To my humble mind, if we continue to do as we must do as civilized people, those war monger-resistors-of-this-inevitable and only true change really needed in the country (and the primary source of all our other problems, including the almighty corruption!), will not get it. We will just go ahead and attain it as peacefully as is the civilised thing to do. But as wisdom severally reminds us, those who refuse to learn from history and bound to repeat their mistakes. Because these people will be repeating these mistakes in these later times and in societies now more sophisticated than when those mistakes occurred in the past, they are to experience more calamities from them; as they will indeed be far more silly now than when they first occurred! It is exactly for these foregoing reasons that I personally feel it as a duty to bring some salient facts of history to the minds of those who are or may somehow be trying to convince themselves that the demand now for Nigeria’s restructuring is a joke; or indeed, a dream that will soon go aware.
Many of those who are benefitting from the silly configuring and administration are obviously seeing this demand as a bad dream which must or will soon go away – either on its own, by the special design of Allah, God or whatever it is that they worship; or by (or assisted by) their own self-crafted tactics. It is precisely because of this monstrous structuring and administration of the country that we have all the ethnic and sectional militia or semi-militia groups – some armed and some others not armed. Unfortunately, most of the people who were there before but desire to perpetrate the monstrosity of the nation as it has existed since after the Independence era, are the ones who should learn from the history and so not repeat it. Above all, they are the ones who should stop repeating the truly moronic clichés that we keep hearing about “our beloved Nigeria” whom nobody should be asking of restructuring because “that will mean another war”? Of course, whenever one hears this from someone who should know better, s/he not only looks more silly than the illiterates “on the streets”, under the bridges, and all these other places where the most undermined of us, by these same people, are to be found. They also begin to look more like the political monsters as they truly must be. However, many of the people joining and swelling up the ranks of these ethnic and sectional militia or semi-militia groups were not there before or soon after our so-called Nigerian independence.
Indeed, these are now vastly the post Nigeria-Biafra war children. They do not know these histories; and since these same perpetrators of the ongoing Nigerian erroneous configuration and administration(and more so, their predecessors and collaborators) had removed history as an important subject of general education in the country. So, because these young people do not know these histories out of no faults of theirs, they must be excused of not knowing these histories. That is why some of them adopt ways and methods that are not the best for the attainment of this must do restructuring, efficiently and in non-war mongering ways, as the perpetrators of the original evil would prefer!
It is exactly for these reasons that people like me, who have been reasonably here in the pre-independence era and up till now and who delights in studying history of all sorts, must write these notes for the benefit of one and all. The only way that countries as big, large, variegated and/or populous as Nigeria has existed or may continue to exist is precisely only as a federation (or even, con-federation) of semi-autonomous (or semi-independent) states; or more simply put, true federating units! They must do so, even if the country is indeed relatively geographically small but have all those other reasons for only con-federating. The facts of history that I will be bringing to our awareness for the young folks, but only as reminders for the elders in these regards, are basically that Sir Ahmadu Bello was the earliest in Nigeria to ask the colonial government for this. He consistently did this up till 1949 when he achieved something satisfactory in that direction from the colonialists. Thereafter, Chief Obafemi Awolowo took that clamour over from Sir Ahmadu Bello, describing Nigeria as a mere geographical expression but not a country – until such a restructuring will be attained. Chief Awolowo did this until Yakubu Gowon made him the deputy president of the country in 1967.
This restructuring is the principal achievement of the meeting of the Nigerian people held at Aburi, a meeting called for and presided over by General Ankrah of Ghana at the height of our conflicts then. So, in fact, the people previously asking and now demanding for Nigeria’s restructuring are only doing what “our heroes past” had themselves asked for. We will only be reasonable to agree most nicely with them; and go ahead and do the needful!
In my next substantive discussion and so conclusion of this discourse, it will only be my delight to provide verifiable details of the history of the reality of the demand for restructuring. Fortunately, these facts are all in the internet and other e-libraries; and so, may all be checked, counter-checked and re-checked by all who may desire such sound education. Until then, may our most gracious, understanding and forgiving God, forgive us all our sins and save Nigerians from further and persisting foolishness. Amen.
•Asuzu is Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Ibadan
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