For some reason, the fall of the Goodluck Jonathan’s democratic government has brought about widespread discontent from Nigerians of South East extraction. The agitation for a Biafra (totally unconnected to the Biafra hurriedly cobbled together by Ojukwu in 1966 and described by Ocherome Nnanna as a make shift “refugee camp”) has taken centre stage under the present government. Hannatu Musawa, has tried to proffer solutions to the agitation. Those solutions, whilst sincere, will most definitely replace one form of agitation for another. It also indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of how the South East agitation affects the wider country. I doubt that Hannatu is even aware of what the concerns of the agitators are.
The oft used refrain from the agitators are Four. Firstly, they claim that the igbo states has 5 states as opposed to the 6 states of 4 other geo-political zones and the 7 states the North west geo=political zone has. Secondly, the protestors claim that the igbo are marginalized because there has not been a Nigerian president of igbo extraction. Thirdly, they claim the South East is bereft of Federal Government presence. Fourthly, they claim that Federal Character operates to deprive igbos of places within the Fderal government educational and bureaucratic infrastructure of Nigeria.
There is clearly a distinction between subjective feelings of marginalization which does exist and is a live issue for people of South East extraction and actual marginalization of the South East which does not exist when considered against other nationalities within Nigeria. I will dissect each issue.
State Creation
In 1952, the three regions in existence at the time were North, East and West. The North now has 19 states, the East now has 9 states and the West now has 8 states. On this view, the former Western region (which consists of the SW zone plus Edo and delta and has more land and more people than the former Eastern region) is the most marginalized former region. If looked at from the perspective of the majority tribes and using the Map of colonial Nigeria (1957-58) of the Willink minorities commission showing the major ethnic groups and minority areas, the Yoruba now has 5 exclusive Yoruba states and three states in which they share with another ethnic group (Ondo, Kwara and Kogi). The Hausa has four core Hausa states (Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa and Zamfara) and three states where they share with other significant tribes (Kaduna, Kano and Katsina). The igbo have 5 significant states and 2 which they share with other ethnic groups (Rivers and Delta). The third view point is comparing states by geo-political zones. This is a non-starter because geo-political zones are not recognized by law and all states were already created before the Ekwueme led committee assigned already created 36 states to the new political jargon of geo-political zones.
Nigerian President of igbo extraction
This is a simple issue. Nigeria is operating a democracy. No tribe or section of Nigeria has an entitlement to the presidency. It must be campaigned for and won by convincing most Nigerians to vote for you. Nigeria does not have any institutional obstacle here. It has over ten political parties and there has been many igbo presidential candidates that have contested for the presidency during the Nigerian presidential elections on the platform of many different political parties in every presidential election since 1999. That there has not been a igbo President is simply because none of the candidates that have run on the platform of APGA ,PPA (similar parties to the former CPC whose Presidential candidate narrowly lost the 2011 election) and the other smaller parties have not captured the imagination of Nigerians. That will also apply to the other candidates from other tribes that have equally stood for elections and lost in the past.
Federal Government Infrastructure
This may be an issue where subjective perception and actual reality may merge. I personally do not see the second Niger Bridge as being the key infrastructure needed by the South East. I do however think more efforts should be geared towards fixing federal roads in the South East (especially those with economic regeneration potential for the region). In view of the limited funds available to the FG, it will also have to ensure that it also addresses the infrastructural handicaps of all other zones as well. The South East is a smaller land mass and should therefore be easier to cover than the more expansive land areas of other zones. That said, South East governors have to be more responsive to their people. The governors of Akwa Ibom, Kano, Ogun, delta, Edo and Lagos have shown that responsible state governments can and do build bridges and roads required by their individual states. The constitution has provided a state/federal road dichotomy. Each sector of government has their defined responsibility. On areas under FG responsibility, some further study and solution should be identified and addressed.
Federal Character
This is a difficult one as most of the agitators misunderstand its notion and premise. One hears that students from the SE has to get 134 as opposed to students from the North that gain entrance to FG educational institutions with marks such as 4 or 12. FG educational institutions are built with “FG money” and the beneficiaries are meant to come from all parts of the federation. I use “FG Money” in inverted commas because most of Nigeria’s income comes from 5 states (Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa , Rivers and Lagos) whilst its oil revenue comes predominantly from the 4 mentioned states absent Lagos. Of the 5 big FG revenue generators, Delta and Lagos are the only states with high educational scores even if marginally lower than Anambra and Imo. Federal Character ensures each state is given an equal allocation of places in its institutions and each student competes with students from their own state of origin only. This prevents the situation with respect to the government financed PRESSID Scholarship awards to first class holders of science degrees in Nigeria which has led to a situation (in three of the four sessions in which awards were handed out) where Yorubas accounted for 60% of the recipients, igbos accounted for 21% of the recipients and delta and Edo accounted for the balance. In the most recent award, igbos accounted for 43% of recipients, Yorubas accounted for 40% of recipients, and delta, Edo and the middle belt accounted for the remainder. That effectively means that money obtained from oil producing areas (as well as areas with industries and ports) face the risk that that their children will have little benefit from the wealth of their nation whilst (in the case of oil producing areas) their land suffers environmental degradation for no commensurate upside for their children or their indigenes. Federal Character is therefore essential and critical for Nigerians. The absence of Federal Character may have led to the FG bureaucracy being dominated by two tribes with significant input from delta and Edo. After a while, the view of educational advance states or people will be replaced with a stereo typical view of where brilliant people come from even if the make up of educational advanced states were to evolve and change over time. This will present major adverse social issues in and for Nigeria if Federal character were to be abolished. Additionally, the educational space has been democratized. There are many state and private schools and universities that are not limited to or by Federal character and there are many state and private places of employment that are not so limited.
Fiscal Federalism
The SE gets more money from the federal government than it gives the FG in terms of income derived from oil, gas and other assets. The SS gets significantly less from the FG than it gets. The SW also gets marginally less from the FG than it contributes to the FG account. Fiscal Federalism therefore would give the SE less than it currently receives and I am unsure that this is a major issue for them.
The issues of the pro Biafra agitators are therefore specific to the South East as opposed to the former Eastern region (who recently had its son as President and whose states get the highest income revenue from the FG).
The six zone suggestion is in my view a non starter. That would place the SE with less land mass and less people (according to recent voting numbers of 2.5 million votes in 2015 elections) in the same bracket as the NW (which had 8 million voters and huge land mass area), NE (which has 3.6 million voters and a huge land mass), NC (which had 4.1 million voters and a fairly big land mass) SW (with 4.3 million voters and a fairly large mass and the SS (with 5.1 million voters and a fairly large land mass) on the same level. That is effectively treating unequal places equally. Furthermore, with non indigenes now standing for and winning seats outside their respective areas of origin, the argument for extra states now becomes otiose as one no longer looks at igbos all over Nigeria needing to restrict its representation to the SE only.
Military Response
Whilst I agree that non violent demonstrations should be handled by the police and with restraint. Clear acts of vandalism and economic sabotage by the same group of protestors that move from state to state with the aim of protesting and disrupting economic activity under the direction of Radio Biafra will have to be addressed in line with our existing democracy. The demonstrations must be stopped before critical mass is built or once already built up, then they should be ushered to certain areas designated for marches. We definitely do not want to see the Libya model where fighter jets and armed tanks are attacking unarmed civilians. Nigeria should look to how America handled the occupy Wall Street protests.
Dele Awogbeoba@gmail.com