I read in Thisday newspaper of September 13th, 2017 about the unification speech of His Eminence ,Sa'ad Abubakar III the Sultan of Sokoto;what followed was a write up by Magbus Onyibe( A development Strategist and former commissioner in Delta State) titled 'Let's celebrate what Unites Us' so important was this article that it occupied both the guest column and the midweek politics section. Without a doubt it is an attempt at steering the ship of the current debate from the aqua of division to the harbor of unification.

In my opinion this article is an apologetic Burguioisie Attempt to rewrite history and make the devil appear as a child of light. Permit me to say without ambiguity that I support the unification attempt of other well meaning Nigerians including the columnist and his Eminence, however, what I found unacceptable is the approach taken by the columnist and his notion of celebrating "Amalgamation Day" as what unites us, this shouldn't be a surprise as solution is the new problem of the world.

 I disagree with this notion stating unequivocally that the event of 1914 is the saddest event in our history and by extension the African continent which Nigeria dominates population-wise(1 in 5 African in a Nigerian), because of this singular event in 1914, we have experienced civil war,coup and counter coup, fantastically corrupt political space, exploitation, dependency and death of Nationalism(its on record that the protectorate never saw themselves as Nigerians but different nations coming together to form Nigeria).we need not celebrate an event like the Berlin conference which decided our destiny without our active participation! 
Without micing words the Amalgamation of 1914 is a systematic failure that was put in place for exploitation and imperialistic expansion, little wonder it was opposed by a large section of the political class and the media in the 1900's. The question that begs for answer is; has anything changed since 1914?,the reason for the Amalgamation is still been felt all over the nation, many don't feel they belong to this marriage of inconvenience, even the sage(Awolowo) once opined that we are nothing but a mere geographical area. Attempts at unification without proper context of history won't help us at all, other cosmetic solution to our unification like NYSC and Unity school won't help either because you can't force a people to be together,the 100 years experience has showed this in no uncertain terms.
His Eminence pointed out that God doesn't make mistakes and the creation of our nation had God's hand in it, without a doubt God doesn't make mistakes but let's not forget God has two plans according to my Christian knowledge: permissive and perfect will, I strongly believe we have been living as a nation in the permissive will where anything goes for the last century, I therefore suggest that we move to his perfect will which I believe is A restructured Nigeria along regional lines, let's not forget that the God that anointed Saul rejected him and chose David later. Its time for our Davidic experience as a nation. A choice is before us today let's choose Unity in diversify (Restructured Nigeria).Awolowo once said of all things wrong with the constitution of old , Regionalism was not one of them!

In conclusion I say No to Amalgamation day! We should celebrate days that shows our determination and pride as a nation eg. Oct 1 , May 29 and most important in modern time June 12.





copied from https://allthingsokunrinmeta.