Stop preaching unity, please practice

I am getting very uncomfortable with all the noise I hear from Nigerian leaders exhorting Nigerians on the need for the country to be united. All through the independence anniversary period this past week, anybody who had anything to say was preaching and tutoring Nigerians on the benefit of having a united country. It is becoming pedestrian and nauseating if not outrightly annoying.
Let’s face it, who needs to be tutored on the benefits of having peace and unity in a home, or in the community or in a state? Even toddlers understand the benefits. And therefore I do not think we should waste our energies and airtime constantly harping on this subject. Because no matter how much we shout and preach, even until our voices become hoarse and cracked, not much will be achieved.
In my view, if we find that Nigerians are not united or if we find that the unity of Nigeria is threatened or in disarray, the first thing to do should be to find out why? What is causing the disunity? We need to ask ourselves pertinent questions: was Nigeria ever united? If yes when did the disunity start? What caused it or what is causing it? What must we do to remove the cause(s)? What actions do we need to take to restore the unity or to build a united country? These are the questions we should be asking and then providing the answers instead of just sermonizing and making bland sentimental appeals.
Was Nigeria ever united? Well to a reasonable degree. There was no perfect unity. If you listened to the speeches of our First Republic leaders you will understand that since Nigeria was “an artificial creation” of the colonial masters and “a mere geographical expression”, they had to work out a way of living in peace and being united as much as possible. Though there were issues- disagreements, riots and ethnic clashes in the colonial, pre-independence and post independence periods, the leaders choose the federal system of governance underpinned by the 1959 and 1963 constitutions to maintain overall peace and unity of the country. And indeed the country lived in apparent peace and prospered.
When did the disunity start? The January 1966 military coup and the July 1966 counter military coup, and the killing of Eastern Nigerians in parts of Northern Nigeria precipitated the major disunity in Nigeria. The choice of the military option to resolve the problems rather than political option as suggested by the Aburi Accord heightened the disunity. Then after the war, policies of government (written and unwritten) against the erstwhile “rebels” perpetuated the disunity. Furthermore, the continued militarization of the country through coups and counter coups, the establishment of a unitary system of government, the arbitrary splitting of Nigeria into mostly brittle and fragile states and the abandonment of a truly federal system widened the disunity gap.
What is causing the disunity? The refusal of entrenched interest to return Nigeria to a proper federal system has continued to stoke the disunity. When Abiola won elections in1993, he was denied and later allowed to die. The crisis that followed further widened the disunity gap. Abacha was washed away by the reverberations of a country battered and in disunity. When Obasanjo came back, he confronted a country in dire need of unity. He began to take some tentative steps to unite the country- broadened appointments, increased derivation principle, opened the economy, commissioned several think thanks and began the anti-corruption campaign, etc. When he found that those actions were not enough as the minorities in the country were crying against marginilization, especially the South South Nigeria that provided and still provides much of the wealth of the nation, yet remained poor, underdeveloped and despoiled, he empanelled a national political reform conference to allow Nigerians redesign their country to engender peace, unity, justice, equity and fair play. Unfortunately this effort was frustrated by the entrenched interest that is fuelling Nigeria’s disunity.
President Yar’adua did not have sufficient time to pursue these efforts to unite the nation and his premature death in office sparked a new height in disunity. The reluctance and indeed the battle to stop the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan from becoming acting president and subsequently the President polarized the nation. The 2011 presidential elections caused further worsening of the disunity as the North insisted that they had not finished their term of 8 years. The post election crisis which led to the death of several southerners including members of the national youth corps in some states in the North worsened Nigeria’s disunity. Jonathan tried all he could to appease all, especially the North, to help unite the nation, but the gap remained wide and increasing. Again like Obasanjo, he decided to call a national conference to give Nigerians another opportunity to discuss and agree how to make Nigeria a united, peaceful nation where justice, equity and fair play would reign. The conference worked very hard to come out with resolutions and recommendations.
Luckily for Nigeria, the predictions for Nigeria for 2015 did not happen as President Jonathan humbly handed power to President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), who rather than seize the momentum of the popularity of his acceptance by majority of Nigerians and the global community to continue the effort to unite Nigeria, choose to do otherwise. He announced that he would treat those who gave him 97% votes differently from those who gave him 5% and went on to demonstrate it especially through his appointments. The South East Nigeria has been the worst hit. In addition to that, he declared that he would not look at or read the recommendations of the 2014 national conference, nor consider all the complaints and cries of all who feel marginalized or discriminated against.
When a group of rampaging militant Fulani herdsmen began to terrorize Nigerians in the middle belt of Nigeria extending to the South West and South East, this government seemed unable to rein them in. But when a group of unarmed South East youth began to protest, seeking for self – determination, they were termed terrorists and proscribed without any attempt to address their complaints. All these inequities are stoking the disunity.
So what do we do to remove causative factors and restore the unity of the nation? To my mind, a few simple actions will do more than all the preaching. First, let PMB change his orientation and decide to see all Nigerians as equal and decide to treat all sections as equal. Let him be conscious in ensuring balance in all he does and remove every form of discrimination against any section of Nigeria. Let him be humble and assure all Nigerians that he loves them all and that he belongs to all. A broadcast to Nigerians where he can smile and give a caring father’s image will begin healing the nation. Secondly let him outlaw the Militant Fulani herdsmen and send the military after them as he has unfairly done to IPOB. Thirdly let him call for the 2014 national conference recommendations and ask for their implementation. Alternatively he can set up his own committee to review all the existing recommendations to restructure Nigeria. Holding the overwhelming desire of Nigerians for a restructured federation in contempt is the biggest cause of disunity in Nigeria today. May all those who preach unity for Nigeria please address the issues causing disunity. That is the only reasonable way to go, believe me!

Mazi Sam I. Ohuabunwa OFR