Ayo Oyoze Baje

If you have, like my humble self ever wondered how our crop of patriotic founding fathers would feel, should they be brought back to lifeto see the Nigeria of today, you would be compelled by sheer moral compunction to call on our current political helmsmen to govern us differently. They should exercise more dexterity and be more nationalistic in handling the country’s rather intricate, socio-economic and political affairs.

Imagine if the likes of Herbert Macaulay, Sir Adeyemo Alakija,Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Prof. EyoIta, Margaret Ekpo (all of blessed memory) were to witness a Nigeria of the 21st Century still bitterly  enmeshed in ethno-centric and religious divides. Try and also imagine Dr. Nnamidi Azikiwe, Adeleke Adedoyin, Adeniyi Jones, Eric Moore, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Abubakar Dipcharima, Aminu Kano (of blessed memory) returning to a Nigeria steeped in preventable poverty, mass youth unemployment, kidnapping and sundry crimes!

Certainly, these heroes of the struggle for Nigeria’s political independence would ask what has made the difference between countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nigeria, whose independence came within the same decade or two, if not quality leadership, or the absence of it. They would cringe at the crying shame of a people still struggling for economic survival in the midst of the vast natural resources, 59 years after.

They would wonder just how, like the prodigal sonwe have squandered away huge revenues from  our God-given  oil and gas, solid minerals, agricultural and tourism potentials and ask our leaders to explain whywe are currently trapped in state and federal government debts running into trillion of Naira. The likes of Michael Imoudu, T.A Bankole, A. A, Adio-Moses, M.A Tokunbo and T.A Songonuga, who once ran the affairs of  theNigerian Trade Union Congress(NTUC)would even ask our state governors to explain  just how it has become difficult to pay a minimum wage of N30,000 at a time our honourable lawmakers  cruise around in luxury automobiles, with some state governors boasting of private jets flying over children studying under treesin their long-forgotten states!

My dear reader, the handwriting is on the wall, as it was back in the Biblical times. But some of our political helmsmen, with self-serving and greed-driven agendas,rather than nationalistic principleshave blatantly refused to read it.The call for the holistic restructuring of my dear nation, Nigeriahas reached a nerve-shredding crescendo, reverberating across the national space.But some have obstinately turned deaf earsto it,or heed its clarion toll.

So, we caution, as we have to do under trying times such as this, out of sheer patriotic fervor that Nigeria, can no longer be ruled the way it is being run against the ethos of equity and justice.Nigeria can no longer be ruled by the tools of treachery, the weapons of witch-hunt and the cudgels of coercion, worse still under a democratic dispensation. Recent signs in the political horizon are scary enough.

To begin with, not a few observers of the polity would agree that Nigerians have not been as divided along ethnic and religious cleavages as we find ourselves today.For instance, while some concerned Nigerians had expected President Muhammadu Buhari to be guided by the noble mantra of nationalism and give out political appointments to guarantee ethnic equity, that of his First Term were obviously skewed in favour of the North and his political acolytes.

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Now, we are in his Second Term and the paradigm is yet to shift. Add the controversial RUGA policy and the increasing vexation of the Myetti Allah group in national discourse. What about the inexplicable move by the Katsina state governor, Alhaji Aminu Masari hobnobbing with armed bandits in the name of a spurious amnesty? So, the lives of their voiceless victims are worthless compared to that of the mindless killers?! According to Umar Sani, spokesperson of the PDP presidential campaign, Masari’s recent move is a clear indication of the failure of security across the country. Yet, there is another worrisome development that is currently riddling the political sphere,that calls for utter caution and concern.

Barely five months of Buhari’s second term, the issue of which of the geo-political zonesto produce the 2023 presidency has taken precedence over how to pull Nigeria out of the ignoble status of the world’s poverty capital. Or,  how to get the army of our job-seeking youth running intomillions out of the violent streets.

There are already posters of the Kaduna state governor, el-Rufai adorning the walls of some cities as he reportedly gears up for the plum political post. Both Babarchir Lawal and Ahmed Yerima of the Arewa Youth group are making it loud and clear that the North is not about to hand over the presidential baton to any other section of the country in the next dispensation.

This has expectedly triggered off worries, anger and disbelief in some of those zones. Some people are even thinking of how Nigerians can go their separate ways, a move that is againstthe grains of the 1999 Constitution and is treasonable! In response, however, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a lawyer and nonagenarian chieftain of the Afenifere group had this to say in a recent media chat. “People are talking of breaking up because the term of coming together has been abrogatedby the Northern Muslims who are dominating us. This is why the young elements, extremists in the South-East, South-South and Middle Belt are yearning for break –up just because of their refusal to yield to our demand for peaceful co-existence”. This situation calls for utmost caution, especially from the executive arm of government.

Truth be told, Nigeria cannot be governed by instilling fear in the hapless, hungry and hounded citizenry; with military operations such as Crocodile  Smile, at a time some local government councils have been overtaken by the insurgents up there in Borno state. Methinks our military men would be of better use protecting our territorial integrity than riding roughshod on a people asking themselves what is really the worth of being called a Nigerian. Unity is never forged by the fierce flames of fiat, or by feisty, fratricidal force of inequity. No! Not in a democracy. And not in the 21st Century for a country made up of some 200 million people; of diverse ethnicity, culture, class and religion.

Rather, unity evolves out of the clear understanding of who we are as a people and the mutual respect for our obvious differences.There is a bond of brotherhood that binds us all, if only we are humble enough to admit it; that we are here to complement one another’s efforts and overcome our weaknesses.

Let us therefore, listen to the voices of reason. According to the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, restructuring of Nigeria is the answer to the wave of agitations currently hitting across Nigeria. At a lecture titled: ‘Restructuring Nigeria: Decentralisation for National Cohesion’ delivered in 2017 at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House in London he  said that:“Our present constitution is not autochthonous. It was not written by the people of Nigeria. It was not approved in a national referendum. In jurisprudence, its effectiveness will score a very low grade on account of its unacceptability.

Baje writes from Lagos