WE are now concentrating on the militants to know how many
they are, especially in terms of groupings, leadership and to plead with them
to try and give Nigeria a chance. “I assure them that the saying by Gen. Yakubu
Gowon that ‘to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’ still stands.
In
those days we never thought of oil all we were concerned about was one Nigeria.
“So please pass this message to the militants, that one Nigeria is not
negotiable and they had better accept it. The Nigerian Constitution is clear as
to what they should get and I assure them, there will be justice.” – President
Muhammadu Buhari, to some residents of Abuja who paid him Sallah homage
recently.
President Buhari’s off-the-cuff statement above provides an opportunity for us to pick the mindsets of Nigerians on what they really mean by the concept of “One Nigeria”. It is obvious that “One Nigeria” does not have a single meaning for all of us; going by the way we carry on, especially when we find ourselves in positions of power as Buhari currently does. Let me describe my own idea of One Nigeria. It is a crossbreed between the Zikist and Awoist visions of the unity of Nigeria. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the father of African
Nationalism and foremost exponent of Nigeria’s
independence, believed in a Nigeria where all citizens would share one vision
and national aspiration, irrespective of their tribes, tongues, regions,
religions, majority or minority status. That is the kind of nationalism
practised in Ghana, a country whose foremost independence proponent and Pan-Africanist,
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was inspired by the Great Zik. In Ghana, tribe, region and
religion are no impediments to national unity. That is why the longest-ruling
head of state, John Jerry Rawlings (a minority), was able to seize power and
sanitise Ghana. He laid a solid foundation for today’s success story. Contrast
this with Nigeria, where an earlier attempt by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his
colleagues ended up being given an ethno-religious and regional toga. It
resulted in a civil war at the end of which Nigeria became a colonial booty of
Arewa (the Muslim North).
The Awoist version of One Nigeria recognised the
differences between the various groups and sought to establish a structure in
which all these groups could live within their geopolitical enclaves and aspire
competitively for the greatness of a united nation. Nobody’s ethnic, religious
or cultural hang-ups would slow down the progress of others who do not share
these hang-ups, and yet all would belong equally and equitably to one nation in
spite of their complex diversity. This arrangement is often described as “true
federalism”. So, in this Nigeria of my dreams, those who want to practice
Islamic Sharia in their home zone can go ahead.
Those who want to cut off the
hands of their thieves and overpopulate their home zones with illiterate
citizens will not be an impediment to my section which wants to exercise
population control, give good education to the young people and offer them a
modern, civilised lifestyle comparable to the best in the world. You use what
you produce to cater for your people but pay rents to the Federal Government to
maintain the common services that bind us together as people of One Nigeria.
But you do not use your landmass and population to parasite upon and terrorise
others and suck their resources dry in the name of “One Nigeria” which, you
insist, is “non-negotiable”. Buhari made reference to what General Gowon told
them as young soldiers during the civil war, which was that, “to keep Nigeria
one is a task must be done”. Gowon’s charge to his soldiers was meant to bring
back the former Eastern Region which was forced by injustice and insecurity
within Nigeria to seek safety in a breakaway Republic of Biafra. Majority of
Nigerians (not just Northern Nigerians of Arewa extraction) eagerly
participated in enforcing the unity of Nigeria through that war.
The question
we must ask ourselves is: why is it that 46 years after, those who fought in
the war and are now in their seventies and eighties are still in charge running
the country with their archaic and retrogressive mentalities? Why are they
still putting a gun on the heads of Nigerians, threatening that to keep Nigeria
one is a task that must be done? Is there any country in the world apart from
Nigeria that maintains “national unity” at gunpoint? Why is it that more and
more groups are copycatting Biafra with either secession or self-determination
bids if, indeed, the civil war kept Nigeria one? In any case, is it indeed true
that Nigeria’s unity is “non-negotiable” as Buhari says? For me, it an old lie
told a million times by people who do not even take time to check what they are
saying. The truth is that the negotiation of the unity of Nigeria is constantly
ongoing and (unfortunately) never-ending. The Aburi Accord was a product of
negotiation of Nigeria’s unity.
All the constitutional talks after the civil
war in 1977/78, 1989, 1994, 2006 and 2014 were acts of negotiation of Nigeria’s
unity. After the annulment of Moshood Abiola’s victory in 1993, the North
negotiated among themselves and gave up the presidency to the Yoruba people to
entice them to remain with the Nigerian project. They banned Northerners from
contesting the presidency, and overwhelmingly gave their votes to Olusegun
Obasanjo.
The Yar’ Adua regime negotiated with the Niger Delta militants to
drop their arms and accept “amnesty” and some lollipops in return.
Nigeria has been begging to negotiate with Boko Haram since the days of
President Goodluck Jonathan till date, and even Buhari himself is still on his knees
begging the Niger Delta Avengers for negotiation and offering to do “justice”
(the same justice he has refused to do since he was elected a year ago!).
All
these negotiations were efforts to wrest some justice, fairness and equity for
people who are not happy with Nigeria. They were thwarted because Nigerians are
very easily fooled by cosmetic red herrings, such as concession of the
presidency, creation of more states, granting of “amnesty” to aggrieved
agitators, appointment of a few of your people to glamorous government offices
and flashing of cash to shut up noisy mouths. It also comes in the form
of intimidation, persecution by prosecution, freezing of accounts, detention
and (in extreme cases) outright elimination of recalcitrant opposition. Even
when you thought that seventeen years of renascent democracy had gradually
moved Nigeria towards some semblance of geopolitical equalisation, a forgotten
fossil of the Nigerian civil war, General Muhammadu Buhari, is brought back to
power. He relaunches the worst form of extreme nepotism which even a Northern
reactionary commentator, such as Junaidu Mohammed, recently openly condemned.
Who would have, in their wildest dream, believed that 46 years after the civil
war, it would be possible to have a Federal Government in which the kinsmen and
religious acolytes of a sitting President would so predominate in total
defiance of the
Federal Character principle enshrined in our Constitution? And
this is Buhari’s idea of One Nigeria which he vows to maintain? He can count me
out of that! This is not the One Nigeria that the people of the North Central,
South-South and South West fought for, and certainly not the One Nigeria which
the ex-Biafrans looked forward to when they returned in 1970.
This is not the
One Nigeria which the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as
amended) prescribes because it does not give me a feeling of belonging. I
reject Muhammadu Buhari’s lopsided One Nigeria!
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