By Kenechukwu Obiezu

The storms continue to gather apace for Nigeria.From all directions, the country is  besieged. Whether it is the angry denunciations of the fickle entity called Nigeria by the IPOB, the savage attacks from the Boko Haram sect, the occasional, yet menacing protestations by restive Niger-Delta youths, or the growing calls for the country to be restructured, the country is troubled. It seems it is only a matter of time before the long-suffering contraption is placed on the operating table of national discourse to be examined by both patriots and pretenders to the intense anxiety of citizens who wake up daily to interminable bouts of glitches.

Even to the most ambivalent and apathetic of participants in public discourse, it has not escaped detection that the country first hit the paths of convulsive existence barely seven years after independence when it descended into the dark trenches of civil war in 1967 and fought there for over two years.  Though, it escaped seemingly victoriously, with its soul intact, the agenda for a difficult existence had been inked.

Things have not remained the same for the country more than forty years later. When there has been peace, it has at best been a peace of the graveyard. The many battles Nigeria has had to fight have been small scale but arduous. None has attained the scale of the internecine civil war of 1967-1970, but Nigeria has been sapped of valuable energy, nonetheless.

It is no rocket science that the three major ethnic groups, scattered among hundreds of minor ethnic groups straddling the different geopolitical zones of the country, look and act towards one another with contempt and suspicion. The two major religions which boast over a hundred million adherents spread across different ethnic groups and geopolitical zones look upon one another with irreligious suspicion. The result of this mutual loathing and suspicion is the ever deepening hollowness of Nigeria’s much vaunted `unity in diversity.’

For a country of over a hundred million citizens which cannot boast of homogeneity in either ethnicity or religion, there was always going to be niggling challenges on the journey to a nationhood that is prosperous, just and equitable. In fact, that the fabric of the country’s unity has held together for this number of years is a refulgent testimony to the efforts and aspirations of majority of its citizens who loath violence of any sort, and the painfully few visionary leaders the country has been blessed with at the highest levels. However, with the frustrations of long-suffering citizens mounting against a system that is churning out abysmal failure and systemic suffering, and the increasing dearth of patriotic leaders, Nigeria as it is   seems destined for the dusk of history. The knell rings clearly.

Wherever one turns, it seems the behemoth is disintegrating. The members of the IPOB have, for the better part of the last two years, sustained an energetic struggle for secession from Nigeria. While it seems the odds are long and heavily stacked against them, the substance of their agitations cannot escape any vision unblemished by bias. Indeed, the cry of injustice and marginalization also resounds in the Niger Delta.

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Some years ago, a slew of sustained agitations springing from accusations of marginalization and systemic decimation of a people’s ecosystem threatened to incinerate the entire nation. It was quelled with a tactical brew of sticks and carrots. Even the Boko  Haram  sect which  has its theatre and provenance in the North, and the Islamic religion, has never hidden the identity of its primary   enemies and the prime destination of its ruthless attacks. All these have helped to stoke tension.

Nigeria’s imminent restructuring has been hastened by a paucity of  good leaders and the docility of followers Nigeria has been maledicted with since independence. In fact, this seems the single biggest contributor to the deafening protests resounding all over the country. Most of the leaders Nigeria has had at different levels since independence have, after grabbing the reins of power through shocking porous electoral  systems, proceeded to unleash a virulent brand of greed and inertia on the country. It is only cheery news that in the past few years, the ballot box has begun to prove too deep for such men of shallow minds and eternally shifting ethics.

The calls for Nigeria to be restructured   continue to gain steam, and as usual, its misguided opponents are up in arms bristling with ulterior motives. However, the forces of chaos and backwardness can only hold on for so long against the collective will of a people starved of justice and equity for so long.

Obiezu writes from Abuja via [email protected]