Today, there is governance and leadership in Nigeria which is demonstrating what Nigeria is known for: long on dreaming and potential, short on performance and delivery. Long on sweet talk, short on effective action. Long on denial, long on pretense; short on reality and short on practicality. Nigeria loves to lie to itself and loves even more to believe those lies. Nothing exemplifies this more today than Nigeria’s President Jonathan’s recent invitation of global investors to invest in Nigeria because according to him, the recent worsening security situation in Nigeria is more like a passing fad which should be ignored and not taken seriously. Imagine that—in this the month of November in the year 2011!
Today, there is governance and leadership in Nigeria which is demonstrating what Nigeria is known for: long on dreaming and potential, short on performance and delivery. Long on sweet talk, short on effective action. Long on denial, long on pretense; short on reality and short on practicality. Nigeria loves to lie to itself and loves even more to believe those lies. Nothing exemplifies this more today than Nigeria’s President Jonathan’s recent invitation of global investors to invest in Nigeria because according to him, the recent worsening security situation in Nigeria is more like a passing fad which should be ignored and not taken seriously. Imagine that—in this the month of November in the year 2011!
It is perhaps owing to this phenomenon that luminaries like Chinua Achebe once argued (in futility, truth be known) that Nigeria’s fundamental problem is that of (lack of) leadership rather than structure. Who knows if he has since changed his argument with the unfailing understanding that for Nigeria, the fundamental problem is in fact structure: a poor foundation right from the start, clearly recognized and understood as such, even then, on which was erected a construction that was purposely designed not to serve the peoples but strictly to protect the interests and pleasures of Nigeria’s masters. It was all wrong from the standpoint of the peoples; it is still all wrong, this structure thusly designed, christened “Nigeria.” Nigeria is really a structure-problem. Leadership has nil to do with the faulty foundation.
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It is not leadership that produced nor sustains Boko Haram: it is the structure of Nigeria which continually breeds and nurtures and justifies suchlike. President Jonathan, in the same speech, glibs over what he calls Nigeria’s thirty-month “Civil War” like a pupil reciting by senseless rote a colonially-scripted History lesson. That Nigeria’s war he speaks of, which is veritably a war of Genocide by Nigeria against Biafra (against the Igbo and other Biafrans), will ultimately be traced to the same fundamentally flawed structure and design which deliberately forces incompatible peoples together into a false union. Unfortunately, President Jonathan on that occasion chooses to profess ignorance of this, but there is neither reason nor excuse for him to imply that Nigeria ever got through that war successfully. Nigeria has not and will never recover from that war. If Nigeria had any hope of ever taking off as a nation, the Nigeria-Biafra War destroyed such a hope; the result is that Nigeria languishes today, a wandering body without Spirit, an irredeemable basket-case. No, Mr. President: Nigeria did not get through that war successfully; Nigeria was actually buried by that war. It is a war whose clouds were pre-seeded by the faulty structure of Nigeria, and whose execution was clearly dictated by that awful unbalanced structure.
It is really up to the peoples suffering in Nigeria to get up now and do what their leaders are completely incapable of doing: face reality, admit the clear and present danger, and restructure Nigeria so to save themselves from having their already devastated life completely crushed out of them. President Jonathan and his ilk want to tell the peoples that Boko Haram is being defeated; and even if not, that the people should live with and endure the violence and terrorism since terrorism is known all over the world. Well, the cowering and suffering peoples in Nigeria should be reminded of history, thus…
In the early 1930’s in Germany, the Nazi party, a tiny minority of the population, terrorized the German people. The Nazis told the people what terrible things they would do and then proceeded to do such; it was quite violent, criminal and inhumane. But the German people who considered themselves “peace-loving,” civilized, cultured and Christian chose not to believe that the minority Nazis were serious and a real threat. In the end, all German people became Nazi in one way or another. We all know today what happened then. Yes, Today, when President Jonathan is busy telling the peoples of Nigeria that Boko Haram is not a serious threat. But the reality is that with Nigeria as currently configured, there is in fact nothing to stop Boko Haram from eventually taking over Nigeria and then “owning” all the peoples. History is the witness. Especially, when it is now reported that Boko Haram is linking up with the global network of known terrorist organizations.
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Even if it is not Boko Haram, still, it is something else, something just as terrible or worse, which comes along and ravages the peoples, of which contrary to what they prefer to believe, such Evil stays and soon becomes the people and the peoples become it. Whether it is what they want or not, President Jonathan and his league, just like previous Nigeria’s so-called leaders, have condemned the peoples to such a fate when they pretend or actually believe that the situation in Nigeria is somehow normal—enough to invite security-sensitive investors— and should be endured as such by the hapless peoples.
The peoples need to rise and restructure Nigeria. A mere two or three years ago, how to restructure Nigeria would have presented a daunting conceptual proposition. Today, global winds of change have introduced a tested and effective People’s Power Tool which is here to stay, in the name of “Self Determination.” Self Determination gives the right of the people back to the people: it is the people who decide how they want to be, what they want to be, and how they want to relate one people to another. Restructuring based on the people’s self-deterministic choices presents a simple, concrete workable agenda. And, luckily for those residing in the Nigeria geopolitical space, the peoples and their respective nations are essentially distinct and have their own distinct ancestral land. The restructuring template and lines are already naturally in place.
Self Determination will result in a new structure of indigenous nations reclaiming each its own original God-given (man-stolen) sovereignty. Each sovereign nation will protect its citizens from hurtful activities such as Boko Haram’s, and at least will not have its national character tarnished by such activities originating from other nations. Each will determine which other nation(s) it can enter into mutual relationships with and what types of relationship. The people of each nation will determine what kind of citizenry they want for their own nation as well as what type of nation; and what kind of world-citizens they want to be.
Restructuring Nigeria as such has many other benefits for the peoples. It is the equivalence of building firewalls in a threatened and threatening arena in order to provide an independent and relatively secure internal environment for stability, accountability, growth and development while managing and controlling inbound access and preventing dangerous breaches that intend harm on the people. Every successful biological and sociological family relies on these tenets to raise and sustain the family. The best cure for Corruption now is self-determined nations wherein citizens will be held truly accountable to their kith and kin by their own kith and kin in a structure which would not provide, would not permit, and could not tolerate, the kind of free-for-only-the-connected “national cake” and excesses and parasitic opportunities that is the badge and bane of Nigeria. The best chance for “free and fair elections” (hithertofore a mere distractive election sloganeering), is within self-determined nations: same for effective corrective, remedial and redemptive action when called for. The best answer for a non-working Civil Service which nevertheless extracts pay “at the source” while leaving nothing and providing nothing for the masses which it is supposed to serve, is a self-determined nation.
If the peoples languishing in Nigeria want to live and thrive again, they ought to restructure Nigeria—today. Self Determination is the template; it is supported and available now. Now is the time. On the other hand, if all they are only capable of doing is grumbling and groaning and complaining, waiting to be eventually assimilated by resident Evil, then, the peoples may continue to criticize President Jonathan (well-deserved), yet without forcing him to do the right thing—embrace and start the restructure process! For that matter, it is within the power of the peoples and it is also in both their immediate and long-term interests to act now to redeem themselves, in spite of President Jonathan and Nigeria’s longstanding oligarchs. Thus, in these heady days of Self Determination, any permanent failing is the peoples’, not the government’s. Every accusing finger the peoples point at President Jonathan means three fingers pointing back at the peoples: do the math.
Restructure now! Self Determination is the most fair and most natural winning formula to accomplish this, and it is available today. For those people praying for miracles to solve Nigeria, Self Determination is a Godsend: it is the right answer, the right divine gift and tool, at the right time, for the otherwise insoluble problem that is Nigeria. Use Self Determination; use it wisely and use it with confidence, to restructure Nigeria—today.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
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