Separatists agitation: My fear for Nigeria

I love Nigeria. I’m very proud to carry the green passport anywhere in the world. And I have gained much respect from carrying the passport anywhere in the world except in Madrid, Spain in May, 2012 and in Turkey in April, 2015 where I had some rough encounters at the airports. I’m a proud Nigerian, but with the current high level of agitations from different groups in different parts of the country to secede from Nigeria and become independent countries, I’m afraid my dream of ever being a proud Nigerian is gradually becoming rather translucent and Utopian.

For the records sake, the Igbos need Biafra Republic, the Niger Deltans need Niger Delta Republic, the Yorubas need Oduduwa Republic and the Northerners need Arewa Republic. So, who is holding the other(s) back? Each of the regions is complaining of marginalization, so who is marginalizing who?

The answer lies in the fact that the various federating regions have entrenched a formidable structure of mutual pathological hatred, suspicion, delusion and persecution among themselves. If the Nigerian situation were a conjugal affair, a magistrate would certainly dissolve the marriage on the ground that it has broken down irrevocably.

There is an incontrovertible evidence that there is no longer love lost among the federating regions. The wise thing to do now to avoid the Yugoslavia and Rwanda episodes is for a referendum like we just witnessed in Brexit and that of Scotish bid to exit the UK. No group can be forced to join a federation and if resisted, it will always fail in the long run. The former USSR is a good example. When the about 15 republics were amalgamated following the October, 1917 Bolshevik revolution led by Lenin and ruled with iron fist, no one, probably except George Orwell (real name – Eric Arthur Blair) author of the allegorical satire -Animal Farm, would have envisaged the collapse of the USSR. USSR crashed in 1991 and several former republics re-emerged from its ruins.

Nations rise, nations fall or get fragmented. The process could be bloody or peaceful, depending on how it is handled. There were the Egyptian Empire, the Roman Empire and until after the Second World War, the British Empire that was hard hit by Adolf Hitler. The notion, therefore, that a particular country is indivisible, remains within the realm of fallacy. Texas was part of Mexico, but elected to join USA after the Battle of Alamo, San Antonio in February, 1836. Alaska was part of Russia, there was Senegambia. So, in Nationhood there is no permanence if the people so wish.

Inasmuch as I love Nigeria and proud of it, I pray against what will lead to bloodshed or war. If togetherness is our problem, we better sit down genuinely and discuss the terms of divorce and alimonies, if at all there are any.

We cannot continue to sit on top of explosives while holding naked fire. We must find the solution now.

•Dr. Emmanuel Ufuophu-Biri is Head of Department, Mass Communication, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria