If you love Nigeria, you will support restructuring it
The Bible says in Proverbs 22:3 that “Wise men see danger ahead and avoid it, but fools keep going and get into trouble”. A prominent British columnist, Matthew Parris of the Times,put this in a political context. “Over the years I’ve come to understand much about politicians”, he said, “but the answer to one question still eludes. When they can see they’re going to hell, why do they march on into it? Why not turn and change their fate?” Well I too have been pondering these thoughts in the Nigerian context. Why, I ask myself, do Nigerian politicians behave as if all is well with Nigeria when, in fact, there is obvious danger ahead?
The situation is dire. The different nationalities co-exist in entrenched mutual suspicion and hostility. Political scientists argue that politics in multi-ethnic states can either take the form of, at best, group bargaining and compromise or, at worst, a struggle for or against domination. In Nigeria, the latter is the case. Instead of communicative action, you have inter-subjective dissonance. The ethnic nationalities are in their own little bubbles, eyeing each other with mutual incomprehension and distrust.
The Igbo don’t like the Yoruba, who, in turn, don’t trust the Igbo, and both of them are suspicious of the Hausa/Fulani, who, on their part, can’t stand either the Igbo or the Yoruba. And this is not even mentioning the minority tribes who feel threatened by the major ones! Yet all these disparate groups, who loathe each other, live in the same geographical space called Nigeria. Of course, they all have their militias or “freedom fighters”. What’s more, each of them has built monuments to remind generations yet unborn of their historical grievances against Nigeria and other ethnic groups.
Take the Igbo. Fifty years after the declaration of Biafra, and nearly fifty years after the end of civil war, they still refuse to let go. Militant groups, such as the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous Peoples Organisation of Biafra (IPOB), are still agitating for Biafra. Surely, the grievances which led to the declaration of Biafra 50 years ago have not gone away, and the Igbos are not even ready to forget the hurt, let alone the alluring idea of Biafra. This was evident recently when MASSOB and IPOB asked Igbos to stay at home to mark the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra, and virtually everyone heeded the call!
Predictably, the collective demonstration of Igbo defiance irked the Arewa youths. On June 6, a coalition of Arewa youth groups called the Northern Emancipation Network (See? Every nationality in Nigeria is fighting for “emancipation”!), ordered Igbos in Northern Nigeria to leave the region by October 1 this year. Although the 19 Northern state governors rightly condemned the statement of the Arewa youths, the provocative call resonated with several prominent Northern leaders and intellectuals, such as the irrepressible Ango Abdullahi, former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, who said “The Igbo say they want to leave Nigeria, who is stopping them?”
Who is stopping them? Well, the Nigerian state, with all its power of coercion, probably is. If there is a referendum today and every ethnic nationality can exercise the right of self-determination under international law, who knows what the outcome would be? But if a country has to be kept together by fear of military action, of civil war, that’s certainly a huge price to pay for unity. There should be a sentimental unity, a common identity and a connective tissue that bind people in a country together. Nigeria’s deep polarisation and its schismatic tendencies show that such bonds of unity are tenuous, if they exist at all.
The Igbo continue to hang on to their historical grievances and have, in fact, built a shrine around “Biafra” to remind themselves and future generations of theiranger against Nigeria and other nationalities. The Hausa/Fulani, on the other hand, continue to instil fear of hegemony or domination in other ethnic groups through such insensitivities as threatening to force Igbos out of the North or the marauding activities of the Fulani herdsmen, who make other nationalities feel unsafe in their own territories. But what about the Yoruba? Well, they too have their own totem of grievance that they worship and want to pass on to unborn generations as a reminder of the “injustice” they have suffered in Nigeria.
Forget the activities of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC). Forget the occasional but unserious calls for Oduduwa Republic. For me, there is a political charade that goes on in the Southwest that has, at least potentially, greater implications for the long-term unity of Nigeria. The annulment of the presidential election on June 12, 1993, in which MKO Abiola was denied victory, was, of course, iniquitous. But it was a national calamity, not just for the Yoruba but the entire country. In fact, Abiola won more votes in some other parts of Nigeria than in the Southwest. Yet, just as Biafra is a totem of anger and grievance for the Igbo, the June 12 annulment has become a sacred stone of Baal for the Yoruba.
Every year, on June 12, the Southwest is in separate, secluded mood from the rest of Nigeria. Southwest governors declare public holiday, rallies etc are held. And why?Just to remind themselves and their youths that once upon a time, a Yoruba man called Abiola, won a presidential election but was denied power. Some Southwest governors have even passed laws to enact June 12 as a public holiday in their states! It’s an abuse of power, a gesture politics that betrays economic ignorance. Do these governors know how many man-hours are lost through that frivolous public holiday? The June 12 annulment was a national disaster, and if Southwest APC leaders, whose party governs the country, can’t get the federal government to do something tangible to commemorate the event, its ethnicisation by Yoruba politicians and the misuse of state resources on it must stop.
But if the romanticisation of Biafra by the Igbo and the idolisation of the June 12 annulment by the Yoruba are mere symbolisms, the hate speeches directed by people of Nigeria’s ethnic groups at each other are not. For instance, when Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB, said, in a video clip tweeted by someone recently, that “If your pastor is Yoruba, you are not fit to be a human being, you’re an imbecile, worse than Boko Haram”, it can’t be right, whatever the grievances. Or can it?
One could, of course, easily dismiss Kanu’s blustering. Yet, it’s difficult to do so when prominent Igbo leaders queue up to meet and endorse him. It’s the same way prominent Yoruba leaders endorsed and funded OPC in its heyday. All the Niger Delta militant groups are also backed by prominent South-South leaders. Believe it or not, even the Fulani herdsmen have their political sponsors. Surely, Nigeria, today, is like Northern Ireland in the decades of The Troubles when political organisations had militant arms. Inevitably, peace and progress eluded Northern Ireland until there was a negotiated political settlement.
Truth be told, there is a lot of anger in Nigeria, and there is a lot of tension. If the politicians and other leaders cannot foresee the danger ahead, if they cannot see a country that is sitting on a powder keg, and do something to prevent an imminent calamity, it is because they are like the unwise man that King Solomon described in Proverbs 22:3.
Acting President Osinbajo recently said that “the federal government will tackle all causes of agitations”. I say, Great, Your Excellency! But how, when Minister Lai Mohammed said that restructuring is not your government’s priority? Yet, only political restructuring can remove the structural obstacles to Nigeria’s progress and the sources of its internal tension. Which is why anyone who truly loves Nigeria must support calls by prominent Nigerians like Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Atiku Abubakar to restructure it!
Olu Fasan