 Published
February 8th, 2011
Bloodless revolution in Nigeria? Where is that coming from? Does it have
anything to do with the Tunisian, Egyptian and Yemeni
streets? One could imagine the reader wondering what this is
all about. Chill out folks! Radical changes do not have to
happen in the streets to qualify as revolutions. They could
happen in the minds of men as in the Renaissance in Europe;
on factory floors as in the industrial revolution in Britain
and in the laboratories as in the internet revolution that
gave birth to the World Wide Web. It all depends on what
type of change or revolution we are talking about in any
given instances. And even in the field of politics that is
inherently combustible, they don’t all have to be bloody, as
for instance, in Mahatma Ghandi’s India; in Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr’s United States; in Yeltsin’s USSR and even
in Ukraine’s so-called velvet revolution. Yes, revolutions
can be bloodless and silent too and we’ve got one taking
place right under our nose unnoticed, unheralded and
uncelebrated. I have, however, made it my business to reveal
it before fellow citizens and the world.
It is perhaps unfair to ascribe to the entire north the selfish antics
and machinations of a few individuals who happen to belong
to that vast territory north of the majestic Niger and Benue
rivers. And that’s why it is impolitic and over reaction to
condemn or blame an entire religion such as Islam for the
criminal and terrorist activities of a few adherents who use
and hide under the name of the noble religion to perpetrate
heinous crimes against humanity and fellow Moslems. This
line of thinking also informed the protests of the
government and people of Nigeria against the listing of
Nigeria and Nigerians on the US Terror Watch list on account
of the alleged attempt of Abdul Muttalab to blow up an
American Airline on December 25, 2009.
What this shows is that people and nations alike are acutely aware of the
fact that there are individuals, purely on primate missions,
who would hide under the name of a collective to carry out
nefarious activities in the hope of drawing the sympathies
and empathies of memberships of the collective.
That awareness therefore advises us to be a little discriminatory in
judging the actions of such individuals and thus resist the
natural temptation of even linking the north with the
political actions and activities of a few northerners who
clearly do not have the mandate of the north to act on its
behalf in any material particular. This is in recognition of
the fact that in a democracy such as ours where freedom of
association and speech are guaranteed and respected,
individuals are free to associate for a common purpose and
pursue their own political agenda in any manner they desire,
provided of course such association and agenda are not
against the laws of the land or for that matter infringe on
the rights of others in the society.
The activities of Ciroma’s NPLF and AREWA must therefore be viewed
against that backdrop. Both AREWA and NPLF do not have the
mandate of the north to meddle in the internal activities of
political parties including the PDP. Time and again AREWA
had publicly declared that it was a cultural not a political
organization and as such would not delve into purely
political matters. And AREWA is on record with such public
declarations. Its own charter as a cultural organization
forbids it from doing so because it is against the laws of
the land under which it was registered. Flowing from the
above premise and over and above that premise is the fact
that at no time did the north as a whole or in part mandate
AREWA or the NPLF to inject itself into and interfere in the
internal matters of political parties in Nigeria including
the PDP. And I stand to be corrected in this assertion by
anyone who would come forward publicly to produce and tender
such mandate.
I make bold to declare, however, that such a mandate is practically
impossible to obtain from the north. And the reasons for
that impossibility are pretty obvious to political watchers.
Although that vast territory was governed in pre and post
independent Nigeria as one monolithic geo-political entity
in comparison to the Western, Eastern and later Midwestern
regions right up to the 1967 when it was broken up into six
states, the region is an amalgam of ethnic enclaves most of
which are not at all at ease with one another just as it is
in the southern parts of Nigeria. Although it has two
dominant ethnic groups of Hausa and Fulani just like the
Yoruba and Igbo in the south the territory bristles with a
galaxy of minority ethnic groups indicated in several states
with different and oftentimes opposing political
proclivities. Asking or expecting the north to speak with
one voice in political matters therefore is like asking or
expecting the south to speak with one voice. It is simply
impossible and we see that playing out aplenty in the north
even today, because politics is as much a game of individual
as it is of collective interests and when both interests
clash individual interests tend to prevail.
Hard as the revered then Northern Premier, Ahmadu Bello, tried to weld
the various ethnic groups in the region together to form a
monolithic entity which he could then use to conquer the
rest of the country as he had wished, he was no nearer his
goal at death in 1966 than he was at the beginnings in
1960. And today the ethnic fissures in the northern
political landscape that were present at independence have
grown wider and deeper into gullies making the very idea of
one north rather oxymoronic.
That is why it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever when a group of
individuals without prior recognition or authorization as
the mouthpiece of the region rise up overnight and purports
to speak and act for an entire region without presenting
their authority so to do. It is trite both law and
commonsense that before a man represents himself to others
as speaking for or acting on behalf of another or group, the
man should at least present his authority or authorization
for so doing otherwise it becomes, at least potentially, a
matter of fraudulent misrepresentation which is tortuous and
criminal under both the Penal and Criminal Codes,
respectively in force in the northern and southern parts of
the country. It’s quite unfortunate that some people are
getting away literarily with murder in Nigeria in the name
of politics due to a rather weak and ineffective criminal
justice system that seems to exist only in name.
That being the case, therefore, the least that is expected of discerning
members of the public is to exercise utmost caution when
dealing with political imposters masquerading as ethnic
champions. This is more so when it is realized that
unscrupulous politicians who have nothing to offer their
fatherland than what they stand to gain from the system
would not hesitate to ride on the backs of ethnic horses to
get want they want from the system rather than what they
would give to the system. And this they do by pretending or
purporting to be fighting to protect their ethnic
interests—mind you, not the nation’s interests. You would
think that they loved Nigeria with all their hearts and with
all their souls. But no, they love themselves and their
ethnic groups more than they love their nation even though
it was the nation that made them to become whatever they
are.
Again, this is all the more so when other significant voices from the
same ethnic group or geographical region with equal claim to
the same ethnic group or region had loudly been raised in
wholesale condemnation of the antics and machinations of the
individuals in question. Such disclaimers and condemnations
from such stakeholders should at least warn others that the
imposters had no mandate of the region as a whole to embark
on the kind of activities in question. Such caution or
warning would be similar to the legal maxim, “Buyer
Beware!,” because equity does not aid the indolent, the
indifferent and the carefree individual who gets himself
into injurious transactions that a more careful and diligent
individual could have avoided. In politics though, the
atmosphere is so clouded that the average citizen has a hard
time discerning the dynamics and sift the wheat from the
chaff. And to make matters worse politicians wear a lot of
camouflage to hide their true identities, motivations and
intentions which are easily passed off in altruistic garbs;
in other words, wolves in sheep’s clothing. And that’s why
many of us have taken to public affairs analysis to beam
searchlight in the dark corners and crevices of the
political landscape to help individuals make the best of an
otherwise murky situation in politics and public affairs.
The appropriation of the name of an entire ethnic group, region,
geopolitical area, race or religion by a few unscrupulous
individuals or groups in pursuit of their personal political
ambitions or interests is as old as history itself and by no
means peculiar to or limited to Nigeria or Africa. Perhaps
the most poignant manifestation of this phenomenon reared
its head in Germany in the case of the German Chancellor of
the Third Reich, Herr Adolf Hitler, who deployed it to
devastating effects leading to the 2nd World War who
launched a bloody campaign for racial purification by
eliminating Jews. In Serbia which was part of the defunct
Yugoslavia, the racist rants of the likes of Slobodan
Milosevic "the butcher of the Balkans" who died recently
while facing trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity
led to genocide in the former Serbian province of Kosovo. In
Sudan the story is the same leading to ethnic cleansing with
million deaths in cold blood and the imminent break up of
that country through UN-sponsored referendum.
And in Nigeria as in the Middle East, we have equally witnessed in recent
times its manifestations in ethno-religious conflagrations
in parts of the country, particularly in the northern parts
that have consumed tens of thousands of the lives and
properties of innocent citizens that is akin to Hitler’s
racial purification campaigns when it is remembered that it
also led to the Nigerian Civil War in the late 60s where
millions perished. Yes, the machinations of racists and
ethnic bigots can and do results in ethnic cleansing. And
that’s why all men and women of goodwill must rise up to
confront it wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head
again including even in the United States where Republican
Tea-Party nuts have sought to revive racism in its most
pernicious manifestations of the Ku Klux Klan variety.
And I dare say we have also witnessed its manifestations in the political
antics and machinations of AREWA and the self-styled
so-called Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) led by the
ageing Mallam Adamu Ciroma. Readers would have noticed the
word “Northern” prominently appended to the name of this
rogue association, which to all intents and purposes, is no
more than a group of aggrieved individuals in the PDP,
recruited by certain presidential aspirants of northern
ethnic extraction in the PDP platform to help them fight the
party over the implementation its zoning policy. That is an
instance of the appropriation of the collective name and
identity of an entire region by a group of individuals in
pursuit of private political interests.
It can, therefore, be clearly seen that the NPLF is no more than a
mercenary group of political contractors posing as champions
of northern political interests. That this is a rouge group
is underlined by its total rejection at the PDP primaries.
These people couldn’t even mobilize their own people and
they called themselves leaders. It is unimaginable to think
that the agenda of AREWA and the NPLF would be so utterly
rejected at the PDP primaries had both groups received prior
mandate of the north to get a northerner on board the PDP
gravy train and reject Jonathan. And what is more, the fact
that not even their leader, Adamu Ciroma, was able to
deliver his own Yobe state delegates to Abubakar Atiku at
the PDP presidential primaries as were indeed other members
of the forum is clear indication that these self-seeking
individuals have little or no political values in their own
backyards much less the entire north and the nation at
large.
Now, were they acting on behalf of IBB, Atiku, Gusau and Saraki as their
principals? You bet they were. But is that the same thing as
having the mandate of the entire north? Absolutely not, and
not one chance in hell! IBB, Atiku, Gusau and Saraki are not
and do not represent the north. They are private individuals
not sent by the north in pursuit of their own political
ambitions representing themselves. The best that could be
said about NPLF members is that they are hollow political
drums sounded whenever necessary to browbeat and intimidate
political opponents standing in their way. Is that politics,
Nigerian style? No, it is politics AREWA and Ciroma style.
And it is the brand of politics they have been used to
playing since the beginning of time that they have yet to
outgrow even in the 21st century. Old habits,
they say, die hard. It is unfortunate that this is the type
of politics that the old generation is bequeathing to its
younger generation in the north that has resulted in the
cold blooded murder of a gubernatorial candidate. It’s a
shame; a crying shame.
Now, let’s look at the matter a little more closely: If the NLPF members
were acting for IBB, Atiku, Gusau and Saraki as documented
in their written consensus candidate agreement, shouldn’t
they abide by the decisions of their principals four of whom
have thrown in the towel and two of whom have publicly
congratulated Jonathan on his victory at the PDP primaries?
Who then is NPLF working for when its principals are no
longer in the race? Since it has vowed to produce northern
president for Nigeria, has it then acquired another
principal or set of principals in the north presumably in
the persons of General Muhammadu Buhari, Mallams Ibrahim
Shekarau and Nuhu Ribadu? If so, are we looking forward to
another consensus show or how are they going to choose among
Buhari, Shekarau and Ribadu? Will it be through lucky dip or
some lotto? I wish them good luck this time around with
Ribadu staunchly refusing to step down for Buhari in the
aborted political marriage between ACN and CPC. I suppose
that Buhari’s running mate who happens to be a man of God,
Pastor Tunde Bakare, would be asked to commit it to the
hands of God to get Ribadu and Shekarau out of the way fast
with power prayers. Watch out for spiritual warfare, folks,
with the man of God in the trenches with a battle tested
general like Buhari, and don’t forget the Islamic marabouts
too! As a matter of fact they may have started already with
the revelation of Pastor Bakare that ordinary folks are
already fired up with his candidacy. Ribadu and Shekarau
should beware of “Holy Ghost” fire!
Now, with both IBB and Saraki congratulating Jonathan and Atiku signaling
his willingness to meet with Jonathan it is difficult to
understand just what the NPLF and AREWA represent when AREWA
issued a statement describing Jonathan’s victory as “legally
and morally wrong”. And you wonder where was AREWA when its
own northern governors and notable politicians led their own
delegates to vote for Jonathan at the PDP primaries. Doesn’t
that show conclusively that both AREWA and NPLF are
toothless bulldogs even in the north? Doesn’t that show also
that the northern oligarchs have rendered themselves
irrelevant in today’s Nigeria even as they fight tooth and
nail to regain political relevance? Doesn’t that in fact
show they are living on borrowed time in the 21st
century Nigeria? And most importantly, isn’t that an
indication of the fall and capitulation of the northern
oligarchy? What more evidence does anyone need to come to
these conclusions than the crushing defeat handed down to
AREWA and NPLF? When dogs refuse to listen to their master
what does that tell you of the relationship between the dogs
and their master? The dog/master relationship is over! It’s
that simple and the earlier Ciroma and his AREWA backed
group realize this bitter truth the better for them. They
have lost the north to the new generation of detribalized
and nationalistic leaders, not ethnic champions, who do not
subscribe to the old school notion of born to rule that had
been the governing ideology of the northern oligarchy for
over 50 years. When a prominent youth like the son of the
former president Shehu Shagari in Sokoto comes out openly to
declare that “then north is not born to rule,” what does
that tell you about the prevailing mindset of the present
generation of northerners? When a governor like Sule Lamido
of Jigawa state tongue lashes AREWA for describing
Jonathan’s victory as morally and legally wrong, what does
that tell you about the prevailing sentiments in the north
today? It tells you about changing paradigms.
Let me state this loud and clear: A divinely inspired silent revolution
is currently sweeping across the north and the entire
Nigerian political landscape heralded and spearheaded by the
Jonathan presidency. And because it is quiet and bloodless
not many Nigerians recognize or even see it. Yet it has
poignantly manifested itself in the emergence of Jonathan
and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as presidential candidates of the PDP
and ACN respectively. When was the last time you saw this
happening in Nigeria? When was the last you saw the AG, UPN,
AD, AC and the ACN fielding a youth as presidential
candidate? And when was the last time you saw a ruling party
in Nigeria dominated by old war horses from the majority
ethnic groups led by the north fielding a minority as its
presidential candidate? Can you remember the time that
happened? I bet you’ll be scratching your head to recall the
time because there was no such time in the history of the
nation. Period! People like IBB who see this revolution at
work have wisely stepped aside from its path to avoid
getting crushed and that’s why he quickly readjusted his
position to congratulate Jonathan on his victory at the PDP
primaries. But the not-so-smart elements of the old guards
will go down fighting for relevance. And that’s where Ciroma
and his AREWA group come in. They want to be the last men
standing on the path of a political hurricane in the name of
the north. They want to be the ones to salvage a dying
oligarchy.
When an agent purports to overrule his principals it’s an unmistakable
signal that the agent has a different agenda altogether
other than that of his principals and should thenceforth be
treated as such, for, he will be acting on its own and
should bear the full consequences of his actions all by
himself. And if in so doing Ciroma and his group have
elected to quietly shift their political business to Buhari,
the presidential candidate of the CPC, who had himself
publicly condemned zoning and had called them names, as has
been reported in the Tribune 020611, it only goes to confirm
their profile as political contractors. As the reader shall
see later in this presentation, NPLF is doing this behind
the scenes while at the same time reaching out to Jonathan
to get a leg up in his coming administration after the
elections. If this is in fact the case it exposes the NPLF
as a bunch of mercenaries that is out to feather its own
nests using the name of the north.
It is true that political contracting and consulting are legitimate forms
of business in a democracy. As we have seen, in the US for
example, that has become Nigeria’s major role model in
democracy, democracy is big business, complete with its own
army of contractors, consultants and lobbyists and, what
again? Analysts like us! That’s right, analysts like us! We
are all in the business of democracy in one capacity or
another even as ordinary voters. It doesn’t always have to
involve material benefits or angling for political
appointments and contracts. One could therefore say with
some merit that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with
political contracting and consulting in Nigeria as it is a
just a species of business like any other business, and that
Ciroma and his group are not the only ones in the business
in Nigeria, anyway. All of that may be true on the face of
it, but only to an extent. That’s right, only to an extent.
Ciroma and his group may just be nothing more than political
contractors, but here is the difference: No other contractor
in this and any other fields of business appropriates the
name of an entire region in its business activities.
As indicated even by its name, the NPLF does. 99.9% of the criticisms,
attacks and condemnations of Ciroma and his group even from
the north is hinged on their appropriation of the name of
the north for their personal political undertakings. And
that is not fair to other northerners, to put it mildly.
That is identity theft. No one would care about them had
they not appropriated the name of the north in pursuit of
their selfish political interests. But they did and folks
are not happy with that because it is misleading and
patently fraudulent. In short, they are impostors, for
crying loud! Not merely misleading and fraudulent, their
activities go beyond the call of politics and border on
treasonable and seditious felonies.
While not outwardly violent in their activities per se although there
have been quite a few moments of unguarded outbursts, there
is no doubt that the antics and machinations of AREWA and
its NPLF political wing have helped in no small measures in
whipping up sentiments against certain ethnic groups in the
north and unnecessarily overheating the polity leading to or
exacerbating violent disturbances witnessed recently in
parts of the north that are capable of tearing the nation
apart. That was how a hitherto unknown Hitler started his
campaign against the Jews in Germany before the pogrom
began.
And now it gets even more interesting: Having been roundly defeated in
their own turfs, these shameless groups are now reported to
be scheming to reap where they did not sew. The Nigerian
Tribune 020511 edition reported that Ciroma and his group
have gone back to the drawing board, drawing up a list of
plum ministerial positions that the incoming Jonathan
government should reserve for them, again in the name of the
north. Hmm!
The report states that the NPLF wants the office of Secretary to the
Federal Government (SFG), Ministries of Foreign Affairs,
Justice, Petroleum, Defense, and ambassadorial postings to
the US and Britain among other plum positions reserved for
the north. At the same time this report came out, Atiku has
declared himself open to negotiation with Jonathan even as
he is yet to concede victory to the man publicly. There is
no question that Atiku is coordinating his strategies with
Ciroma and his group and his so-called “open to discussion”
offer is no more than what the Ciroma group is demanding,
which is the sharing of the spoils of office presumptively
in the next Jonathan administration.
Could you imagine that? How does that sound to you as citizen? These
people could not even disguise their selfish interests which
they hawk under the banner of northern interests. They are
already negotiating plum ministerial and ambassadorial
positions for themselves and their hangers on ahead of the
elections because they cannot survive even for a day outside
of government. Denying them political power is tantamount to
slamming death sentence on them and they will fight like
prisoners on death row. A higher minded patriotic group
could not have been discussing the spoils of office for its
members and lackeys this early in the day before the
elections. Is anybody in that group even thinking of how to
move the nation forward? Is Ciroma and AREWA concerned about
civil war in the north between Islamic fundamentalists and
the natives in Plateau, Bauchi and elsewhere in the north?
Why have AREWA and the NPLF kept mum over the activities of
Boko Haram and other fringe groups wreaking havoc in the
north in the name of religion? Could it be they are quietly
or tacitly in support of their murderous activities? Does
their loud silence not amount to acquiescence? Speak out
AREWA and NPLF! The nation wants to know your stance in
these matters not just about Jonathan and the presidency.
While the rapproachment between Jonathan and the Ciroma group is a most
welcome development and therefore one that should be
encouraged by all well meaning individuals, it nevertheless
represents the final capitulation of the northern oligarchy
in the face of superior political forces that it is up
against in today’s Nigeria.
Let us be clear about this: the reported move to work with President
Jonathan is not borne out of the desire to work together to
move Nigeria forward. I can tell you that straight up. On
the contrary, it signals swift but shameless attempts on the
part of AREWA and the NPLF aimed at the conversion of their
crushing defeat and capitulation into political and,
therefore material benefits, come May 29, 2011. And they are
going about it as though they were operating from a position
of strength rather than from a position of weakness. AREWA
and NPLF must, however, be made to come to terms with the
fact that having been routed in the political battlefields
and capitulated to superior forces they are no longer
operating from a position of strength as they might have
been before the PDP primaries but from a position of
weakness as they are after the primaries. They must come to
terms with the fact that the war has been fought, won and
lost and the vanquished are not in a position to dictate
terms to the victor. Battlefield losers do not dictate but
accept terms imposed on them by the victorious parties. That
is the reality of war. On no account therefore should AREWA
and Ciroma’s NPLF purport to dictate to Jonathan what
ministerial and ambassadorial or other positions should be
reserved for its members in the name of the north. Mba!
Leave north out of this.
Enough of this nonsense from AREWA and Ciroma gang! No part of the
country is entitled to the presidency and the Nigerian
electorate has just delivered that message loud and clear in
the PDP primaries. AREWA and NPLF could be playing deaf or
laboring under selective amnesia, but they need to be told
also in no uncertain terms that just like the presidency,
Nigeria’s ministerial and ambassadorial positions belong to
all Nigerians and all of its constituent parts in equal
terms, and no part is entitled to particular ministerial or
ambassadorial positions under any guise whatsoever. And that
was why Jonathan made an Iboman Chief of Army Staff (COAS)
to drive home that point, the first such appointment in over
40 years. Yes, the old order changeth! And more to the
point: They should be made to understand the dynamics
currently at play, which point directly and unmistakably to
the unfurling of a silent revolution in which the old order
changeth. Yes indeed.
And here is the bottom line: Anyone who is truly interested in serving
his or her country should be willing to serve her in
whatever capacity if and when given the opportunity. It
bespeaks some hidden agenda or ulterior motives for anyone
to demand the allocation of certain ambassadorial and
ministerial portfolios to his ethnic group or geographical
region. It is not only unethical but reeks of corrupt
motives. These are the kinds of things that have conspired
to drag us behind that the nation should put behind her
completely. We cannot be crying about change only to hold on
to the very things that have been holding us back. It makes
absolutely no sense at all. And only a class of political
degenerates whose collective malfeasances had held the
nation back could even think in terms of business as usual
where certain positions are reserved for certain
geo-political groups to the total exclusion of other groups.
These folks are in denial of the emerging new order. What
planet are the Ciroma group and AREWA on? No disrespect but
I would like to caution Mr. President here not to succumb to
the machinations of the AREWA and NPLF renegades who have
clearly outlived their usefulness. He now has the knife and
the yam and cannot therefore accept dictation from the
vanquished and compromise on the principles of change that
is driving his administration. That is the bottom line
because when he promised us change, it shouldn’t be
theoretical change but change that, in the words of Obama,
we can believe in not change in the abstract. As the
Egyptian streets have demonstrated people want real change
and not business as usual. Anyone reading this in Nigeria
should help pass on this message unadulterated to the
corridors of power because in this very message lies the
political and therefore economic salvation of the nation.
Arrogance and Structural Liberation
But why are the NPLF and AREWA still carrying on as though they could
still ace Jonathan in the presidential election in--spite of
their crushing defeat? What trump card do they have left to
play after the failure of the consensus gambit? The answer
to this question may be found, if you don’t mind, in the
Otorofani Theory of Power, which holds that a people who are
used to the custody and control of the levers political
power would soon develop attributes of political superiority
and supreme confidence and the vice versa, which inevitably
respectively comes with arrogance and timidity as the case
may be.
The oligarchy in the north to which Ciroma belongs, had unquestionably up
and until 1999, been in that position of the custodians and
wielders of the levers of political power in Nigeria. The
north is used to dictating the terms of political
intercourse and where necessary imposing its will on the
rest of the country. Most northern political actors of the
old school were brought up that way. The departing colonial
masters under Lord Luggard had made certain that the north
would become the new political masters in Nigeria by
deliberately skewing the federal structure in favor of the
north which would make it possible for their successors to
deploy divide and rule tactics against the south. I guess he
must have done this to punish the southern politicians, who
were impatiently demanding independence from him as against
their northern counterparts, who were not in a hurry for
independence and therefore never gave Luggard a hard time.
Don't forget that demanding independence from a colonial administrator
was tantamount to serving him a sack letter and putting him
out of job of administering a nation three to four times
bigger than Britain, his home country. Yes, Luggard was
administering a country far larger than his own King was
ruling over, and the south wanted him out immediately. The
price for that impudence was a skewed federation in favor of
the north. Badly needing independence with Ghana already
ahead of the pack, both Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the Rt.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had no choice but to go along with a
skewed federation that deliberately shortchanged the south.
Thus while the north had one regional government under one geo-political
unit called Northern Region the south was split into two
regional units under two separate and antagonistic regional
governments of Western and Eastern Nigeria in order to
permanently divide their peoples. And as if that was not
enough the south was further split into three regional units
in 1963 in the Republican Constitution not to strengthen it
but to further weaken and divide their peoples. And all the
while Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and Premier Ahmadu Bello
bluntly refused the splitting of the north into at least two
regions even though it is geographically larger than the
south and even though minorities in the north, just like
their counterparts in the south, were stridently demanding
to have their own region carved out for them from the
northern region. Both leading politicians wanted the idea of
One North ossified and they got what they wanted
notwithstanding agitations to the contrary in the north
spearheaded by Joseph Tarka in alliance with AG.
Am I getting into a bit of history here? You bet I am and for good
reasons too. You cannot adequately understand the present
unless you knew the past. Knowledge of the past provides the
guideposts to navigate the present and the future and that’s
why history is so important because it is the compass
guiding our ship of state and therefore our national
destiny. Don’t ever mess with your history because it
defines who and what you are both as an individual and as a
nation. And that is why I’m getting into this because it
offers a clear perspective on the matters at hand otherwise
I have written more than enough in this Mother of all
Articles to warrant adding this historical portion to it.
This is the most important part of this article and that’s
why it was reserved for last. So I would respectfully urge
the reader to stick around a while longer because it gets
even better with cutting edge analytics.
Now, here is the deal and get this clear particularly for the younger
folks: But for the civil war and General Gowon's political
masterstroke of splitting the country into twelve states in
1967, the north would have remained one huge monolith and
thus retain the power to dictate political outcomes to the
rest of the regions. That power was lost forever with the
twelve state structure and it was one of the first
casualties of the Nigerian civil war. While regretting the
deaths of millions of Nigerians who gave up their lives for
the unity of this great African nation and the pride of the
black race, we must nevertheless tarry awhile to express our
profound gratitude to the Nkemba of Nnewi, Chief Odumegwu
Ojukwu for starting the liberation struggle from the
northern oligarchy, and more directly, to General Yakubu
Gowon for splitting the country into twelve states with six
in the north and six in the south to balance the federal
structure and level the playing field.
It is not for nothing that Gowon’s action was dubbed political
masterstroke. Some might think it was directed at breaking
Ojukwu’s back by yanking off Rivers and Calabar peoples from
the former Eastern region. True, but I’m here to tell you
that it went beyond that to liberate the south and the
minorities in the north from the stranglehold of a
monolithic and bearish north that had remained unbreakable
under Tafawa Balewa and Ahmadu Bello.
It could be seen clearly that the Nigerian Civil War was the true
beginnings of the liberation of the south from the
Luggardian political shackles. However the resultant
political benefits that would naturally have derived from
that liberation were arrested by the imposition of military
rule which ironically began not with the north but with the
south specifically the east with the General Agui Ironsi
regime which itself predated the Nigerian civil war. As
students of history would readily appreciate one of the
reasons for the reprisal coup against the Ironsi regime by
northern military elements was the alleged plan of the
Ironsi regime to abolish regionalism and federalism and
replacing same with unitary system of government, which the
north rightly saw as a threat not only to its monolithic
stranglehold on the rest of the country, but a sign of its
looming domination by the south particularly the Ibos. I
don’t have to go into details here but suffice it to state
that given the poisoned political atmosphere at the time
such fears were not entirely unfounded. With the ouster of
the Ironsi regime, however, the north was able to quickly
regain the political power it had lost momentarily in the
Major Nzeogu coup that brought in Ironsi to power, with Lt.
Colonel Yakubu Gowon in power obviously for the north. And
as they say, the rest is history.
Readers might ask, why Gowon a Christian and a man from the Middle Belt
that had been fighting to break away from the northern
region? Good question? The answer is simple: Gowon happened
to be the most senior northern military officer in the
Nigerian army then as northerners of the Hausa/Fulani ethnic
stocks shunned enlistments in the military back then that
was considered inferior to political leadership positions.
The north was simply not cut out for military rule due to
its healthy disdain for military careers. Military rule was
forced upon it by the Nzeogu coup that eliminated its prized
political leadership. The top echelon of the military was
occupied by the Yorubas and the Ibos and southern minorities
with the Middle Belt tagging along.
Therefore, in the face of towering generals like Ironsi and Ogundipe and
others from the south the north was forced to look for
similar officers. And the highest military officer the north
could find to head the military government after the
overthrow and killing of Ironsi was a Middle Beltan and a
Christian for that matter with the rank of Lt. Colonel. That
was how Gowon became Head of State and age 28 or so. And
using the civil war as a convenient excuse, Gowon proceeded
to break up the north into six states and in so doing
liberated not only his own people but the more importantly
the south as a whole. Now, Gowon may or may not have thought
of it that way and I could be reading this motive into his
action in splitting the north into six states gratuitously.
But what does it matter anyway if the resulting liberation
of his people and the south was advertent or inadvertent?
It matters not if his actions produced unintended but
salutary consequences for the polity as a whole. Liberation
is always a good thing however it came. As would be
expected, however, he was to become the first and the last
military Head of State and Christian leader from the
minority ethnic groups in the north. The succession of both
civilian and military rulers from the north since Gowon;
starting from Murtala Muhammed, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu
Buhari, Ibrahim Badamasi Babsngida, Sanni Abacha, Abdulsalam
Abubakar and Musa Yar'Adua are all non-Christians and from
the Hausa/Fulani stock. Is that a coincidence or what? I’ll
leave that for the reader to figure out. But having
succeeded in dominating the Armed Forces by weeding out
officers from other parts of the country through premature
retirements and dismissals, they no longer have need for the
Middle Belt minority officers like Gowon. They now had both
the civilian leadership and the military muscle as a
fallback position.
Political Liberation
If the advent of the Nigerian Civil War led to structural or systemic
liberation of both the south and the Middle Belt minorities
as indicated above, the advent of democracy in 1999 heralded
the political liberation of the south. It is instructive to
note in this regard that this political liberation would
have occurred much earlier in 1993 had the same north not
moved to annul the 1993 presidential election won hands down
by late Chief MKO Abiola. The political turmoil that greeted
that annulment and the resulting deaths of Abiola and Abacha
was to force the hand of the north to concede leadership to
Olusegun Obasanjo—a loyal and trusted hand who had earlier
succeeded the late Murtala Muhammed killed in the abortive
Dimka coup in 1975, and had promptly and faithfully handed
over power back to the north in the person of Shehu Shagari
over and above his own kinsman, Obafemi Awolowo, in a
stoutly disputed election. Remember, OBJ was totally opposed
to Abiola’s political ascendancy in 1993, much to the relief
of the north. But not for long as the hand of history moved
inexorably.
Unknown to northern power brokers, however, the Obasanjo of 1975 was not
the same Obasanjo of 1999 and the OBJ of 1999 was not the
same OBJ of 2003, and the OBJ of 2003 was not the same OBJ
of 2007, and the OBJ of 2007 was, for that matter, not the
same OBJ of 2010. The north had a different animal in its
hand with OBJ. Egged on by divine inspiration of sorts, OBJ
has, against all expectations, completely transformed
himself from being an errand boy of the north to become
critical part of, indeed the very heart, of the national
movement for the complete re-engineering of the Nigerian
political union on more equitable terms even as the old
order crumbles. The result is Jonathan at the helm of
national affairs—and due to make history come April in the
next presidential election—an unthinkable proposition barely
a year ago. And that has sounded the death knell for the
Northern Oligarchy and the rebirth of a New Nigeria where
all constituent units and citizens have equal stakes in
their national affairs.
I don’t know about you, but I have two words for it: Bloodless
Revolution!
It takes away nothing from the north. It only levels the playing field
for all, for a more perfect union and that is a good thing!
When Ndigbo lines up behind Jonathan that is the message
they are sending. When Oduduwa sons and daughters line up
behind Jonathan that is the message they are sending. When
Middle Beltans line up behind Jonathan that, of course, is
the message they are sending. When progressive northerners
line up behind Jonathan that is the message they are sending
to the old guards. And when Niger Deltans line up behind
Jonathan that is the message they are sending loud and
clear. It’s a message that will reverberate through the
nooks and crannies of the nation. Finally, that is the
message citizen Otorofani is sending out here. Who has a
problem with that? The old guards in the north, of course!
Too bad they may wind up casualties of the bloodless
revolution. It might be bloodless but it will still produce
casualties all the same. I can’t wish for more…
From the
stable of –Cutting-Edge Analytics— More than a blog—It’s a
learning experience!
Franklin
Otorofani is an Attorney and Public Affairs Analyst.
Contacts:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com,
http://franklinotorofani.wordpress.com/
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