When, on January 14, 2009 President Barack Obama took the dais for his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, his popularity hovered at eighty per cent. Here was a man elected with barely fifty five per cent of the votes cast, with an overwhelming popularity. Clearly, for just that one day, Americans were united behind their new President.


Certainly, most Americans (Black, White or Brown) were justifiably proud that a nation once founded on racism and slavery could look beyond her own ever-present demon of prejudice to elect a black man as President. That day, as I worked, even an avowed redneck, which I happen to work with, could not help but be proud. In the end, he confided in me that he, indeed, was proud to be American, even though he somehow did not expect Obama to win or govern well for that matter.


In Nigeria, the minorities of the South-South and Middle Belt suffer the fate of Black Americans. It is on the backs of these peoples, and their mineral resources (be it oil, mineral deposits, oil palm or rubber) that both the pre-colonial and post-colonial Nigeria were built. In it all, they were pilloried and assaulted by the rest of the nation.


The psychological impact of being a minority in Nigeria can be shattering. The sense or the lack thereof belonging can be conflicting; this is especially true when Nigerian minority groups have no option but to seek the safety of a negotiated federation no matter how unfair when contrasted with the guaranteed oppression from their big three neighbours (Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) or the legacy of divide and rule which was orchestrated to break the ranks of the minority groups.


This split “minority” personality revealed itself to be very present during and after the civil war. Indeed, the avowed support for one Nigeria by Nigeria’s ethnic minorities in the Niger Delta or Middle Belt (during and after the Biafran war) has hardly been a validation of the basic unfairness which exists in the Nigerian arrangement, but rather, an acknowledgement of the possibilities of making the union better. Even then, it always is an admission that the alternative of a fragmented state with the big three breathing down their necks without inter-rivalry is dangerous for the corporate existence of the minority.


The Willink Commission established before independence did look into the affairs of Nigeria‘s minorities and concluded that a federated state system, where the special needs of minority groups are factored into development programmes and where special areas (briefly in operation in the first republic) to see to these needs are operated is what will serve the people best.


This recommendation was virtually ignored in four of the five decades since that report, less for the politically-convenient favour of state creation albeit in a virtually unitary system. The communities of the Niger Delta have witnessed the worst incidences of environmental degradation, genocide, military occupation and the worst kind of pillaging (of human, natural and emotional resources). Indeed, the minority areas of Nigeria remain the open festering sore of the nation of Nigeria.


The minorities of Nigeria were virtually without a voice in the first and second republics. But as their patience wore thin with years, so did the level of crisis in their midst. As they fought intensely for the crumbs that fell from the table of the majority groups in the 90s, they increasingly saw the deck stacked against them and their destiny in the collectivity called Nigeria.


In response, all hell was let loose as the underpinnings of an emerging democratic society gave the Deltans and the Middle Belters the opportunity to express their misgivings about the internal hegemony that has kept the geese that laid the golden eggs in a cage. This response has provoked a cycle of crisis ranging from all-out-street battle with security operatives to kidnapping, piracy and bombing since 2000.


This evidently has been the case until the ascension of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a Niger Deltan by birth, and President by destiny, whose ascension to that position was preceded by high-power intrigues of the Shakespearean mode. We must not forget that President Jonathan was not responsible (at least not directly) for the decades of economic deprivation that preceded the crisis in the region; and quite succinctly, the security disaster that the Niger Delta has become definitely preceded his stewardship at the national level.


Regardless of these facts, however, and rather than his ascension to our nation’s highest office to be celebrated (like Americans did Barack Obama), many of the same people that created the security hodgepodge the man is dealing with today are calling for his head. Most frightening is the fact that this cabal is spearheaded by elder statesmen who, ordinarily should be the nation’s rallying point for unity and peace but have relegated themselves to the altar of divisive ethnic politics.


They claim to be statesmen, but only to the limit of their selfish ambitions. Once disciples of the “One Nigeria” mantra, they have now, sadly, reduced themselves to champions of sectional interest; supposedly speaking from the mythical “north”. They are plotting against Nigeria, whipping up the embers of insecurity and blackmail, hoping the nation goes down with their warped ambitions. It is unfortunate that people who should know better are being led down the path of perdition by these men. But the good news is that they don‘t represent the collective interest of the north.


Every lover of democracy should come out heavily on the side of ordinary Nigerians who have suffered immensely in the hands of these fifth columnists. These old men who destroyed their dreams of their fathers at independence, frittered away the wealth of their children, and see nothing bad about destroying the future of their grandchildren must be stopped in their stride.


It was under them the worst economic programmes were implemented. They went to the best universities, and turned the same to citadels of prostitution. They took functional clinics and turned them into consulting rooms. They inherited a bustling infrastructure and turned them into death traps. It was under these men that the dreams of democracy were scuttled: first in 1979 and then in 1993. Never again!


We know their thoughts towards Nigeria are not good, but let it be clear: they are on the wrong side of history and the train of change is leaving them behind. But we need to guard our resolve jealously and sustain the current tempo. It is only when “We the people” speak with one voice regardless of states of origin, region, religion or creed that we will rescue ourselves and posterity from the claws of these lions.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011050375185

how do minorities in the SS and mid belt compare to black americans when every tribe in nigeria is a minority, middle belters and deltans have been head of state, and neither tribe face segregation or slavery (at least as a unique case)

its seems that everyone with a keyboard from nigeria is a 'writer' and all their babblings are 'writings'

alj harem:

how are the enemies yorubas? do you know what the yorubas have contributed to this country??

Ikengawo:

how do minorities in the SS and mid belt compare to black americans when every tribe in nigeria is a minority, middle belters and deltans have been head of state, and neither tribe face segregation or slavery (at least as a unique case)

its seems that everyone with a keyboard from nigeria is a 'writer' and all their babblings are 'writings'

seconded

yorubas and the igbos are the enemies because they do not want to embrace the way of the north nigeria

alj harem:

yorubas and the igbos are the enemies because they do not want to embrace the way of the north nigeria

and please tell what way that is?

alj harem:

yorubas and the igbos are the enemies because they do not want to embrace the way of the north nigeria

by suppressing the minority groups in the north?

jason12345:

by suppressing the minority groups in the north?

do not talk about that

alj harem:


do not talk about that

i shouldn't talk about our brother being killed in jos for example, at the slightest provocation

jason12345:

i shouldn't talk about our brother being killed in jos for example, at the slightest provocation

u see why i told u not to talk about it

jason i like the way u reason but somtime u just annoy me

jason12345:

by suppressing the minority groups in the north?

LOL