NIGERIA, A LIVING LIE BUT HER UNITY IS NEGOTIABLE BY JP NYAM
Following through history books and the growing concerns in Nigeria today, it’s my humble submission to say that at the time of independence, majority of the people we claim to be our founding fathers were just excited about going to witness the signing of self autonomy in England. So excited they were that they never stopped to ask what will be the core value for which all hands would be on deck and all necks might be willing to be slaughtered if need be. The thoughts of our founding fathers was said to be centred on the event and not the aftermath of the occasion as is just true all their posterity today, stressing that, “it is the reason we hardly mourn the past, neither do we make efforts to avoid future disaster”.
This has clearly shown that our approaches are always reactive and never proactive. We spend our time, strength, resources and days reacting to incidents and never planning on how to move forward. The only thing left in our hands is but the love to display how powerful we are in reactive measures with no trace of responsibility. With our religious zeal, corruption has denied even the best of our religious heroes. We profess religion more than any nation yet we live side by side with corruption more than many nations in the world. Many people are of the opinion that the entity called Nigeria is a living lie.
It is wrong to say the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable as depicted by many past and present leaders. It’s bloody well negotiable and we had better negotiate it, not even at meetings, not at conferences but everyday in our conduct towards one another. According to one of the legal luminary whose submission is captured in the FEAT publication, in fact, the so called Nigeria created in 1914 was a complete fraud. It was created not in the interest of the people but in the interest of the British. And what were the structures created? The structures created were as follows; Northern Nigeria to represent England; Western Nigeria like Wales; Eastern Nigeria to be like Scotland. In British structure, England has permanent majority in the House of Commons and there is no way Wales can ever dominate England neither can Scotland dominate Britain. But they very shrewd. They would allow a Scottish man become a prime minister, they would allow a Welsh man to become prime minister but the fact remains that the actual power rests in England.
That was what Luggard created in Nigeria, a permanent majority for the North, (as claimed that one of the son of the advantaged in the person of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the then Sardauna of Sokoto was said to have approached the British Administrative Secretary and remarked, “if you want us ‘the North’ to be part of this Nigeria you have in mind then we want 50 percent of the membership of the National Assembly”. This indeed was granted, the census figure was also doctored and the North was granted a simple majority and that became one of our major problems and nightmare as a Country. The population figure of the North is also a fraud. Analysing critically, if you look at the map of West Africa, starting from Mauritania to Cameroun and take the population of each country as you move from the coast to the savannah the population decreases. Or conversely, as you come from the desert to the coast right from Mauritania to Cameroun, the population decreases. The only exception throughout the zone is Nigeria. Nigeria is the only zone whereby you go from coast to the north the population increases and you come from the north to the coast the population decreases.
Recently, Asari Dokubo has been described by many people to be a mad man when he said, “The amalgamation of 1914 was an illegality and anything built in the 1914 amalgamation that gave birth to Nigeria is a nullity. So, let’s have a Sovereign National Conference then, we will know ourselves”. Even before the recent calls for restructuring by prominent Nigerians probably against the backdrop of renewed agitations by militants in the oil rich Niger-Delta, and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the South-South people have confessed that the amalgamation is evil, satanic and wicked. The South-west declared that the amalgamation was satanic, wicked, injurious and painful. The South-east has been attempting to break off the yoke of the amalgamation off their necks. The Middle-belters have already confessed that the amalgamation is deceit, selfish, wicked and godless. What then are we waiting for? After all, one cannot fail to see reasons why after the wishes of Sardauna were granted by Luggard, Chief Obafemi Awolowo came out in 1956 and remarked, “Nigeria is only a geographical expression to which life was given by the diabolical amalgamation of 1914 ..............”.
Obviously the entity call Nigeria is a living lie, if the different nationalities that make up the entity must co-exist then there has to be a forum where the basis of their co-existence would be clearly defined. We can begin with the implementation of the March, 2014 National Conference under a proper referendum and further plan how our future together, geographically, politically, economically, socially, religiously and all what not should be.
So, I am on the side of those who say that we must do everything to avoid disintegration. The above is key.

Nice one

valenu:
Nice one

Thanks a lot.