Soyinka’s warning on Nigeria’s suicidal slide

The recent warning by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, that Nigeria might not celebrate another Democracy Day as one nation is very timely. Soyinka, who spoke in an interview with Arise Television, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop exuding false confidence and listen to his citizens’ clamour for decentralisation and restructuring.

According to Soyinka, “If a nation is on a suicide slide, the people who feel that they do not deserve that kind of suicidal plunge have a right to say they are getting off this plane before it nosedives.”

Coming on the heels of the demonstrations that trailed the Democracy Day on June 12, and the continuous agitation for restructuring by the majority of Nigerians, the Federal Government should take Soyinka’s warning seriously. What the Nobel Laureate said is an amplification of what many prominent Nigerians have said over the years. In 2019, Soyinka together with the former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd); and former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan were among the prominent Nigerians who cautioned that Nigeria was drifting and heading towards anarchy.           

In July 2017, some Christian elders comprising such personalities as former Lt. Gen. Danjuma (retd), and retired Generals Zamani Lekwot and the late Joshua Dogonyaro warned that Nigeria was drifting dangerously towards another war. Socio-cultural groups such as Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and many others have said similar things. Simply put, the majority of Nigerians want fiscal federalism, devolution of powers, state police, among others.

Currently, we are operating a system that was at the behest of the colonial masters. Even the constitution we are operating now is a military creation purported to have been enacted by the people of Nigeria. Today, there is serious tension in most parts of the country. In the North, bandits have made life unbearable for the citizens. Kidnap of schoolchildren and travellers for ransom has become a lucrative business. In the South East, security agents are the target of unknown gunmen who often kill them and set their stations and operational vehicles ablaze. This has led to the harassment and sometimes, killing of innocent youths under the guise of hunting for the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

In the South West, there have been occasional clashes between Fulani herdsmen and the natives. Agitations for self-determination have increased both in the South East and South West even as North Central and the Niger Delta regions have their own grievances. A Yoruba activist, Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, has given the Fulani ultimatum to quit Yoruba land.

We seem not to have learnt any lesson from the 30-month civil war that cost the country millions of lives. It is worthy to note that in the 2019 Fragile States Index, the Washington-based Fund For Peace ranked Nigeria as the 14th most unstable country in the world out of 178 countries assessed.

The major cause of the current tension in the country can be traced to the activities of killer herdsmen. This is why southern governors banned open grazing in their region. Rather than support it, the Federal Government has been making statements indicating support for open grazing. The most worrying thing is that the more people agitate for restructuring, the more the Presidency feels adamant to fulfill the wishes of the people. In responding to calls for restructuring by people like Pastor Enoch Adeboye last year, the Presidency through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said government would not succumb to threats or take a decision out of pressure. It described such calls as unwarranted and unpatriotic. 

Yugoslavian leaders similarly blocked their ears to the agitations from the constituent units in the country. By 1992, there was no stopping the splitting of the country into seven independent states. Czechoslovakia suffered the same fate. The country ignored early signs of a break-up and did not act swiftly until the wave of disintegration swept the country away.  It broke into two, Slovakia and Czech Republic, in 1993. Even Soviet Union was a once powerful nation. Today, it is fragmented into different countries.

It is important that our leaders should listen to the voices of reason. It is worth recalling that the Department of State Services (DSS) warned twice this year that certain non-state actors were bent on exploiting the country’s fault lines to cause ethno-religious conflict in some parts of Nigeria.

We need to act fast before things degenerate further. To start with, our borders must be adequately protected to prevent the influx of foreign criminal herdsmen into the country. Let us emulate Bolivia which, in 2008, wrote a new constitution recognising itself as a multi-ethnic country. It also prescribed clauses to protect culture, lands and indigenous languages. Also, Switzerland, with four ethno-linguistic groups, agreed to a rotational presidency among the seven-member federal council.

This is the time to negotiate Nigeria’s unity and prevent the looming suicidal slide.