By Isaac N. Obasi
After going through the Daily Sun of Thursday, September 28, 2017 particularly on the issues raised by the Catholic Bishop of Umuahia, Most Rev. L. Ugorji in his article titled ‘The ugly scares of python dance’, along with that by elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark in a news report titled ‘Reverse NNPC appointments, Clark urges Buhari’, I was deeply troubled.
As if these were not troubling enough, the back page piece by Amanze Obi on ‘Why are we not talking about Umuahia?’ and another inside-page piece by Simeon Nwakaudu titled ‘Rivers SARS, IGP and the rest of us’, sent me into deep reflection as to what is really happening to Nigeria at the age of 57 years. Let me simply say that these four people with different backgrounds cannot all be dismissed as alarmists.
I grew up knowing Chief Edwin Clark as someone whose ‘political marriage’ with the people of the Northern part of the country was taken for granted. I once heard him many years ago saying that it would be better for his people to do political business with the far away North than with their South-east neighbours. My understanding now is that the same North has created a new Edwin Clark who has been turned from an erstwhile political ally into a foe due mainly to political conservatism in pursuit of the so-called Northern interest.
By the way, is the interest of the poor masses in the North different from the masses in the South? Northern interest the way I have seen it pursued over the years is simply not more than the interest of the Northern political elite. The UNDP Human Development Reports over the years are there for everyone to see the extent to which Northern political elites have promoted the interest of their masses.
Why did Papa Edwin Clark change his political orientation towards the North? I think he realised (perhaps late in the day) how unjust our federation has been. The crucial question now is: should the North wait and create more new Edwin Clarks (political-ally-turned-foe) in many people of the South before being guided by enlightened self-interest to act to correct perceived injustice? Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa (also an ally turned foe) who Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu said died serving his political masters. The current APC conversation on restructuring going on in the North supports the view that the North is strategically not at its best in providing a nationally acceptable solution to save this wobbling nation.
I say this because the Daily Trust of Friday, September, 29, 201,7 reported that Kano and Kastina have rejected devolution of powers. The Daily Sun of the same September 29, reported an expanded list of Northern States that rejected devolution of powers to include Jigawa, and Nasarawa states. Do these states and their representatives in the National Assembly who voted against the devolution of powers understand what is really happening (among our youths and their remote political controllers) in the political firmament of this fragile federation? It all started from non-threatening cries of marginalization, to loud cries of exclusion, and then graduated to Nnamdi Kalu’s irritating brand of agitation called secession.
Do I agree with him? No. But I am deeply worried that given the Kaduna declaration by the Coalition of Arewa Youths, and the conditions for lifting their quit notice, as well as the way the Operation Python Dance 11 was executed, who knows where Nigeria is heading to, with Nnamdi Kalu’s secession hullabaloo?
Reflecting on all the news items mentioned in the Daily Sun of Thursday, September 28, it is clear that those who were earlier agitated by the non-inclusion of the Igbos in the top hierarchy of the defence and security architecture of this country, were not crying wolf. The activities of the army, the police and some other security agencies in the South-east and some parts of the South-south appear to be unsatisfactory to many objective observers. I am yet to hear for instance, a satisfactory explanation by the Army as to why the Secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Umuahia was equally invaded at the time of their operation. This leaves many to believe that it was meant to cover the inhuman treatment given to members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOD).
Back to some of the points raised earlier, the central thesis of Bishop Ugorji’s article is that ‘rather than engage soldiers to eliminate non-violent agitators, government should urgently address the anomalies that are the root causes of agitations in the nation’. This is where Chief Edwin Clark’s practical approach as to what stokes these agitations here and there becomes relevant. It is a mark of sheer political insensitivity that two geo-political zones producing oil and who are agitating for one thing or the other, are at the same time treated unjustly (with alacrity also) in NNPC as if to say what would they do? This is even happening in a parastatal supposedly under a ministry their son is serving as a Minister of State.
There is need for restraint and display of political self-enlightenment by those who are quick to remind everyone that the unity of this country is not negotiable. It is important that those preaching peaceful co-existence must first of all be seen working for justice. Nigeria’s unity at her age of 57 years is in desperate need of justice to enable it stand on a solid ground that supports peaceful co-existence. As a young scholar who taught a course on Federalism at the Usman Danfodiyo Univerity, Sokoto in the early 80s, I understand perfectly well that Nigeria operates a fragile federalism that needs to be properly managed by our political leaders.
Perhaps the time has come to include Justice in our Coat of Arms which currently has Unity & Faith, Peace & Progress. Looking at these four words, the absence of justice has denied us meaningful progress as a nation. May God bless the soul of late President Umaru Yar’ Adua for thinking differently with respect to the huge problems of the Niger Delta region. He was a man of immense political wisdom – who spoke little but acted impressively with a sense of justice. The path for all is to work for unity and peace with justice.
It is important to point out that political conservatism is not a virtue in this turbulent age of Nigeria’s political history, as it is more of an evil wind that blows us all no good. Those who think that sticking to one option on a continuum of arrays of solutions to solve our collective problems is political sagacity, are strategically mistaken. Wisdom dictates that we all should make efforts to calm the raging political storm.
Come to think of it, Nigeria of 1967 is definitely different from that of 2017. Why? The relationship between the South-east and South-south of today has greatly improved. Political wisdom again dictates that all patriots should put their heads and hands together to prevent the balkanization of Nigeria unwittingly.
Prof. Obasi writes from Department of Public Administration, University of Abuja,