Opadokun: Nigeria Was Forced into Unviable Co-habitation by British Colonial Imperialists 

Linus Aleke in Abuja

Former Secretary General of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Chief Ayo Opadokun, has blamed the nation’s numerous challenges on British contraption, arguing that Nigeria was a forced union by the ill-intentioned British colonial imperialists who tactically yoked the hitherto separate nations into unviable cohabitation that, “had rendered us incapable of living a fulfilled life as a nation”.
The elder statesman, also apportioned some of the blames to the military and Nigeria Police Force, describing the duo as police and military of occupation.
He insisted that what was happening to Nigeria was partly imposed by the military.
This was however, in contrast with the propositions of the incumbent Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja who said that the Nigerian Army is an army of the people.
Opadokun, who was fielding questions on Nigeria’s 64th independence anniversary celebration, during a live television programme stated that, “The Nigerian Army and police were institutions of occupation. They were not a creation of the Nigerian state. The Nigerian Army was initially called Glover Hausas. So, it was created merely to suppress, intimidate, and put into subjection, the natives to service the colonial imperialist officials and the government they imposed upon us when they came and they had remained so up till tomorrow.
“We need to do something much more fundamental to restructure the Nigerian security apparatus so that we can have the benefits of governing ourselves the way we want. We need to do better than we are doing”.
Proffering workable solutions to some of the major problems threatening the foundation of the country, Opadokun said: “I must say that the fundamental error of our current system is the fact that we are putting the cart before the horse. Not until Nigeria gets this country back unto a federal system of government upon which Nigeria secured its independence, we would not get out of the woods. It is because the Nigerian state has been so centralised that the man at the centre seems to control the entirety of our being to our great discomfort and disappointment. It is time for Nigeria to take up the battle of restoring Nigeria to a federal constitutional governance upon which we secured our independence.”

Recall that the history of the Nigerian Army dates to 1863, when Lt. Glover of the Royal Navy selected 18 indigenes from the Northern part of the country and organised them into a local force, known as the “Glover Hausas”.