Nigeria; Shared Failure, Shared Destiny Deferred

“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”

— Antonio Gramsci

It is not the 1930s, and yet it is once again the time of monsters. Nigeria, as a legal and political entity, is facing a crisis unparalleled since its inception. Historically, Nigeria has survived repeated systemic shocks not because of internal cohesion or institutional resilience, but largely due to the overwhelming weight of external geopolitical and economic interests that the Nigerian state has continued to serve. As the global order undergoes a profound transformation, those interests are shifting. The pressing question, therefore, is whether we—as a people and as an amalgamation of ancient regional civilisations—are capable of sustaining Nigeria as a unified political entity.

From its inception, Nigeria was conceived not as a nation, but as a geographical instrument for the extraction of resources and labour from at least four major African civilisations: the Bini (Benin) Empire, the Oyo Empire, the Hausa-Fulani polities, and the Kanuri Empire. This extractive logic was institutionalised by the British Niger Company and later consolidated through colonial administration. In the process, we have not only been severed from our civilizational roots, but we have also lost the capacity to consciously navigate our historical destinies. It is therefore deeply disheartening that the descendants of some of Africa’s most sophisticated and technologically advanced societies increasingly feel alienated on their own soil.

Nigeria was ultimately configured as a hub for administrative extraction following the British conquest of the Northern emirates under Frederick Lugard. Even the name “Nigeria” bears the imprint of colonial triviality, attributed to Flora Shaw, a London-born companion of Lugard. That the identity of a complex, multi-civilizational polity could emerge from such a shallow colonial imagination speaks volumes about the fragility of its foundations.

Today, the extractive system embedded in our social structures and economic realities is approaching exhaustion. If we, the descendants of ancient and powerful civilisations, fail to recognise the necessity of collectively renegotiating our shared destiny, then the bitter truth must be stated plainly: Nigeria will not endure indefinitely in its present form. Its creation was artificial, and only a natural corrective—one rooted in justice, equity, and historical realism—can sustain it. As the global neoliberal order retreats under the weight of its own contradictions, Nigeria must either reform decisively or descend further into systemic failure.

To survive, Nigeria must undertake a profound political and economic transformation. The current system has failed—structurally, morally, and developmentally—and will continue to drag the country toward deeper instability if left intact. As old global arrangements collapse and new realities emerge, Nigeria must design a system that works for its own people, not one that perpetuates shared failures and deferred destinies.

System Maketh Man

The Western-centric development and security paradigm has demonstrably failed to deliver either lasting peace or genuine development. Yet more than six decades after independence, Nigeria remains intellectually captive to this doctrine. Without security, there can be no development—and without development, security becomes illusory. At what point do we pause and acknowledge that this experiment has not produced the promised outcomes?

A nation cannot be truly secure or developed without a sovereign foreign policy and an independent defence posture. Nigeria maintains neither in substance, only in rhetoric. Western NGOs and foreign-funded institutions routinely shape our security architecture by sponsoring retreats, furnishing offices, and convening policy forums for senior military officers, legislators, and civil servants. In doing so, they exert a subtle but decisive influence over our national priorities. If sovereignty is defined by autonomous decision-making, then we must ask: to what extent does Nigeria truly possess it?

What is often described as “administrative extraction” is, in anthropological terms, simply a system. And systems shape societies, for system maketh man. For Nigeria to achieve genuine independence and prosperity, it must build an indigenous system of governance aligned with its values, social realities, and historical trajectory.

Nigeria requires nothing less than a new system: a fundamentally reimagined model of governance and a new political economy. The neoliberal order, designed to serve a narrow global elite, has entrenched financial rent seeking at the expense of productive, industrial development. In a financialised system, every problem is met with money rather than structure. Conflict between herders and farmers? Create a new ministry for livestock. Governance failure at the subnational level? Establish another ministry for regional development. Money is thrown at symptoms while structural causes are ignored. When the only tool available is a hammer, every problem appears as a nail.

The consequences are visible everywhere. Governance has eroded, inequality has widened, and social cohesion has frayed. Capital—regardless of its origin—has become the primary currency of political power. Illicit wealth now permeates governance, distorting institutions and hollowing out the rule of law. Financialization has trapped millions of Nigerians in cycles of debt and economic stagnation, while banks and financial intermediaries grow increasingly powerful. The absence of capital controls and coherent development policy has left a generation of young Nigerians without viable professional futures.

This is not a uniquely Nigerian pathology. It is the defining crisis of neoliberal democracy across both developed and developing societies. Political elites entrench themselves, elections lose credibility, and capital interests capture judicial systems. What Nigeria lacks today is leadership with the courage to make radical, system-level decisions—leadership willing to overhaul the political and economic architecture rather than manage its decline. Every product requires periodic updates. Nigeria is long overdue for one.

What we are ultimately witnessing is the crisis of neoliberal democracy, not merely a crisis within it. And what is structurally unsustainable cannot, in the end, be sustained.

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