No Democracy In Nigeria

Muhammad Uba Adamu, 74, holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. Educated at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Bayero University, Kano, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and University of Pittsburgh, USA, he was on the team that designed the master plan of modern Kano in the late 1960s when he served as Assistant Secretary, Establishment Division. Nicknamed the Kantoma, Adamu, a member of the ruling House in Kano, also served as District Officer in-charge of City Urban Administration (Mayor) from 1970 to 1975. A member of the Governing Council of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, until his retirement in 1999, Muhammad was a Senior Lecturer at Kano State Polytechnic. In this interview with MADUABUCHI NMERIBEH, the author of Confluences And Influences: The Emergence of Kano As a City-State reflects on the socio-political and economic development of Nigeria in the last 49 years
Q: How do you reflect on 49 years of Nigeria’s independence in terms of socio-political and economic development?
A: This is a difficult question. You have to differentiate it to various aspects of development. Your question can be said to be similar to academic knowledge which needs to be discussed in line with intellectual delivery. So, the first issue one should be concerned with was what happened between 1960 and 1966. If we take this period, I can say that receiving independence and managing it by then national leaders was the beginning of wisdom because the leaders demonstrated patriotism, honesty, responsibility, accountability, love for the nation, sacrifice and good values in the political process. They exhibited these traits for the progress of Nigeria in all aspects of political, economic, social, cultural and religious divides.
Although there were complaints, the complaints were just merely on partisan political interests. It was merely as a result of political competition among the regions who competed fairly for self-emancipation and delivery of tangible developments in their various domains. But the competition was pursued in a gentleman’s manner because they had decorum and discipline; and they remained focused and pursued the agenda of building what would have been one of the greatest nations in the world today. Their main purpose of doing what they did at that time was to promote democratic culture in Nigeria. They strove to leave a legacy that would form the bedrock of a government of the people, for the people and by the people which may make the Nigerian people more united, happy and prosperous. That was the golden time of Nigeria ’s political process.