The Nigerian General Elections of April 2011 have come and gone. But, yet again, like all important functions of the Nigerian political system, they have provoked violent uprisings in parts of Nigeria – this time, mostly in the Northern States of Nigeria – and they have left a legacy of blood and tears, and of inter-group animosity and hate.
The Nigerian General Elections of April 2011 have come and gone. But, yet again, like all important functions of the Nigerian political system, they have provoked violent uprisings in parts of Nigeria – this time, mostly in the Northern States of Nigeria – and they have left a legacy of blood and tears, and of inter-group animosity and hate.
A major political party, in support of an eminent Nigerian citizen as candidate, rejects the management and results of the presidential election in its entirety. Massive crowds of citizens exploded and rampaged through the streets; hundreds of people were killed; houses were torched, and places of worship burnt. In some cities, the situation was close to a war.
Nigeria has unfortunately become known worldwide for such periodic self-induced disasters, resulting in massive losses of lives and property, and in significant losses of productivity for the country. Neither the people nor the country is ever at peace in a stable and predictable manner. And the situation has steadily grown worse and worse since independence. In the past three decades, hardly any half-year has passed without a staggering national conflagration.
Nigerians have endured it all – usually assured by political self-seekers and false prophets that such problems are temporary birth pangs of a new country. But the events of the past April, and of recent months, have at last blown away all this self-deception. When we consider Nigeria and other countries of Black Africa, and we compare with other developing countries in other parts of the world, the truth becomes clear and unmistakable. Nigeria’s problems are not mere teething problems. They are not superficial or temporary. They are the enduring effects of an original error. They are deep – extremely deep. In the context of Nigeria as it is, they are essentially insoluble.
At different times since Nigeria’s independence, different nationalities in Nigeria have reached this conclusion. Most famously, it was called the ‘mistake of 1914’. Another personality who was in a vantage position to know, confirmed this when he asserted from the highest position of authority in the land that the basis for Nigeria’s unity simply does not exist. Today, most Nigerians are saying the same, even though their voices are not influential enough to reach the airwaves. Most Nigerians murmur endlessly today that Nigeria is moving from being hurtful to being outright destructive of the human person. All the three original regions of Nigeria at different times have tried to opt out of that ‘mistake’. One such attempt even advanced from the drawing board to the battlefield. The move was defeated but the idea lives on. For more than half a century, Nigerians have been investing on a road that patently, in all sober reflection, leads nowhere. Fifty years into independence, it has been a lot of exhausting motion without movement.
Wisdom dictates that when it is impossible to move forward, it is wise to move backward. It is fruitless blind patriotism to continue with the forlorn hope that an original wrong proposition will work. Much valuable time has been frittered away over chasing a mirage. It is time for wise counsel to prevail over what needs to be done to deal with Nigeria’s fatal error of design. It is no valor to swim against the tide. It is time to embrace the inevitable – since the inevitable will come any way, with or without planning. Failure to plan is disastrous planning. Let us deliberately plan so that the inevitable can work in our favour. Let every one of Nigeria’s nationalities plan. The time for selfish hypocrisy is over. The time for selfless service is now.
The time for action, and for transformational change, can not be better than now. In all directions, Nigeria confronts confusion, doubt and fear – and omens of fragmentation and perhaps violent implosion. From many parts of the country, citizens are fleeing for safety to their home areas. Over fifty thousand Nigerians have been displaced from their homes, and most of these have no homes to return to. Governors are frantically pulling the youths of their states from the Nigerian Youth Service Corps in other states. In some parts of the country, parents are mourning the violent killing, or deliberate maiming, of their sons and daughters sent by the authority of the Nigerian Federal Government to serve in various parts of Nigeria. Large parts of the country reject the President who is also the President-elect. Large camps of radical religious groups dot certain parts of the country – camps from which unspeakable horrors have been frequently wreaked on society, camps from which Nigeria is being promised that the most violent international terrorist movements are being invited for a widespread jihad in Nigeria. Bombs have been exploding all over the country, killing and wounding countless innocent Nigerians. The threat of another civil war looms over our country.
The time for politics as usual is over. The time for squalid back-door haggling for personal gains of position and money has passed. The imperative need of the moment is to take steps towards order, peace and stability, through a careful restructuring of the Nigerian Federation. Nigeria must now go seriously for:
a proper federal structure in which the component units shall, as much as possible, be based on the nationalities, in which each unit shall have its own constitution and enjoy an agreed amount of autonomy over its own affairs, in which each nationality shall have primary interest over its own resources, and in which an agreed level of powers shall be assigned to the federal authority, all protected by a general agreement subscribed to by all the Nigerian nationalities and constituting the foundational principles for the existence, constitution, and acts of governments of the Nigerian federation.
It will be a major service to Nigeria (and to Black Africa, and the world) if President Goodluck Jonathan takes control and guides this historic movement of change. If he does that, he will enjoy dedicated and enthusiastic support of most of the citizens of his country, and he will earn for himself the name of Founder of the New Nigeria. But he should realize that Nigeria can no longer wait. The various peoples and nationalities of Nigeria are poised for changes. And they are not ready to lose the opportunity that now presents itself.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
For and on behalf of Oodua Foundation:
Tokunbo Ajasin
Dejo Ogunwande
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });