By Nwokedi Nworisara
Recently Bayelsa State Nigeria played a host to one of Nigeria’s foremost
thinkers ,the Nobel Laureate,Prof ‘Wole Soyinka ,who was visiting the Ijaw
National Academy and celebrating his birthday,and there was a consensus
between the Professor and the host Governor Henry Seriake Dickson that the
Nigerian union is negotiable but they prefer to sustain one nation. Ever
since and even before this event,many people have come out to call for
restructuring of Nigeria. Some advocates even go further to suggest a true
federalism or even confederal arrangement with weak centre. However there
are still thinkers like Nnamdi Kanu,Olisa Agbakoba who insist that a part
‘Biafra’ should be allowed to attain complete Independence .With the
highest respect for the patriotism that brought an intellectually sound
Governor and a Nobel Laureate rubbing minds to proffer for us a way, and
thereby throwing the floor open,there is still need here for deeper
critical thinking on this issue to avoid Nigeria descending into another
merry go round on the renegotiation or restructuring issue.
I am concerned that we get it right this time around. I know how Nigerians
felt when our hopes that President Jonathan would restructure Nigeria were
dashed. The reason being that intellectuals were so taken by the prospect
for a Southern leader that there was no more commensurate push for change
of structure. I remember when I differed with the Nobel laureate and the
Save Nigeria group over whether the structure determines good governance or
the person occupying the office. My lone voice was drowned at that time.I
had been insistent that the structure determines how well the leader would
act and advocated that getting a change of structure was more important
than pushing the President Jonathan into power. But our learned colleagues
thought otherwise and here we are today. We are back to square one.
Going through history,I have found out that the Nigerian union of 1960 was
perhaps the best document that Nigerians ever had. The document that was
indeed closest to the laws of nature and the natural process of development
for each of the peoples. Of course it wasn’t perfect,nothing is actually
perfect in this world but it was a document that could be built upon. It
was a good foundation. Unfortunately this document has never really been
allowed to be ,it was never really implemented. Starting from the first
year of independence there were concerted attempts by the various units and
groups not to build upon this foundation but rather to scatter it. The
prevailing sentiment then was that it was a British document protecting
colonial interest. Today we know better. The structure that was known as
the Tripod was a well thought out structure customized for Nigeria,bearing
50 years of British colonial experience as well as more than two decades of
self rule experiments. There had been constitutional conferences in Nigeria
and London leading up to this Independence document. There were a surfeit
of pan-Nigerian intellectual inputs into the document. It had more Nigerian
interests protected than what we have today. The Document was properly
produced and scored into music for better and wider comprehension of the
citizens in their various levels of existence. This process made it
possible for Nigerians to point out quickly the core objective of the
Nigerian State ( To build a nation where no man is oppressed) something
that led to unrivaled consensus across the country,north,South ,East and
West for independence. This singular situation has never been reached again
in Nigerias history. Now what you can get is majorly sectionalized
voices,everyone thinking primordially about his area and its primary
interests before what is nationally expedient.
My argument stands out to say. Yes it is true that what Nigeria stands in
reality today is not what the founding fathers wanted it to be and facing
us are the ugly symptoms leading our intellect to take decisions for
immediate gratification not minding that we are still a nation,an organic
union which ensures that the decisions we make today takes national effect
not sectional one. So how do we sit down under such a sectional atmosphere
to consider national question without descending into only resolving in the
short run symptoms of the problem,abandoning the root causes and
postponing the evil day?. To avoid such situations that will not serve any
of us in the long run, it is better to go back for solution to the only
time we had true national consensus devoid of sectional considerations
,when we produced a document that was unfortunately never implemented.
That was the 1960 independence constitution that became the 1963 republican
constitution by way of removing the last vestige of colonial control. But
what did we get? We began to change the solid structure in 1964 less than a
year later,when we created the Mid -West Region thereby destroying a
delicate power balance and pitching the North against the South,creating
suspicion that the South wanted to increase its power over the North. So
the consensus and trust was broken by one singular seemingly innocent act
that finally cascaded Nigeria into an avoidable civil war and military
rule.
Let us get it straight here. The Nigerian nation arose out of this only
existing “We the people… ” 1960-63 constitution and can only be rebuilt
through this true foundation of our independence,our liberation. Everything
that happened bad or good as we may come to see it in our limitation caused
by this cascading error and imbalance is only a symptom of our one mistake
not to build upon but to destroy this legacy.
To this end our collective duty today is first of all to comprehend and
understand that our infantile attempts at sectional supremacy,power
struggle has failed us, our children and this nation. That Nigeria remains
organic no matter how many states we create or local governments,that the
advantage we seek in politics is only ephemeral and our victory pyrrhic but
never really fulfilling since the eternal yardstick remains Nigeria as a
whole. That Nigeria can still fulfill our individual and collective dreams
in life if allowed by us once again to stand on her only viable structure
through our participation and prayers. That secession of part is not a cost
effective way to achieve happiness and fulfillment since we would still
have to partake in a heterogeneous world now becoming a global village. So
what is more important is that we understand that the structure determines
how good is the governance and the people living in it.
As to renegotiation,in Igbo Culture one does not really sit in judgement
over the decisions his father or grand fathers took because he or she is
also the product of such bad or good decisions. Of course one can criticize
it and seek to make sure the same road is not taken by him at present. I
believe we have similar customs across board. If ones mother was a harlot
or conceived him through a rape, and now one is respectable in society the
igbo culture sees such sitting in judgement or renegotiation as
renunciation of ones self. So the culture frowns generally at such moves.
In the same vein a man that introduced a style in a game cannot just pull
out of it while the game lasts.It is even worse when you designed the
journey and called upon your brothers to join you along the part they had
not understood properly but you cajoled them along and even conceded the
leadership at a point to get them going with you. After they have come to
enjoy the journey then suddenly you say you want to pull out of the
journey. Since truly they don’t even know where the vehicle is arriving
at,there is a likelihood that they will be hostile to your request. It may
even be seen as a betrayal of the others. Maybe its better you accept some
blame and work to get control of this vehicle to put things right rather
than attempting to jump down.
Nigeria has become a building of concrete walls and rooms inhabited by
people. The house building plan itself may have been bastardized by later
ignorant managers but generation have known it as home .These people do not
like to be taken out of their comfort zones by changes so when one whole
floor wants to leave the building,they know that it means that the entire
building has to come down and they do not view lightly. It becomes a threat
even though they know that the building is not even giving them proper
shade as planned. It may indeed be better that we all join hands to ensure
that the wrong practices of covering some parts of the building with
corrugated roofing sheets ,others asbestos and still some with just raffia
palm is discouraged because we are all living in one building and we have
no other building to go to if this one falls.
I have reduced these explanations to such simple pictures to get us to
understand that time has come for us to look beyond mondäne politicking and
focus on the pan Nigerian solution so that we do not unconsciously sustain
the undesirable status quo in our present quest to restructure or
renegotiate our union.
* Mr Nworisara is a former Presidential Aspirant