The problem with a keynote address is that, the speaker has to contend with an informed audience whose members are very conversant with all the issues, which relate to the Nigerian condition or non-condition!! Some of them are even probably more informed on the issues of Nigerian democracy and service delivery. It is therefore something of a herculean task to come up with fresh perspectives on the Nigerian condition.

What strikes me however is that the NPSA appears to be travelling on an old road. For one can almost yawn that the discourse for this conference is on democracy. Even for the casual observer, it is possible to ask: again?

But then it should be appreciated that, the democracy project, or better still, democratisation project can be described as an infinite process, in which on a perpetual basis, we will continue to work on this all important project. This is because at one level, it appears that there is really no alternative.

The point I am making here has been amply articulated by Adebayo Williams, a literary scholar whose academic interests border on the encyclopedic. According to this scholar, in his work titled: The fictionalisation of Democratic Struggles in Africa: The Nigerian Example, democracy is best seen as a process of perpetually becoming.

He contends further that all arguments for and against it are stricken with intellectual futility since the thing at issue is indefinite. And if I may be allowed to add, the process is so indefinite that between now and eternity, the discourse on democracy and Nigeria will endure. The NPSA is therefore to be commended for adding its own weight to this eternal preoccupation.

Understandably and naturally, I have given some thoughts to what will constitute the kernel of my brief discourse today. Matters have not been helped by the fact that the situation in this social formation is in a flux. Despite this flux, a certain and inclement reality appears to pervade the atmosphere. Living conditions continue to worsen with the concomitant and deepening misery of the populace.

As far as I can recall, this regression or descent into hellish existence has been with us from the dawn of time. Here, permit me to recall one of the seductive phrases, which in the seventies spoke to our unwholesome situation. It was coined by our departed and inimitable colleague-the late Professor Ayo Olukotun. As far back as the 70s, our dear and departed compatriot spoke along the following lines. Broken Promises In Search of Reasons….

What becomes clear from the immediate foregoing is that our current and dire situation goes back to the seventies and even well before then. Therefore, and in order to fully apprehend the situation, an instant coffee solution will not do. We must think hard and long for us to appreciate fully our untoward circumstances. In contending thus, we may as well ask: When did this rain start to beat us?

Which is why, I have had to draw on famous Nigerian writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka to, as it were, come to grips with our contemporary and harsh realities. Even then, a Chinua Achebe appears to be steeped in some smug assumptions when he laconically deposed in his last famous work that: ‘There Was A Country.’

However, and in the course of this address, attempts will be made to challenge Achebe’s presumption that, There Was a Country: My pointed counter to this deposition of Achebe is this: Did we even, ever have a country? At first glance, this question, counter and irreverent assertion may sound outlandish. But in the true intellectual spirit, which is supposed to hallmark our vocation, evidence can in fact be marshalled to indicate that indeed; there was never any country.

And the immediate foregoing may well explain why, since 1960, this country has lurched from one portal of gloom to another. For let us face it, a thoughtful survey of our political and economic circumstances since 1960 will reveal that what passes for Nigeria, has merely stumbled from crisis to the other.

At this juncture, if I may be allowed to reiterate, the inherent assumption as deposed by Achebe is that, there was a country and that somewhere along the line, we lost that country. But the counter point here is this: Can you ever lose what you never had?

One can easily forgive Achebe for this presumption. After all, as he went through the formal and informal motions of prestigious institutions like Government College Umuahia and the University of Ibadan, there was that euphoric wave which carried him and others along such that the thinking was that we indeed had a country.

Incidentally and ironically enough, Achebe himself appeared to have sign-posted us as regards what we never had, in his classic and seminal work: ‘Things Fall Apart.’ Since things have fallen apart, my dear listeners have we been able to put them together? I leave you to answer this question in the light of the searing realities, which continue to hallmark our existence.

And given the high-voltage profile of this audience, ladies, and gentlemen, you are best placed to answer this question.Again, this stark pessimism of mine has been borne out by yet another literary giant our own, Wole Soyinka. In one of his books, he revealed the epiphany, which dawned on him when he encountered our nationalists who had gone to London to negotiate independence for us.

According to him what he saw, was a bankrupt and desiccated lot who would not be able to take Nigeria and Nigerians anywhere. Up till that time and as he revealed in one of his books; his avowed aim was to go to South Africa and take up arms against the then apartheid regime.

But when he saw the binging and the wrenching as well as the other indices of decadence which hall-marked the behaviour of our so called Nationalists during the constitutional conferences which eventually led to independence, he knew that our nation was going to be something of a still-birth at inception. And as such, he Soyinka was forced to jettison his martial ardour on the South African issue in favour of the impending struggle at home.

It was not surprising therefore that when the then young play-wright was commissioned to write a play to commemorate Nigeria’s independence, he came forth with a work titled: ‘Dance of The Forests’. Predictably, the play spoke to a dark, uncertain and ominous future for Nigeria. The tone was sober and somber like a dirge. The play spoke to either the birth of our death or the death of our birth in 1960.
To be continued tomorrow.
Soremekun is Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos.