Divide Nigeria in peace or address the injustice
Uzoma Ahamefule
Our cultures
are irreconcilable, our religions and mode of worships are poles apart, our
mentalities are so different and even our languages are absolutely strange to
each other. In 1947 Chief Obafemi Awolowo said "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 Nigerian is merely a
distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and
those who do not." Nobody has got that audacity in Nigeria now to
say contrarily to the above declaration. In 1948 Mallam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
said “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 sign of willingness to unite.
Nigerian unity is only a British
intention for the country." This testimony came from the first Prime
Minister of the fraud called Nigeria.
Can you be more catholic than the Pope? We are just incompatible - no love, no
tolerance and no similarity by all ramifications. One of the creators of this
fraud and harm called Nigeria
Sir Peters Smithers who was a cabinet minister during the colonial regime
admitted the wickedness of the British colonists when he said in 1998 "The
creation of Nigeria
involved forcing several different ethnic, cultural and religious groups into
one political structure.
In retrospect of forty years, it is clear that
this was a grave mistake which has cost many lives and will probably continue
to do so." Yes, it has cost more the lives of the Igbos and their
properties than any other nation in the fraud called Nigeria. Ndi Igbo are made
scapegoats at any crisis in the north; call it politics or religion they have
always been provocatively at the centre of massacre and their properties looted
and destroyed without anybody held responsible.
We have not forgotten what led to
the Nigerian Biafran war and how Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the great
“Ikemba” of Nnewi, the “Eze” Igbo “gburugburu”, and the man who saw tomorrow
had tried to save the future of his people from the agony that awaited them in this
forceful marriage, but was betrayed by some people who had not kept to their
promise out of ignorance of what the future was holding and out of selfishness.
We have equally not forgotten how
the Igbo pregnant women cried and died in pains when their wombs had been
wickedly opened with cutlasses and their children had been brought out cruelly
during the war. It is equally painful to remember the deaths of our children as
a result of malnutrition.
We have not forgotten that at the
end of the Nigerian civil war, it was declared “no victor, no vanquish” by the
then head of state, General Yakubu Gowon. But what followed after the
declaration was a systematic disenfranchisement of Ndi Igbo. Every Igbo man was
inconsiderably given only twenty pounds to start life, while their properties
were jealously and wickedly confiscated and declared as abandoned properties.
In retrospect, immediately the
British colonialism ended, the Igbos dominated Nigeria’s economy. Irrespective of
the callousness of the federal government of Nigeria
to them, they were the true patriotic symbol of one Nigeria because there was no city
you would go to that you did not see the presence of an Igbo man through his
business or landed properties. They were the mechanism in which development had
stood in almost all the cities of the federation called Nigeria. Any
city you go to in Nigeria now without seeing big presence of an Igbo man run
for your dear life as that city is doomed.
The first ceremonial president of
Nigeria, the “Owelle” of Onitsha, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe said in 1964 “I have one
advice to give to our politicians. If they have decided to destroy our national
unity, then they should summon a round table conference to decide how our
national assets should be divided before they seal their doom by satisfying
their lust for office.
I make this suggestion because 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 this warning, then I will
venture the prediction that the experience of the Democratic Republic of Congo will be a child's play if ever it comes to our
turn to play such a tragic role." This was a man that was respected for
his stand in one Nigeria, a true son of Igbo land and an emblem of Nigerian
unity, but one Nigeria failed him even in death.
The Nigerian
people seem to have been subdued to stoicism otherwise the injustice in Nigeria
is stinky that no free mind can stomach. Go to Ogoni Land in Rivers State you
will pity the people: No road, no good school from the federal government, no
good water to drink, no hospital, no jobs, no future and yet Ogoni people are
very rich in oil. Ken Saro Wiwa alongside nine
other Ogoni indigenes were unjustly roped in a kangaroo court and cruelly
hanged by the then federal government of Nigeria for crying out against
injustice to their people.
The
situation is not different in other parts of Niger Delta. Most people from
Rivers and Bayelsa states are fishermen but because of the pollution of the
water with oil they cannot fish again but the federal government does not seem
to care. Some Igbo states are part of the oil
producing states in Nigeria but were excluded as such by the federal government
of Nigeria until they had to fight for their inclusion. The Igbo speaking
states have the worst federal road network in comparison to other geo-political
zones in Nigeria.
The
political imbalance in Nigeria is too big even for the blind to see. Why must
everything about the Igbos be unjustly politicized? Igbo speaking areas have the least number of
states in Nigeria even though they are the most populated tribe, but more
states were created in the less populated north. Why is it that the northerners
are favoured in everything in this country?
The allocation money meant for the then newly
created local governments in Lagos state under Governor Bola Tinubu was
withheld by the then federal government of Nigeria under President Olusegun
Obasanjo. It is very disappointing to note that Olusegun Obasanjo is a Yoruba
man yet he tried to use his power to hinder the progress that was coming to
Yoruba land because of dirty politics just to satisfy the northerners which he
was still not able to do.
But go to the north, they created more local
governments for themselves and legalised them without anybody raising eyebrows,
they manipulated even the national census by counting cows, fowls and their
brothers/sisters from Niger Republic as Nigerians just to maintain the
political suppression.
As a result
of this dishonesty they are more in number in the National Assembly and the
House of Representatives. Tell me how you can pass a successful bill if that
bill is meant to correct the injustice which they see as normal and birthright.
They hide under the shadow of religion to cause us pains and because they
derive joy from our sorrow that is why they always kill us at every little
provocation.
They are
trying to make us hewers of wood and drawers of water in the midst of plenty
and because they are not president Nigeria must be on fire. In this glaring
cruel injustice, this misguided chorus of one Nigeria cannot stand. Therefore,
divide this country now in peace and let “Boko Haram”, “Oduduwa Republic”,
“Republic of Biafra”, “Arewa Muslim Nation” or more to go, if we are not ready
to face the reality that we all must make a compromise.
It does not
matter who is at the helm of affairs in the hoax called Nigeria, the situation
of the Niger Delta people or the Igbos will never change because that Aso Rock
is like a secret cult, when you are there your hands are tied and therefore
obliged to join the overwhelming erroneous chorus of one Nigeria to the
detriment of the Niger Delta people. President Goodluck Jonathan is a core
Niger Delta man from Ijaw, watch out if there will be much difference in the
state of infrastructural development in the Niger Delta regions after his term.
The whole
idea about Nigeria was based on lies and deceit by the British people and I
consider it evil until the so-called leaders decide to pick up political
courage to address the injustice, the Niger Delta or Igbo people will continue
to pay the price for one Nigeria.
Sunny Okosun
of a blessed memory sang in one of his songs “Which way Nigeria? Since many
years of our independence we are still finding it hard to stand. How long shall
we be independent before we reach the Promised Land?” We can never get there my
departed brother, under this shamble and fraud arrangement. The Igbo
people have demonstrated enough willingness to be together with other tribes
than other tribes of Nigeria. Therefore, shedding of
the Igbo’s blood, looting and destruction of their properties for one Nigeria
is no longer acceptable.
Margaret Thatcher said in 1998 that
“It is difficult to govern a country like Nigeria. It is artificially created,
divided into Moslem north, Christian and pagan south." Yes, she was right,
but who created this artificial country? She forgot that she was part of the
evil that brought the different nations together as one Nigeria and benefited
from the fraud more than any other individual. Though I acknowledge the truth
but we don’t need her sympathy.
I was angry and disappointed to read
in one of the Nigerian national newspapers where the IG of police tagged the
Boko Haram members as cowards. Please, Boko Haram members are surely not
cowards. Macmillan English Dictionary describes coward as “someone who is not
brave enough to fight or do something difficult or dangerous that they should
do,” the real cowards are the Nigerian police force and Nigerian leaders who
know the people behind the killing of innocent citizens in the north but they
are afraid to touch them.
The federal government is not
sincere with the handling of the Boko Haram issue because most of the military
or police men/women they are using against Boko Haram from the north are
members themselves who give them tip off on how to escape which the federal
government knows.
How can Boko Haram find its way deep
into the overall head office of the Nigerian police force without an insider? This
is incredible! Nigerians are no fools and I will not be too surprised if they
find their way into the Presidential Villa Abuja.
Therefore, the committee the federal
government formed now because of Boko Haram is not necessary and as such ill
conceived just to deceive you and me. It is also a shame that after the Boko
Haram group turned down the offer from the Aso Rock for negotiation that the
federal government turned round again on 04.08.2011 through the Secretary of
State Pius Anyim who said that they are not ready to negotiate with a faceless
group like Boko Haram which is contradictory to what the IG of police had
earlier told us, then I ask, who is deceiving who?
If they are sincere let them send
military men from the east, west or south to the north and see within two weeks
if Boko Haram would not be a story of “once upon a time”. But some northern
military men who do not understand good English are always selected by the
federal government and brought to the old eastern part of the country to waste
the lives of the citizens of that part with impunity whenever there is uproar,
probably because of the harsh government policy towards their plight. The massacre of Odi people from Ijaw in Delta state
is still very fresh in our memories.
It is also agonizing to hear that
the federal government of Nigeria was pleading with Boka Haram for dialogue. On
05.07.2011 the IG of Police told us that some of the arrested members of Boko
Haram will not be charged to court because the federal government has decided
to handle the issue politically.
What an unfortunate statement! Contradictorily
non-violent MASSOB members are brutalized, killed and imprisoned for just
exercising their civil rights through peaceful demonstrations and there is
nothing wrong in such callousness. This jailing and killing of armless and
defenseless MASSOB members is an annual event.
The harassments and arrests of
Raphael Uwazuruike continue at will by the so-called federal government of
Nigeria at any statement he makes and this can no
longer be tolerated. Therefore, we the unrecognized voices of concerned Ndi
Igbo all over the world demand with immediate effect the unconditional release
of all MASSOB members detained or imprisoned since our Igbo elites have refused
to speak.
From every
signal, the northerners want one Nigeria not because of their love for us but
because of the oil money. If peradventure oil or gold is discovered in any part
of the northern state today, which I pray for, the Emirs, the Babangidas, the
Buharis, and the Atikus will gather to pronounce “To your tents, O Israel.”
Nigeria stands to gain a lot in
unity, but every day indicates in the direction that it is not workable because
of selfishness, dishonesty and greed. There is a lot of nepotism, tribalism and
hatred in this fraud called Nigeria as a result of so many evident factors like
cultural different backgrounds, religious beliefs, incompatibility and
intolerance.
My dream
Nigeria is a Nigeria that may never be. My dream Nigeria is a Nigeria where
there will be tolerance, honesty, peace, unity and love; a Nigeria where you
can live in any state or town without fear of your life because of your
religion or ethnicity; a Nigeria where we will do away with the stereotypes
that an Igbo man is too cunning, a Yoruba man is a betrayer or a Hausa man did
not go to school etc.; a Nigeria where we will honestly tell ourselves the
truth that we were forced by the British people to come together but also
recognize the fact that since faith has brought us all together that we could
as well live in harmony and peace if we all sincerely agree to make sacrifices
and sit down to fashion out the mode that will make our aspirations fairly
attainable; a Nigeria where you can gain employment anywhere as long as you are
qualified for it without regard to “godfather”, ethnicity, religion, gender or
disability etc. This is my dream Nigeria. This is the ideal Nigeria we all
should strive to achieve, a Nigeria I would staunchly believe in.
Nigeria as it is presently
constituted is a fraud built on falsehood and it cannot stand under the present
arrangement, until our leaders pick the political courage and convene a national
conference where we will decide on how to make the
centre (federal government) not so attractive like it is now by allowing each
federating state to develop according to its pace and to have greater percentage
of its natural resources, but also making the centre very strong enough to hold
the federating states together as one Nigeria. Until this is done, all the
federating units of Nigeria will continue to be threatened. Under this threat
Nigeria is staggering, under this threat I see danger and under this threat
with the unfolding events I am forced to say that Nigeria as an entity may
not survive for too long and even if it does, it looks like the bomb will
explode during or after the 2019 election. But before it gets to this point
please let us separate in peace and not in pieces.
Do not forget that no matter how
long it takes a stammerer he must surely pronounce his name. We are waiting for
maturity to eat the bearded fruit as Chinua Achebe would put it for the triumph
of might over right is only temporal. Divide Nigeria now in peace or address
the injustice and balance the equilibrium for tranquility to reign!
I join millions of people all over
the world to congratulate South Sudan people on their independence.
Uzoma Ahamefule writes from Vienna, Austria.
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