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| president Buhari |
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!
Vanguard:comment
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