What are we waiting for? Isn’t it very obvious even to the daftest that the contraption called Nigeria is a failed state by every definition and every parameter? Is this what a country of 186 million people supposed to be? Should we continue to sustain a country that is unsustainable? Should we continue to live a lie and in self denial when all onlookers know that we are merely living the life of the ostrich? This country is no longer together. In fact and in truth it has never been together. If it was ever together it was before 1914, before a self seeking, insidious and wickedly partial drunken soldier called Fredrick Lugard forcibly yoked together nation states of the Southern Protectorate and those of the North in the name of trade and amalgamation.
The story of the fraud called Amalgamation is now too well known to require re-telling. The fraud of forged population census figures, the fraud of creating a tripod whose head was three times the size of its two legs, the fraud of constituency allocation, the fraud of Land Use, the fraud of indirect rule for a section, and the fraud of Divide and Rule were the fraudulent foundation of the Amalgamation from which the so-called country had never found a breathing space!
There are five fundamental reasons why Nigeria’s breakup is imminent. For a start, the over 250 nationalities that were forcibly brought together under one umbrella were never consulted before they were coerced into a marriage. There was no negotiation, there were no agreed premises, and there was no courtship of any kind before fist cuffs were put on the wrist of the beautiful bride and handed over to the overbearing bridegroom. The marriage has been bumpy in the last 103 years. The enterprising bride was chained and bedraggled and every effort to free herself was thwarted by the backward looking husband. The marriage is now ripe for dissolution and MUST be dissolved.
As far back as 1947 Alhaji Shehu Shagari opined that there was no future for the so-called union and canvassed that the North should be free to develop at its own pace while the South should be allowed to go. In 1953 and thereabout when the Western Region and Eastern Region called for Self Government that would usher in political independence, the North said NO! And when independence was sought from Britain in 1957, the North said it was not ready for independence. Because of the cosy relationship that existed between the Colonialists and the hugely favoured northern colony, the North did not mind if Britain remained in power indefinitely.
When the North eventually reluctantly agreed to allow independence, it had been employing all shenanigans and crooked means both political and military to thwart the advancement of the South. All sorts of stratagems including the so-called JAMB, Quota System, Federal Character, Creation of unwieldy states for the purpose of weakening the federating units, creation of fraudulent local governments, and over centralisation of the polity were/are some of the mischievous ploys by the Fulani Cabal controlled civilian and military governments. To ensure enforcement of its feudalist approach to governance the British predesigned and programmed the North to have perpetual dominance and control of the Military and all agencies of Intelligence, Coercion and Border control.
Of course you can only fool some people for a limited time. The federating units in all parts of the country minus the Oligarchy have become severely fed up with over centralised Unitary government that has stifled their progress and has made them slaves in their own land. Agitation for Self Determination has become rife in the land, and all the major nationalities now want to live in their own country and be in charge of their own destiny. And it appears no force on earth can stop the actualisation of their desired goals.
Add to the foregoing is the historical fact that all forced empires of the past have crumbled and disappeared. India had to let go Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bros Tito’s Yugoslavia had disappeared in a fierce internal eruption. United Socialist Soviets Republics, [USSR] collapsed. Czechoslovakia disappeared. The Sudan had to break into two after a fierce 47-year old war. The trend may see the beginning of the US losing two or three states while the United Kingdom may lose Scotland and Wales. Right now Nigeria has a choice: either to breakup without shedding a pint of blood the way the Checks and Slovaks resolved their irreconcilable differences or go into bloody and destructive war that would make the Biafran experience a child’s play.
As pungently argued by the respectable War veteran and hero of the Nigeria Biafra War Lt General Alani Akinrinade, God did not desire that humans should live in large communities. Throughout history it was city states that engineered human development. The glorious era of ancient history was the period when Rome, Athens, Sparta, Thermopylae and other city states dominated the then world’s commerce, military and politics. Big for bigness sake has no relevance in human development. The successful countries of the world today are the small countries of Northern Europe and the countries that practice either loose federation or outright confederation.
Fortunately almost all the federating units of Nigeria can survive on their own. All the nationalities that have been dubiously pulled down or dragged down in the myopic mindset that one needed to pull down others for their own advancement would now bloom once they proclaim their independence.
Unfortunately for those who may be foolishly contemplating that they would use force to stop the breakup, there is no longer the kind of Military that fought the Biafrans and stopped the secession. The suspicion, the schism, the cynicism, the absence of patriotism, the crazy corruption that have come to define the Nigerian character in the last twenty years or so have eaten deep into the fibre of every Nigerian whether Customs Officer, or Police, or Military. I dare say that what is on ground now are Fulani police or soldier, Igbo police or soldier, Yoruba police or soldier, Hausa police or soldier, Tiv police or soldier and Izon police or soldier.
It is the prayer of this writer that the current leaders of today will have the wisdom to choose a peaceful breakup.
No force on earth can stop a movement whose time has come. Kalu the leader of IPOB should be released without further delay.
