 Published
April 13th, 2010
Unlike my previous outings,
this is not a structured article, but a stream of consciousness. As such,
the otherwise structural integrity of my write-ups has been sacrificed on
the altar of spontaneity and naturalness.
This article
is an agglomeration of the disparate issues and conditions
that are burdening the Nigerian nation (?) and denying her
the chance to attain real nationhood. For, even as our
so-called leaders have treated this extremely important
issue with levity and an attitude of extreme indifference,
it must be made crystal clear that the attainment of
nationhood is a condition precedent for any
meaningful and sustainable development, which, I dare say,
will continue to elude the nation so long as the issue
remains unattended or attended half-heartedly.
A country or
state must first be transformed into a nation/state before
it can attain its full potentials, otherwise it remains
still-born or at best a limping state eternally incapable of
attaining her potentials. It’s unfortunate that Nigeria has
been such a state since independence and remains even more
so today since the return of democracy. At this moment, the
nation is pulling apart rather than pulling together, and
there are good reasons for that tendency for break up.
A nation
state is a geo-political entity, which component units have
shared history, cultural values, customs, and traditions, to
a more or lesser degrees. These are the ingredients that
define a nation and glue its people together. These
ingredients confer on a nation its distinct character that
distinguishes it from other nations. The above definition
readily exposes Nigeria, not as one nation with the
attributes enumerated above, but as a conglomeration or an
amalgam of nations at odds with one another.
The Nigerian
state is a superstructure that is superimposed on this
amalgam of nations with no real efforts made to weld them
together. In this connection, Nigeria’s national
configuration differs markedly from those of other countries
with citizens from various nationalities like, for instance
the United States, whose nationalities are not indigenous to
the country, but came into the country and acquired its
citizenship individually with their cultural roots more or
less severed at their points of departure from their home
countries. There are no distinct regions in the United
States that harbor indigenous nations except of course for
the indigenous Indian tribes that are sequestered in
reservations with little or no influence in national
politics. On the contrary, Nigeria is composed ab initio of
indigenous tribal or ethnic groups with their respective
shared cultural identities, customs, traditions, and
everything else in between untouched and intact. And they
remain so today and forever. These cultural identities,
customs, traditions, et al, are not necessarily bed fellows,
but act like polar extremes in more ways than one.
It is no
surprise, therefore, that its component units cannot see eye
to eye on anything other than the common African-ness and
skin color that connects all African nations and peoples
together. Other than that they have little or nothing in
common. These tribal groupings have different and opposing
world views. While the North looks up to the Middle East for
inspiration, the South looks up to the West for inspiration.
For instance, while the Islamic North would have nothing to
do with the state of Israel and inspired Nigeria’s severance
of diplomatic ties with the Jewish state in the First
Republic, which was only recently restored, because of its
problems with the Arab world in general, particularly the
Palestinians, the South wants nothing else but Israel due to
its predominantly Christian population.
While
Southern pilgrims head to Israel, Northern pilgrims head to
Saudi Arabia. When airplanes fly out of international
airports in the North, they’re headed for the most part, to
the Middle East, while those from the Southern airports are
headed for the most part, to the West. While the North has
Penal Code sourced from Pakistan with Sharia laws used to
chop off hands of petty criminals and adultery convicts
superimposed in many Northern states, the South has Criminal
Code sourced from England, and would not even dare to touch
Sharia laws with a long pole even in states with huge Moslem
populations in the South/West.
There is
hardly a common ground other than shared oil wealth.
Nigerians must understand that the only thread holding the
nation together at this very moment in time is oil wealth
from the Niger Delta, which is distributed among the
component units leaving the source to bear the huge costs of
ecological disasters and environmental despoliation.
Subtract oil from the equation tomorrow and you’ll have a
collapsed nation in your hands with the broken parts carted
away by imperialists lurking in the shadows! Yet oil wealth
will not remain with us forever as the industrialized
nations aggressively search for alternative sources of
energy coupled with the fact that oil is a wasting and not a
renewable energy asset.
For the
nation to attain nationhood, therefore, the present overload
of centrifugal and the almost total absence of centripetal
forces, which have combined to reduce the nation to a “mere
geographical expression” must be deliberately balanced with
a healthy mix of policy tools that accord each force its
proper place in our nation, because neither of both forces
is inherently bad. Both have their places in the scheme of
things that must be recognized and respected in our
constitutional order. However, the overshadowing of one by
the other, in this case, centrifugal over centripetal, is
inimical to the nation and a recipe for national
disintegration. That is the urgent task before our leaders
the consummation of which will inevitably conduce to the
attainment of nationhood. There is no shying away from this
task as the forces of disintegration press ever harder and
harder on the still fragile entity to breaking point.
As this
writer sees it, the only way out is fiscal federalism,
because the exploitation of one region’s resources to
develop other regions in perpetuity while the others keep
their resources to themselves is not sustainable and the
root cause of the crisis in Niger Delta. We can pretend all
we want but it’s just not sustainable and the agitation will
not be assuaged by declaration of Amnesty and rehabilitation
of militants. It will not be assuaged either by development
of the region by the Federal Government. While these are
important steps in and of themselves at the moment, they’re
only stop gap measures that do not go far enough to address
the fundamental question of fiscal federalism. It is fair to
predict, therefore, that the temporary respite achieved in
Niger Delta is not sustainable and will therefore not last
precisely because of the reason adduced above, because no
amount of development will override the question of fiscal
federalism. The genie is already out of the bottle and not
even the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, who hails from the
region, will resolve the issue—at best it will only keep it
under the lid as long as he remains the president. But it
will re-emerge again in more virulent form in the future if
the crucial issue is not addressed now. Perhaps the
Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) now in the works will make a
difference. But as always the devil is in the details and
its implementation.
We can
equally say the same thing about the conditions in the east
of the majestic Niger where the ravages of the Nigerian
civil war have become monuments of shame. A region that has
the capacity and brain power to transform the nation into
modern day Taiwan is being ravaged by kidnappers who have
turned the vice into a cottage industry. And our so-called
leaders look on seemingly with amusement. There is nothing
amusing about wasting our youths and their God given
potentials that can lift the nation into the league of
developed nations if carefully tapped and exploited to the
hilt by the nation. It’s a win-win game-plan. The nation’s
future is being thoughtlessly and callously mortgaged
through the utter negligence of our youths and their
boundless potentials.
Isn’t it odd
and shameful that the birthplace of Drs. Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Michael Okpara, Chuba Okadigbo, Alex Ekwueme, Chike Obi,
Charles Solubo, and several of Nigeria’s intellectual
powerhouses, has been reduced to armed robbers and
kidnappers’ den? Isn’t it odd and shameful that the city of
Onitsha with the largest market in West Africa has been
reduced to a shanty town? How in the world is Nigeria going
to make it when her youths in that part of the nation are
being condemned to a life of crime and extortion rather than
as scientists, engineers, accountants, and technologists
that would drive the nation’s growth and development?
Impossible!
This is why
it makes sense to declare or extend the Amnesty to the
youths in the South/East who have taken to a life of crime
for want of economic opportunities. Just like the so-called
repentant militants in the Niger Delta, the kidnappers in
the East must be received, rehabilitated and reformed to
contribute their quotas to national development. Their
brains and talents are too precious to be wasted in crime.
They too are Nigerians and need rehabilitation. Don’t they?
Perhaps this could be conceptualized and formulated into a
nationwide policy thrust that could be extended to the
South/West and the North in general, for, the religious
fanatics too need rehabilitation. Or don’t they? It would
cost the nation a whole lot less to rehabilitate her sons
and daughters who have gone astray than to wait for them to
unleash mayhem on society and waste billions of naira
fighting them with no end in sight. Lives lost can never be
regained even if we can afford the cost. Prevention is
always a better option than our usual fire brigade methods
of dealing with crimes and criminality.
As a social
organism, Nigeria is constantly reacting to conflicting
stimuli that continually impinge on her senses very much
like our human biological senses. This is because when we
get right down to it her senses is the sum total of the
senses of her human population structured into geo-ethnic
entities vying for attention and sometimes supremacy. While
the geo-ethnic entities to the south and east are demanding
attention in order to reverse decades of neglect caused by
oil exploration and civil war respectively, the geo-ethnic
entities to the west and north are vying for political
supremacy respectively, at the regional and federal levels,
not so much about infrastructural neglect as their
counterparts in the south and east. And former president
Olusegun Obasanjo’s attempt to break the west loose and
integrate it into the mainstream of national politics, as
indeed was the late MKO Abiola, and Chief Akintola before
him, has only succeeded in antagonizing and alienating the
regional lords and the consequent demonization of OBJ by the
very centrifugal forces, which Ag President Jonathan,
decried in his address to his newly minted cabinet.
The West is
not crying of governmental neglect so much as it is striving
to hold on to the political control of its region to the
exclusion of others, especially by the party at the center.
In other words, the West is angling for a con-federal
arrangement of the nation’s constituent units that would
allow the units to develop at their own pace as obtains in
other confederations hence its insistent demand for
Sovereign National Conference (SNC). Understandably, this is
being firmly resisted by the North for reasons that have to
do with self-preservation more than anything else, as we
shall see presently.
And on its
part, the North in general, which, going by per capita
income, is easily the poorest and most underdeveloped region
in the nation, with its primitive nomadic tribes unleashing
mayhem on sedentary tribes in the Middle Belt region of its
underbelly, is demanding not so much national attention to
its developmental needs as it is of holding on to political
power by all means necessary.
Let’s face
it. The North is all about political power and nothing else
and, seemingly unperturbed about its unflattering economic
status in the nation. Oddly enough, it would appear that the
very notion of power holds such allure and sensual
gratification to the geo-ethnic zone that it couldn’t be
bothered if a large swath of its population is still leading
nomadic lives in the 21st century and parading an
army of beggars and illiterates (almajiris), who become easy
recruits and foot soldiers of religious fundamentalists.
This
primordial and apparent parasitic attachment to political
power by one region at the expense of the others is at the
root of Nigeria’s inability to forge a stable union since
independence. It is inconceivable and, therefore
unacceptable, that in a federation of ethnic groups one
ethnic group would arrogate to itself the prerogative of
producing the nation’s leadership at the center to the
exclusion of other ethnic groups in a nation that belongs to
all. It is even more painful when the region in question is
the least educated and least productive in wealth creation
because, put metaphorically, the blind cannot lead the
sighted except into a ditch where the nation has ended up
today waiting to be rescued yet again.
When
confronted with a simple choice between the constitution and
its political interest, the North chose to hold on to the
presidency even if only symbolically when its son took ill
and became medically incapacitated. Against all that is wise
and prudent, constitutional, commonsensical and expedient,
the region tethered the nation’s presidency to the sick bed
of its son in a far away Saudi Arabia, refusing to let go of
it, and would not brook the transfer of power to his deputy
who is from another region for fear of losing the
presidency. The North was only out of power for eight years
during OBJ’s rule having held it for 38 years and it was
panting and gasping for breath like a fish out of water!
Whenever power shifts from the North even for a day, its
survival is immediately threatened. That is an unhealthy
oddity that needs to the quickly addressed and corrected by
northern elites. It is a contagious pathology that has a
sickening effect on the body politic, which needs to be
extracted now before greater harm is done.
Unlike other
regions the survival of the entire North depends on
political patronage and political power is its biggest
industry. It is a shame that the survival of an entire
region the size of many big countries would depend entirely
on political patronage from the center and when it falls
short of getting that it feels threatened. Isn’t it why it
was reported that the North was asking Ag President Jonathan
for “juicy” ministerial positions? Why would a region ask
for “juicy” ministerial positions in government? For what
purpose is that demand made other than to use those
ministries for political patronage, which translates to
economic benefits for its elites? Would any section of the
United States, for instance, ask for particular ministerial
(departmental) positions? It is true that other regions are
now copying the North and demanding “juicy” ministerial
positions as well for the same or similar purpose, but
they’re not as overbearing and desperate for it as yet as
the North. The reason is that governmental patronage is not
their only source of livelihood as it is in the North.
When will
this oddity end in Nigeria? When will the North sit up and
get its acts together? The region cannot continue to live
off the sweats of others just like its Almajiris. At a point
it has got to tell itself the home truth. The almajiri
culture that permeates its rank and file must give way to
productive culture just as it was in the good old days with
its groundnut and cotton pyramids. It must recapture its
past and run with it. That and that alone will earn it
respect and admiration from other component units of the
federation rather than its present inordinate and despicable
attachment to political power at the center like a leech.
Today all
that culture of self-sufficiency and productivity is all but
lost and replaced with beggarly culture that feeds on
political power and its acquisition and eternal custody
thereof. And to demonstrate just how much it loves power and
how far it would go to keep it, a comatose president was
surreptitiously air-ambulated home in the dead of night and
sequestered in the inner sanctum of Aso Rock, to act as
symbol of its presidential power as the substance of power
itself had suddenly and dramatically slipped from its grip
and shifted to his deputy, courtesy of a resolution by the
National Assembly in spite of its vehement opposition.
And a month
later, with no government official, (including the Ag
President allowed to see him), a coterie of Islamic and
later Christian clerics were then secreted into the inner
sanctum to intercede on behalf of the ailing president who
could barely understand the word, “Amen!” And pronto, the
clerics came out swinging that the “president had recovered
quite remarkably” (as if they saw him before in Saudi Arabia
or in Nigeria), and would “soon resume duties!”
How a
pathologically muted man who, by their own testimony, could
barely nod his head during their contrived prayers, could
deliver such a weighty message through them to the nation
has become the 9th Wonder of the World! How
Islamic clerics suddenly became official presidential
spokespersons in the place of information minister or the
president’s own communication director, the utterly
discredited Olusegun Adeniyi, remains a question mark. And
how Islamic clerics got transformed in Aso Rock to become
Yar’Adua’s physicians that would certify him “fit to resume
duties soon” is another Nigeria miracle that could only
occur in Aso Rock.
It would
soon come to public knowledge, however, that the miracle
workers were on special mission to save the Yar’Adua
presidency that has all but expired to begin with. For the
North, or more appropriately, the elites that control it,
the shadow and symbolism of the presidency alone, is good
enough even if another is in charge and expiring in a matter
of months. In other lands where sanity and rationality are
the norms rather than the exceptions, leaders resign
voluntarily as a matter of course without much ado, but the
oddities in our polity make that a tall dream and an
unattainable proposition.
In all of
the endless scheming to hold on to power, however, one
question sticks out like a sore thumb: hold on to power for
what? What has the North done with power for 38 out of 50
years of the nation’s history? The North has its almajaris
(army of beggars) to show for its hold on power for 38
years! Yet it wants more of the same so that it could double
its beggar population by the year Y2020. That is how the
North sees development and it’s no wonder that the West
would want a con-federal system to break away from this
apparent Northern drag on the nation. And many in the South
and East share similar sentiments; all because Northern
elites have reduced the region into a parasitic nuisance
that is perpetually economically dependent on the rest of
the nation. Yet this is a region that is capable of being
the bread basket of not only the nation but the entire
Africa and beyond. Yes, this is a region that should be
brimming with giant food industries that would provide
employment for its teeming youths and move them away from
religious fundamentalism. This is a region that is endowed
with abundant mineral resources of whatever description that
could turn it into an economic haven. Its elites that have
been ruling the nation since independence have refused
and/or neglected to explore, exploit, and develop those
resources. They would rather feed fat on oil from Niger
Delta leaving its general population in wretched conditions
and grinding poverty. Thus a region so blessed has remained
so poor—but for how long? That is the question that is
hanging in the air unanswered.
Yet the
point must quickly be made that the North’s apparent
insatiable appetite for power has sound and deep roots in
economics. When a people are so pathetically bereft of
economic power other than manual, barefoot, bare-hand,
peasant farming in an otherwise modern economy dominated by
hi-tech, it is perfectly understandable why its elites would
want to hold on to power with super glue as a surefire means
of economic empowerment, not of the common people, but of
itself. And that is enough reason to subvert the
constitution and refuse to handover and devise all means to
frustrate the transfer of power to someone from another
region. Self-preservation is the first law of nature and the
Northern elites need no tutorials on that. The nation is
thus witnessing the triumph of economics over
constitutionalism and legalism in the hands of Northern
power elites.
Now, this is
the official explanation from the Secretary to the Federal
Government, who was reported to have said that the dissolved
Federal Executive Council decided to be “lenient” with the
president rather than declaring him medically unfit to
perform his duties, which is now a fact that no longer
requires medical verification. “Leniency” is the word and
euphemism for holding on to power. I must have been missing
something though, because I can’t exactly remember seeing
that word in the constitution or where it fits in when it
directs the FEC to declare the president medically
incapacitated if it is satisfied that that is the case. Well
the FEC came out to tell us that it was not satisfied of the
president’s medical incapacity! That fiction was invented in
order to preserve power in the North. In other words, the
FEC willfully decided to ignore the constitution and play
games with the destiny of the nation—all in an attempt for
the North to hold on to power, even if symbolically.
Consequently, the smooth operation of our constitution has
been hampered and severely constrained by regional forces
bent on subverting it in order to promote its economic
interests at the expense of the nation.
When
governmental actions are not guided by the constitution but
by extra-constitutional considerations, it’s a clear
indication that the constitution is no longer viewed or
regarded as the “supreme” authority in the land. And that is
a disaster waiting to happen. It’s a monstrous oddity that
threatens the very foundations of our nationhood. If the
constitution is what anything at all in our democracy,
Nigerians are demanding its full and complete implementation
now!
My advice to
the Northern elites is this: instead of clinging on to
power, the North is well advised to embrace wholeheartedly
the much despised western education, which alone is the
ticket to economic empowerment rather than political power.
Education is the great economic and social emancipator that
is within the reach of every individual who decides to take
advantage of it. By rejecting western education in favor of
religious education for so long, the region is destined to
produce religious fundamentalists rather than scientists,
engineers, technologists, and all the professionals that
drive the modern Nigerian economy.
However, the
region should come to terms with the reality that its
erstwhile monopoly of political power in Nigeria to service
its elites is gone forever and will never be regained. And
ultimately, its salvation lies in producing brain power just
as the rest of the country is doing to move Nigeria forward
on an even keel. As the election of MKO Abiola in 1993 and
former president Obasanjo in 1999 and 2003 clearly
demonstrates, the average Northerner couldn’t be bothered on
who rules the nation and therefore indifferent to
presidential zoning arrangement. Like his southern brother
or sister, what the average Northerner is concerned with is
the amelioration of his or her economic conditions and it
doesn’t matter where the leader comes from. Power grab by
aging Northern elites has no meaning for him if it does not
translate to his economic benefits. And the evidence on the
ground for 38 years is that it has not and it will not in
the foreseeable future. Northern elites cannot therefore
hide under regional cover to corner political power for
themselves. Scheming endlessly and desperately to hold on to
political power is the old game that will not get the region
anywhere but the same old results. The North needs a game
change and strategic rethink otherwise its very economic
survival in modern Nigeria is a questionable proposition
that would continue to engender political instability in the
nation.
Far from
condemning all Northern elites, however, one must commend
those like Abubakar Umar, Balarabe Musa, and the young turks
who stood stoutly on the side of the constitution. Though an
old horse and part of the old order, one must nevertheless,
single out General Muhammdu Buhari for his forthrightness in
calling on the FEC to do the right thing by obeying the
constitution.
In his
own words as reported by the This-Day Online 041010 edition: “…as far
as the Nigerian constitution is concerned there is no
problem with the succession, as it is absolutely clear.”
“I
am therefore pleading with Nigerians especially the elites
to please stick to the constitution…”
It’s such a
shame that President Musa Yar’Adua surrounded himself with
those who have absolutely no regard or respect for the
constitution including his former AGF, the very notorious
Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, while all the while chanting “Rule
of law!” “Rule of law!” which he did his very best to
subvert and rubbish.
The Nigerian
constitution is by far one of the most detailed and precise
constitutions in the world and deliberately so framed
because of the character of our people with a propensity to
bend and twist every rule to their favor and out of
character. But if our leaders will not respect the clear and
unambiguous provisions of our constitution, and are willing
to substitute its provisions with their ethnic agenda, our
constitutional democracy will be imperiled and a return to
anarchy and eventual disintegration will follow as matter of
course. God forbid!
Long live
the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Franklin
Otorofani, Esq.
Contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com |
