Nigeria’s raging centrifugal forces

Like most analysts feared and predicted, the 2015 election, regardless how it went, would unleash great centrifugal forces that, if not properly handled, could imperil the unity and survival of Nigeria as one entity. What was needed and hoped for before the elections was not just a peaceful elections, but a government that will not only be a symbol of national unity, but also work actively to unite the country and give every section a sense of belonging in the Nigerian project. That never happened.

True to the prediction, no sooner had the election been concluded that there began a renewed agitation for the creation of a sovereign state of Biafra by segments of the South-East youth population.  Sadly, the government failed to manage the crisis and the agitation continued to gain ground and gain acceptability in the South East. This was evident in the compliance with the Independent People of Biafra’s (IPOB) sit-at-home home order on May 30.

Last week, in reaction to the shutting down of major towns in the South East by IPOB, some Northern youth organisations purportedly gave a five-month ultimatum to the Igbos in the north to leave the region. According to these groups “The persistence for the actualization of Biafra by the unruly Igbo of South-Eastern Nigeria has lately assumed another alarming twist which involved the forceful lockdown of activi­ties and denial of other peo­ple’s right to free movement in the South-East by the rebel Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its overt and covert sponsors. Hence, they are “tired of the marriage” and called for the restructuring of the country.

If anyone thought the youth groups were acting on their own, that impression was dispelled when the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) – with Prof Ango Abdullahi as its spokesman – expressed support for the call by the youths for Igbos to leave the region within three months while expressing“disappointment” with the Northern Governors’ Forum for disowning the youth groups.

Of course, other groups from virtually all parts of the country have joined the bedlam issuing various threats to groups and regions of the country.

But while all these are happening, the government has largely remained silent and is not doing anything to rein in these groups taking the law into their hands.

In many ways, we hold the government of Muhammadu Buhari responsible for the centrifugal forces threatening to tear the country apart. Just after the elections and when the new government was supposed to act to unite the country, the president himself began stocking regional and ethnic tensions by publicly saying he cannot, in all honesty, treat regions that gave him only five (5) percent of votes the same, on some issues, with those that gave him 97%. Despite the criticisms he received, the president, in keeping to his words, ensured that all his initial appointments and other sensitive appointments went only to people from his section of the country. Indeed, his provincial and invidious style of governance has ensured that some sections of the country are totally alienated and feeling left out from the affairs of the country.

What is more, the government also badly mishandled the agitation for Biafra by arresting and detaining the self-styled leader of IPOB against the law thereby turning him into a hero. It should have taken a leaf from previous governments that have largely allowed the leader of the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) to fade into oblivion without much harassment. Much more condemnable is the constant extra-judicial killings of peaceful pro-Biafra protesters across the South East by the Nigerian security forces. This has only deepened animosity and the desire to desire to leave the union.

We urge the federal government to turn a new course and prioritise the unity and continued survival of the country as one entity. It’s clearly provincial/regional outlook and the double standards it employs in dealing with different groups and regions is fanning the embers of disunity.

Ultimately, what the current crisis shows is that Nigeria cannot refuse to entertain calls for comprehensive reforms and restructuring of the country. It is apparent that the current arrangement is faulty and no longer working. It is better we reform peacefully than to allow forces beyond our country force reforms on us.