By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
The recolonization of Nigeria is a clear and present danger.
In some radical quarters, there has always been the talk that Nigeria never truly freed herself from the apron-strings of colonial Britain.
The argument stresses that Nigeria only won flag independence while neocolonialism, imperialism and suchlike isms continued in full force.
Let it be understood here that the recolonization of Nigeria is neither here nor there from the original colonial master – Britain.
The powers-that-be at the helm of Nigerian affairs in this day and age have opted for a brand new colonial master.
The new colonial sheriff atop the Nigerian block is France.
The booby trap at work is the use of economic colonialism to put to effect insidious political colonialism.
If my primary school study of Civics is still of any use, one can recall that Britain superintended over her Nigerian colony via the somewhat bifurcated Indirect Rule.
Colonial France, on the other hand, practised what was called the Assimilation policy on her colonies.
Today, Nigeria is bowing the knee to the assimilation of France through the shape and size of a tax regime that promises to “modernize tax administration” in the self-hyped “Giant of Africa.”
Nigeria has without blinking an eye signed the MOU with France to put to work a “data-driven enforcement” of the regime.
I have been authoritatively informed that the government has employed multitudes of Data Boys to ensure the “information exchange” of “capacity building” geared toward the recolonization is digitally sold to the public.
France stands tall to boss the economy of Nigeria the way it used to boss the economies of the Francophone countries until they forced their liberation through coups!
Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Mali, and Gabon have in recent bloody years opted for military dictatorship as opposed to colony-brewed democracy.
It could therefore be understood that when Benin Republic just the other day made moves to join the coup legion, the youthful President Emmanuel Macron of France had to make quick contact with President Tinubu of Nigeria to quell the uprising.
Even so, my teacher, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, has the other idea that President Tinubu’s son Seyi has enough battalion of soldiers in his guard to stop the Benin coup!
A tear for poor Benin!
It’s noteworthy that a major pivot of France’s assimilation policy is heavy taxation of the peoples of the colonized countries to benefit the metropole.
In the interest of self-preservation, France had to act fast to stop Benin from joining the league of quitters of her colonial peonage.
There is no gainsaying that without the gains of her West African colonies France would have ranked lower than a good number of the so-called Third World countries.
The gurus of thinking in France have come trumping with the grand idea that instead of just struggling to keep lowly Benin within its fold it would be much more rewarding to colonize the Giant of Africa!
And the rulers of Nigeria bought into the recolonization agenda with the renewed hope of keeping power in cold storage like President Paul Biya of Cameroon.
It’s thus a win-win situation for the authors of power holding and economic predation.
Sovereignty counts for nothing when hanging onto power is all the rage.
All sorts of self-acclaimed Nigerian patriots are coming out strong in defending Nigeria’s new direction as a salute to President Tinubu’s reforms.
The lickspittle patriots remind me of Samuel Johnson’s saying way back on the evening of April 7, 1775: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
The amazing aspect of the applauders of Tinubu’s reforms, as per petrol subsidy removal, naira devaluation, tax asphyxiation and and uncontrolled borrowing, happen to be the same characters who riotously and vociferously opposed the then President Goodluck Jonathan’s removal of fuel subsidy back in 2012.
As they say, things change in Nigeria only to become the same and worse.
French brains have since been admitted into the skull of the Nigerian economy.
It is now incumbent on Nigerians to dance to the stipulated recolonization dance: “Monkey see, monkey do!”
The heart of the matter is for Nigeria to henceforth ape the deleterious swindle of insidious French economic intelligence that all but crippled the erstwhile Francophone countries until they rebelled.
With the recolonization of Nigeria by France, the coded digital transformation is poised to translate fiscal manipulation into a power chattel system.
More foreign loans would be sourced by Nigeria, and the repayment will be taken directly from woebegone Nigerian tax payers.
The debt bondage is meant to ensure that Nigeria remains in eternal colonial servitude.
I am only consoled that it’s not only a country like France that may deign to recolonize Nigeria.
There was the dreaded General Sani Abacha who wanted to recolonize Nigeria through the chains of his five leprous fingers.
Let me end on this note: Even this too shall pass – and as always consequences must supervene.
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, the author of God of Poetry writes from Awka.
