—By C. K. Ekeke, PhD
On October 1, 2016, Nigeria will clock 56 years old as an independent nation. Naturally, a fifty-six years old human-being ought to be a matured person—with vast life experiences, wisdom, and achievement. Immature behavior is minimized and mistakes made during younger years are avoided and handled with maturity and wisdom when they re-occur. Same should be for a nation that claims to be fifty-six years old.
But sadly, that has not been the case with Nigeria. Instead, Nigeria continues to stumble, flounder and fumble like a baby still learning to crawl. The more some of us watch from the balcony on what’s going in the country—the massive corruption, parasitic attitude, incompetence, impunity, rascality, callous lawlessness, absurdity, stupidity and foolishness and learn more about our history, the angrier some of us become at the British for amalgamating distinctly variant groups of people together to form a country that’s totally a failure, a disappointment and a disgrace today.
It is a well known fact that Nigeria federation is made up of a number of various nations and variant tribes. Study shows that Nigeria is made of about 250 tribes—but the main dominant tribes are the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo-Ijaw tribes. Since the amalgamation of these variant groups of peoples in 1914 by Scottish Frederick Lugard, this ‘big-for-nothing’ British colony in Africa has not worked and may never work because of her skewed, flawed and forced amalgamation and union.
For years now, the issue of Nigeria union, unity, sovereignty or precisely ‘One’ Nigeria, etc., has been raised by many voices because Nigeria is not working. Nigeria today is a complete disaster and a disgrace to the world. It is a den of death and a failed State.
Fifty six years later, Nigeria has not made any single development or progress, instead, the country is so deeply divided, fragmented and in serious crisis. Today, the issue of restructure, break-up, restoration of former Biafra republic, secession, and indivisibility, etc., are burning national issues.
Some former military dictators and Heads of States like Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Baangida and Olusegun Obasanjo, etc., have forcefully said that Nigeria cannot break-up; arguing against the indivisibility of Nigeria and its national integrity and sovereignty. Others like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Jerry Gana, Wole Soyinka and other wise voices back restructuring, arguing that Nigeria cannot survive without major restructuring.
The former military head of State, General Yakubu Gowon has even changed his opinion by backing those clamoring for the restructuring of the country. According to the repot on ThisDay, August 4 2016, he advised the present government to carry out some restructuring like he did when he created more states in Nigeria, saying:
“There was nothing wrong with restructuring, provided it is done within the “context of one Nigeria”. He recalled that Nigeria was restructured under his leadership as military head of state through the creation of 12 states from the regional structure in 1967. “We can restructure within one Nigeria context. I did it in 1967. We created states to stop Eastern Nigeria from seceding,” he said. “We had to do something to ensure the fear of their secession did not exist – a serious issue of a part of the country wanting to breakaway when we already lost a part to Cameroun. “If we had allowed the Eastern Region to go away, the map of Nigeria would have looked funny, it would have been tilted one way. “So we decided overnight to break the fear through the creation of states. If we had to save the country, that was the only way to do it. “We also ensured that no state was too big or too small to threaten the unity of the country.”
Gowon’s advise on how to restructure Nigeria debate today sounds so myopic and hypocritical. In fact, his strategy will only help to further divide Nigeria just as it did in 1967 that resulted in civil war.
Recently, another former military dictator and Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida said that Nigeria cannot break-up. And I ask him, why not? Nigeria is already divided and broken-up.
Another ex-president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan also recently said, “We (Nigeria) are great because of our size, the human resources we have, the diversity we have; if we fragmentize the country into small components, we will be forgotten by the world.”
Once again, I cannot believe that a man who has a doctorate degree, a former university lecturer, a former Deputy Governor, Governor, VP and President of Nigeria can make such silly and stupid statement. In fact, it was because of his weak, coward and compromised leadership that we have Buhari in power today.
I do not want to dwell on many of the outbursts, myopic and vision-less statements being made by some of these Nigerian politicians especially those from the North. They are simply low minded politicians that wants Nigeria to remain a “status quo” on this planet. Simply put, they are afraid of competition, growth, and development.
Also some of them have even made such outlandish statements that Nigeria’s unity, ‘One’ Nigeria and her sovereignty is sacrosanct. What an arrogant and ignorant statement. Let me clearly inform these ignorant and myopic politicians that there is nothing sacrosanct about ‘One’ Nigeria. In fact, One-Nigeria is a curse and as long as we remain together, we will continue to destroy ourselves and our future. Just compare Nigeria of today with Nigeria of the 60’s, or 70’s, or 80’s, or even 90’s. What a difference. You cannot force and subjugate millions of people to live in poverty, penury, hell and failed State.
Today, many regions of Nigeria especially SE, SS, NE and Middle Belt look like worn torn areas—worse than war infested areas like Syria, Iraq, Libya and other hot spots on the planet.
How can these despotic rulers talk about Nigeria’s sovereignty when Bakassi region, an oil rich island inhabited mostly by Easterners was ceded to Cameroun? By the way, most of what is Southern Cameroun today used to be part of Nigeria before French and British settled their colonized land dispute and handed to French-speaking Cameroun.
What about present Borno State that has lost several towns and communities that are now controlled by Boko haram? Recently, we watched as Boko Haram celebrated the festival of eid el kabir with thousands of Boko haram fans and supporters participating without any hindrance or disturbance from the Nigerian military forces.
Nigeria is simply a failed State and should be divided period! Nothing good will come staying together as ‘One’ Nigeria. Let us stop deceiving ourselves.
By the way, there are many reasons ‘One’ Nigeria or its sovereignty is not sacrosanct. It will take a book to write, explicate and expatiate on them. But for the purposes of this piece, I will dwell only on one thorny problem. And that is the issue of amalgamation of Nigeria.
History teaches us that there are several ethnic tribes and groups that make-up Nigeria. These variant groups of people had profound linguistic, cultural, religious and even political differences. Despite their vast differences, these empires and variant groups traded with each other in peace and harmony. But the coming of the white man to colonize, subjugate and dominate these vast areas for their economic and political purposes changed all that.
There was no cohesiveness between these variant empires, yet the British even with all their knowledge coerced and forced them to amalgamate into one country. A name was chosen for the people without due consultations. The name ‘Nigeria’ was created by Lugard’s wife, British journalist Flora Shaw, in 1897 when she suggested to replace the “British Protectorate of the Niger River” with a shorter term.
The amalgamation became more turbulent following the 1960’s political crisis, tribal and religious killings that led to unforgettable genocidal civil war of 1967-70 in which more than more than three million Biafra lives – especially children were massacred. That bitter civil war left an unforgettable anger, bitterness and hatred among the peoples of Nigeria.
Even the deceitful end of war slogan “No Victor No Vanquished” by Gowon could not bury the tumultuous and fractured history of a people that had been traumatized and so to live peacefully and to trust each other again became a very big challenging problem to overcome.
Fifty-six years later, there is still deep rancor, anger, enmity and divide between the major ethic groups especially between Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo because of systemic marginalization, economic exploitation and political oppression of Igbos in Nigeria.
However, going back to the tumultuous history of Nigeria, the Northerners opposed and never wanted ‘One-Nigeria’ in the first place.
In fact, Nigeria’s fore-fathers and nationalist leaders as that time had this to say about ‘One’ Nigeria.
“Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any signs of willingness to unite … Nigerian unity is only a British invention” – Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 1948.
“Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French,’ The word ‘Nigeria’ is a mere distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not” – Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 1947.
“It is better for us and many admirers abroad that we should disintegrate in peace and not in pieces. Should the politicians fail to heed the warning, then I will venture the prediction that the experience of the Democratic Republic of Congo will be a child’s play if it ever comes to our turn to play such a tragic role” – Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1964.
The above statements mean that ‘One’ Nigeria was a forced union and was never embraced by all.
In his book: Federalism and Nation Building in Nigeria, 1946 to 1964,” Dr. Uma Oke Eleazu, foremost scholar, thinker and former Director at National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru Plateau State, writes:
“Nigeria came into being on January 1, 1900, following what was called the Lord Selborn committee report to the parliament that recommended that since the colony and protectorate of the South was more or less self-sufficient because it was being run by the Royal Niger Company, part of the North had been conquered also by Royal Niger Company and so they hired Lord Lugard for the job. Lugard came to Nigeria as a mercenary soldier.”
From the above historical fact, therefore, it can then be concluded that Nigeria is not a nation but an evil enterprise created by the British for their selfish and political hegemony in Africa. It was an experiment of the British Empire for their economic and political purposes in Africa. Even the British people then knew that Nigeria will never work.
Frederick Lugard said, after his amalgamation experiment, that “Nigeria is like oil and water that cannot mix.”
There are also historical evidence and archive records that prove that Nigeria’s amalgamation was an experiment that was expected to last one hundred years after which each major ethnic group can go their separate ways. That means that Nigeria expired in January 2014 – assuming amalgamation was officially finalized on January 1914 according to many records and historical evidence.
From all these historical records and evidence, it amazes why some Northern politicians, rulers and elders continue to beat their chest and drumbeat for war when Nigeria is signatory to the United Nations Charter General Assembly Resolution (A/61/295) of September 2007, recognizing and supporting the rights of all ethnic nations to self-determination.
According to the UN:
“Self-determination” is the principle and practice whereby a nation, for example, an ethnic nation is in control of its own people, its own land, its own resources, and its own governance, independent of any other subtending political structure. “
Additionally, constitutional freedoms of speech and expression as enshrined in the Nigerian law, do not forbid anyone from canvassing peaceful self-government which in any event is legally permissible under diverse international humanitarian laws including the Covenant on Civil and political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human rights (UDHR) which Nigeria as a United Nations member signed on to.
Examples abound of nations that have used warfare before the UN “self-determination” resolution was passed to seek freedom and separation and are today independent nations. In-fact, since 1990, we have seen many nations that have separated or divided peacefully without war with the full supervision of the UN.
Some few examples are:
- Former Soviet Union: between 1989 and 1990s divided into 15 republic—Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Belorussia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kirgizia.
- Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ended in 1991 and 6 countries—Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (including the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina) and Slovenia. Today, those six nations are prospering in peace.
- Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1991 and Eritrea were granted rights to its own government. In fact, today Ethiopia and Eritrea are living in peace, harmony, and prospering.
- South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 following a referendum that passed with 98.83% of the vote by the people and facilitated by the United Nations and African Union.
- Quebec is currently asking from independence from Canada.
- Scotland is seeking for second referendum especially after Brexit and independence from Britain.
- East Africa dissolved into Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Federation of Rhodesia, Nyasaland dissolved into Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
- And finally, we know about India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet – all these nations used to part of the Indian empire in the past.
This raises the question why President Buhari and his supporters are not aware of all these history but continue to unleash such relentless, ruthless and unspeakable brutality against IPOB for seeking self-determination for Biafran people and region.
For sure, President Buhari knows because he has stood at the United Nations and asked for two-state solution between Israel and Palestine as well as spoken out for an Islamic region known as Western Sahara, a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east to be an independent nation.
But in his own country, we see executive lawless and callous injustice of denying the rights of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and director of radio Biafra, as well as using torture and massacre of unarmed and peaceful protecting young Biafra freedom fighters to cajole them to submit to Nigeria’s sovereignty, which in actual sense of it do not exist any longer.
Currently, the SE/SE region are under siege by Nigeria’s military forces with all kinds of massive war tanks and warfare equipment.
Even as I write, the federal government is waging severe warfare in the Niger Delta, an oil rich region of former Eastern Nigeria, a region devastated by oil spillage, poverty, disease, and unspeakable suffering. Instead of the FG to look for better ways to resolve conflict by alleviating the suffering, hopelessness and diminished life of citizens in that region, the President chose to unleash warfare upon Niger Delta with the weapons that was given to him by President Barack Hussein Obama of U.S., former British PM David Cameron, Angela Merkel of Germany, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to fight Boko haram. He’s using those military hardware to unleash mayhem upon the vulnerable citizens of Niger Delta.
What a monumental failure of leadership, and internal colonial oppression and domination of Easterners by a megalomaniacal, imperialist, despotic President.
Today, Nigeria is deeply divided and risks disintegration and division. Like many nations that have divided because of structural, ethnic, religious, economic and political challenges, Nigeria will not be an exception. In fact, Nigeria remains the only British colony in Africa that has not divided into smaller nations.
Once again drawing from the foremost scholar and intellectual, Dr. Uma One Eleazu, he writes,
“British people were in a hurry to decolonize because the United Nations was saying that it was immoral to have colony; so they started putting together all the territories to give them independence. They created the West Indies Federation, it failed; they created the East Africa Federation, it failed; they created Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; it failed. The only federation they created then that has not failed is Nigeria, which is bound to fail if we don’t sit down and talk and that is why when Biafra declared independence, British fought tooth and nail to make sure Nigeria didn’t fail because they hold it as the only success they have in the British Empire. They also created the Federation of Malaysia and Singapore; it failed. The time that Biafra was pulling out was also when Singapore was pulling out of the Federation of Malay, Singapore and North Borneo. Those were federations British put together. They were writing theories about federation government. Did it work? By 1964 that was when Singapore pulled out and then it remained North Borneo and Malaysia, later on they themselves pulled out. East Africa dissolved into Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Federation of Rhodesia, Nyasaland dissolved into Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. All the white people they were protecting concentrated in Zimbabwe.”
According to my study and research, there is no crime in history of mankind that equals the cobbling of variant groups of people with vast differences into one country—without any set of parameters and values that give them true identity of their new nation. That’s the case of Nigeria and most of sub-Sahara Africa. Even though Nigeria is worse case scenario in human history; Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and many other Africa commonwealth do have similar problems—more of tribal superiority than of radical Islamic religious fanaticism. For South African nations, the British people settled in those countries because of enormous natural wealth they found in those nations.
Colonization of Africa is an indescribable rape and destruction of the mother continent. British colonization is the worst crime against humanity. No atrocity in human history equals it. It’s time to reorganize, restructure, dismantle and decolonize Africa starting with Nigeria.
Sadly, since President Muhammadu Buhari came into power in May 2015, his misguided leadership, unguarded comments and unwise actions have helped to deepen the divide between the various ethnic groups in Nigeria. There is now deep divide, rancor, and enmity between the major ethic groups especially between Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo/Ijaw. He essentially divided Nigeria due to his imperialistic leadership style.
Buhari’s oppressive regime has touched virtually every facet of life in Eastern Nigeria—the increased military presence in the region and the unleashing of military killer squad made of DSS, Army, Police, Boko haram and Fulani herdsmen in the East is condemnable and will not help resolve the challenges facing Nigeria.
Since, the 1930’s, Igbos have been massacred all over Nigeria without any arrest or punishment of the perpetrators of such heinous and barbaric massacres. We, in the Eastern region have had enough of systemic marginalization, economic exploitation, political oppression, extreme poverty, senseless massacres, and most importantly the satanic agenda to make Nigeria an Islamic State by Sokoto Caliphate sponsored by Saudi Arabia and other radical Islamic Arab nations.
I call upon all leaders from South-east and South-south to stand-up now and stop this oppression, injustice and megalomaniacal manner in which President Buhari has governed Nigeria especially against those that did not vote for him.
I also join many concerned voices of reason and wisdom to call upon the President to release Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader and Director of Radio of Biafra and all Biafran freedom fighters locked-up in several prisons in Nigeria. The President’s unguarded comments and sectarian imperialistic regime have amplified the agitation and message of Biafra and made Mr. Nnamdi Kanu a hero and if anything happens to him while in prison, he will be a martyr and will likely lead to a second civil-war and massive loss of lives.
Enough is enough. ‘One’ Nigeria and ‘Unity’ cannot be by force.
- K. Ekeke, Ph.D., M.Div., is a theologian, author, consultant and leadership scholar. He is the President of Leadership Wisdom Institute.