Nigeria at 64, China at 75: Spot the Similarities, Close the Gap

Issa Aremu

“Share our similarities, celebrate our differences”- M.Scott Peck

Notwithstanding the distance and geography, Nigeria and China share significant traits worthy of acknowledgement. In terms of population, the two giant nations! With a population of 1.5 billion (official 1.3 billion) China is the largest in Asia and largest in the the world.  Similarly, Nigeria with estimated population of 250 million people is the largest concentration of African people in the world. In fact, one of every two Asians is a Chinese, while one in every three persons in Africa is a Nigerian. Nigeria’s population is as diverse as China’s in terms of languages, cultures and religion The two countries also boast of remarkable resource endowment. Whatever the parameters, the two are regional powers: China almost actual power no less than Nigeria which in many respects still strives in  making enormous potentials a reality.

Of special importance  is that, Nigeria and China shared the similarity of what the former Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian once described as  double “joy and happiness of the month of October”. Nigeria celebrates 64th anniversary as a sovereign and independent country. Ten years before Nigeria’s independence, precisely on October 1st 1949 following the socialist Revolution led by Chairman Mao Zedong, China proclaimed People’s Republic as an independent nation. The similarity between China and Nigeria can only be better appreciated against the background of imperial dominations of the two. Lest we forget! “Lagos was bombarded by the British in 1851, annexed on 6 August 1861 and declared a colony on 5 March 1862”. Nigeria got independence by lowering the Union Jack flag of imperial Britain on October 1960. Effectively,  Nigerians suffocated under the heels of British rule characterized by tears and blood spill of brutal oppression, racist violations of human rights, Lugardian brutal military campaigns of occupations, annexations, forced labour and wholesale exploitation. The Nigerian working class spearheaded the fight against racist colonial policies and won a lot of successes. Nigerian workers carried out strikes in pursuance of their demand for the improvement of conditions of living within the context of the anti-colonial struggles.  The most documented was the 1945 General Strike against Indecent work environment led by the legendary NO 1 labour leader Chief Micheal Imoudu. During the  1992 May Day celebration, former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida commendably renamed National Institute for Labour Studies (NILS) to Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), as a mark of deserved honour for Pa. Michael Imoudu, the legendary NO 1 labour and nationalist leader.

Notwithstanding the current challenges of nation- building, we must learn to raise the noise level of Independence celebrations. Or better still, Africans should overcome the false consciousness that Europe which hitherto imposed slavery and colonialism would in turn help in transforming our continent. The century long struggle for freedom should not be  stepped down as a  “low key” event. On the contrary. There is a lot to celebrate in freedom. Amartya Sen  the winner of the 1998  Nobel Prize in Economics argues (and rightly too!) “Development as Freedom”. The late sage, Kwame Nkrumah was the first to audaciously brake the British colonial chain in  1957. Ghana  is the first independent African nation. Nigeria followed in 1960. Nkrumah’s quotable quote about the imperative of freedom remains valid today: “We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility”. Both China  and Nigeria also parade ancient civilizations dating back to some 5000 years!  Early authentic (as distinct from colonial) history of Nigeria records great Benin, Oyo, Sokoto and Borno empires dating back to some 4000 years. However  the point cannot be overstated that  Colonialism   negatively impacted the growth and development of both countries.

The great historian, Walter Rodney in his classic: ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ observed (and I agree!) that “Colonialism had only one hand – “It was one-armed bandit!” 64 years after independence, we must undoubtedly agonize about the declining fortunes of the economy,  worsening energy and income poverty, low growth rate. Even more agonizing are the prohibitive costs of working and living. And free fall of the Naira! There was once a Nigeria which as part of decolonization project, independently replaced British  colonial pound sterling  on January 1973 , 13 years after independence at the rate of £1 = N2!.  Today a bagful of some Nigeria’s N2,230.94  miserably exchange for £1,  64  years after independence. It’s time we reflected on how Nigerians have inadvertently underdeveloped Nigeria. But even at that,  lest we  forget only in independence can we return to prosperity. In colonial Nigeria, growth or development discourse was an aberration, indeed an absurdity. The colonial policy was intentionally to under-develop Nigerian colony and deliberately develop colonial Britain through  perverse criminal  capital transfers out of the colony. With respect to Industrialization for instance, colonialism in Nigeria deliberately prejudiced against the establishment of local industries. The key drivers of colonial Nigeria, were extractive non-processing, non-value adding agriculture and mining and timber felling. Colonial authority deliberately undermined the growth of local enterprise such that 100 years of British rule did not set up a single textile mill! The first textile mill was Kaduna Textile mill in 1957 by the regional government of late Sardauna to be followed by Nigeria Textile Mill in the Western region of Awolowo and Aba Textile mill in the east by late Namdi Azikwe Zik.

There must be a Renewed Hope  to urgently  re-industrialize the nation,  revert de-Industrialization of the present neo- colonial era. The best independence anniversary gift to Nigeria  is the recent inauguration of the $25 billion-650,000 barrels per day (BPD) Dangote Oil Refinery, replacing Nigeria’s pessimism with optimism. Colonialism never built a single refinery. It gladdens that from from “1st October, NNPC will commence the supply of about 385k barrels per day (bdp) of crude oil to the Dangote refinery to be paid for in naira”. This is an original patriotic private/ public creative independent policy initiative by the present administration outside the mantra of the received policy wisdom of the IMF and World Bank.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in line with the Renewed Hope agenda  must also ensure that the four public refineries come on stream to give Nigeria’s independence genuine energy security at 64 and beyond. At 64 Nigeria must learn and copy China, which at 75, (just a decade older)  has almost banished illiteracy, gone to space, lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty.At 65, next year,  Nigeria should be as up-beat to say like China: that independence has “brought enormous changes to the country, creating an unprecedented miracle of development in the world history”. The Chinese  aptly put it better;  the “path you take determines your future”. At 64 Nigeria and Nigerians should stop agonizing but organize like China at 75, (or like Nigeria at 20 in 1980 with double digit growth rate which once  dwarfed China’s  growth!).   President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hit the nail on the head in his keynote address, during the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) meeting, held on the sidelines of the recent 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States. Africa, he said, is  underdeveloped because it’s  resources were primarily extracted and exported to foreign countries for refining and manufacturing. It’s time to promote beneficiation and manufacturing value added like China. I hail the recent smart decision of   President Bola Tinubu in appointing appointed Mr Joseph Tegbe as the Director-General and global liaison for the Nigeria-China strategic partnership, following the agreements reached during Tinubu’s visit to China in early September 2024. His expressed mandate is to “immediately submit a strategic action plan to enable Nigeria to benefit from the agreements between the two countries in Beijing recently with “specific deliverables, timelines, and key performance indicators for each area of cooperation, including priority projects, projected investments, and expected socioeconomic outcomes.” I bear witness that Nigeria at 64 and China at 75 not only celebrate   their great similarities but set to close the gap in difference in the match to, transformation modernization and sustainable development.

VIVA  Nigeria!!  and Viva China!! 

Happy Independence celebrations.•Issa Aremu, Director General, Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Ilorin (MINILS) and Member National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies  (NIPPS) Kuru Jos