NIGERIA could be likened to a cat with nine lives as it emerged from a protracted civil war, bloody religious uprisings, and political troubles not dismembered. However, some countries, which are heterogeneous as Nigeria, had disintegrated. Eritrea pulled out of Ethiopia after fighting political battles with Ethiopia; and Sudan split into two, with South Sudan emerging from it. But can Nigeria continue existing as one indivisible and united country for a long indefinite time?
As to that, nobody can correctly hazard a guess. However, the bloody happenings in Nigeria are auguries of impending apocalypse in Nigeria. Today, Nigeria is gripped at the jugular by Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, the Fulani cattle herders’ murderous deeds, kidnappings, inter-tribal conflicts, and other sundry crimes. These security challenges, which are undermining our national unity and cohesion, are asphyxiating life out of Nigeria. Today, Nigeria is inching close to becoming a fragile state.
For example, the deadly Boko Haram insurgents, who want to create an Islamic theocracy in Nigeria, hold sway in the North-East of Nigeria. Unfortunately, there is no let-up in their blood-letting campaign. They kill people by detonating bombs in public places teeming with people. More so, till now, hundreds of kidnapped school girls are still in their captivity. The Federal government, which is charged with eradicating crimes in Nigeria, has abysmally failed to stem the tide of the Boko Haram insurgence.
Until recently, bandits turned vast areas of Zamfara into ungovernable places. They would kill people with reckless abandon. Thankfully, now, the government is reining in the activities of the bandits in the North West of Nigeria.
In addition to the afore-mentioned security challenges besetting Nigeria, the ubiquitous Fulani cattle herders, who have sanguinary proclivities, have embarked on a killing spree in many parts of Nigeria. They do kill members of their host communities, especially farmers. In addition to this, they desecrate the sanctity of womanhood by raping women, indiscriminately. Sadly, they’re seldom brought to justice as one of their own is presiding over the affairs of Nigeria.
To make matters worse, there are suspicions that members of security outfits in Nigeria are complicit in crimes, which are committed by armed robbers and kidnappers in the country. The Hamisu Wadume’s arrest and subsequent release by soldiers at a checkpoint has become an eye-opener for us. Our soldiers and policemen’s aiding and abetting of crimes in our country signposts the fact that Nigeria is fast turning to a fragile state.
While Nigeria is chafing and groaning under the yoke of insecurity, President Buhari is pussyfooting as to tackling our crippling national problems. Has he re-invigorated our economy to create job opportunities for millions of unemployed Nigerians and lift them out of excruciating poverty? The answer is a categorical no.
Consequently, Nigerians have embraced suicide as a way of escape from economic hardship. And the negotiated new minimum wage, which would give workers new lease of life and improve their living conditions, has not been implemented.
It is this state of things that Mr. Sowore planned to call attention to with his “Revolution Now” before he was arrested. Sowore has been clamped into detention and charged with a treasonous offence. Is it in our statute book or constitution that organizing protests is a treasonable offence? Muzzling opposition voices with high-handedness is an anti-democratic practice. It portrays Nigeria as a police state. It is an unconscionable act for the government to abridge the citizens’ right to freedom of expression and assembly.
We should remember that President Buhari had proscribed these groups, namely Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) for self-serving reasons. His preference for Sunni brand of Islam as against IMN’s Shia Islam informed his proscription of IMN.
And members of IPOB reserve the right to agitate for the sovereign state of Biafra in the same way as the people of Catalonia are agitating. But president Buhari who is with ethnocentrism proscribed IPOB.
However, it is President Buhari’s ethnocentrism or ethnic chauvinism that caused the resurgence of the pro-Biafra sentiments among the Igbo people. For example, during his first term in office, most of those he appointed into our top security architecture were northern Moslems. That action of his reinforced the belief that President Buhari is an ethnic jingoist who is trying to actualize the Fulani agenda, which is the Fulani people’s political dominance of the rest of Nigerians.
A national leader should be a unifying factor in a country, and not a divisive element. But President Buhari is wont to execute ill-thought out policies that create tension in Nigeria and polarizes us along ethnic and religious lines. His RUGA proposal, which was fiercely shut down and shelved, was a classic advertisement of his insensitivity to other people’s plight, belief system, and others. Did he and his leadership team think through it before making it public?
That brings into focus the people, who constitute his executive team. Now, President Buhari has inaugurated the new ministers into office. Are they technocrats, who possess leadership qualities, probity, and patriotism? Are they the best capable hands that can handle the portfolios assigned to them? Or did President Buhari reward them for being dedicated APC loyalists?
We are not unaware that national underdevelopment is not unconnected with bad and profligate political leadership. No nation can rise above the visions and dreams of its leaders at various levels. Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore have achieved economic prosperity and technological advancement owing to good political leadership obtainable in those countries.
Here, although we’ve oil-wealth and humongous human resources, Nigeria is going to the dogs because we lack focused, patriotic, honest, astute, and visionary leaders, who can harness our natural and human resources to bring about our rapid economic and national development.
However, we should remember that national development is a function of the existence of functional educational system in a country. Revamping our school system is key and critical to Nigeria’s achieving economic and technological greatness.Can President Buhari start to do the right things now?
Okoye writes from Uruowulu-Obosi
Anambra State