**********QUESTION OF THE DAY********** Which Region Will Benefit If Nigeria Disintegrates? ********************************************************************** The 2014 national dialogue that ought to have been a dialogue of real negotiations that should usher in a strong democracy painfully became a discourse of money matters (resource control) with flag-wavers giving ultimatum if regional demands are not met while others are allegedly trying to scuttle the plans of others. How can you elucidate why delegates and non-delegates should bicker over a basic subject as to which region owns the continental shelf in Nigeria? A number of delegates have taken to the press to whimper and recount their involvements at the conference while others have used same medium to make clarifications which points to the same thing over time–the rhetoric of disparagement which pits regions continually against one another. It is common nowadays to see some people choose the easy route – they build a bulwark of nationalists’ mawkishness (ethnic and religious) around themselves with the aim to pull people apart. What this great country needs are, the tough brave and genuine leaders who will give a wide berth to that path and always try to draw people to their set of ideas and never pull them apart. The major gain of the conference so far might be in the submission that we should implement rotational presidency in Nigeria, this, as some have advocated will promote peace and stability all across the nation. I have watched several political analysts with good intentions argue for the establishment of a strong institution in Nigeria as a replacement for strong leadership but others have argued against that proposition they advocate for strong leadership. Although both arguments are reasonable, I believe that strong leaders are needed to set the strong institutions up in the first place because, there are no guarantees that successive leaders will not dismantle the institution they inherit. Disturbingly, I also hear and read commentaries by some campaigners with worthy intents calling for the dissolution of the Nigeria state so that all regions can go their separate ways; some of them have even alleged that if the north were to be endowed with the country’s oil resources, this country would have since split. These outbursts beg the question, which region will benefit if Nigeria disintegrates? How can disintegration for instance end the over- abundance of problems bedeviling the northern part of Nigeria? How will the majority Muslim relate and live with the minority indigenous Christians? Wouldn’t there be a policy of discrimination against them which may lead to both sides going after their jugular at the least excuse and hence unending crisis? What plans does the north have to integrate and provide for the teeming numbers of northerners scattered all across Southern Nigerian eking out a living ( for instance Mallam Yunusa who lives in my neighborhood in Port Harcourt work as a security gate man and earns less than the minimum wage monthly)? History has revealed that when a people’s beliefs are forced upon on others, without their consent it leads to war. The north central region may finally be free from the monopoly of the north west; which observers have noticed is known to promote a ‘core north theory’ to the detriment of the north central people particularly when bazaars ‘for all’ are to be shared, reason why some analysts have tagged the north central as a ‘poodle of the north west .’ Separation might therefore give that region a much needed identity but again how do they hope to put up with the agitations of the numerous minorities in that region with the absence of grandees like Solomon Lar? The south eastern region undoubtedly will be democratically stable if it became independent because they have the power of language and homogeneousness going on for them but major viewpoints expressed by analysts are that the eastern people are still not as united as they should be, for instance some indigenes from a particular state claim superiority over and above other Igbo from other Igbo states (First class and second class), while some from another state, ‘discount’ the supremacy of the other Igbo people and pride themselves as the most educated in Igbo land (discrimination yet again). Some viewers have also submitted that most Igbo due to their level of industry have made more financial inroads in many states outside of the Igbo heartland in Nigeria and wonder what will become of their nest egg (numerous) in the event of a much sought after breakaway and they also query the plans in place to welcome and provide for the millions’ of people who will return home extemporaneously? These decriers are quick to bring to notice the reported cases of communal clashes in the south eastern parts and the never ending ‘Osu caste system.’ The south western part of Nigeria over time has been politically urbane, but despite these lead, some analysts have wondered why this sophistication is a weakness and not strength for the people of the south west? They point to electoral violence witnessed in this region from the first republic to the second and even threats of violence when the 1993 presidential election results were cancelled. They asserted that, the failure by political figures in this region to acquiesce victory to others after regional, state and central governmental elections led (leads) to anarchy. Additionally, Nigerians will not forget in a hurry, the Ife-Modakeke hostilities (natives-settlers, despite homogeneity), a scar which is still felt today in that state despite government intervention and what with the tug of war for ancestral supremacy between the thrones of Ife, Oyo and other kingdoms in the south west? The south-south without reservation sustains the Nigerian state and, instead of democracy to right the ills, it has further entrenched it, so that when people venture into politics, instead of looking inward to generate internal incomes to solve problems they wait hat in hand for allocations monthly, others have the time to even become religious dogmatists instead of delivering electoral assurances. –Abah wrote in from Port Harcourt
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:43:28 +0000
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