Introduction: More than one hundred years after disparate nation states with
dissimilar cultures, religion, and values amongst others were forcefully amalgamated
by British colonialists for administrative convenience, hegemonic aggrandizement
and fifty years after a three year civil war, Nigeria simultaneously grapples
with insurgency, terrorism, militancy, instability, and recurring agitation for
the balkanization of the country. Most of the issues that led to the Nigeria-Biafra
civil war were glossed over, remain unresolved. At the end of the civil war the
then Head of State, General Gowon bandied the three R’s - reconciliation, rehabilitation
and reconstruction - which turned out to be mere clichés, unfulfilled promises.
There was no reconciliation, no rehabilitation and definitely no
reconstruction. My father told me how they were given only twenty pounds
irrespective of how much they saved up in the banks. They moved on but the scar
endured. Fifty years after the Nigerian civil war, Ndigbo of southeast Nigeria
don’t have a sense of belonging in Nigeria. They are alienated, marginalized
and subjugated as a conquered people. In the United States, pupils and students
are taught about the American civil war but in Nigeria where it appears we have
a phobia for history and the truth.
Food for thought: ‘’As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in
our world, none of us can truly rest’’ – Nelson Mandela
Only a fool keeps doing
the same thing again and again and expects change’’ – Albert Einstein?
Nigeria’s Is More
Fragmented Than Ever Before
Nigeria has always been a country divided along religious, ethnic
lines but it appears the Buhari administration by acts of commission and
omission, exalted the inherent schism in the Nigerian polity. Shortly after the
2015 general elections in Nigeria, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice
Dahiru Musdapher asserts that the 2015 Presidential election further divided Nigeria, as
the election was marked by demarcations along ethnic, regional, partisan and
religious lines. Speaking as
guest speaker at a lecture organized to mark the 75th birthday of the father of
former Speaker of House of Representatives, Chief Alani Bankole, in Abeokuta;
Musdapher said “it is rather worrisome that after over 100 years since the
amalgamation of the northern and the southern protectorates in 1914, Nigerians
seemed as divided as ever.” “I am scared and
deeply worried”, he said, adding that “the situation is grave.” Bishop Matthew
Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto also iterated that Nigeria is now a more divided country. The mutual suspicion,
distrust, lack of cohesion, marginalization, subjugation, religious intolerance
and indigene-settler dichotomy continued to widen.
#BiafraAt50 Anniversary And IPOB’s
Successful Sit-At-Home Order
Date: May 30, 2017, Event: 50 years anniversary of the declaration
of Biafra Republic by late Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Outcome: more
than 90% compliance in the entire Southeast Nigeria sequel to a sit-at-home
directive by Biafra activists such the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB),
amongst others. French News Agency - AFP reports that Biafraland was shutdown for the Biafra anniversary. Why criminalize the
individuals/groups whose only sin is agitating for self-determination? Similar
to the IPOB sit-at-home order, the six Yoruba states in southwest Nigeria declared
June 12, 2017 a public holiday in remembrance of Chief MKO Abiola's botched
presidential mandate. Have we forgotten how NADECO and other groups in
southwest Nigeria agitated, gave Babangida and Abacha regimes sleepless nights
after the junta annulled the June 12, 1993 election result acclaimed to have
been won by Chief MKO Abiola, a Yoruba man?
The ‘Arewa Youths’ Quit
Notice, Ultimatum To Ndigbo
Date 6th June, 2016: seemingly rattled by the
successful sit-at-home order and compliance in the southeast on 30th
May, 2017, an amalgam of recalcitrant Arewa Youth organizations comprising –
the Citizens Action for Change, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Arewa Youth
Development Foundation, Arewa Students Forum and Northern Emancipation Network
on the Igbo Persistence for Secession met at Arewa House in Kaduna state and inter-alia, gave Ndigbo living in northern
Nigeria October 1st, 2017 ultimatum to vacate northern Nigeria. We have no moral latitude to
criticize South Africans for launching sporadic xenophobic attacks on Nigerians
living in their country when blatant xenophobia is entrenched in Nigeria. While
some northern governors tried to douse tension arising from the 'Igbo quit notice'
by Arewa youths, it is apparent that the youths have the backing of some powerful
northern elders. Their action is tantamount to the "voice of Jacob but the
hand of Esau". Where were the Northern governors when a band of the youths
met at the esteemed Arewa House and issued a quit notice to Ndigbo? Is Arewa
House so porous that anybody or group of people can access it and hold
meetings? An Igbo proverb says, ‘’when you see a bird dancing by the roadside,
it's highly probable that someone within is beating the drums for the bird’’. Spokesperson
of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), Prof.
Ango Abdullahi vehemently supports the Arewa
youths quit notice. Could it be that
these Arewa youths want to hit up the polity, a subterfuge to justify a putsch
in Nigeria especially given the fact that political power is slipping away from
the north due to Buhari’s illness. Insinuation of a possible coup was rife in
Nigeria recently. Three weeks after the threat on Ndigbo, none of the
masterminds have been arrested or questioned by Nigerian security and
intelligence agencies mostly headed by Northerners. This contrasts the hostile
treatment meted out to Biafran activists.
The Nation Newspaper reports that, Nigerian Security agencies advised the Nigerian government
against arrest northern Youths who issued the threatening quit notice order on
Ndigbo. Northern politician and a second republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed
says there
will be crises if police arrests Arewa youths. Question is: did those Arewa youth
groups transgress the laws of Nigeria? Are they above the law? Has the security
agencies arrested anyone in the past who seemingly committed a similar ‘crime’?
It will be deemed an ‘injustice’, partiality if someone from the southeast, southwest
or south-south dangles a similar threat to northerners and s/he is arrested? If
the security agencies cannot arrest the Arewa youth, it follows that they will
not dare re-arrest Nnamdi Kanu who has obviously violated the terms and
conditions of his bail. The apparent impunity, near absence of rule of law and
recent sequence of events in Nigeria symbolizes a failing/failed State or a
banana republic. Afenifere
chieftain, Senator Femi Okurounmu queries why the Inspector General of Police is unable to arrest these
Hausa-Fulani youths who issued the quit notice? Continuing he said, ‘’we are
just deceiving ourselves; there is no justice in Nigeria. When a Hausa-Fulani
man kills another Nigerian, he has not committed an offence, but when another
Nigerian kills Hausa-Fulani man, he has committed an offence and must be
punished. That is the Nigeria of today for you’’. Also recall that when Hausa and Yoruba folks clashed at Ife
in Osun state, only Yoruba people were arrested and detained by the security
agencies.
The
Arewa youths threat to Ndigbo should be taken seriously and not waved aside. This
is how the pogrom of Ndigbo in northern Nigeria started in 1966 which spurred
the declaration of Biafra in 1967. As we know, street urchins in the north
otherwise known as Almajiri are well-known for their ‘herd mentality’. Almajiris only hear ‘’go’’, they don’t hear
‘’come’’. The Nigerian government that is struggling to contain a localized
Boko Haram insurgency say there is no cause for alarm. Ndigbo have a proverb
that it is only a tree that you will threaten to cut down and it would remain
immobile, defenseless.
Politically Correct
Leaders Playing The Ostrich
Despite the intensely visible handwriting on the wall that Nigeria
is coming apart at the seams, rather than acknowledge the home truth, take
tangible steps to fix the problem, politically correct Nigerian leaders who
like Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, bury their heads in the sand like
an Ostrich reciting trite clichés such: ‘One Nigeria’, ‘the unity of Nigeria is
non-negotiable’. Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki reiterated one of such
trite remarks recently when he asserted that, ‘’the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable and “must be
defended by all, in spite of numerous agitations.” I think it is an indictment
on the validity and usefulness of the legislature and other elected officials that
the masses and activities of separatist groups such as the IPOB resurrected the
need to rejig or restructure Nigeria. A new power bloc is emerging in Nigeria
due to widening purposeful and visionary leadership vacuum. Proponents may not
be elected officials or moneyed but it is evident that their narratives and
actions overshadows the legitimacy and narratives of the State, its
institutions, and so-called elected officials, bureaucrats and oligarchs who only
care about their personal aggrandizements and how to bequeath power to their
children.
Nigerian Government Negotiates With
Terrorists, Militants But Not With Unarmed Separatist Agitators
Posterity
will always remember that the Nigerian government negotiates and allegedly pays
ransom to a terrorist organization. Same government negotiated with Niger Delta
militants to enable free flow of crude oil but the government is disinclined to
negotiating with Biafran agitators. The notion is
that the only language the Nigerian government appreciates and respects is wholesale
violence. The special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on political
matters Mr. Babafemi Ojudu gave hogwash reasons why the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi
Nnamdi Kanu was not invited to the Presidential Villa when the Acting President,
Professor Osinbajo held a meeting with southeast leaders.
Mr. Ojudu reportedly asserted that, ‘’Nnamdi Kanu was not asked to join the acting president
and the South-East leaders in a meeting because the IPOB leader is not
perceived as a leader of thought in the South-East’’. Continuing
Mr. Ojudu said, ‘’…what we have done is to look at
people who have influence in the communities, whether it is religious, whether
it is traditional, whether it is political, social or governance’’. By their
estimation Nnamdi Kanu doesn’t fit into any of the aforementioned pecking order?
Fortunately or unfortunately, the Buhari administration inadvertently made the
IPOB leader a folk hero. They should see and treat him as such. If he’s not a
social or political leader, how do you explain the fact that this unelected guy
that was almost a nobody a couple of years ago and his IPOB group issued a
sit-at-home order and the entire southeast was totally shut down on 30th May,
2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of Biafra? Rhetorical and wishful
press releases are not the panacea to the impending implosion of Nigeria,
genuine action is. As long as injustice, inequality, nepotism, bald-faced
marginalization and subjugation of sections of the country persist, jamboree
meetings with northern and southeastern governors will yield little or nothing.
Conclusion
Stop the rhetoric. Stop the tea parties. Stop treating symptoms of
the disease. Stop postponing the evil day. Come down from your high horse. Make
hay while the sun shines. Genuinely fix the root causes of instability in
Nigeria. This is the only way to avoid the seemingly impending anarchy, balkanization
of Nigeria. Ka Chineke mezie okwu.
Written By:
© Don Okereke, a
security analyst/consultant, writer
Twitter:
@DonOkereke
July 3, 2017
Image credit: farooqkperogi.com
Image credit: farooqkperogi.com
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