COULD NIGERIA AS A NATION BE A MISTAKE

COULD NIGERIA AS A NATION BE A MISTAKE

Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua

If you kill your own brother and thereafter succeed in reconciling with his children; it is expected that you would take care of the children in a way and manner that they would not often recall the tragedy. If on the contrary, the children are victimised, maltreated and oppressed, the wounds of their father’s death would forever remain fresh. At some point they would begin to ask if they really belong to the family that saw to the killing of their father. The wound becomes deeper if one of the children of the murdered brother is manipulated and used to systematically assist the oppression of the murdered father. Nigeria as one nation could be seen as a mega family and a community that contains different human beings with different horizons and worldview. Since the birth of this giant community, Nigeria has struggled to define herself as a nation with endless efforts to survive.

Could Nigeria as one nation be a mistake? Here is synopsis of some of the opinions expressed by some people in naijapals website. The amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 by Sir Frederick Lugard of UK is the source of our problem today. No two or three people can co-exist unless they agree to share common values like religion, history, culture, language, beliefs, aspirations, ethics etc. Do you know the reason why Ireland separated from UK? Same reason!! It is time to divide Nigeria just as was done during the 1989 velvet revolution of Czechoslovakia led by Vaclav Havel. Until this is done, more and more bloodshed will abound. It will be one after the other, BIAFRA, MEND, BOKO HARAM, etc.  BIAFRA wanted to separate because they were massacred in the north and were not given fair treatment in the Nigerian polity but they were forced to integrate. MEND wanted to separate because their oil is tapped and land destroyed without fair compensation but they were forced to integrate. BOKO HARAM wanted to separate because they felt that their Islamic religion is being abused by western education and their culture is in jeopardy and near extinction but they are being forced to integrate. ODUDUWA wanted to separate even though they have only one man casualty –MKO ABIOLA (and more recently the secession threat sparked off by the recent abduction of OLU FALAE by Fulani herdsmen). The fire and bitterness of his death will be roused from slumber into full fiery fury in the very near future. (cf. http://www.naijapals.com).

My view in this discussion is that variety and differences could enhance beauty, and if well managed, add colour to peaceful coexistence. From experience, the different tribes and regions of the world that have the same language, same culture, same religion, same ethics and same “whatever” does not guarantee unity and peaceful coexistence. In Rwanda, the Hutu and Tutsi have so many things in common but the genocide and mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu by members of the Hutu majority from April 7 to mid-July 1994 claimed the lives of an estimated number of five hundred thousand to one million innocent human beings. The solution Rwanda sourced for after the genocide was not cessation but the political means and will to live together again. “Today, Rwanda has two public holidays commemorating the genocide. The national commemoration period begins with Genocide Memorial Day on April 7 and concludes with Liberation Day on July 4. The week following April 7 is designated an official week of mourning. The Rwandan Genocide served as the impetus for creating the International Criminal Court to eliminate the need for ad hoc tribunals to prosecute those accused in future incidents of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide).

One of the ways Nigeria can truly be called a nation is if the leaders are selfless, ready and willing to make the sacrifice of healing the wounds from the root. Another way is if the leaders could think less of their personal gains and think more of the common good. Selfishness and greed had made some leaders to instigate some of their people into unnecessary violence akin to a situation where those who represent a particular zone in the senate or house of representative keep the allocation meant for the development of their region and still cry out that the region is marginalized. They go to any length to mobilize the innocent youths to die in the course of protest while they remain the hidden actors. This time of change should include a call to sincere ethnic dialogue and faithfulness to federal character. What if the resolutions of the conferences right from Aburi conference in Ghana were implemented, could Nigeria not have been  saved from the Biafra genocide and the different ethnic uprising that had destroyed the lives and properties of many people. Perhaps the problem affecting the oneness of Nigeria is not a result of varieties but a lack of leadership skills, sincerity of purpose and political will to manage the differences.

The publication of M.O. Ene, “Beyond Biafra, Beyond Buhari” in Aladimma Express calls for further reflections on the sincerity of the oneness of Nigeria akin to any refined nation. Ene compares Nigeria to a house that is still standing on a fundamentally flawed foundation. He believes that Biafra is back on the front pages because there was no proper healing from the root and a sincere follow up to the peace declaration: “No victor no vanquished”. The feeling that the Eastern region is marginalized could be what is being expressed in the recent call for the Federal Republic of Biafra. In October, 2015, various media reported that Nnamdi Kanu, the alleged director of Radio Biafra was arrested. On October 18, 2015, the report in Vanguard described Kanu as “the Director of Biafra Television and the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)”.  This is the time the Nigerian Government should call Nnamdi Kanu and his group for dialogue because detention or death cannot extinguish the ideology which he represents. He should be treated as a courageous person who dared to voice out the feelings and thoughts of many people. To accept this demands humility and sincerity on the part of Government.

Nigeria government should avoid the mistakes of the past. Imagine if Muhammed Yusuf was not killed! What if some orthodox Islamic scholars who do not share his ideology were called to de-radicalise him? What if he was handled with care such that he could explain why he was targeting only the police and government institutions? Perhaps, the politicians who used him and duped him and his group could have been called to order. Perhaps, the impression that they were against Christians could have been corrected because the Boko Haram of Yusuf did not attack Churches. Nigeria and Nigerians would have been saved from the present high level of terrorism. Dialogue when there is a spark always yields more fruits than the kind of post-mortem dialogue Nigeria is now negotiating with Boko Haram.

What of Ken Saro Wiwa and the tragedy of Ogoni land? This ugly episode is a scenario of how members of the same family could be used to destroy one another. What if the compensation provided by the oil companies were duly utilised to develop their own land?  What if Ken Saro Wiwa was not killed? What if the constitution of Nigeria was designed in the context of Nigeria reality and used to solve Nigeria nagging crisis? That Nigeria is one nation could not be a mistake. The mistake is attitude of some Nigerians and the lack of vision on the part of some of the office holders who ought to be leaders and patriots. Does Nigeria still need a National referendum to decide how to keep Nigeria one?  Make hay while the sun shines!

Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua (omonokhuac@gmail.com)