The agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra is gaining currency by the day. And so is the call for the restructuring of the country. I wrote the story you are about to read in October 2008. Almost 10 years after, our situation has not changed. In fact, it has worsened. Who will rescue Nigeria? Please read on:
At first, Odinga identified and attacked what one may call the hardware of Nigeria’s problems. According to him, he was in Nigeria during the 1999 and 2003 elections as well as in 2006. Somebody told him then that the presidency was rotated between the North and the South; that since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had taken the turn of the South, it was time for the North to ascend the throne again.
The Prime Minister stressed, “I asked what happens to the South-East and I was told that the situation is like that because Northerners do not trust the Easterners. If you say that some people can vote and cannot be voted for, then why are we here? Something similar to that happened in Kenya too in the past when they said that the uncircumcised could not lead the country. This situation causes disintegration. The right to vote also confers on one the right to be voted for.”
Amplifying Odinga’s standpoint, renowned author, Prof. Chinua Achebe, said, “At the end of the 30-month war, Biafra was a vast smouldering rubble; the cost in human lives was a staggering two million souls, making it one of the bloodiest civil wars in human history. I find it difficult to forgive Nigeria and my countrymen and women for the political nonchalance and cruelty that unleashed upon us these terrible events, which set us back a whole generation and robbed us of the chance clearly within our grasps to become a medium range developing nation in the 21st Century.” He described Nigeria as a wayward child.
Clearly, there are animosities and mutual mistrust among different entities that make up Nigeria. And this is at the heart of the country’s problems. Some may say leadership is the major problem. Others may say it is corruption. To an extent, that is true.
We need purposeful leaders who will galvanise the people towards a common goal; leaders who will not only promise to build roads, hospitals, and provide water and security, but will also fulfil such promises in record time.
As for corruption, the challenge is also enormous. Last week alone, there was a harvest of arrests, detention and prosecution of leaders suspected to have engaged in corrupt practices. In Abia State, for instance, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission reportedly intensified investigations into the money laundering allegations against the Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji. The Commission had purportedly detained the state’s Accountant General, Mrs. Bridget Onyema, for allegedly transferring a total of about N1.9632bn as travel estacodes for the governor, his deputy, their wives and families and 23 others to attend World Igbo Congress in the United States in September this year.
Besides, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday in Abuja arraigned the Chief of Staff to Rivers State Governor, Mr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, over alleged N5bn fraud. The EFCC, also that Thursday, arraigned former Minister of Aviation, Babalola Borisade, and three others over their roles in the N6.5bn aviation fund scam. The same Thursday, the EFCC raided the offices of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc in Lagos to unravel the mystery surrounding the mismanagement of NAHCO’s N210m.
I don’t think it’s in our blood to be inherently corrupt. I don’t also think that it’s in our system to breed dubious leaders. Individually, Nigerians excel in any endeavour they find themselves, anywhere in the world. Why then is it difficult for us to excel as a country?
The answer lies in Odinga and Achebe’s observations. The burning nationalism that moves people to die for their country is lacking in most Nigerians. That is why a leader goes to Abuja not to serve the greater interest of the people, but to loot the treasury in order to satisfy his selfish interests. The nation can go to blazes for all he cares. Arrest that leader tomorrow, his townsmen will be the first to protest and accuse the authorities of witch-hunting their son.
The common assumption in Nigeria today is that the North will not allow Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to assume the mantle of leadership if anything happens to the President.
The truth is that it is easier for a Nigerian to get better opportunities in a country like the United Kingdom than in Nigeria. A brilliant student of Southern extraction will likely be denied admission in most universities in the North because Northern students, who may have performed below average, must be admitted first. Same thing goes for a brilliant Northern candidate seeking admission into a Southern university.
This is partly why there is a proliferation of ethnic groups like the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Oodua People’s Congress, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Ijaw National Congress and so on. These groups are basically there to champion the interests of their own people.
The delusion in many parts of the East now is that Biafra will soon gain independence from Nigeria. Already, we have characters who go by the name Igwe (king) of Biafra. Some have made themselves commissioners or ministers in the yet to be actualised Federal Republic of Biafra.
I was home in August and I had a chance encounter with one Igwe Biafra in my hometown. He was so sure that President George Bush of the US had consented to the independence of Biafra that he vowed to commit suicide if it failed to materialise by September this year. Well, September has passed, and I’m not sure my Igwe friend has committed suicide.
Nigeria needs to reassure the Biafran Igwes that they are still part of Nigeria. It needs to reassure the Ijaw man that the oil in his backyard is a blessing and not a curse. It needs to let the OPC man, the Arewa irredentist and sundry ethnic jingoists know that there is no deliberate attempt to sideline any of them in the scheme of things in the country.
One major way to do this is to hold a conference of ethnic nationalities. Representatives of each nationality will tell one another the home truth and then map out strategies on how to live together as a nation or how to separate peacefully, if need be.
Re: 2019 and Hameed Ali’s unquantifiable love for Buhari
Brother Igbokwe, your article was good and well researched. It must have been done with lots of pain replying to Ali.
What do you think Ali would see, hear or say? Are the Arewa elders and youths who form almost a parallel federal government saying something different? Of these people, who has ever talked of Nigeria, other than northern interest? Was even the Northern People’s Congress not meant to serve the interest of the North?
Brother, even now, there are hurdles everywhere. The hurdles have to be cleared before sense could reign in Nigeria, before progress could be registered in Nigeria.
– Dim L.N., +2348036704539
Any young man/woman who will vote for APC in 2019 elections will be dumped in Sambisa forest. Be warned! APC = Suffering. APC = Poverty. APC = Hunger. APC = Shame of a nation. Please, don’t vote APC again. God bless you.
– Anonymous, +2348144697765
Good morning Igbokwe. I read your article on Buhari and I pity all Igbo that live in Nigeria ’cause they will be deceived as it happened in 1967 when Yoruba deceived them and abandoned them.
– N.T., +2349030098189
Please ask Hameed Ali to tell you how much is his pension, as a retired colonel. If not because he was made a Comptroller-General by Buhari, I am sure he was languishing in his house, somewhere in the North. It is unfortunate that someone like Ali, who should understand the hardship Nigerians are passing through, can open his mouth to say Nigerians are lazy.
– Anonymous, +2348033119751
Casmir, it is not just Hameed Ali that has accepted PMB’s quality performance but the silent majority of Nigerians who don’t rely on social media for fake news. What Nigeria is doing today is what the British taught us, “Chase corruption and corrupt people into hell.” Check Nigeria of 1999 to 2015 and you see unbridled corruption, monumental fraud and grand larceny written all over our national life. Is it what you want to bring back? No! No! No!
– Chike Nwigbo, Awka: +2348037090360
Casmir, your write-up, P.47, of Daily Sun is instructive. All I can say is that there was a country.
Yours, Uzor: +2348092460255
Prof. Attahiru Jega rigged out President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, by not issuing voter cards in the South East, and supplying malfunctioning card readers to the same South East. In core northern strongholds, Jega used manual accreditation instead of card readers, and flagrantly overlooked massive under-age voting.
Anonymous, +2348131218031