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!
Source: vanguard
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