unity and the notion that, given the time and resource, the individual human can achieve great feats. American is powerful today because of that collective effort. That is what the concept of the Nigeria Brand ought to have engendered among all Nigerians on the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates with the Colony of Lagos to become one country 100 years ago today. Like that day in 1914, it is a New Year today, and a fitting time to take stock of why the Nigeria Brand failed to endure in the past and chart a new course forward both at the personal and the public levels
The 1914 event will continue to excite passionate and differing views. It is inconceivable however to think, as the idea of amalgamation suggests, that the people of the area now called Nigeria had not been interacting among themselves long before it became one entity. Documented history has shown that centuries before colonialism their descendants had had social relationships with one another in form of trade in commodities, inter-marriages and sundry other interactions. The proof for this is in the extant close cultural affinities that have evolved among the various ethnicities which happily have continued to wax even stronger today. What was lacking then however was the consciousness of seeing themselves as Nigerians, of nurturing the Brand Nigeria, a notion which began to take roots only after the country came into being and people started to describe themselves as such.
A chief reason for the commemoration of amalgamation therefore is that it gave Nigerians a shared identity and created in them a strong feeling that they are one people with a common destiny. It is as well that the federal government has deemed it appropriate to underscore 2014 as a milestone in the annals of the country and for good reasons too, not least because warts and all, Nigeria has continued to forge ahead as a united entity with the determination to strengthen and consolidate as a nation through pursuing policies that encourage integration. ‘
This is why though very little is known about government’s plan on the commemoration, it should be noted that it will be worthwhile to resist turning the whole affair into another jamboree of spending spree on things and activities that can hardly enhance the need to reawaken the Nigeria Brand consciousness. A few of these include doing all in our powers to revitalise and consolidate social, political and economic structures on which the fabric of the nation rest. The reason for this is self evident; early in its formative years Nigeria had to endure a harrowing war to keep it as a united entity which it accomplished in a 30 month hostilities whose scars still linger. In its aftermath conscious effort has been made toward building genuine integration through instituting fairness and equity in the polity.
The commemoration of 2014 provides the unique opportunity as never before to search for new and creative ways of eliminating tendencies that drive people to extremism and nihilism as have amply been demonstrated. The search should include building virile institutions capable of invoking provisions of the existing laws to surmount these challenges. In addition there would have to be a way of putting in place a system of recruiting the appropriate leadership imbued with the ability and courage to deploy the instrumentality of the institutions and structures to bring about beneficial results.
In this connection, the political elite would need to discard the unsavoury image they have acquired and discharge their role to provide visionary leadership to bring about social cohesion among the diverse people of Nigeria and political stability upon which economic growth can be built and sustained. It would have to earnestly earn the huge resources expended to maintain and sustain the costly lifestyles of its members, because the ability to make democracy to actually become the vehicle for social and economic progress would depend on it.
If it can be said that the first centenary was used to lay the foundation for the overall strength and vitality of the nation, the challenge of the next must be to meet the aspirations of Nigerians in providing them the wherewithal to enjoy the comfort and life more abundant which follow economic growth and prosperity and the sense of belonging that evokes the patriotism that collectively strengthens the national brand.
