NIGERIA AND PAN AFRICANISM

BY
TONY EKATA

Pan-Africanism has been defined as a movement which seeks to unify African people into "one African community". It includes the intellectual, political and economic cooperation that should lead to the unity of Africa.

The concept dates back to 1900, when Henry Sylvester Williams made a formal linkage among peoples of the African Diaspora, and called the first Pan African Conference in London, England. About thirty ‘educated blacks’ attended that conference. Pan Africanism, at that time, was a cultural idea and a political movement.

History has recorded the individual contributions to Pan Africanism of great Africanists like W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Herbert Macaulay, E. Casley Hayford, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Fela Anikolapo Kuti and several others.

But Nigeria is arguably the nation that has committed the greatest resources, human and material, to the cause of a common humanity for African peoples. This has been amply demonstrated through its championing of the liberation of African countries from the clutches of colonialism and apartheid.

It is heart-warming to recall that Namibia, last year, named a street in the capital Windhoek after Nigeria’s late Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, in recognition of his, and invariably Nigeria’s contribution, to the struggle against white domination in that country.

Nigeria was designated a Frontline State, in spite of its obvious geographical distance from Southern Africa, because of its frontline role in fighting apartheid in South Africa.

A distinguished Nigerian who committed most of his career to the anti-apartheid struggle is former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.

Anyaoku was directly involved in the negotiations leading to the independence of Zimbabwe and Namibia, and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

As Deputy Secretary General, he was part of the Eminent Persons’ Group that visited South Africa in 1989, for extensive talks with then State President P.W. Botha and Nelson Mandela at Pollsmoor Prison and other leaders of the anti-apartheid group.

Chief Anyaoku visited South Africa ELEVEN times, using his diplomatic skills in order to break deadlocks around the negotiation processes leading to the first multi-racial elections in South Africa.

In early 1997, he organised the first African Commonwealth Heads of Government Roundtable to promote democracy and good governance on the continent. In commendation, Queen Elizabeth the Second described him as a “warm-spirited and energetic leader, working tirelessly to build the Commonwealth into an essential part of the international landscape".

In April 2008, the South African government, under President Thabo Mbeki, conferred on Chief Anyaoku the highest honour for foreigners – the Order of the Supreme Companions of OR Tambo – “for his exceptional contribution to the struggle for freedom, justice and democracy in South Africa and on the African continent, and for persistent efforts to promote the attainment of democracy and good governance on the African continent”.

Another Nigerian widely celebrated for his contribution to the ideals of Pan-Africanism is late music icon and Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Fela virtually devoted his music career to Pan-Africanism and the enthronement of democracy and good governance in Nigeria and in Africa. Fela is known as a committed proponent of Pan Africanism who used his music to promote African integration and fight against neo-colonialism and injustice.

Nigeria’s contribution to the attainment of peace and security on the African continent is legendary. To date, it has contributed the highest number of troops and commanders to peacekeeping missions on the continent, and even beyond.

The inauguration of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Lagos on May 28 1975 remains a milestone in Nigeria’s long series of efforts to institute some form of economic cooperation and integration embracing the entire West African region.

In furtherance of the goal of regional integration, visas and permits entry requirement has long been abolished in Nigeria for ECOWAS nationals. 

The fact that the country seems not to have been accorded commensurate recognition for these efforts has not deterred it from continuing to drive its foreign policy with Pan Africanist tendencies.

The Federal Government in 1987 established the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (TAC) scheme as a foreign policy tool that would serve as an alternative to direct financial aid for African, Caribbean and Pacific nations.

It was designed, not only to provide manpower assistance in all fields of human endeavour, but also to represent a practical demonstration of South-South cooperation. Beneficiary nations of that scheme are today clamouring for its revival through Nigeria’s various diplomatic missions.

Pan Africanism has since evolved from anti-white and anti-apartheid struggle to  a new movement for establishing a unified African identity with a mandate to actualize global trade partnerships, poverty alleviation, universal and qualitative education, adequate health care delivery, infrastructure development, security, scientific and technological development.

These, undoubtedly, would be more easily realizable under a democratic dispensation. That is why Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s words at his inauguration on Sunday May 29 2011 are very significant.

He told the audience including over forty world leaders and their representatives that “we fought for decolonization; we must now fight for democratization”.

Nigeria cannot afford not to be the leader in that fight.

 

BROADCAST ON MAY 30, 2011

 

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