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Nigeria and the Number 7! Is it just.....
.Coincidental occurrences or does it have some ...Great read ( long tho) with some reference sources!
Nigeria and the jinx of the number `7'
By Godwin Nzeakah
Published: Sunday, 30 Jul 2006
On the occasion of the public presentation of his memoirs last June, Prof. Wole Soyinka urged the nation to be vigilant. He said that the advocates of the Third Term agenda were yet to back down. After that alarm came a bombshell from Senator David Mark, a retired Brigadier-General, who was popular during the military era as an "IBB Boy". Mark curiously told the nation that no one else but a military man could be president in 2007. Since IBB is interested in 2007 and does not believe that civilians could be entrusted again with power, could Mark's be his master's voice?
Recall that Babangida had admonished Nigerian politicians in 1990 that "those who quarrel about how to share the rooms are condemned for lack of wisdom" (see The Punch, 24/1/90). The import of this statement did not dawn on many Nigerians until Abiola was barred from assuming power in 1993. Senator Mark never for one moment condemned the annulment of Abiola's victory.
Besides him, other people have alluded to what they termed "Interim National Government". All this can only mean skepticism of sorts about 2007. And for not revising the voter's register, up till now, INEC has not helped matters. As for me, I believe in 2007. What, however, I suspect is that Baba would be the last to hand over to anyone known to be one of the architects of the parlous state in which the country found itself in 1999. Baba does not know who would succeed him. But it is not unusual for presidents hard-working presidents - to know who should not succeed them. That was why when Audu Ogbeh and co challenged him to swear that he would hand over power to any winner in 2007, I reacted with some question: Will any know dribbler, any candidate most likely to disobey the law of lawful continuity contest? Between a soldier successor and his civilian counterpart, who can Baba control effectively from his Otta farm after he has relinquished power? In short, Baba would not buy a pig in a poke. He is not prepared to risk eight years of "hard work" and solid achievement.
This may explain why there seems to be no haste about 2007 the centenary of Frederick Luguard's emergence in the Southern Protectorate. Forty-two years ago, Zik posed the question: Is Nigeria four years after independence ... still a group of tribes or is it a nation?" (See J. O. Ojiako, Nigeria, Yesterday, Today,and ...) Today, in view of our unrelenting woes, the question is: One hundred years after Lugard, is Nigeria still a group of tribes or is it a nation? Yet another question is: Why is Nigeria a victim of the tyranny of the number `7'?
Nigeria is a seven-letter title that formally came into being in the month of January (another seven-letter word) 92 years ago. It secured independence in the month of October yet another seven-letter title. Thus the number seven `7', under normal circumstances, should be Nigeria friendly; it should bring luck; it should open doors for us. But NO. Rather, historically, for the better part of a century, every year that ended with the number had been jinxed. It was PDP's National Chairman, Dr.Ahmadu Ali who once said that most of the vices that plague Nigeria today, corruption in particular, should be traced to England. I cannot agree more. It was the British who demonised the number `7' for Nigeria, by abducting the foremost Nigerian nationalist King Jajaof Opobo in a gunboat in 1887. Then it was the turn of the Oba of Benin (Ovonramwen) in 1897, when they sacked his kingdom and stole 2,500 priceless bronzetreasures from the city (see J. B. Webster et al, WestAfrica since 1880 PP. 190-91). This was the origin of the tyranny of the number `7' in Nigeria. Think of1907, 1927, 1937, 1957, 1977, 1987.
It was in 1907 that Major Lugard, the first evil genius to trod this plane, arrived in the Southern Protectorate, and seven years later, created Nigeria.
In 1917, Nigeria was still a toddler and therefore could not seriously exhibit any of the debilitating hiccups of amalgamation. But by 1927, the honeymoon was over. The financial troubles of amalgamation necessitated a two and half per cent poll tax introduced that year, which sparked off riots in the Eastern Region two years later. The colonial Gestapo, consequently killed 32 people, with many others hospitalised (see Michael Crowder, The Story of Nigeria). Ten years later in 1937 the crisis that eventually killed Nigeria's first nationwide political party (Nigeria Youths Movement) reared its ugly head.
In 1947 Governor Arthur Richards deftly tinkered with regionalism and thus appeased the god of amalgamation in a manner that rendered the year uneventful.
But not so in 1957, which saw the ever-squabbling Nigerian nationalists off to England. That was the year we lost Bakassi because that conference had granted Southern Cameroon a semi-autonomy under its own premier.
Ten years later in 1967, this place was like Rwanda. Then followed the year when all the demons in the far-flung world converged on Nigeria, no thanks to FESTAC `77. Ten years later in 1987, IBB foisted his endless
transition programme on the nation, and we lost about N40 million to the bargain.
Twenty years after FESTAC, lingering migrant demons probably found their way into Abacha, who became ill and went wild with power. That was in 1997. We lost Yar `Adua et al to him. Baba was too sensible for them. That is why he is alive today and dey kampe. He should therefore free 2007 from any jinx. Period.
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