ON Tuesday, June 6 this year, 16 groups from the Northern part of Nigeria, who styled themselves youths, addressed a press conference at the Arewa House in the key northern city of Kaduna, after a well-attended meeting by their members. The main outcome of the meeting was to give all the Igbo from the South-East part of the country, living in the Northern part of Nigeria an ultimatum of October 1 this year to quit every part of the North. Their action was ostensibly a reaction to the persistent agitation by some Igbo for the severance of their ethnic group from the rest of Nigeria to form an independent and sovereign country of their own to be known as the Republic of Biafra.
By this ultimatum, all the people from the South East of Nigeria are to leave their businesses and properties that are not movable in any part of the North and return to their part of the country or any other place ready to accommodate them apart from the Northern part.
As expected, various spontaneous reactions had trailed the ultimatum. First was the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai, who said he had ordered the arrest of the so-called Northern youths. The governor’s reaction turned out to be nothing more than a mere exercise in escapism. The youths just laughed the governor to scorn and emphasise their impunity, even reiterated their threat against the Igbo resident in the North. They remain daring. Nobody has been arrested or rather there has been no attempt so far to arrest any of them.
Reaction from the South-South of the country was a counter-ultimatum to all Northerners in the oil-rich region to quit the area. The Northerners were also given October 1 this year as deadline. This counter-ultimatum is also to affect Northerners owing the much lucrative oil blocs and those occupying strategic positions in the oil industry in the region.
The reactions from the Northern elders, especially from Professor Ango Abdullai, however revealed overt and covert support for the Northern youths by their elders. This has really revealed to all Nigerians that they merely witnessed the hand of Esau but the voice was actually that of Jacob in the ultimatum given by the so-called Northern youths. Given the muddy inter-ethnic politics in Nigeria, how are we even sure the Northern youths’ ultimatum is not aimed at making governance difficult for the acting President, Yemi Osinbajo in the absence of the ailing President Muhammadu Buhari?
Nigerians were not surprised that the so-called youths have not lost their temerity since the Kaduna meeting and the open declaration at the press conference that followed. The platform for the current crisis was again raised when the Southern leaders met and came out with a decision that any attack on the Igbo resident in the North would be taken as tantamount to an attack on all Southerners.
What Nigerians are witnessing now is a replay of the First Republic exploit of the hegemonic but faceless Kaduna mafia that was politically notorious throughout the pre- and post-independence Nigeria. The seriousness of the issue could be seen in the desperation of Professor Ango Abdullahi and his likes in the North to re-write Nigeria’s political history by saying that the resources realised from the North were used to develop the South during the colonial era. To Ango Abdullahi, the relationship between the North and the South, especially before the discovery of oil in the south was parasitic in favour of the south.
The reality however was the opposite of Ango Abdullahi’s new political history of Nigeria. The true situation has succinctly been expressed by more objective and sincere historians. The Northern Group of Provinces and the Southern Group of Provinces did not emerge until 1906 following some restructuring by the colonial power. The pertinent question here is: What really informed the amalgamation of the two separate political entities of the North and South by the British colonial power to form a single political entity in 1914?
Aside other issues, a renowned historian recalled: “Unification also provided a means by which the impoverished Northern Protectorate could share with the South the enormous revenue accruing to her from customs receipts. Southern Nigeria was financially self-supporting while British administration in the North was kept going with an annual grant-in-aid fixed at a hundred thousand pounds between 1912 and 1918. Southern Nigeria in 1912, on the eve of amalgamation of the two groups of provinces, had a revenue of two and a quarter million pounds and a surplus of one million pounds sterling compared with Northern Nigeria, which had half a million pounds sterling of local revenue including a grant-in-aid of seventy thousand pounds sterling from Southern Nigeria’s Customs…The point to note was that while Southern Nigeria proved itself as a viable economic frontier, Northern Nigeria , in spite of its vastness was a classic example of ‘uneconomic imperialism’, at least up till the time of amalgamation.”
From the above, we can see not only the desperation but also the absurdity in anyone trying to re-write the nation’s political history. It is however a reflection of the inherent problem emanating from the faulty foundation of Nigeria as a single political entity. The bitter truth is that Nigeria has never worked as a single political entity. This reflects in the unwarranted high degree of the nation’s backwardness in all ramifications, despite the great human and material resources at its disposal. The reason is obvious. What we have been having since the 1914 amalgamation has been an enforced association of incompatibles and the attendant troubles and instability. The inherent centrifugal forces have always been strengthened by every crisis.
This is why the highly revered undisputable champion and leader of the North, the late Sadauna of Sokoto referred to the unity of Nigeria as “the mistake of 1914.” To him, it was a mistake in the first instance to lump together divergent and often discordant ethnic groups and peoples of divergent orientations that made up the contraption called Nigeria. More so, when there were no inputs by the peoples concerned at the time of lumping them together.
That has been the trend since the contraption called Nigeria was thrown up as a single political entity. The various problems are derivatives of the faulty foundation of Nigeria as a single nation. Insincerity and ignorance on the part of past leaders have been responsible for why the problem has been left unattended to frontally over the years.
Although one of the vocal status-quo defenders had likened Nigeria’s unity to a Catholic marriage, saying that even though the marriage might lack happiness, it would not break. The truth, however, is that many Catholic marriages today that exceed their elasticity limits are breaking down irretrievably. In fact, it is even better not to have a marriage at all than to have an unhappy marriage which is like a hell on earth. All efforts made by Chief Obafemi Awolowo before and after political independence to ensure the correction of the problem were frustrated by the concerted efforts of those who made themselves his political enemies.
Without doing something concrete and fundamental about the faulty foundation therefore, everything being done to make it work as a polity will always end up as an exercise in futility or even aggravate the target problem as it has always been since 1914. The Bible says that “if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The foundation of Nigeria’s federation is faulty.
No amount of sincerity can build an enduring edifice on a faulty foundation. This is why Nigeria has never worked and may never work as long as long as the faulty foundation remains. Anybody in doubt of this should read Ojukwu’s Ahiara Declaration when the Civil War was still raging vis-à-vis the Aburi Accord that preceded the breakout of the 30-month fratricidal civil war in the country between July 1967 and January 1970. Throughout the period of the war, Ojukwu kept on emphasising that “on Aburi we stand, no compromise.”
Therefore, the ultimatums and counter-ultimatums and other contentious issues preceding them should be taken as the socio-political catalysts needed to re-build the foundation required for a stable and prosperous polity.
Otherwise, we should go back to the advice of the First Republic President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. In a radio broadcast during one of the usual manifestations of the attendant crises of the faulty foundation in the First Republic when the nation was barely three years old as an independent nation, he warned that if the “embryo Republic” could not continue as an entity, the various peoples that made up the contraption should embark on mutual agreement on how to part ways if there is no mutual agreement on how to move on peacefully as single political entity. This he termed “a painless surgery” politically.
There is no doubt that there are lot of advantages in large population and vast territory for any nation. Economically and militarily, the advantages cannot be overemphasised. For example, the United States and Russia, apart from economy, militarily, they will continue to cherish their second strike capability which the vastness of their territories confers on them in the event of nuclear confrontation. Unfortunately for Nigeria, all the inherent advantages have been eluding it and will continue to elude it as long as its faulty foundation remains.
After all, if we have three different nations emerging from the present Nigeria, and each is happy and prosperous, it is better for the people, especially the downtrodden than in a big nation that muzzles all hopes and perpetually reduces the country to a hell on earth for the poor masses.
We have reached a stage in which the issue of restructuring should not be done as a palliative measure to merely douse tension but rather use it to bring about fundamental corrections that will give assurance to everyone within the polity. The present structure is a reflection of a pseudo-federalism being operated in the country. There are principles on which true federalism rests. Anything different from it can never work. We have to move out of the bastardised federalism that the rampaging military left behind. The current tension should be used to permanently correct the faulty foundation of the country.
- Adesua, a former Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc, wrote from Ibadan.
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