Buhari assiduously working to make history as Nigeria's LAST president

 

      A king that transformed a jungle to a city will forev­er be remembered, at the same time, a king that turned a city into jungle forever would not be forgotten. The way things are going, it is obvious that many nations are likely to emerge from Nigeria. When the histories of such na­tions that were hitherto Nigeria would be written, one name that would be scrolled in bold prints is President Muhammadu Buhari for presiding and writing the epi­taph of ones a country.

      In this vein, “There was a coun­try”, the last book of late literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe be­comes prophetic.

       When in the early 2000, it was alleged that the American Cen­tral Intelligence Agency (CIA) had predicted that Nigeria would fragment in 2015, there was pal­pable tension in the country es­pecially in the face of the gen­eral election that generated so much acrimony and hatred and the country was polarized along ethnic and religious divides. The election came and gone, many heaved sighs of relief, believing the worst was over.

True to their thoughts, the worst could have been over if the winner of the election, Presi­dent Buhari was interested in the unity of the country. He could have embarked on reconcilia­tion and unification across the country so that the grievances and disappointment that attend­ed the election would be forgot­ten. Instead, he started to posi­tion people from one section of the country and equally started promoting his religion, while he saw the rest as conquered people, who should not impugn his au­thority even in a democracy.

How can somebody be pissing on your head and be telling you that it is raining?

Events the last one year gave rise to the frenzy of self determi­nation by various ethnic groups. Before it was only MASSOB in the Southeast and right now more groups have sprang in the region all working in synergy to­wards self determination.

Then, like a joke, another up­rising is going on in the Niger Delta region. It started with Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), and now many other groups have come out working in the same direc­tion for self- determination. They are holding the nation to its jugu­lar and their persisted attacks on oil facilities in the region has re­duced the nation’s crude oil ex­port from 2.2 million barrels to about 1.2 million.

The reason is that Buhari saw the Southeast and the South-south as conquered people. He has been accused to have an agenda to Islamise the country and his actions and body lan­guages lay credence to such ac­cusation.

In his disappointing May 29 broadcast, the emphasis was how to crush militants in the Ni­geria's Delta and the unarmed ag­itators of Biafra, but he was mute over the Fulani herdsmen, who are carrying out heinous crime of genocide in the Middle Belt and the south. Should that be the po­sition of a leader who is interested in the unity of the country? While Fulani herdsmen walk freely with sophisticated war/assault rifles, but soldiers saw the gathering of Biafra agitators as an avenue to test their marksmanship; but thumb up for the atrocities of Fu­lani herdsmen, which the Glob­al Terrorism Index rates as the fourth most deadly terrorist or­ganisation in the world. There is no way the country can stand by suppressing the other ethnic na­tionalities feeling the brunt of the Hausa/Fulani hegemony.

While the president was on official visit to his Katsina State, he dismissed the agitation of Bi­afra and said that for Nigeria to break up, that it was better for all of them to be drawn.

That is living in the past. As it is, this country may not survive under him. Nigeria is in a parlous state. It is dying, and it won’t be the first country that has ceased to exist as it was. This is the na­ked truth unless somebody is not looking at what is going on. There are cracks everywhere, the foun­dation has been weak, and has been destroyed. Ethnic nation­alities are more than ever com­ing up agitating for self determi­nation.

Nigeria is the only subsisting country cobbled together by the British, so anybody who is beat­ing his chest that the country will not break up is whimsical.

Go down to history. Look at the former Federation of East Af­rica, which dissolved into Ken­ya, Uganda and Tanzania. The British also created the West In­dies Federation, which also failed and you now have Jamaica, Trin­idad and Tobago; they also cre­ated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, it failed. The only fed­eration they created then that has not failed is Nigeria, which is bound to fail if we don’t sit down and talk and that is why when Bi­afra declared independence, Brit­ish fought tooth and nail to make sure Nigeria didn’t fail because they hold it as the only success they have in the British empire. They also created the Federation of Malaysia and Singapore, but it failed. The time that Biafra was pulling out was also when Singa­pore was pulling out of the Fed­eration of Malay, Singapore and North Borneo, put together by the British.

If President Buhari is conscious of this, he should not be belliger­ent in his tough talk of Nigeria being indivisible. You don’t force national unity by fiat.

Like all pluralistic societies, Ni­geria’s corporate existence will al­ways be a subject of intense ag­itation. This is more so as the country is an artificial creation standing on a false federation. Presently, there’s growing mis­trust among all ethnic nationali­ties against one another.

All through history, it a com­mon knowledge that no force has ever been able to permanently suppress ethnic nationalism.

By the President’s position, that it is better for all Nigerians to “jump into the sea and get drowned” than for Nigeria to di­vide, he is prescribing the 1994 Rwandan tragedy. He should come down from his high horse and to allow our nationalities to choose their preferences peace­fully. Instead of holding on pow­er by Crisis Theory. Slobodan Milosevic failed to adhere to this wisdom in the defunct Yugosla­via; the outcome was a war that claimed 140,000 lives. His obdu­rate refusal to negotiate caused violent seizures and the coun­try splintered into six different nations. The old Union of Sovi­et Socialist Republics is now his­tory. Sudan went the same rau­cous path, before South Sudan was carved out in 2011.