State of the Nation: Is the North Ready for a United Nigeria?

I am a strong and unrepentant believer in a united and indivisible Nigeria. The strength in unity can never be over emphasized. There are many ethnic nationalities seeking the dissolution of Nigeria inwardly and outwardly. I only have pity for them. I pity them because they are misguided, opportunistic and utterly mischievous individuals without a definite roadmap to their quest as well as living in delusion that their imaginary republics will offer anything better than the present Nigeria.

I am convinced that the northern political elites have continued to provide the greatest alibi to the mischief makers in guise of ethnic liberators. They have oxygenated cravings of charlatans and allowed the discussion for national unity to relocate to motor parks, mechanic workshops, markets and palm wine joints instead of hallowed intellectual arenas. Why the northern elites?

The unity of Nigeria was anchored on political and fiscal federalism. In fact, that was the cardinal demand of Northern Nigeria before agreeing independence. When Ironsi took over government after the failed Nzeogwu coup, he abolished the existing federalism and introduced unitary government. The north revolted and cited domination by Ironsi and his Igbo tribe. The murder of Ironsi by Danjuma and others in Ibadan was politically backed by the north because he abolished federalism in Nigeria.

Upon assumption of power, the northern elites reversed themselves and consolidated unitary governance and paid lip service to federalism. From that point, the machination started. They used their military wing to damage the country and created huge, selfish and hypocritical advantage for themselves. Their machination did not directly benefit the average northerner. The major culprits were Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Babangida and Abacha.

Gowon started the dance by creating three states in the north in other to equalize the pre 1966 status of the south. While, the actions of Gowon could be justified by the need to ensure an effective war strategy to divide the front of the rebellious Biafra, Murtala Mohhamed’s state creation set the dangerous precedence that has skewed our federalism and made it useless. He allocated 10 states to the north and 9 to the south. IBB consolidated this injustice by expanding the northern advantage from one state over the south to two states.

IBB in fact went further to reconstitute the local government structure into a semi federating unit of the republic and created more councils in the north to enable them receive federal allocations. Prior to the IBB destruction of the fiscal federalism we practiced, the federal government had no business funding local government areas. Abacha completed the damage by whimsically creating LGAs that were lopsided. The north finally dwarfed the south in resource allocation.

Meanwhile, the pre 1966 revenue sharing formula was abolished. At that time, derivation was 50%, federal government 20% and remaining 30% was shared among the federating units. This to me is where the northern elites have failed not just other parts of Nigeria but the ordinary northerner that is deprived of equity.

Finally, my position is that we must continue to push for justice, but that cannot be on the basis of dissolution of the federation. All those preaching dissolution and war are anarchists, miscreants and nation wreckers. Men and women of goodwill from all parts of the country must join in the campaign to return the country to pre 1966 status.

Last Line: you cannot be patriotic, objective, humane and desires the vomiting of our eaten yams if you support an injustice simply because it endows you with some undeserved advantages.