True federalism is the only solution for any CONVERGED country like Nigeria because every state or region will develop at her own pace but the beneficiaries of this present impunity will never adopt it.
Pastor Tunde Bakare many years ago cried out that Nigeria is laying critically at the intensive care unit of the universe but the topic has changed today that Nigeria is presently at her “end of life” stage. I’m a bit worried because I keep asking myself, have we ever had a country? The citation of America as a united country that’s her constitution has a section that guarantees freedom to secede but no one is seceding is always an interesting example but I beg to ask, how many American citizens can you deceive? How many American presidents has emerged from “it is our turn syndrome” how many Americans will sow Ashebi to hail a corrupt leader facing corruption?
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How many American politicians will steal and come and bank and buy houses in Nigeria? I will not continue this litany because it is infinite but we should try to compare only comparables. The pertinent question we should be addressing is, why such upsurge in clamor to terminate Nigeria life of recent? At what point did our Leaders failed to Unite ALL citizens?
The answer to the above question will address or better still, give us a clue of where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going.
From Adam, have we ever been united as a country if YES, what kind of UNITY? Or do we merely CONVERGE or MERGE for a purpose?
As an economist, I am very much aware that MERGING differs from ACQISITION. There are many trade-off and compromise that follows MERGING but ACQUISTION is commonly a pay-off. The aim of merging mostly is always to be bigger, influential, and powerful but after Merging, name, vision, mission, becomes one but this cannot be said of Nigeria. There was neither trade-off nor Pay-off. Apart from colony of Lagos that fully collapsed into southern Nigeria, the country retains their division along southern and northern lines but only CONVERGE at the centre adopting NIGERIA as a common name.
I will not bore you with boring history of origin of Nigeria but I will not fail to remind us that before 1914, we have the colony of Lagos, southern protectorate and northern protectorate. This simple verdict answers the question of one Nigeria that we only CONVERGED to MERGE but couldn’t meet up with MERGING requirement stipulated by nature. Take note that colony of Lagos collapsed into Western region easily because the language, culture, belief are same.
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Moreover different application of indirect rule by Lord Lugard in different regions of a country he CONVERGED will further deepen your knowledge that ab initio, the culture, tradition, belief, language, and even food are not same and therefore UNITY will be hard to achieve.
Furthermore, even in the countdown to independence struggle, political parties were formed along regional lines, NPC, AG, and NCNC. None was a national Party rather regional party. It is important to note that the “UNSPOKEN WORDS” of our heroes past while forming a government after independence is “I am here for my own people”. Their aim, vision and mission is simple “equity and justice for all region from the centre”. NOT “justice and equity for ALL at the centre”. Therefore we cannot claim that Nigeria divisive opinion along ethnic lines started today. What we confused as UNITY was that our heroes past like Awolowo, Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello transmitted whatever they got from the centre to their people without any deduction. They maximize the utilization of scarce resources to empower and develop their regions. To them “my people” MUST be empowered is a common vision.
The patriotism of this set of nationalist is uncommon. Take for instance, Sir Ahmadu Bello, his party NPC won the majority seat at the centre in the first Republic and he suppose to emerge automatically as the prime minister but he ceded the prime minister position to his deputy Sir Tafawa Belewa and opted for Premier of Northern region. I’m sure his mindset while opting to be premier was to meet up with Awolowo and Azikiwe in terms of Regional development. The mental acumen of these three men is intimidating. Check out their vision for Education and see how they cited UNN, ABU, OAU in an education friendly environment. They have the capacity to build these universities in their family land and be collecting rent from government or even build it in their town or city or municipal area. NO!
They opted for the best. Those days were the acclaimed “UNITY” days of Nigeria. There was passion and great zeal without any hidden agenda to develop each region. But all this development must not be conceived as “one nation” because it is embedded with regional development passion NOT national development. Some will argue that regional development will transform to national development but Sir Ahmadu Bello has answered that question by rejecting national position to opt for regional development. The centre is unattractive for them.
Again, the military coup of January 1966 was termed eastern boys coup because each regions counted their number of casualty and presumed that the coup has ethnic agenda. I am not in position to defend or condemn the coup plotters mission or mindset before the coup, my concentration is the reasons given for the bloody coup. Take note that coup is a crime against the people no matter the intent but once it has happened, we should concentrate more on the outcome. The counter coup of July 1966 by northern “military” boys was to avenge the January 1966 coup but let me inform you my reader that if I were a military officer in 1966, I will NOT spare anyone that kills Ahmadu Bello no matter how justifiable his excuses were.
Murtala Nyako in his memo to northern governors cited the coup of 1966 comparing it to present military actions in northern region. The letter clearly defines his mindset that geopolitical zones are just for resource allocation and the eastern region is still the eastern region. Whether Igbo, Ijaw or Ikwerre is irrelevant. The memo addresses the mindset of many who will not clearly speak out because of forthcoming election but the silent of many political actors in Nigeria speaks volume of their thinking. Reference to Goodluck Jonathan in that memo as eastern man is intentional but the event of future days will be more revealing. My point here is to buttress the fact that even within the ruling elite, our unity is a “literally term”.
Recall Fani Kayode’s article that almost triggered another regional war during the deportation saga by the Fashola government, quoting from Fani Kayode’s script thus “Yet despite all this and all that they have been through over the years and despite their terrible experiences in the civil war we are witnessing that same attitude of ”we must control all”, ”we must own all” and ”we must have all”…….this is a common belief too among other regions but the few intellectuals will always be diplomatic while discussing it. Though some will baptize it that Igbos are hardworking but while in conversation with their subordinates, FFK has spoken well. This is factual that though we pretend to be one in outlook but even the elites are now speaking up. We only converged never merged.
True federalism is the only solution for any CONVERGED country like Nigeria because every state or region will develop at her own pace but the beneficiaries of this present impunity will never adopt it. Late Gani Fawhehmi once said that Nigerians have a little brain that cannot contain much hence; the possibility to forget is high. The easiest way to become a progressive in Nigeria is to steal and join the poor masses to criticize the ruling government. They will vote you in the next election and forgive you for stealing once you buy beer and recharge card for them. It is even easier now that 80% unemployed political elites now have Twitter and a Facebook account to identify with the poor masses. These social media accounts will become dormant immediately after the election.
Why the issue of one Nigeria is like a new topic today is because the acclaimed Zikist, Awoist, and Abusites are a negativity of what they profess to proclaim. They have stolen so much that the politic elites declared war among themselves. Rather than equity and justice for all regions from the centre, we now have “justice and equity for only “born to rule” families. University is now cited in political elite hometown whether conducive or not. Regional allocation is now into individual accounts and they will still DECEIVE/LIE to the masses that nothing is coming from the centre. They enslave the mental structure of their followers that only certain group of individual is qualified to rule. Gathering at the centre is no more for peer review of regional development but coming to contest who will be the highest “money-robber”.
Any slightest opportunity to over-rob each other will now lead to clamor of marginalization and behold, the gullible enslaved minds will buy into orchestrated lies by political elite to wreck havoc on their fellow poor citizens from other regions. This political elite sponsored crisis further confused the masses to think that Nigeria will disintegrate…No! We are never integrated! It is only the political elites that integrated with common aim of short-changing the poor masses. Regional development is now converted to family development. Presidential election of 1979, 1999,2007, 2011 was all anchored on regional sentiments NOT merit. All this brouhaha we are witnessing today is the usual bidding for 2015 election. Don’t be deceived.
To be cont…………
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(Tweeter @comradop)
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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