Article written by former presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati...
Democracy does not necessarily translate into the disappearance of crises and dilemmas, (even trilemmas, quadrilemmas or more) in a country, either developed, developing or perhaps evolutionary. Built into the fabric of the right to choose is also the right to make mistakes and so, across Africa at this moment, in Nigeria, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Burundi, Guinea Conakry, Rwanda, the lessons are being driven home, as elections are being held or have been held or will be heldThat even as democracy spreads within the continent, the tension between stabilization and consolidation, trade offs and efficiency, pessimism and optimism, ethnocentrism and nationalism, remains a major concern.
Whatever the challenges may be however, both local and international authorities have a duty to ensure that the people learn from their mistakes, build on those mistakes positively, and prevent a relapse to either militarism or militarized democracy disguised either as benevolent democracy or charismatic autocracy, or ethnic revanchism as an option for national movement. The people’s right to make mistakes, oxymoronic as it may seem, is part of the democratic challenge. In Nigeria, our biggest mistake lies in the strange assumption that our problems will disappear simply through intra-elite displacement or the symbolism of grand gestures. And so, we end up with a boringly repetitive national life cycle.
This leads us to one
urgent point: the biggest challenge that the Nigerian state faces today, tearing
into the very idea of statehood, and of democracy, is the centrifugal pull from
every direction that seems to have become disturbingly incremental. In the
North Eastern part of the country, with the tragedy spreading, with casualties
increasing, you have the heart-wrenching Boko Haram menace.
The Haram
fundamentalists want a divided Nigeria. They have their own flag and they have
made it clear that Western education and technology are sinful even if they use
the same technology and intelligence to perpetrate their assault. With their
flags and propaganda, they want “out” of Nigeria. Their act of defiance and the
evil outcomes have increased since May even if civil society has chosen, all of
a sudden, to be less anxious. But it is not a problem that can ever be treated
lightly located as it is, in the tragic axis of global terror.
In the Middle Belt, an
indigene-settler dichotomy, mutating as majorities-minorities conflict at the
heart of Northern community relations, or as pastoralists-farmer confrontation
has created seasons of violence and bloodshed with strong allegations of
genocide and no sign of immediate abatement. In the South West, the recent
abduction of a Yoruba leader, Chief Olu Falae by persons alleged to be Fulani
herdsmen has resulted in the exchange of hate speech among Yoruba and Fulani
ethnic champions defending territory, rights and identity.
In Ibadan, the other day,
a group of Yoruba elders demanded that Fulani herdsmen should be expelled from
Yoruba territory and that should the provocation continue, the Yoruba with
their 50 million population will be prepared to exit Nigeria. In the Eastern
part of the country, there is a resurgence of Biafran nationalism; young Igbos
in diaspora, are insisting on the creation of a Republic of Biafra. The new
voice of Biafran nationalism is Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB), Radio Biafra, and the Igbos campaigning for Biafra in front of
embassies in Europe, India and Japan! In the South South, there is a renewed
consciousness of oil citizenship, with the Ijaw whose kinsman recently lost
power at the centre protesting that they are victims of Hausa/Fulani harassment,
and intimidation.
Perhaps the more worrisome is the noise being
made about likely secession from Nigeria, by certain elements in the North East
(terrorists actually seeking to carve out territory), by latter-day Biafrans,
and by Yoruba irridentists. It may not be possible without empirical inquiry to
determine how much of this is pure opportunism, posturing or criminal-mindedness
(except in the case of Boko Haram where criminality is proven), but it would
appear that while seeking to uphold the law against those who challenge the
sanctity of the state, the government must nonetheless take the agitations
seriously for they speak to something old and familiar which has become
resoundingly deeper.
If the matter were to be
subjected to referenda across the country, I am not too sure there are many
Nigerians today who will vote for the dismemberment of this country. Social
scientists advise us not to rule out any possibility, self-determination can be
self-fulfilling; and nations have been known to dissolve against all odds, but it
seems to me that the majority of Nigerians would rather be Nigerians. Our
country has been kept together by the resilience and the optimism of the
majority, not the disillusionment of a critical minority. We have not yet
reached a point where the idea of Nigeria is lost and forlorn, to the extent
that the feeling of self-sufficiency that propels the secessionist instinct may
indeed be illusionary. No matter the challenge, I believe that it is the idea
of Nigeria that will prevail.
The long and the short of it however, is that
this remains a grossly imperfect federation, union and democracy. The country
is hoisted on a foundation of ancestral fissures. For 55 years, this country
has refused to transform into a nation. It has been hijacked by identity
politics, and by ethnic and class determinism. It is sad, very sad indeed, that
successive governments have not been able to create an enlightened citizenry
and an intelligent elite that can look beyond their own greed. The Nigerian
political brain has remained a grossly emotional brain.
We seem to have lost the national battle to
emotions fed by ancestral memory, creating a gap between knowledge, and desire.
It is why MASSOB, Nnamdi Kanu, Radio Biafra and Biafra Voice International
(BVI) are the new faces of Igbo nationalism, and not Aka Ikenga or Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
It is why disgruntled elements in the North East insist on pulling down the
country. It is why citizens of a defined oil territory continue to blackmail
the Nigerian state. Nnamdi Kanu does not necessarily speak for all Igbos, and neither
the Afenifere nor the Yoruba Council
of Elders can determine the Yoruba emotion but they throw up ideas that cannot
be ignored. It is the duty of government to address the dangerous ideas of
disintegration, dismemberment that issue from those political brains, not to
ignore or traduce them.
The
key message is that this is not yet a nation. Kanu’s protest and the frustrations
in the Niger Delta or the Yoruba anger over the humiliation of an iconic
figure, or the angst of the people of the Middle Belt, or the widespread
concern about the arrogance of power, escalated since independence, should be a
wake up call. Those who feel defeated politically are drawing attention to
subliminal fears about ancestral injustices, inequities, and inequalities in
the Nigerian democratic space. The more they perceive an attempt to
appropriate, exclude and marginalize, the more vociferous they are likely to
be. In the long run, nobody may secede
(General Gowon is right on this score), but the inequities of the Nigerian
state must be addressed. The man who will save Nigeria is that leader who will
engage Nigerians proactively on the issues of inclusion and cohesion, and thereby
grant to every citizen, a sense of ownership beyond ethnic identity, a sense of
belonging, and confidence in the Nigerian identity. When people relate to the
state from a position of fear, and exclusion, they create the kind of problems
we witness.
One, poverty,
not necessarily material poverty, is at the heart of the problem. Two, the failure
of the moral dimension is also a veritable cause of national dysfunction.
Three, when the people have jobs, and the economy works and education is taken
seriously as a tool for empowerment and progress, there will perhaps be better
citizens. What this means is that developing a state that works and a
leadership that believes and cares, and focuses on governance responsibilities
is where the priority lies. To move Nigeria forward, these are the fundamental
issues to address. How to go about this is the responsibility of those to whom we
have entrusted our mandate. It was the main assignment yesterday, the same
today and the compass for tomorrow.
He is talking about one useless nigeria but I am not a nigerian first.. I should remind Abati that I am not a nigerian. I was forced to be.. I want my country to be restored back simple... Biafra is my country and I am a Biafran and Igbo is my language.. Pointblank!
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