—A country at war with itself
In perpetual conflict, the disparate ethnic groups in the country continue to reach for each others jugular owing to a systemic inability to admit differences and work at accommodating sentiments
By Ochereome Nnanna, Chairman, Editorial Board
Our country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, used to be a private business outfit of the defunct Royal Niger Company. After the Partition of Africa in 1885, French and German imperial activities in West and Central African areas compelled Britain, which was allocated the area now known as Nigeria, to revoke the Company’s charter. The Company was paid 865,000 pounds for the acquisition, and a military officer, Frederick Lugard, was sent as a High Commissioner to subjugate the North’s Sokoto Caliphate and the rest of the territory. On 14th January 1914, the Southern and Northern Protectorates as well as the Colony of Lagos, were amalgamated and christened “Nigeria” by Lugard’s consort, Flora Shaw.
Roots Of Disunity
The roots of Nigeria’s disunity are many. First, the manner in which the amalgamation was carried out became an albatross to peaceful coexistence till date. The North has a behemoth landmass of 744,249 square kilometres, compared to the more densely populated South (192,803sq km). This helped to sow the germs of North’s presumed “majority” and dominance. Secondly, the Sokoto Caliphate, which had in 1904, completed the conquest and subjugation of most of the North, was allowed by the British authorities to continue to exercise full powers subject to colonial authority.
But in the South, while semi-indirect rule was allowed in the monarchical West, British government personnel, aided by Christian missionaries and local warrant chiefs, administered the largely republican East which had already developed a measure of democracy with innate impulse to dissent, resist or protest against perceived impunity. It was also from the East and the West that the pressure for an early end to British rule and independence of Nigeria germinated and ballooned from the 1920’s to 1960. The North, though rich in agriculture, was perennially incapable of balancing its budgets, and had to be supported with funding from the far wealthier South. This practice continues till today.
Britain And The Seeds Of Discord
These factors helped shape the British imperial government’s perception of its post-independence interests in Nigeria: partnership with the North. In pursuit of the same, the British government took steps to “force-unite” Nigeria. The North-South, two-legged railways system linking the East and West to the North respectively, were strategically constructed. Just before independence in 1960, the British colonial government hurriedly split the North into smaller electoral constituencies to give it more seats in the federal parliament compared to the East and West. Also, the controversial 1951-53 census gave the North a clear “majority”: 10.4 million, compared to the West (4.2) and the East (2.6). Censuses and distribution of electoral constituencies among the ethno-political divides have always been controversial and represent major markers of endless struggles for dominance.
And The Cookie Crumbled
In fact, these were the triggers for the post-independence crisis in the West, which led to the overthrow of the government of Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, by young military officers led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. The mismanagement of the 15th January 1966 coup proved disastrous. Its eventual failure and the ethnic coloration of its so-called “house-cleaning” or killing of leaders from certain parts of the country, led to the targeting and massacres of the Igbo ethnic group, especially in the North and parts of the West. The Eastern Region Government, led by Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, on 30th May 1967, declared the breakaway of Republic of Biafra, after the failure of the Aburi Accord, and to protect its people from further killings.
Then, on 15th January 1970, the Biafra resistance collapsed. While Ojukwu went into exile in the Ivory Coast, General Yakubu Gowon, the Head of State, promised the returnee Igbo and other Easterners who were in Biafra “No Victor, No Vanquished”, as well as a total package of reconstruction, reconciliation and rehabilitation (the three “Rs”). These were never fulfilled. Today, over 55 years after the war, the Igbo ethnic group complains of marginalisation and exclusion from playing effective roles in the country’s leadership, which some still blame on the roles of their sons in the coup of January 1966 and the Civil War.
Indeed, the feeling of alienation by the Igbo nation has led to the renewed upsurge of agitations for Biafra, this time led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who has spent over four years in a Federal Government detention facility. Since the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in power in 2015, under the regimes of the late Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent Bola Tinubu, the ghost of ethnic profiling and hateful attitudes in the North and the Lagos area over political differences appear to have resurfaced.
Discontent In The Land
Aside from the Civil War, Nigeria has experienced many other violent crises which have threatened its very existence. Apart from the creek secession attempt led by Ijaw militant leader, Isaac Adaka Boro, the street protests led by the late playwright and Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, over resource control and environmental degradation in Ogoniland, later turned violent when Ijaw youths also took up arms in the creeks against the oil companies and the Federal Government between 1998 and 2009.
In the same year, the complexion of violence against the Nigerian state and its people changed, and its venue shifted North. After radical Islamic cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in government custody, Boko Haram was born in Maiduguri, Borno State. It continues to wax strong in the North East, 16 years later. More quasi-jihadist/bandit groups have proliferated in the North West and North Central. This is in addition to the Fulani armed militias masquerading as “herdsmen”, marauding in forests throughout Nigeria. They terrorise, displace, kill, rape, kidnap for ransom and occupy “conquered” communities almost unchallenged by the federal armed forces.
Coups
Nigeria’s disunity has expressed itself through many bloody crises. This country has experienced at least eight military coups which resulted in the emergence of new leaderships (Kaduna Nzeogwu, 1966 (which brought in General Aguiyi-Ironsi); General Gowon, 1966 to 1975; General Murtala Mohammad; Buka Suka Dimka, 1976 (which brought in General Olusegun Obasanjo, 1976 to 1979); Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari, 1984 to 1985; Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, 1985 to 1993; a failed coup attempt in April, 1990); and Gen. Sani Abacha, 1993 to 1998).
Attempts At Renegotiations
The search for solutions to Nigeria’s disunity has also led to several constitutional conferences and talks. Apart from the series of conferences by the founding fathers at the Lancaster House in London and in Ibadan, Nigeria; as well as the meeting of Gowon and Ojukwu and their officials in Aburi, Ghana, in 1967, this search has been endless.
In 1979, General Obasanjo signed Decree No. 25 proclaiming the 1979 Constitution. It was a product of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) led by late Chief Rotimi Williams (SAN), and the Constituent Assembly (CA) chaired by Justice Udoma Udo Udoma.
Also, in 1988, Justice Anthony Aniagolu led the Constituent Assembly which produced a constitutional document that could not be put into effect due to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and the subsequent removal of the Interim National Government (ING) headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. General Abacha, who toppled Shonekan also empanelled the National Constitutional Conference (1994 to 1996) which produced the constitutional document that General Abdulsalami Abubakar promulgated as the 1999 Constitution after a review by Clement Ebri presidential committee and approval by the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC). Between 1999 and today, two more efforts at resolving Nigeria’s intractable disunity were made. In 2006, President Obasanjo’s effort to review the 1999 Constitution to give himself a third term suddenly collapsed at a joint National Assembly sitting presided over by the President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani. Then, in 2014, another National Conference convened in Abuja by former President Goodluck Jonathan, also produced a document which no government ever since has thought fit to read, let alone implement.
At the crossroads
Nigeria’s inability to manage its diversity has brought it to critical junctures of state failure. While countries like Ghana, India and others, which also emerged from British colonial experiences are steadily progressing, Nigerians do not have many things that bring them together apart from football, federal allocation and forced stay in “One Nigeria” where everybody appears to hate everybody else. Ghana and India forged their thriving nationhood through the guidance they received from their founding fathers such as Kwame Nkrumah and Mahatma Gandhi, respectively. Our own founding fathers such Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello, either came into the Nigerian project with myopic tribal or religious fundamentalism or were forced into it by realities.
Unlike in Nigeria where a section of the North insists on imposing its whims and religion on, and generally overseeing the rest of the country, Ghana and India operate secular constitutions. They put their countries first before tribe, religion and region. The Bible (Amos 3:3) says that two cannot walk together unless they agree. Nigerians have not agreed to walk together. We have only agreed to fight and dominate one another.
Unless we change this mindset, put Nigeria first and elect genuinely patriotic leaders, the misery continues.
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