By Praise Chinecherem
It was very remarkable to read that the north is now ready for Nigeria’s division into its constituent parts for many reasons.
In the first place, the revelation coming from the lips of a highly respected, and distinguished northern leader, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, showed that history beckons for a separate homeland for Igbo in the light of renewed antagonism against them by powerful elements in both the North and Southwest.
Secondly, the recent nationwide protest organised by youths of this country has brought back the same old worries that have always bedevilled Nigeria, thereby exposing our pretentious patriotism.
It is now left for us to keep pretending that Nigeria’s forced union is not a time bomb that threatens to blow up at the slightest provocation if we fail to act in a civilized manner to settle this undying rift amicably
So, I was tickled few days ago by the opinions shared by the acknowledged and vocal northern elder and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi
This respected member of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) stated that Nigeria’s amalgamation instrument has expired and that the country should consider going their separate ways.
Coming barely few days after a Yoruba group announced the decision to start a protest to chase Igbo away from Lagos State and Southwest with neither strong cautions nor arrest made, the press interview by Prof. Abdullahi shows that Nigeria is due for retirement.
The former ABU VC had stated: “We have not been able to build a country according to this edict. The British say if we fail after 100 years, we should go our separate ways…We have to look at ourselves and see whether we have strived enough to build a nation before and after independence.
“At this time, there is no need to be sentimental about it. We cannot really build a country the way it is now. If we could not achieve any form of consensus, then we should go our separate ways.”
Permit me to say that Prof. Abdullahi merely repeated what many have been saying for a long time,
I totally agree with the erudite Prof, but I will still plead to be allowed to hold onto my personal belief that Nigeria is far too big for one black person to rule profitably and successfully.
My argument has been that we black Africans lack the detailed exposure, mental capacity, integrity and objective mind to preside over the affairs of such huge geographical contraption made up of people with diverse socio-political and cultural backgrounds.
The hardship protest has therefore exposed the fault lines such that even the two-nation-in-one delineation could no longer survive, despite the recent attempts by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his supporters to belatedly interpret his Emi lokan mandate as the turn of the South.
As the hardship protest showed that the marriage between Tinubu’s Southwest foot soldiers and the North has broken down, efforts to unite the South began as a safeguard to the Northern political insurrection.
But sadly, the support of Southeast, which was denied consideration in 2023 after the North and Southwest’s repeated access to the Presidency, is now being courted or vilified for not taking active part in the hardship protest.
Now that Prof. Ango Abdullahi says the north is ready for a split of Nigeria, I wish to thank him for waking up to the reality of the times, barely 14 months after the north left the Presidency.
The spokesman for the northern think tank, has suddenly realised that the veritable index that Nigeria is ripe for Balkanisation is that other Nigerians may have realised the futility of continued bandwagon.
Based on this new thinking in the north, I wish to support the challenge posed by the internationally-acclaimed Prof. Ango Abdullahi that Nigerians should come together to discuss how to share what remains as assets and liabilities of the expired amalgam, Nigeria.
We, as Igbo have been experiencing marginalisation until it matured into total exclusion and demonization of everything Igbo. It is therefore interesting that the north is complaining merely fourteen months after being out of power.
The former ABU VC disclosed that during the 1995/96 constitutional reform conference, the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s proposal for the adoption of the six geopolitical zones as the basis for confederation was rejected just because Nigeria, as presently constituted, suspects anything from Igbo no matter how salutary and germane.
The fact that the wonderful proposition, which has been in operation when it pleases the owners of the unworkable Nigeria, is not in the constitution explains why in 2023 nobody in the north saw reason to consider Southeast the same way Southwest was accommodated in 1999.
This conspiracy and selfish exclusion of a part of the country’s tripod have come back to hurt this British contraption called Nigeria so much so that the Fulanis, who are holding the country in trust for Britain, have started clamouring for the right thing to be done for sake of administrative efficiency and good governance.
It is obvious that the north is pained that Tinubu may have tricked them into supporting his ambition to be President, even when they knew that it was actually the turn of either South East or South South to become President in 2023.
It is possible that some of thenorthern leaders were blinded by either greed or hatred for Igbo, to support Southwest to become President again after the zone had enjoyed 16 cumulative years as President and Vice President, leaving Igbo totally out of the political equation.
Some Northwest governors that supported Southwest to produce President Tinubu, may have felt disappointed when Senator Kashim Shettima was nominated as Presidential running mate and Vice President, which in my opinion, helped to balance political opportunity between Northwest and Northeast.
It is therefore unfortunate that till date, those leaders have not seen the political wisdom or patriotic need for Southeast to pair with Northeast after the Northwest and Southwest had just served out eight years.
Few narrow-minded Yoruba political fortune hunters who are calling for the total banishment of Igbo out of Nigeria in the name of supporting Tinubu must have seen that indeed, what goes around comes around. The North is now waking up to their ‘mistake’ and are rising up to challenge the unfavourable scheme of things, particularly the nepotism in governance and erratic management of national economic fortunes.
Based on the foregoing, I hereby call on my old friend, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to, as a matter of urgency convoke a meeting of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities to oversee the review of the 1914 amalgamation edict instead of trying to put back life into a dead horse.
I believe that President Tinubu should take advantage of this golden opportunity to right the wrongs of Nigeria’s statehood by taking up the challenge from the north that it is now ready for Nigeria’s breakup.
At least, coming from a highly respected and representative voice of the 19 northern states, President Tinubu should not treat the call with disdain the same way Ekwueme’s six geopolitical zones and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s call for referendum have been neglected. On a final note, I believe that God in heaven has decided to answer the prayers of true lovers of Nigeria, especially all those who have made huge sacrifices in blood and political opportunities.
Common sense dictates that peaceful and amicable separation or accommodation of diversity is the civilised way to settle misunderstanding.
Several nations have tried it and succeeded. India and Pakistan did it, Singapore separated from Malaysia, Balkan states did same, USSR balkanised. Britain is heading towards that direction. Former Libyan Leader, Muammar el Ghaddafi suggested it and now Prof. Ango Abdulahi has announced the North’s readiness to sit at a discussion table. What else are we waiting for? People are often afraid of trying something new, but most often the result proves better for all concerned.
I still maintain that when brothers (Nigerians) fight to finish over their common patrimony, strangers, even their common enemies will share their inheritance
*Dr. Obidigbo is President, Osisioma Foundation
