Nigeria fighting war between oppressors and oppressed — Dogara

Immediate past Speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara has stressed that Nigeria cannot survive if its peoples merely tolerate each other because “Our happiness cannot be the other groups’ unhappiness. Our strength is not and will never be in our numbers but in our unity”.

Yakubu Dogara made the declaration when he delivered a keynote address with the THEME: ‘PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: THE PRAGMATIC APPROACH’, at a two-day Peace and Development Summit organized by SULTAN MACCIDO INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA recently

He stated that “When we are United, we will be strong and when we strive to keep our bond and remain undivided, we will be invincible. This is what should concern every patriotic Nigerian at the moment not scheming for future elections. All efforts of patriotic citizens must be geared towards stopping our dear country from the ongoing death by a thousand cuts”.

The member representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency at the House of Reps added that “our most immediate problem is the dangerous drift of Nigeria into chaos and anarchy. Apart from the rabid insecurity plaguing the nation, there are real or imagined charges of ethnic cleansing and domination of some sections by a certain section”.

The former Speaker who was represented by Hon. Herman Hembe said that “Attacks are unrelenting and there appears to be no end in sight. The situation has clearly gotten out of hand, following the repeated overrun of military formations by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, wanton killings and kidnap for ransom and mass abduction of school children in different parts of the Country”.

“For instance, we all know that the North bears nearly 90% of the insecurity brunt of the country. If estimates are anything to go by, not less than 50,000 northerners have been killed while over 3 million have been displaced in the North East alone. No one has the record of Northern lives lost to rural banditry, the farmer-herder clashes, and ethno-religious conflicts. The number grows exponentially when we add to this, death occasioned by urban violence unleashed by an increasing army of mostly jobless youths suffering from substance use disorder”, he lamented.

According to him, “Added to the above, is the threat posed by school dropouts and out-of-school children. A survey in 2015 put the number of out-of-school children in the country at 13.2 million. The latest MlCS data tells us that 69 per cent (9.1m) of out-of-school children in Nigeria are in northern states”.

He added that “the problem is further compounded by the fact that the North just like other parts of Nigeria is in a demographic transition. The consequence of the “youth bulge” is that there are so many young people competing for the limited number of career opportunities.”

He further said that “Those who lose out and failed to secure a place in society have become frustrated, angry and violent as predicted. This set of young people easily surrender themselves for radicalization, as the timeless adage goes, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”.

Yakubu Dogara further lamented that “instead of the ‘youth bulge’ to be a blessing, it is fast leading to swapping of roles of our youths from productive labourers to disaffected rebels. What is left for us is to work out how to productively channel this restive energy. How do we warehouse this demography now and in the future? If we cannot find a place for them in society, how will they view us and the society they will live in? The situation is such that even the most incurable Nigerian optimist cannot sleep well in the face of these grim statistics. I hope this submit does not miss this point”.

According to him, “There is no hiding place for us anymore because Nigeria is no longer the same. Structural injustices, Mass illiteracy, mass poverty, mass unemployment and under- employment have all combined to pull out those we had pushed to the fringes of society to our streets and villages with heavy tolls on Nigerian lives and devastations at all levels”.

“We now have a small percentage of highly educated Nigerian youths who are prepared to question everything including questioning the questions themselves. The ongoing war must be understood as a battle between the oppressed Nigerian and the Oppressor Nigerian,” he posited.

He said, “We succeeded in the past in decapitating oppressed Nigeria partly because they were largely illiterates and religion was used to keep them in check. Now we have seen that the frustration we fed them has reached a tipping point, the illiterates won’t take it anymore much less the educated youths who have freed themselves from fictional constraints and are asking questions like never before.”

He then said that “It is a pity that many are calling for the disintegration of Nigeria; saying that Nigeria cannot work. Unfortunately, they are emboldened by what they see but the real threats are buried in what they have failed to see. For instance, it is doubtful that if Nigeria were to break into pieces, the process will be peaceful. If a disintegration war breaks out now, the Western World had long predicted this and developed tools to secure their interest which is ensuring that the war does not distort their markets.”

The Federal lawmaker said that “No need to emphasize that the West have no interest in Nigeria. None! They are not bothered about our lives or future. As a matter of fact, they think our population as it is today is already a liability to them. We may just turn Nigeria into a killing field and another ground for proxy warfare; like Syria, Iraq, Yemen, etc”.

In his opinion, “calls for a National divorce is tantamount to adopting a permanent solution to an ephemeral problem. How can the solution to our myriads of problems be a collective national suicide? It baffles me that even smart people think in these terms. We must therefore proceed with caution. Yes, our national challenges are great but the promise of Nigeria is greater.”

He said that, “As disconcerting as our National challenges are, I dare say that there is nothing happening now that is huge enough to annul the promise of Nigeria. That is why we have to strive like there is no tomorrow, to make visible the promise of a reconciled, crisis free and prosperous Nigeria for all to see. This can be achieved in our lifetime if we go to work.”

He concluded that “it is obvious that unless we rise at different levels of leadership to halt the present trajectory, Nigeria will no doubt head for final implosion and eventual extinction. As is it, we don’t have to do anything for this to happen. All we need is not to do anything at all. Our hope must be rooted in the story of China, Rwanda, UAE, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, etc, which all prove the point that we can turn our ashes into glory and that nothing is impossible. If we don’t give in or give up, something must give in.”

“The stories of those countries are a validation of the saying that every problem comes with its own solution but it takes only those looking for the solution to find it. No doubt, it will take leadership for us to replicate those stories and I am happy that so many of us here are stepping up to provide that leadership. The hosting of this submit is a positive indicator that we are prepared, in line with our civic duties, to be up in arms against problems stultifying our development and advancement as a nation,” Dogara added.

According to him, “It will take the kind of leadership that recognizes that compassion is not tossing a coin at a beggar, it is pulling down the system that produces beggars; leadership that knows that the real problem is what we demand and what we do not demand; Leadership that believes history does not just happen to us, we make history happen; Leadership that knows that not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

He said that, “I had warned before that in tackling unbridled violence, we must realise that guns do not kill and killing the violent does not necessarily bring peace except the peace of the graveyard. We kill with our minds and peace settles first in the mind before it is expressed. So the battle to build a peaceful Nigeria must be a battle for the minds of our people.”

“We must start doing something and speaking up. They may not listen to us but just because they won’t listen to us is not enough reason to quit. We cannot continue to remain mum and aloof and hope that somehow, someday, these radical events and voices will miraculously quieten and not grow louder. Our silence is no longer golden,” he advised.

He stressed that, “Every generation in history have had its moment to fight. This is our own moment. This is our Pharaoh and our Red Sea. The odds are stacked against us but we are born and raised for such a time as this. It is our time. Let us stop crying and go to work. We may lose some privileges but we will win history: for fortune itself favours only the brave.”

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