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Did The Nigeria Ever Defeat Biafra? / Why Military Under Jonathan Failed To Defeat Boko Haram – Former CDS / Nigeria Honoured Emperor Haile Salessie I For Helping Them Defeat Biafra. (2) (3) (4)
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How To Defeat Biafra by lattychem: 12:03pm On Nov 03, 2015 |
How to defeat Biafra
Azuka Onwuka
On the surface, the people who should benefit
most from a united Nigeria are the Igbo, because
they travel out of their homeland more than other
ethnic groups and own property and businesses
outside their ethnic group more than others. In
addition, Nigeria provides a wider space and larger
market for them to operate than just being citizens
of a fraction of Nigeria. As Nigerians, they won’t
have to come into Nigeria with any passport,
neither would they be given a time limit when they
visit Nigeria. They won’t have to pay special taxes
as non-citizens.
Ironically, and in spite of all these positives, one
still finds many Igbo people agitating to have an
independent state of theirs. This looks like
foolishness if not madness. It is even worsened by
the fact that millions of Igbo were killed between
1967 and 1970 when the former Eastern Region
attempted to have a country of their own called
Biafra. So, why should a people be embarking on a
project that seems not to be in their favour in
many ways?
As a young man in the university some 25 years
ago, after studying Nigeria and reading so much
about its past and its leaders, I reached the
conclusion that the country was headed in the
wrong direction and if it continued in that direction,
it would not progress. Twenty five years after,
Nigeria has not made any progress. Rather, it has
remained a country whose citizens lament and
wonder why it cannot be like other countries that
were in the same league with it in the past but
have moved on and are developing rapidly.
I noticed that contrary to what Chinua Achebe said
in his book, The Trouble with Nigeria, the trouble
with Nigeria is actually not just leadership, and
contrary to what many say, the problem with
Nigeria is not corruption. Nigeria runs a system
that promotes laziness, rewards mediocrity and
celebrates corruption. And that is why perpetually,
we have been looking for the Messiah that will turn
things around for the nation, but that same
structure continues to dash our hopes. Albert
Einstein is credited with saying that the best
definition of insanity is doing the same thing the
same but expecting a different result each time.
It’s like planting maize and praying that it will
bring forth yam!
The best growth, development and happiness
Nigeria and Nigerians have ever experienced
occurred between 1940s and 1966. That there was
a British governor-general at the centre reduced
power tussle among the three regions. But
between 1960 and 1966, the strong powers of the
government at the centre as well as the absence of
the British culminated in the Civil War.
Since 1966, Nigeria has been run as a unitary
structure where each state folds its arms, waiting
for the federal allocations that come mainly from
oil revenues each month. Any time the allocation
is late by even a few weeks, the states begin to
lament. And when there is a shortfall in the
allocation, as there is now because of fall in oil
price, most states start failing to meet their
obligations, including payment of salaries.
The competitiveness, creativity and diligence that
existed during the era of the regions died in 1966
when the federal system was abolished and a
unitary system foisted on us. It was finally buried
when the regions were replaced by states. Even
after the so-called reintroduction of the federal
structure of government, it was only a federal
system in name but unitary system in reality. The
states have remained like powerless branches of
companies which just wait for directives from the
head office before taking any action.
There are three suggestions on what to do to
Nigeria to make it work and progress. One, retain
the states as they are but stop sharing money to
them. Let each state raise money internally to
sustain itself and have certain powers to pursue its
aspirations. Two, let the six geopolitical zones
become the federating units with the powers to
create as many states as they wish but with no
funding from the centre, with each zone led by a
Vice-President who will work with the President.
So, at each point, each zone has a Vice-President
and feels that it is part of governance and
decision-making. Three, let the six zones be like
mini-countries within Nigeria just like the UK has
four countries in one: England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
Aristotle said that it is unjust to treat unequal
things or people equally. It is also unjust to treat
equal things or people unequally. Nigeria is
sustained by that principle of injustice. It happens
via the federal allocation, federal character policy,
quota system, power devolution, state creation,
local government creation, etc. By Nigeria’s policy,
no part of Nigeria should move faster than any
other part. All the parts have to wait for one
another and move at the pace of the slowest part.
Consequently, at each point in time, one part of the
country feels cheated. When Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo was in power, the North, the South-East
and South-South felt marginalised. The Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba,
initiated impeachment proceedings against
Obasanjo but later backed down. The South-East
cried marginalisation, with MASSOB campaigning
for secession. The South-West boiled with the
Oodua People’s Congress but later calmed down.
But it was the South-South that really went
overboard via the Niger Delta insurgency. That
militancy continued under President Umaru
Yar’Adua until amnesty was initiated in 2009.
When Dr Goodluck Jonathan took over in 2010, the
agitation shifted to the North with threats from
several Northen elders to make the nation
ungovernable. Boko Haram that had started like a
small group under Yar’Adua snowballed into a
monster.
Now that President Muhammadu Buhari is in office,
the Biafra agitations had risen in a new dimension
through Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of
Biafra and Radio Biafra. Buhari’s action of not
appointing anybody from the South-East (excluding
the constitutionally guaranteed ministers from each
state) has heightened the Biafran agitations. Even
though the language of Nnamdi Kanu, the director
of Radio Biafra, is repulsive to many, he is getting
sympathisers among the Igbo by his message of
freedom. His recent arrest has even popularised
him more.
But it is curious that people from the North and
South-West should be worried about Biafra. Only
the people from the South-South have a good
reason to be concerned about Biafra, because they
need to know if they are being drawn into it
without their consent. Nobody has a right to draw
any part of Nigeria into any agitation of secession
without the permission of the people from that
part.
On the contrary, even if the Igbo were to succeed
in having their country, the North and South-West
have nothing to lose. The Igbo would have gone
with all their bad traits to their landlocked and
backward country to suffer, with no more
opportunity to whine and quarrel with other
Nigerians over one issue or the other. So, why cry
for them? Why bother that they will kill one
another in Biafra like South Sudan if allowed to
have their country?
But, the first step towards reducing or stopping all
the bickering in the country and kick-starting the
process of setting Nigeria on the path of recovery
and growth is to dust up the report of the 2014
National Conference and start the implementation
of the document.
Deep inside them, Nigerians love to be Nigerians,
but not a Nigeria that frustrates them and keeps
them down. I believe that the agitations for Biafra
can be deflated and suppressed simply by
restructuring Nigeria. If done genuinely, not only
Biafra but many of the agitations from different
parts of the nation will fizzle out. A united Nigeria
has many benefits over separate nations. But if
Nigeria continues on its current course, its future
is not bright.
I want to see Nigeria blossoming, with Nigerians
not feeling suffocated inside this nation. Another
25 years from now when I will be a senior citizen,
I don’t want to be writing this type of article,
asking for Nigeria to be restructured so that it can
start to grow. Buhari has the opportunity to be the
hero to release Nigeria from its 50-year-old
shackles and let it fly like other great nations. Will
he grab the opportunity or make himself just one
of the presidents that came, saw, but did the
regular? punchng.com/2015/11/3310 |
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