As Nigeria clocks 60 years of Independence arising from Sovereignty granted it by the British Colonialists on Saturday, October 1st, 1960 in few days’ time, her journey of Independent Nationhood from that time till now, can be viewed or examined from different perspectives.
However from whatever perspectives the Nationhood journey of the entity called Nigeria brought into being by Fredrick Lord Lugard through the Amalgamation of Southern and Northern Protectorates on Thursday, January 1, 1914, is viewed; is a mixture of positivity and negativity in terms of Unity and Development.
Analytically , on the template of unity , the entity despite the centrifugal and centripetal forces pulling it into different directions within the last 60 years of Independence still remains one , can be said to be United territorially but not so, in terms of Direction of the Journey of Nationhood and in particular, genuine development.
While the control cum domination – driven contention between the centrifugal and centripetal forces over the years , can be blamed for the somewhat stranded journey of Nationhood and ‘marriage of convenience Unity’ , the country has been experiencing over the years; self – inflicted systemic dysfunctions governmentally , is responsible for her retardation in the area of genuine development across the various sectors .
In metaphorical sense, Amunkun as an analogy can be used to explain the self – inflicted systemic dysfunctions afflicting Nigeria over the years and retarding her development drives across the various sectors.
Explanatorily, what or who is an Amunkun?. Amunkun in Yoruba, one of the major ethnic entities in the West African Sub- Region, is a human being (male or female), naturally inflicted with terrible K- legs at birth or knock – kneed with attendant physical challenge as regards standing straight or walking fast; a biological cum postural deficiency that is more apparent when the affected person carries heavy load on his or her head.
Proverbially the challenge is well captured by the Yoruba with the popular saying ‘Amunkun o, eru re wo‘ meaning , knock – kneed fellow, your load is tilted or dangerously bent , with the popular response as well from an Amunkun that ‘Oke lenwo , ewo isale‘, meaning , you are only viewing me from the top without looking down where the problem emanated from .
Pointedly , Gboyinde in a book titled : ” Amunkun ” by Taiye Odewale, as an analogy of the systemic failure in Nigeria governmentally , is used as the fictional character who rather than allowing the natural deficiency make life miserable for him, made the best out of the challenging situation to become a symbol of success in his community and beyond .
Gboyinde, as captured in the book in Chapters One and Two, was an object of ridicule from childhood in his community but because of his determination to succeed in life driven by self-confidence , hard work, perseverance , contentment and absolute faith in Olodumare ( The Almighty God ) , ended up a celebrity and rallying point for collective success with clear cut model for attaining that, either as group of individuals in a family or an entity with diversities.
The book in Chapter six after telling the Grass to Grace Story of Gboyinde from Chapters one to five, made a metaphorical analogy of his transformative life, to that of Nigeria not created as Amunkun at inception but now an Amunkun going by systemic dysfunctions afflicting it.
The systemic dysfunctions according to the Author, have to do with jettisoning of bottom to top model of development, bequeathed to it at independence decades ago, to top to bottom model, it imposes on itself years back with attendant over centralization of powers, resources and functions of government at the centre; rendering the structural components to parasitic position of solely relying on the centre for survival.
However being a self-inflicted one, concerned citizens of the country in question, the Author posited, believe that their beloved land, can deal with the structural deficiency imposing the imagery of an Amunkun on it and incapacitating it from moving fast like others in her journey of Nationhood and genuine development.
To them, if Gboyinde who was naturally an Amunkun from birth, could overcome the deficiency and achieved his targeted goals in life to the point of being envied maliciously or otherwise, by able bodied men of his time or generation; their beloved country which started her journey of Nationhood and development on the right tracks at the beginning , can by way of addressing its self- inflicted structural abnormality , get back on the right tracks and become great as naturally endowed, in all ramifications.
Summarily, the Author uses Chapter Six of the book captioned: “Gboyinde as a Metaphor” , to convey his message by submitting thus: “Expectedly since 1914 when Gboyinde Amunkun who was later known as Gboyinde Oloro {Wealthy Gboyinde} died, his story of grass to Grace has always been passed from one generation to the other in Edidi community and the adjourning towns and villages, as motivational therapy for those with similar challenges.
“Modernity and civilization facilitated by formal education, has however moved the story from the realm of ‘moonlight telling’ by elderly people , to written texts in form of documentations at about 100 years after his demise, for the purposes of inculcating the virtues of hard work , honesty, perseverance, contentment, self-esteem and self-reliance exhibited by Gboyinde, in the present generation .
“Analogically in one of such documentations, the story is likened on a negative template, to systemic dysfunctions incapacitating the potentialities of one of the great countries of the world, which incidentally came into existence as a geographical entity through amalgamation and proclamation to that effect, the very year Gboyinde died.
“Ironically, the entity in question, didn’t at the beginning have anything to do with the problem or imagery of an Amukun, Gboyinde was, to his parents and community at childhood; but that of well-structured and potentially endowed, for greatness and genuine development, among comity of Nations in the world .
“However in metaphorical sense, ‘Amunkun imagery’ set in for the country after many years of distorting its original structural components from bottom to top model of development, to top to bottom model, with attendant concentration of powers , resources and governance at the top to the detriment of component units.
“Being a highly diversified entity in terms of peoples inhabiting it and large territorial size, is among the 25 others in the world, practicing a structural form of government suitable for such features but in practical terms within the last five decades, running a structure meant for smaller and homogeneous Nations for reasons that have been over taken by realities on ground.
“The realities on ground as opined in the documentation, are the problems of insecurity, corruption and endemic poverty starring the peoples and governments of the ‘over centralized diversified entity ‘ in the face.
“The way out of the systemic dysfunctions for the crippled giant reasoned the analogists, is for it to go back to the basis by addressing her structural defects through required decentralization cum devolution of powers and resources over concentrated at the octopus centre, in giving the needed viability and potency to the already weakened structural components and saving the centre itself , from self-suffocation.
“Doing this by the country in question they reasoned, will no doubt bring about the productivity – driven generational successes recorded by Gboyinde, his four biological children, 36 grandchildren, down to 774 great and great – great grandchildren; as against productivity – killing top to bottom national cake sharing formula being practiced by the naturally endowed entity.
“The analogists reasoned further that it may not be wrong to conclude that if the problem of ‘systemic dysfunctions ‘ frustrating good governance at all levels in the affected country is not addressed, efforts of any government particularly at the centre , in making positive impacts on the lives of the citizenry , would continue to be fruitless, regardless of how well envisioned and intended .
“Proverbially, such efforts according to them, can be likened to ‘yinyin agbado si eyin igba‘, meaning, peeling corns on the back of Calabash, which symbolizes fruitlessness of actions.
“The ball they posited, is therefore in the court of those saddled with constitutional responsibility of carrying out the required surgical operations on the structural defects, to do so in making the country finding its bearing cum direction, from the somewhat stranded journey of Nationhood it put itself, few years after take-off.
“This they concluded, can be achieved if present generation of the entity is ready to hold the bull by the horn, by putting it on the right track structurally as a Federation in letter, spirit and practice ; comparable to the functional and developed ones of the world”.
