The suppression of a secession attempt by the old Eastern Region, said Gen. Yakubu Gowon, must be total. As Head of State at the time, Gowon said the now late Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had declared an independent state of Biafra, and added unequivocally: “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.” And keep Nigeria one he did, though after a civil war that lasted all of 30 months in which over two million people died. However, today, 50 years after the war ended with Gowon’s “No victor, no vanquished” declaration, some politicians are bent on fanning the embers of the apparently dead secession fire. They are not, this time, using the gun but politics of subterfuge. Still, the goal is the same: annul the Nigerian state.
They dignify their sinister motive by calling it a constitution amendment proposal. It pushes the abolition of the present 36 state federal structure and a return to the old regional political arrangement that came with independence in 1960. Their argument is that the present structure is to the disadvantage of the resource-rich states by taking from them and giving to states, in their opinion, that do not generate wealth. They want the three former Eastern, Western and Northern regions returned, each controlling their resources and in charge of the police and ostensibly foreign relations. In other words, they want more powers devolved to the regions as they were before the military took over in 1966.
But this can be done constitutionally without having to go back to the rejected regional configuration. This exposes the fallacy of regionalism. It is true that some states are benefitting far more from the federal purse than they are contributing to filling it up. Again this anomaly can be redressed through amending the revenue sharing formula to say that what the states will receive will be relative to how much they contribute to the federation account. The formula has undergone several changes over the years. It hasn’t stopped. It may be argued that constitutional changes take too long to effect. But this is deliberately so to discourage frivolousness.
What more, the discursive nature of the position of proponents of regionalism and power devolution easily gives away their true intention which, make no mistake, is the ultimate dismemberment of the country. First, the lobby demanded “restructuring”, which actually meant resource control. From here, it has moved to control over the security architecture, the police specifically. Now it does appear the federal government is amenable to ceding its absolute control of the police. This has goaded the lobby to, like Oliver Twist, “ask for more”. Now it wants the regions, that is if we return to them, to also control their relations with the outside world. Before long, it will be demanding that regions have their own militaries too. From here to asking for statehood won’t be a long jump. This is where we see this lobby ending invariably. Therein also lies the danger in not seeing this lobby for what it truly is.
The question is, having sacrificed so much in life and material resources to keep Nigeria one, are we about to allow secession, a breakup, on a platter? The millions who gave their lives for the country believed it held out something of value worth dying for. Are we now suggesting they believed in error? Yes, Nigeria is made up of hundreds of ethnic/linguistic nationalities. This is a strength, not a weakness. It means no group can lord it over the others; it means accommodation is possible in this pluralistic setting. It means we can “agree to disagree” without drawing blood. It means we can create a truly democratic society. By the way, who says a homogenous society is violence or conflict free? If so, Sudan would not be fighting a civil war that has lasted several years now! Or America wouldn’t be so crime-infested! But it does possess political ethos which the rest of the world, rightly or wrongly, admires and envies. We together can make Nigeria also the envy of the world, provided we are not misled by a vocal minority to destroy our nation.
