InThus Spoke Zarathustra’, German Philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche argues that all human values are created by humans, rather than gods. So it was that on Monday June 5, 2021, governors of the southern divide of Nigeria met again, to set out a definite agenda for the return of power to the southern divide in accordance with the political agreement on the rotation of power between the north and the south. In doing that, the governors made a bold step to insist that Nigeria’s democracy must be made to work, not by gods, but by Nigerians irrespective of the desires and interest of the few.

The significant thing here is that the Lagos declaration was the second by the southern governors in 49 days. The first was the Asaba Declaration of May 18. On that day, the governors publicly stated their position against open grazing. They banned the practice in all southern states. That decision, as expected, infuriated some Fulani leaders, including the Attorney General of the federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, a very Senior Advocate of Nigeria who could not draw the line between narrow-mindedness and broad nationalism which his office demands. Some of his ilk, who also used their minds like he did, condemned the southern governors and suggested that Nigeria can only become reasonably governed on their own terms. On the heels of that, President Muhammadu Buhari sat before the nation to argue that grazing routes, as contained in a pre-independent Nigeria gazette, be exhumed and enforced. He however did not state what would happen to places like Aso Villa, assuming it was captured in the gazette as a grazing field.

Meeting again after 49 days and restating their commitment to the ban on open grazing, and its enforcement thereof, points to some unsettling developments in the polity which the governors may have become privy to. They also may be working to arrest such development. And there is no better time to take the stand than now. In taking a stand on the enforcement of the ban on open grazing, the southern governors want to cure a malaise that had generated so much discontent and dragged Nigeria to the precipice. Make no mistakes; grazing is no longer the exclusive preserve of the Fulani. It is now a trade which many people, other than the Fulani, are involved in. Therefore, seeing the ban on open grazing as an affront on the Fulani, suggest of a mindset that is deeply drowned in parochial myopia.

However, while many others that are involved in the trade have done well to ranch their cattle, the Fulani herder brazenly confronts sensibility with a mindset that rubbishes modernity even when their leaders travel abroad in airplanes instead of camels and donkeys, a practical embrace of modernity. Such brazen disregard for sensibility has been at the heart of continued discord between farmers and cattle grazers. In this guise, crimes have been committed. But the departure point here is the refusal by the government to flog all criminals with the same koboko.  This point to a duality in the justice administration system of Nigeria. It is for this duality of justice system that Nigeria has been brought to a tipping point making the call for power to shift to the south a most patriotic call. For this, I doff my hat again for the 17 southern governors. They spoke in unison like their northern counterparts would.

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Like Nietzsche said, values are created by humans. It is Nigerians that will ultimately create the values that will pull their country from the brink and place it back on the growth pedestal. Those who have sought to balkanize Nigeria and go their separate ways are making the effort because of the system of leadership enunciated by Buhari since 2015. His has been a system that does not respect the beauty of the Nigerian diversity nor applies the law to every Tom, Dick and Harry as appropriate. And he does not even pretend about it. His aides also do not pretend that they love Nigeria. They kowtow and mimic the president in his style. Recall that during his recent packaged television appearances, the President had told Nigerians, and the world that cared to listen to him, that those found to be corrupt in his administration are quietly eased out. He did not make allusion to handing such persons over to the anti-corruption agencies. No, he said they are quietly removed and not publicized. That is why most Nigerians are asking for 2023 to arrive earlier. They cannot wait.

In looking towards 2023, Nigerians need now see it as an opportunity to heal and take back their country. Perhaps, this is the time to expand the network of negotiations and consensus building that will help quell separatist agitations in the south and berth the presidency in the southeast. I am not talking about an Igbo man being president. No, I am talking of the southeast producing the president in 2023. The two are not the same. Igbo is an ethnic nationality. Southeast is a geopolitical zone, actually, one of the six that is politically recognized for ease of administration of Nigeria. Get my drift? Olusegun Obasanjo did not become President in 1999 because he is Yoruba. He did, because the power pendulum was worked to the southwest. That was why the presidential candidates of the two main political parties at the time came from the zone. A re-enactment of same scenario is now, even more possible and more necessary to heal the wounds of division, exclusion, ostracism and alienation created by the incumbent administration.

I will expect that southeast political leaders, including all its elected representatives, its media and those in Ohanaeze Ndigbo, set new targets in realignments and negotiations for this possibility to become real. 2023 is achievable for the southeast if the arguments are properly reframed. There is a pool of human resource to pick from for this task. Already, there is a concord between Ohanaeze, Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum and Pan Niger Delta Forum for the power pendulum to swing southeastwards in 2023. What may be left now is a deeper penetration of the necessary power blocs with the right arguments. The south must take advantage of the unity that the Buhari administration has forced among its people to seek to reshape Nigeria through a structured programme that will enable the region to pull Nigeria back and deliver a better country to all its people.