Nigeria, a federation divided by hate

It is not news that ever since the 1946 constitution which officially delineated colonial Nigeria into three regions: the northern, the western and the eastern regions, the squabble for dominance and supremacy that was inflamed almost immediately by the violent Kano crisis, has never waned.

It was the idea of the British Empire to organise the very different ethnic groups into one country, but it was not an idea that foreclosed a peaceful break-up after independence, if necessary.

It turns out that more than 70 years after, with no successful attempt to break-up, the hatred and the animosity for one another still exist even to the amazement of the powers that organized us in this manner. I am sure that if faced with this kind of a situation, the Britons would have done either of two things. They would have worked out a template for coexisting peacefully or would have gone their separate ways.

It is very difficult to get another federation in the world to which one can liken ours, for no other people from the ancient times to the present, have lived like cat and dog for this long. Even the animals in the zoo could not have survived living together if they did not find a common ground that they shared together.

For close to 60 years, the northerners have always feared the idea of implementing any political framework that can encourage the practice of true federalism.

True federalism will surely make peaceful coexistence possible while, on the one hand, maintaining the status quo ante will surely lead to a break-up.

Incidentally but quite unfortunately, the North seems to be interested in both maintaining the unitary system of administration and having an intact federation! How possible this is remains to be seen.

Therefore, divided by hate; Nigeria is slowly being overtaken by aliens most of whom were encouraged to come in so as to boost the North’s chances of electoral victory in 2015.

It is not out-of-place to say that as soon as these aliens stepped into the country and noticed the kind of opportunities that abound, they wasted no time to create for themselves a lucrative business that would soon enable them to gain access to the corridors of political power.

These aliens will never stop terrorizing the federation until they find themselves in control of the government. We should be bothered, in fact worried that if we continue to spend our time hating one another, soon, aliens will assume leadership positions and lord it over us. This has happened before in our history.

What is Nigeria doing to change her fortunes? To restructure for a peaceful coexistence is a great idea but where this is not possible, a peaceful breakup is never a bad idea.

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh,

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