Nigeria: Living In A Failed State

 By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

Last week, the Senate asked the President to declare a state of emergency on security in Nigeria. From one Senator to the other, the men and women of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly were unanimous that something has to be done urgently, to stem the slide into anarchy, unbridled violence and bloodshed across the land.

*Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

What is the security situation presently? We have a police force lacking in legitimate leadership, the armed forces is so politicized that the leadership is loyal only to the party in power and a commander-in-chief that seems to have been totally overwhelmed with the crisis. It is by now clear to all and sundry, at least from the comments and contributions of lawmakers across party lines, that Nigeria is approaching a failed state.

This was indeed the conclusion reached at a stakeholders’ summit held last week, where Professor Pat Utomi and others x-rayed the dangerous dimension that security has taken in Nigeria. The Sultan of Sokoto said somewhere else that Boko Haram has now transformed into bandits and kidnappers. It is the latest business in town.

The APC Should Not Insult The Obi Of Onitsha

By Aniefiok Udoabasi

So I just finished reading the press statement issued by the Anambra Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In it, the party is castigating the Obi of Onitsha, HRM Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe,  for failing to leave his base to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari at the state capital. The Obi had insisted that Buhari should visit him in his palace instead.

Please note that the royal father is not refusing to meet Buhari. He is merely asking to meet him in his palace.

I don't know why any son of the soil should encourage the desecration of his own royal stool because of politics.

When Buhari visits Sokoto, he does not send for the Sultan of Sokoto. He goes to his palace to pay homage.

You don't go to Osun and send for the Oni of Ife. You seek him out to pay homage.

Not just here.

You don't go to England and send for the Queen to come and see you. Donald Trump was in Japan recently. He didn't send for the Emperor. He went to his palace to pay homage.

Royal fathers/mothers are the custodians of their domains. That is why they are universally respected.

Why should the case of the Obi of Onitsha be different? Can Buhari go to Edo and send someone to call the Oba of Benin for him? Why can't he accord same respect to a royal father of the East?

The hatred and disdain that Buhari has for that part of the country are well known. What I don't understand is why any son of the soil should egg him on.

Nigeria: Breakup, Northern Style

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

With northern youths giving Igbo residing in their region an ultimatum to quit before October 1 or face dire consequences, the agitations for the dissolution of the Nigerian union are fast reaching frenzied heights. What obviously provoked the rage of the northern youths were the ceaseless agitations for self-determination by some indigenes of the south east. Such agitations being championed by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) culminated recently in the shutting down of the major towns of the south east on May 30 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the quest to create a Biafra Republic out of Nigeria.

President Buhari, Sultan of Sokoto,
Sa’ad Abubakar

Of course, the northern part of the country, like other regions that make up the Nigerian nation, has the right to respond to the clamour for secession by the Igbo. But what is intolerably scandalous is that the approach they have adopted amounts to self-sabotage. For, it rather portrays them as a people who are not really interested in responding fully to the demands of restructuring of the polity but are rather only motivated by greed and the envy of the success of the Igbo.

If the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar’s claim during his visit to the south east that the Igbo easily become objects of hate and annihilation because of their success were a Freudian slip, the position of the northern youths do not disguise their hankering after the wealth of the Igbo. If the northern youths were really interested in restructuring, the first step they should take is not to give the Igbo an ultimatum to leave their land. Even if Nigeria breaks up today, this does not give the northern youths the right to seize the property of the Igbo. Are the Igbo war criminals or their property are proceeds of corruption that the northern youths would seize them? The Igbo are free to live and own property in any part of the world, including the north as foreigners if the country breaks up.

Besides, it is not only the Igbo who have been asking for a redefinition of the terms of the existence of the Nigerian nation. The south south and the south west have also called for the same purpose. It is ludicrous for the northern youths to single out the Igbo for intimidation and possible liquidation as if other people were comfortable with the injustices upon which the nation has been built for decades. They should not think that after allowing the Igbo to go they would continue to feed off the resources of the south south.