By  Eddie Mbadiwe

The vibes coming out of the Southern Governors meeting in Asaba recently were refreshing as they were relevant. It was a burst of fresh air. The governors by this singular act have shown that when united, nobody and I repeat nobody can break them. This is not about party. It is not even about politics. Rather it is a matter of group survival in a hostile environment. The Governors all control their various Houses of Assembly so it should not be difficult to give legal teeth to their resolutions.

Good things do germinate from Delta so it is kudos to Governor Okowa and others who quietly choreographed this important meeting. Unlike most things Nigerian this one did not leak before it was actualized.If we must have a union, it must be a union of equal partners not masters and slaves.

My late uncle Dr K.O. Mbadiwe told me repeatedly to be at the dividing table and to make sure I do not take anybody’s share but let no one touch my legitimate entitlement. That’s all we ask for and nobody can fault this. There was also a rider my uncle called “eweluewelukwa” which simply means thatone takes a second share when others haven’t taken the first. That is just sowing the seeds of conflict and ‘kata kata’. These cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called greed.

Sir Winston Churchill in one of his inspirational Radio broadcasts during the second world war when the future of Britain looked grey and bleak because the German Luftwaffe bombed London non-stop, in closing his broadcast said “If we must die, let us all die like men, not like chicken with their necks wrung –some chicken and some neck “We ask Nigerians to speak up because we live in a society where a good majority of our people are deaf and dumb. They have ears but cannot hear and some have mouths but cannot speak. In fact some have eyes but have refused to see.

The general attitude is “Ba kwomi and anything goes”.  More than twenty years ago, I wrote an article on why it was important to move cattle down south only in 30 ton trailers. That was purely from a nutrition angle many years before clashes between herdsmen and farmers. When you subject these animals to tortuous journeys of thousands of kilometers surviving on patchy grass and unclean water, they arrive at their destination skin and bones and you can in fact count their ribs.

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The other more important part is that during the long trek, due to mal nutrition the cattle deplete their reserves of essential amino acids so that by the time they are slaughtered, the meat is more or less tendon. This short changes both the cattle herdsmen and the consumer. Of course no one took that article serious and we are where we are.

There is no nation that does not have problems but with goodwill, dialogue and give and take all issues can be resolved standing on justice and truth. When one reads the list of Federal Government appointments to the major offices in this country and sees the heavy Weighting in favour of one part of the country, the question that comes to my mind is “Do the originators of these appointments sleep at night?” There is no way they can have peace of mind unless they are sub human. We do not need Col. Umar former Governor of Kaduna State to tell President Buhari that there is unpardonable discrimination in the land. It is crystal clear even to the blind. It is alright to harangue the nation that we are stronger together. Everyone agrees with that but we are building on a very shakyand roller coaster foundation. A house built on such foundation must collapse as we have seen in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu and many other towns. This nation is bleeding and we must do everything to stop it.

Human beings are very easy to lead but very difficult to drive. Examples are legion throughout history. Nobody wants any conflagration for the last one was messy, bloody and wasted millions of precious lives. For goodness sake let the playing field be level and accessible to all. Is that asking too much? Survival of the fittest is a biological truism.

Truth and justice must be the four beacons of the new country if we are determined that it will stand and grow.

As Martin Luther King Jr put it just before he was assassinated.  “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Speak Nigerians Speak. This state of anomie and apathy cannot pull Nigeria out of the woods.

Rt. Hon. Dr Mbadiwe writes from Abuja