By Nwokedi Nworisara<\/p>\n
Recently Bayelsa State Nigeria played a host to one of Nigeria’s foremost
\nthinkers ,the Nobel Laureate,Prof ‘Wole Soyinka\u00a0 ,who was visiting the Ijaw
\nNational Academy and celebrating his birthday,and there was a consensus
\nbetween the Professor and the host Governor Henry Seriake Dickson that the
\nNigerian union is negotiable but they prefer to sustain one nation. Ever
\nsince and even before this event,many people have come out to call for
\nrestructuring of Nigeria. Some advocates even go further to suggest a true
\nfederalism or even confederal arrangement with weak centre. However there
\nare still thinkers like Nnamdi Kanu,Olisa Agbakoba who insist that a part
\n‘Biafra’ should be allowed to attain complete Independence .With the
\nhighest respect for the patriotism that brought an intellectually sound
\nGovernor and a Nobel Laureate rubbing minds to proffer for us a way, and
\nthereby throwing the floor open,there is still need here for deeper
\ncritical thinking on this issue to avoid Nigeria descending into another
\nmerry go round on the\u00a0 renegotiation or restructuring issue.<\/p>\n
I am concerned that we get it right this time around. I know how Nigerians
\nfelt when our hopes that President Jonathan would restructure Nigeria were
\ndashed. The reason being that intellectuals were so taken by the prospect
\nfor a Southern leader that there was no more commensurate push for change
\nof structure. I remember when I differed with the Nobel laureate and the
\nSave Nigeria group over whether the structure determines good governance or
\nthe person occupying the office. My lone voice was drowned at that time.I
\nhad been\u00a0 insistent that the structure determines how well the leader would
\nact and advocated that getting a change of structure was more important
\nthan pushing the President Jonathan into power. But our learned colleagues
\nthought otherwise and here we are today. We are back to square one.
\nGoing through history,I have found out that the Nigerian union of 1960 was
\nperhaps the best document that Nigerians ever had. The document that was
\nindeed closest to the laws of nature and the natural process of development
\nfor each of the peoples. Of course it wasn’t perfect,nothing is actually
\nperfect in this world but it was a document that could be built upon. It
\nwas a good foundation. Unfortunately this document has never really been
\nallowed to be ,it was never really implemented. Starting from the first
\nyear of independence there were concerted attempts by the various units and
\ngroups not to build upon this foundation but rather to scatter it. The
\nprevailing sentiment then was that it was a British document protecting
\ncolonial interest. Today we know better. The structure that was known as
\nthe Tripod was a well thought out structure customized for Nigeria,bearing
\n50 years of British colonial experience as well as more than two decades of
\nself rule experiments. There had been constitutional conferences in Nigeria
\nand London leading up to this Independence document. There were a surfeit
\nof pan-Nigerian intellectual inputs into the document. It had more Nigerian
\ninterests protected than what we have today. The Document was properly
\nproduced and scored into music for better and wider comprehension of the
\ncitizens in their various levels of existence. This process made it
\npossible for Nigerians to point out quickly the core objective of the
\nNigerian State ( To build a nation where no man is oppressed) something
\nthat led to unrivaled consensus across the country,north,South ,East and
\nWest for independence. This singular situation has never been reached again
\nin Nigerias history. Now what you can get is\u00a0 majorly sectionalized
\nvoices,everyone thinking primordially about his area and its primary
\ninterests before what is nationally expedient.
\nMy argument stands out to say. Yes it is true that what Nigeria stands in
\nreality today is not what the founding fathers wanted it to be and facing
\nus are the ugly symptoms leading our intellect to take decisions for
\nimmediate gratification not minding that we are still a nation,an organic
\nunion which ensures that the decisions we make today takes national effect
\nnot sectional one. So how do we sit down under such a sectional atmosphere
\nto consider national question without descending into only resolving in the
\nshort run\u00a0 symptoms of the problem,abandoning the root causes and
\npostponing the evil day?.\u00a0 To avoid such situations that will not serve any
\nof us in the long run, it is better to go back for solution to the only
\ntime we had true national consensus devoid of sectional considerations
\n,when we produced a document that was unfortunately\u00a0 never implemented.
\nThat was the 1960 independence constitution that became the 1963 republican
\nconstitution by way of removing the last vestige of colonial control. But
\nwhat did we get? We began to change the solid structure in 1964 less than a
\nyear later,when we created the Mid -West Region thereby destroying a
\ndelicate power balance and pitching the North against the South,creating
\nsuspicion that the South wanted to increase its power over the North. So
\nthe consensus and trust was broken by one singular\u00a0 seemingly innocent act
\nthat finally cascaded Nigeria into an avoidable civil war and military
\nrule.<\/p>\n
Let us get it straight here. The Nigerian nation arose out of this only
\nexisting “We the people… ” 1960-63 constitution and can only be rebuilt
\nthrough this true foundation of our independence,our liberation. Everything
\nthat happened bad or good as we may come to see it in our limitation caused
\nby this cascading error and imbalance is only a symptom of our one mistake
\nnot to build upon but to destroy this legacy.
\nTo this end our collective duty today is first of all to\u00a0 comprehend and
\nunderstand that our infantile attempts at sectional supremacy,power
\nstruggle has failed us, our children and this nation. That Nigeria remains
\norganic no matter how many states we create or local governments,that the
\nadvantage we seek in politics is only ephemeral and our victory pyrrhic but
\nnever really\u00a0 fulfilling since the eternal yardstick remains Nigeria as a
\nwhole. That Nigeria can still fulfill our individual and collective dreams
\nin life if allowed by us once again to stand on her only viable structure
\nthrough our participation and prayers. That secession of part is not a cost
\neffective way to achieve happiness and fulfillment since we would still
\nhave to partake in a heterogeneous world now becoming a global village. So
\nwhat is more important is that we understand that the structure determines
\nhow good is the governance and the people living in it.<\/p>\n
As to renegotiation,in Igbo Culture one does not really sit in judgement
\nover the decisions his father or grand fathers took because he or she is
\nalso the product of such bad or good decisions. Of course one can criticize
\nit and seek to make sure the same road is not taken by him at present. I
\nbelieve we have similar customs across board. If ones mother was a harlot
\nor conceived him through a rape, and now one is respectable in society the
\nigbo culture sees such sitting in judgement or renegotiation as
\nrenunciation of ones self. So the culture frowns\u00a0 generally at such moves.<\/p>\n
In the same vein a man that introduced a style in a game cannot just pull
\nout of it while the game lasts.It is even worse when you designed the
\njourney and called upon your brothers to join you along the part they had
\nnot understood properly but you cajoled them along and even conceded the
\nleadership at a point to get them going with you. After they have come to
\nenjoy the journey then suddenly you say you want to pull out of the
\njourney. Since truly they don’t even know where the vehicle is arriving
\nat,there is a likelihood that they will be hostile to your request. It may
\neven be seen as a betrayal of the others. Maybe its better you accept some
\nblame and work to get control of this vehicle to put things right rather
\nthan attempting to jump down.<\/p>\n
Nigeria has become a building of concrete walls and rooms inhabited by
\npeople. The house building plan itself may have been bastardized by later
\nignorant managers but generation have known it as home .These people do not
\nlike to be taken out of their comfort zones by changes\u00a0 so when one whole
\nfloor wants to leave the building,they know that it means that the entire
\nbuilding has to come down and they do not view lightly. It becomes a threat
\neven though they know that the building is not even giving them proper
\nshade as planned. It may indeed be better that we all join hands to ensure
\nthat the wrong practices of covering some parts of the building with
\ncorrugated roofing sheets ,others asbestos\u00a0 and still some with just raffia
\npalm is discouraged because we are all living in one building and we have
\nno other building to go to if this one falls.
\nI have reduced these explanations to such simple pictures to get us to
\nunderstand that time has come for us to look beyond mond\u00e4ne politicking and
\nfocus on the pan Nigerian solution so that we do not unconsciously sustain
\nthe undesirable status quo in our present quest to restructure or
\nrenegotiate our union.
\n* Mr Nworisara is a former Presidential Aspirant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Nwokedi Nworisara Recently Bayelsa State Nigeria played a host to one of Nigeria’s foremost thinkers ,the Nobel Laureate,Prof ‘Wole Soyinka\u00a0 ,who was visiting the Ijaw National Academy and celebrating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n