Nigeria has become a perdition in which everybody is losing and
nobody is gaining. Everywhere you ever go, your nostrils are daily confronted
with the stench of death. The possibility of scores of our compatriots being
killed on a daily basis is almost predictable. From the rampaging Fulani
herdsmen killing, maiming and kidnapping hundreds of innocent and defenseless
Nigerians on a daily basis to cascading incidents of inter-communal or tribal
wars across the country, the growing menace of violent armed robbery and police
brutality, and ritual killings, Nigerians are having more than they bargained
for.
All this
is happening under the watch of a sitting government whose officials are openly
asking native peoples to surrender their lands for cattle ranching to avoid
being killed. Several analysts, newspaper editorials and informed commentators
have had to proffer solutions to the numerous crises bedeviling the country
including the imperative for State Police and the urgent need to tame the
so-called ‘indigenes/settlers’ dichotomy, but the government at the centre
behaves as though it has the solutions to all the problems of the country
whereas its efforts are not adding up.
While it is pertinent
that every well-meaning Nigerian would want the obnoxious indigeneship clause
abrogated from our statute books, the only thing that will make this laudable
idea possible is the removal of the Federal Character Principle from the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If this is done and it is
conspicuously enshrined in the Constitution that a Nigerian born in any
part of the country or who has lived in any part of the country for a specified
number of years has automatically become an indigene of such locality or state,
this issue would have been taken from a coordinated perspective. This way, no
one would read impunity or double standard into it since it would be stated
clearly that a Nigerian born in any part of the country or who has lived in any
part of the country for a specified period of time, by virtue of having become
an indigene of his domicile, is qualified to run for any elective position or
appointment, as the case may be.
In
fact, without such deliberate steps, the controversy surrounding the indigenes/
settlers dichotomy in the country will simply not give way. The resolve of the
Federal Government in the immediate past administration to address this nagging
issue was expressed by no less a personality than the Special Adviser to former
President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Affairs, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak. It was
later to be part of the resolutions of the 2014 National Conference. This would
have put an end to the promotion of ethnic sentiments which most politicians
have been using to promote division in the country. It would have been done in
such a way that it would not be seen as an attempt to pacify one ethnic group
at the expense of others. Nigeria is a heterogeneous society. With well over
180 million population, 250 ethnic groups and about 450 recognised languages,
the country passes for one of the most complex societies in the world. Both oral
and recorded history agree that most of these groups migrated into their
present abodes from within and outside the country’s present geographical
sphere.
Also, the
Berlin Conference of 1884/85, in which different West African nations were
carved up among feuding European countries, was the factor that saw to the
arbitrary merging of different peoples into what we now know as Nigeria under
British suzerainty. In the union, communities that had lived together
peacefully even before the commencement of formal colonial rule, began to
quarrel due to conflicts of interests arising from the ownership of communal
lands, boundary disputes, etcetera. Thanks, all the same, to the initiative of
colonial administrators, most of these conflicts were never allowed to get out
of hand. The discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity and the royalties
accruing to various communities later became another source of conflict. Given
an already charged environment, the different local government reforms of the
1970s and 1980s, which placed more powers in the councils, particularly that of
revenue disbursement without caring any hoot about revenue generation, only
came to inflame an identified source of disagreement.
Indeed,
greed and maladministration by corrupt council officials, all the more deprived
many of their right to self-determination and social justice. Thus, the
consistent abysmal state of the economy, unemployment and persistent absence of
democratic reforms since the past three years of the Buhari administration, have
encouraged a legion of unemployed youths to resort to violence as a means to
vent their bottled up grievances. Hence, the fierce and devastating communal
clashes which we have witnessed in recent times. Of course, there have been
pockets of communal clashes since political independence till date: the
Ife/Modakeke war; Ijaw/Itsekiri war; Zango/Kataf war; Tiv/Jukun war; Izzi/Ezza
war; Adadama/Amagu war; Izzi/ Yala war; Mkpani/Nko war; Fulani/Berom war;
Ebom/Usumutung war, to mention just a few. In these clashes, several people
have been killed, others rendered homeless while economic activities have
suffered the greatest debilitating effects. The Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen
killings have come to add salt to injury in the country. With the escalation of
hostilities all over the country, many now live in fear while foreign
investment has been drastically reduced.
Nevertheless,
the only way to check the rising incidents of communal violence and the
unnerving weight of insecurity in the country is to give every group a sense of
belonging. There is no way peace can be guaranteed if the government appears to
be giving special treatment to some tribes while others are treated like second
class citizens in their land. Even the United Nations Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights recognises the Right to Self Determination by all peoples of the
world. Given such a situation, every group will be better protected in the
polity while their right to freedom of expression is adequately guaranteed.
Again, in a world where democratic governance has become the norm, we certainly
have to explicitly redefine the role of our traditional institutions vis-a-vis
the civil society. This is to ensure that traditional rulers do not become a
cog in the wheel of progress. Only in a truly democratic society is individual
freedom certain to be respected and social justice convincingly secured. This
entails the massive development of all parts of Nigeria to ensure that the
well-being of the average Nigerian is adequately guaranteed.
Above all, now, like never before, is the time for the
inauguration of State and Community Policing in Nigeria. The imperative for
state police is long overdue in our country. It is an idea whose time has come.
A country as huge and as diverse as Nigeria cannot be overrun with a central
policing system forever. State police is one of the overriding attributes of
federalism. Even smaller countries with unitary constitutions still have state
police to ensure adequate security of life and property. Britain, a population
of just 60 million from which we borrowed our policing system has 47
independent policing formations.
Yet,
Nigeria with a population of 180 million is running an over-centralized
policing system. There is no way Nigeria can combat the worsening security
challenges with one centralized police force. Finally, the idea that Nigerians
should come together and discuss the basis for their continuous existence was
long overdue before the government of former president Jonathan inaugurated the
2014 national political conference. At that conference, matters relating to the
generality of the Nigerian people, their fears and complaints, were roundly and
critically examined and addressed. The National Assembly should revisit the
confab documents and resolutions so that we settle permanently all these issues
that divide us for peace to reign in our country. Restructuring this lopsided
federation is the ultimate answer.
*Amor is commentator on public issues
No comments:
Post a Comment