It is very unfortunate that “Some people still think, that personnel change, or the every 4-years political elections will bring about the positive change we are all clamouring for in Nigeria! Or that restructuring Nigeria, state creation, or even the much talked about constitutional review will bring about the positive change? What a delusional way of reasoning!
If truth be told, the problem with Nigeria has gone beyond all those proposals. A lot of innocent blood of targeted ethnic group/groups or perceived enemies or political opponents have been shed in the name of “Keeping Nigeria One”, the deceptive Nigerian federal government slogan during the three-years Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970), namely, “To Keep Nigeria One Is A Task that Must Be Done.”
Painfully also, is that up till today, after over 53 years the open-war military combatant between Nigeria and Biafra was said to have ended, the Nigerian State, its successive federal governments and foreign collaborators have not yet shown any remorse or made any “mea culpa” for such crimes against humanity and genocide committed against a particular targeted ethnic group, 53 years after the genocidal Nigeria-Biafra War. The Nigerian state and government has even as we speak not stopped from visiting the same targeted ethnic group with those same crimes against humanity, especially, military intimidation, extra-judicial killings, marginalisation and persecution, etc., those heinous crimes that caused the Biafra War in 1967.
Moreover, when today, you hear them, those gatekeepers of the Nigerian State say that Nigerian ‘Unity’ is non-negotiable, you would think that they really love you, or that they truly love the country, or that they want to build a Nigeria that would be a home to all its citizens, irrespective of our differences in ethnic, religious, cultural, linguistic affiliations or philosophical persuasions. Not at all. They are only deceiving you! By such repeated slogan, ‘Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable’, they are saying that because of their personal selfish interests, to protect their petroleum oil and gas wells in the Oil and Gas region of Eastern Nigeria and Niger Delta. That is all, not that any of those your politicians, ex-military and serving military Generals and their cronies, actually love you or that they want to build a progressive and prosperous Nigeria.
The Problem with Nigeria is Its Faulty Foundation
The problem with Nigeria is foundational as it is structural and systemic. For instance, “If you talk of restructuring Nigeria, or states creation, or constitution review, from where would you start? Where will be your starting point? And if you talk of conducting another ‘every four years’ of political elections under the present dispensation and template without addressing the foundational issue at the roots of the age-long problem with the Nigerian State, is that not continuing to succumb to the proverbial saying of ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result?’ Which is foolishness and stupidity!
As one social critic put it: “The fact is that we have all been rendered Stateless citizens by the way Nigeria was founded, structured, and governed since its creation by the British in 1914 to the present day, that even if you bring the best hundreds of Nigerians amongst us today, and ask them to operate the current system, or the 1999 Constitution for instance, to govern Nigeria, without first of all, renegotiating the faulty and fraudulent foundation of the Nigerian State [I mean, without first of all, resolving the foundational problem of Nigeria’s faulty and fraudulent foundation, political structure or system we have presently], I can assure you, they too, will continue to fail us woefully, as never before.“
Therefore, the solution to Nigeria’s problem does not lie in the every four-years recycling of political election or change of personnel through elections or whatever! Neither does it lie in the so-called restructuring, creation of more states, or even in Constitutional Review of the present fake, fraudulent 1999 Constitution which was foisted on the people of Nigeria through military dictatorship fiat, without referendum that could have at least, subjected it to be a forceful, binding legal document, and as truly, people’s Constitution its authors falsely, wanted us to believe. No.
Thus, none of these shenanigans of the gatekeepers of the Nigerian State will bring about the positive change we all are clamouring for. The fact remains that the British never created the Nigerian State to succeed as a nation-state, but rather to be behaving exactly in this way the country is functioning today! And those who took over from the colonial masters, the most favoured ethno-religious groups, and their collaborators from other parts of the country, never appeared to have the interests of making Nigeria work for all of its supposedly citizens, irrespective of the differences in ethnicity, religious, cultural, linguistic affiliations or philosophical persuasions. We were all rendered stateless and citizen-less by our being Nigerians!
The Way-Out
Therefore, the only solution to this diabolic colonial trapping is the renegotiation of Nigeria’s faulty foundation, its fraudulent political system and structure! And it can only be done successfully and honestly, through referendum for Self-Determination of the different, diverse component units, ethnic nationalities/major geopolitical regions that were forcefully merged together under a colonial fiat by the British in 1914, and called Nigeria! The Amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates in 1914 by the British, forcing peoples of different, diverse indigenous ethnic nationalities, with often conflicting value systems, philosophy of life, cultures, religious beliefs and languages, into one nation-state, and called it Nigeria, is the problem with Nigeria. Until this foundational problem is resolved, Nigeria is moving nowhere, the country will continue in its present decline into a failed nation state!
Again, the solution lies in renegotiating the Nigerian State, from its faulty foundational structure to its present reality, through the participation of all the component ethnic nationalities via Referendum for Self-Determination of its diverse components ethnic nationalities/major geopolitical regions that were forcefully merged together under colonial fiat by the British, and named Nigeria.
Let each ethnic nationality/major geopolitical region that make up the Nigerian State, be allowed to decide how they want their own people to be governed, and whether they want to opt out of the Nigerian State through referendum, to form their own separate independent sovereign state. In this way, we all shall begin to relate well as neighbours, neighbouring nation states in the West African sub-region. We shall begin to see one another and every neighbouring ethnic group as brothers and sisters and no longer as enemies. This will in turn, minimise, if not reduce drastically, the current problem of religious extremism and insecurity. Because each people will now begin to govern their own territory, new state, provide their own security, and protect the lives and property of their people by themselves. Something that is not possible in Nigeria as presently constituted and governed. People are today being killed and massacred in cold-blood in their homes and ancestral lands by known terrorists because we are all in one country called Nigeria. Disintegrate Nigerian state as we know it today, into more natural, manageable smaller sovereign nation states of peoples that share the same value systems and philosophy of life, and the insecurity we are experiencing today will automatically be a thing of the past.
Mind you, even the modern European countries are all basically ethnic-based. France is populated and governed by ethnically-based French people. The same with Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc. Even the former Soviet Union (USSR), which tried to practice this “Tower of Babel” kind of forcefully putting peoples of different ethnic groups, philosophy of life, value systems, religious beliefs, languages and cultures, forcing them to live as one country, have today learnt their mistakes and have since adjusted to the natural and modern nation state structure and system that respects people’s diversity, religious, cultural and linguistic differences. Something we have refused to imbibe with in post-colonial Africa till date. You now see why the Arab-Muslim-dominated country like Turkey, despite its sharing of neighbourhood with Western European countries like Greek, Italy, Cyprus, etc., will never be accepted into European Union as a member nation-state. Oil and water can never mix.
Thus, without this radical and honest approach to the Nigeria’s foundational problem, the country’s problem of bad-governance, insecurity, political and economic instability, poverty, hopelessness, military and police brutality and impunity; and especially, of Muslim extremism, herdsmen terrorism and violence, will continue to multiply as every day passes].”
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine!
Francis Anekwe Oborji is a Roman Catholic Priest. He lives in Rome where he is a Professor of missiology (mission theology) in a Pontifical University. He runs a column on The Trent. He can be reached by email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
