understand and uphold our roles and duties as citizens of an independent republic, a state we owe our allegiance to because we created it to serve us.
The second focus should be on understanding that we are a federation; the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We were brought together in 1914 as a merger of three entities; Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria and the Colony of Lagos. We are now 36 states, one FCT and 774 Local Government Areas, all in an attempt to ensure representation and stability. Despite all the ups and downs, we have persevered and made significant progress in our diversity. There are those who, for one reason or the other, think our existence as one nation has been an unmitigated disaster and want an end to it. Some are even trying to take us back to a fictitious past when, according to them, we were independent ethnic states which should now be revived (or more accurately, created) so that these can now come together to decide if we should continue as one nation or not.
While we need not dwell on this bizarre reading of history, it should still be possible to work out ways of strengthening this federation of ours. No federation is perfect; and there is no one single model applicable to all. Most nations emerged from the use of force but subsequently get legitimised through political and economic management. Except for the semi-lunatic fringe you come across occasionally, I believe the call for re-imagining and rearranging our federation comes from feelings of marginalisation, real and imagined. It should be possible to address these without breaking up.
Ours is a republic, and the citizenry is theoretically sovereign and there are no subjects. As someone pointed out, and as we have hinted earlier, there is a fundamental distinction between subjects and citizens. Subjects are “individuals upon whom government forces are allowed to act, but who are not allowed to react upon governmental forces”; and citizens, on the other hand are “individuals upon whom government forces are allowed to act, and who are allowed to react upon governmental forces”. In fact they own the government, and it governs in their name.
Our third resolution therefore, is to be true citizens of a democratic republic, and active political participants and not observers. Too often we tend to see politics as something that comes up periodically especially during electoral campaigns. Once we elect them, or they somehow managed to get “elected” we allow politicians to do as they please, provided they are not raising the price of petroleum products. As citizens, we must resolve to do more. Otherwise we replace one type of colonialism with another, of a darker shade.
To be sovereign, democratic and free comes with a price; that of active vigilance and civic involvement.
Happy anniversary. Long live the Independent and Sovereign Republic of Nigeria.

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