Wole Soyinka’s Faux Pas

 By Amanze Obi

By now, it is clear to one and all that Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, is decidedly partisan on issues pertaining to the 2023 presidential election. He tried hard enough, initially, to mask his sympathies and loyalties. But recent developments have laid him bare. He is now unable to hold back.

*Soyinka 

Soyinka himself knows this much. He betrayed this tendency copiously while reacting to the criticisms that trailed his faux pas in South Africa penultimate week. He declared, rather blandly, that Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar lost the February 25 presidential election even before the election held. His reason? That both candidates split the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and, consequently, granted Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) an easy access to victory.

Buhari’s Valediction

 By Amanze Obi

President Muhammadu Buhari has begun his valediction. He is making all manner of statements that point to his imminent retirement. He is imagining that his attention will be needed by Nigerians when he leaves office.

*Buhari

He was quoted the other day as saying that he would move far away from Abuja in order to avoid the temptation of interfering in the affairs of the new government that is to come. He even added, for effect, that he would leave Daura for Niger Republic, if there is pressure on him in his Katsina home. Before then, the President had made a broad appeal to Nigerians. He asked those whom he may have offended in the course of his presidency to forgive him.

Nigeria: DSS Can’t Afford Frivolity

 By Amanze Obi

The other day, the Department of State Services (DSS) had cause to talk tough. It said through a press statement that there was a plot by some Nigerians for the installation of an interim government at the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure on May 29. The service said it has uncovered those behind the burgeoning scheme. It frowned seriously on the plot and warned those behind it to retrace their steps.

The reaction from the DSS was predictable. It was its immediate response to the petition brought before it by one of the defenders of Bola Tinubu’s contentious election victory, Festus Keyamo. The Tinubu apologist had alleged that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 election, Mr. Peter Obi, and his running mate, Festus Keyamo were promoting insurrection and civil disobedience. Keyamo asked the DSS to arrest them and charge them for incitement and treasonable felony.

Still In Bewilderment, Gazing At Yakubu

 By Amanze Obi  

There is no beating about the bush here. The cold, hard fact is that Nigerians have just received the deepest cut. They have been stabbed in the neck by someone who promised them life. They have been hit below the belt by a man they thought was harmless. Now, the people are writhing in pains. The country is convulsing in its death throes. 

*Yakubu 

We trace all this to the grand betrayal by Mahmood Yakubu, the infamous chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Yakubu, in life and death, will go down in history as the master dissembler who took his country through the mine field of treachery and deceit. The people believed him till the last hour. They only woke up overnight to discover to their chagrin that he has given them the worst election in the annals of history. The most ironical is that Yakubu’s trenchant assault on the country’s democracy took place at a time the people were expecting to have the freest, fairest and most transparent election in their country’s history. 

How Many Presidents Will Atiku Make Of Ndigbo?

 By Amanze Obi

Atiku Abubakar’s announcement in Asaba, Delta State, last week that their son, Ifeanyi Okowa, would succeed him, should he become the President of Nigeria in 2023, says a lot about the delicate and intricate balancing that Atiku is dealing with. The man is working hard to penetrate the Igbo nation from either the east or the west.

*Atiku and Soludo 

It all began in Enugu some weeks earlier when Atiku told a gathering of southeasterners that he would ensure that they take their turn at the presidency, if they support him to become President in 2023. With these pronouncements, Atiku surely knows what the Igbo want. They are hungry for the presidency and Atiku is dangling the carrot at them at every turn. He wants them to see him as the vehicle that will take them to Damascus.

Letter To Chukwuma Soludo

 By Amanze Obi

I had thought that I would give you a little more time before inquiring into your stewardship as the governor of Anambra State. But your recent outburst about the Peter Obi presidential bid has dragged me out earlier than I wanted.

*Soludo

When your long quest for the governorship of Anambra State materialized in November, 2021, I was elated. I felt happy for you, for Anambra State and for Nigeria. I was particularly happy that the intellectual community to which I belong has got a breather through your emergence as governor.

You are certainly not the first intellectual to rise to an exalted governance position in Nigeria.

Nigeria: Presidential Debate Dies A Sudden Death

 By Amanze Obi

Nigerians have just come to the sudden realization that the political culture called presidential debate is dead in their country. The death knell for the debate was sounded by Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. 

*Tinubu

Tinubu had declined to participate in the town hall meeting put together by Arise News for presidential candidates. He had a load of reasons for his decision. His campaign office went further to alert Nigerians and other concerned publics that he would not participate in any presidential debate in whatever guise or form.

The organizers of the Arise town hall may not have envisaged this. Even if they suspected that a Bola Tinubu may not be willing to participate in the debate, they may not have imagined that he would put a stamp of finality on possible future appearances. But the debate went on regardless of that. But what turned out as a rude shock to the organizers was the refusal of the audience to accommodate any presidential candidate represented by his vice. 

Nigeria: Ethnic Profiling Not A Campaign Strategy

 By Amanze Obi

My friend and colleague, Segun Ayobolu, has joined the infamous clan of journalists and writers who are demonizing the Igbo on account of Bola Tinubu’s presidential aspiration. I find this regrettable, especially in the light of my belief that these gentlemen, as cosmopolitan as I thought they were, were incapable of this level of incivility.

*Peter Obi

But I know that Segun was conscripted and fed a lie. He must have been taken in by the antics of those for whom Igbophobia is a pleasurable pastime. I dare say that the views he expressed in his recent article on the Igbo and the Peter Obi presidency are hardly original to him. They are bits and pieces of prejudicial narratives on the Igbo hammered into shape by promoters of hate and purveyors of falsehood.

 

Like many others who have mischievously tied Obi’s presidential aspiration to his Igboness rather than his personality, Segun outlined many reasons why he is scared stiff of a possible Obi presidency. None of them, strictly speaking, is about Peter Obi. All of them border on Igbo stigmatization and jaundiced perception by many a non-Igbo Nigerian.

Nigeria: How Long Can A Country Run On Generator?

By Amanze Obi

From 1960 (if not 1914) Nigeria has been running on generator. That’s at once an empirical, profound and unassailable statement. There’s not one sector of our national life today that would keep this country breathing one more second, if we shut off the perennial, inevitable life support. There never was, yesterday and, the way we’re going, there may never be, tomorrow.

God forbid! That’s our habitual consolatory refrain, right? Wrong. I can no longer be consoled with the silly daydream that Eldorado would fall on me, after I vehemently elected to ignore the fact that heaven had empowered me to create it. That’s the tragedy of our reality: Nigerians have what it takes to fix Nigeria but we would rather she remained on life support forever.

Gen Yakubu Gowon Should Think Again

By Amanze Obi

It does appear that General Yakubu Gowon, the man who became Nigeria’s Head of State under very controversial circumstances, is weighed down by a certain hangover. He still thinks that the only way a country can be ruled is by diktat. He is yet to come to terms with the fact that power, in a democratic setting such as ours, must flow through popular consent. More than 40 years after he was booted out of office, Gowon still wishes for a static Nigeria, where the old order must continue to hold sway.

*Gowon

When, the other time, some secessionist groups gave Nigeria cause to worry about its unity, Gowon clearly went livid. He made nostalgic references to the Nigeria he fought to keep together. He was afraid that the trophy he took home some four decades ago was about to be snatched away from him. Many clearly understand the passions of the likes of Gowon over one Nigeria. He considers Nigeria’s unity as his life-time legacy. He does not want it to be toyed or tinkered with.

Gov Nasir el-Rufai In The Wilderness

By Amanze Obi

Governor Nasir el-Rufai  of Kaduna State has just cried out. He came close to a lamentation. Or so it appears. But those who know him are not taken in by the antic. They know that a smart Alec is at work. The Kaduna governor is never known to be quiet. He does not seem to have any humility in him. He is showy and conceited. That is why he has broken loose so soon.

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai

Whereas many have taken note of the state of the polity, especially in the light of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ill-health, el-Rufai does not have the patience for such niceties. He must seize the stage and dominate the discourse.

At issue here is the governor’s letter to the president. He was, ostensibly, addressing his godfather. That was the way it appeared. But he addressed Nigerians at the same time. He told President Buhari, his benefactor, that all was not well with their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and, by extension, the government of the day. El-Rufai said those of them who formed the APC and used it to wrest power from the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) had a dream. They envisioned an Eldorado. They thought that PDP was on the wrong track. They set out, as he imagined, to put the country on the path of good governance. That was the mental flight that the likes of el-Rufai reveled in.

Buhari: A Diary Of Confusion

By Amanze Obi

Nigerians, no doubt, are confused at the moment. The people have too many issues to grapple with at the same time. One is as urgent as the other. The scenarios are so confusing that the people do not seem to know which one to approach first. This being the case, it will be a Herculean task to seek to pigeonhole the whole of the confusing set-up here. But we can try our hands on just one of them today, namely, the health of the country’s President, Muhammadu Buhari. This is one issue that clearly spells confusion. But let us begin from the beginning.

*Buhari 

Some time this January, it was announced that the President was going on a 10-day vacation in London. The people were told that the President would, during the period of vacation, undergo routine medical check-up. But no sooner did he arrive London than the rumour mill began to spin with confusing stories about his health. The rumours were various and varied. Some had it that he was critically ill. Others suggested that he was more than ill. There were some other suggestions and permutations about his health condition, many of which bordered on the absurd and the ridiculous.

In the midst of the confusion, it was thought that the President’s lieutenants would clear the air. But Nigerians were to discover to their chagrin that those who they thought knew something about the health of the President were as confused as the rest of the people. Where the people expected clarification, the President’s agents presented them with something more confusing. If you thought that the agents would build their story around the initial anchor, which suggested that the President was on medical vacation, you were dead wrong. The agents had abandoned that storyline and opted for another. The story was amended to read that the President was not ill and, therefore, not admitted in any hospital, be it in London or Germany. With this twist in the tale, Nigerians ate their words and waited patiently for February 6, the date his agents said he would return to work in Nigeria. The appointed date came but the President did not return.

Then the agents stepped out to inform us that the President could not return on the date earlier announced because his doctors in the United Kingdom advised against it. They said he was running a series of tests and could only return to work in Nigeria after all the tests would have been carried out and the results ready. But the agents were wiser this time. They did not give the people a new date on which the President would return. The extension of time was indefinite, meaning that the President could remain where he is now until May 29, 2019, the day his tenure would expire.

Lai Mohammed: A Haunting Past

By Amanze Obi

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is having a field day. It is savouring the absence of an opposition party in the country. As an opposition political party that wrested power from a ruling party, even if by default, the APC deserves a full dose of the arsenal, which it used to destabilise and decapitate the then ruling party. But it is not getting any of that. The opposition died because the forces that forced the former ruling party out of office also ensured that it does not rise again to constitute itself into a formidable opposition. What was supposed to be the opposition after the emergence of the APC, therefore, went comatose. It is in disarray today.

*Lai Mohammed 

The result is that the ruling party has no rival political party to keep it on its toes. That is why the APC is having a ball. The situation in the land is serving its purpose. But we cannot say the same thing of its effect on our polity. Whereas the APC is on a roller coaster, the country’s democracy is on a free fall. There is no institution to call the ruling party to order. The opposition, which ought to do the job, is non-existent. In the absence of a virile opposition, what we have are shrill voices of dissent, struggling to fill the gaping hole, which the absence of an opposition has created in our polity. The APC is certainly the better for it.

That is why an Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who, as an opposition spokesman, did his job with gusto, is not being called to account by anybody. As an opposition spokesman, Mohammed regaled the polity with propaganda. He was always in the news. He always joined issues with the party in power. He was always the first to take a position on any national issue.

Given this pedigree, the APC, which he helped to wrest power from the ruling party, did not have any problem appointing him as the chief spokesman of its government. The expectation was that with Mohammed in place, the government would not have any problem telling its story. Mohammed, they thought, could make the public to believe anything. That was the ideal. But the reality of the situation has given a lie to that fanciful expectation.

Nothing exposes the impracticability of that ideal more than the crisis the government is currently facing over the health of President Muhammadu Buhari. Since the health of the president became an issue for public scrutiny, the media machinery of the government has been in disarray. The interventions and interjections of the government’s media managers have been anything but coordinated. Each has tried to do better than the other. This has resulted in puerile contradictions. The public is clearly confused as to what is what. The situation we gave on our hands is that of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

In the face of the uncoordinated vibes wafting out of government’s media machines, some discerning members of the public have had cause to remind Alhaji Lai Mohammed of his past.  Some seven to eight years ago, the health of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s then president, was an issue. He was in Saudi Arabia where his health was being managed. The scenario was shrouded in secrecy. Nigerians hardly knew what the situation truly was. Tongues wagged. In the midst of the confusion, Lai Mohammed made a pointed demand of government. He demanded that the then Minister of Information should be briefing Nigerians on a daily basis on the health of the president based on authentic details provided by the president’s doctors. That was Lai Mohammed in 2009. His demand sounded so simple to him. He delivered it with familiar and accustomed self-righteousness.

Herdsmen Menace: Action And Reaction In Ekiti

By Amanze Obi

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has taken the bull by the horns. Some three months ago, I had cause in this column to commend him for standing up to be counted among men. The governor had then charged at the Fulani herdsmen, who murdered two indigenes of Ekiti State on Ekiti soil in the name of grazing. For Fayose, that brigandage and effrontery from the herdsmen was unacceptable. In a momentary fit of anger, the governor announced that cattle grazing had been banned in Ekiti State.

*Gov Ayo Fayose

However, after the initial outburst, Fayose retreated into his shell. Three months after, he has resurfaced with something more enduring; something that carries the force of law. The state House of Assembly has passed a bill regulating cattle grazing in the state. The bill, which was signed into law a few days ago by Governor Fayose, seeks to check the excesses and criminality of Fulani herdsmen, who have become the latest monster in Nigeria.

Under the grazing law, any herdsman caught with arms while grazing will be charged with terrorism. The law has also ruled out indiscriminate and uncontrolled grazing. Government has allocated certain portions of land to the local government councils for grazing activities. The time allowed for grazing is 7am to 6pm daily. Anybody found grazing on portions of land not allocated by government for such activity will be made to face the wrath of the law. There are other provisions of the law all of which seek to ensure that grazing is devoid of any form of criminality.

I commend the Fayose example. It is practical governance in action. It mirrors Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, which teaches that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In pure physics, it means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. If we wean this Newtonian postulation of its scientific barbs, we will be left with an interventionist policy action that interprets and defines our situation.

Today in Nigeria, we are faced with a situation where everybody is scared stiff of a lethal object called AK47. Everybody is complaining that the Fulani herdsmen are wielding this weapon indiscriminately. But nobody has stopped to ask questions about how they acquire them. Why and how does the Fulani herdsman have free and unfettered access to sophisticated weapons of war? Many suspect that the herdsman is armed by the many retired military officers of northern extraction, who own the cows that he roams about with. If this is the case, we also need to ask questions about how the retired officers acquire the guns. In a situation where the Nigeria Police does not have sufficient guns to operate with, it beats the imagination that herdsmen can boast of large cache of arms that battalions of soldiers cannot boast of. This is strange, indeed.

The fact that nobody is after the herdsman and his criminality rankles the more. Why is he such a sacred cow? Why have the camps and hideouts of the herdsmen not been invaded by security agencies with a view to making arrests and dispossessing them of the dangerous weapons they wield?  This question is reinforced by the fact that we are all living witnesses to the intolerance of our security forces. They do not tolerate the unarmed Biafran agitator. He is killed freely for stepping out in the streets to protest. What about the Niger Delta agitator? He is the implacable enemy of the state.  He must be mowed down by the security agents wherever he is found.

Jonathan: An Unlikely Avenger

By Amanze Obi

I am fascinated by the brewing effort by the authorities to package and sell our ex-president, Goodluck Jonathan, as an avenger. A section of the media had reported that the former president was involved in the formation and ongoing activities of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA). The story was not speculative. It was declarative enough. If your imagination, like that of many Nigerians, has been saturated with the oddities that change has inflicted on us, you cannot but see the new image being foisted on Jonathan as comical, and therefore, fascinating. It will provide us with the opportunity to be treated to some more histrionics.

*Jonathan and Buhari

According to the newspapers that carried the ‘scoop’, the story is the product of an intelligence report.  The report claimed that Jonathan started meeting with the avengers before the 2015 general elections.  The militia group, it said, was put in place to respond in prescribed ways should Jonathan lose the elections. One such way was to do what it is doing at moment. The renewed militancy in the Niger Delta region is, therefore, believed to be the product of Jonathan’s loss. That is the story before us.

But we must note that before its recrudescence, militancy has been an issue of concern in the region. The return of civil rule in the country after many years of military interregnum brought with it a new fervour. It provided the citizenry the opportunity to let off steam. The military muzzled free speech. Civil rule was the obverse of that.

It was in the wake of the new order that some elements in the oil-rich Niger Delta, who felt that they were not getting their due from the oil exploration and exploitation in their domain began to raise voices of dissent. They queried the situation where the goose that lays the golden egg is being starved. Their repudiation and rejection of this state of affairs eventuated in the agitation for resource control. That was the political angle to the agitation.

But it also had a military wing. Some angry youths, who do not have the patience for verbal engagements resorted to brute force. Many took to oil bunkering. They needed the proceeds from the crude to line their pockets and feel a sense of belonging. If they could not share in the oil wealth legitimately, they can, at least, help themselves with the crumbs.  It was in this way that some of them seized oil and gas installations and bombed them at will. Those who stood in their way, especially foreign nationals, were taken hostage and freed only when some handsome ransom was paid.

As should be expected, the unwholesome activities of the militants pitted them against the government. But it took ex-president Umaru Yar’Adua’s amnesty programme for some level of sanity to return to the region. The Jonathan administration, being an offshoot of Yar’Adua’s, also enjoyed relative peace from the Niger Delta militants.

But all of that have changed under the Muhammadu Buhari regime, owing largely to the disposition of the president to the Christian South. The president’s actions and inactions, so far, give the impression that he wrested power forcefully from an enemy and, as such, the enemy must be stigmatised and punished. 

Remembering Ironsi, Fajuyi

By Amanze Obi

Fifty years after their assassination by north­ern military avengers, the gruesome murder of General JTU Aguiyi Ironsi and Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi has received more than a pass­ing attention in the media. At the time of their death, Ironsi was the Head of State and Com­mander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while Fajuyi was the military governor of the Western Region.

*Gen. Ironsi

Since their passage, at no time have they been so fondly remembered and elaborately celebrated more than now. Fajuyi, particularly, is being celebrated by his Yoruba kinsmen for his courage and sacrifice. Ironsi is being men­tioned in passing, probably because his Igbo kinsmen did not roll out the drums for him as the Yoruba did for Fajuyi.

Since the celebration began, many have had to wonder why the Yoruba staged such an elab­orate outing for Fajuyi. The perceived impres­sion in some quarters is that there is more to the celebration of Fajuyi than meets the eyes. I am, however, not persuaded by such suspi­cions. What makes sense to me here is that 50 years is a landmark. It is worth celebrating in the life and death of persons or institutions. Perhaps, the Yoruba may be saying through their celebration of the death of Fajuyi that 50 years of his passage is significant enough in underlining the undercurrents that brought down one of their own, who rightly deserves to be recognised as a national hero. No one should begrudge them the right to tell their own story, as it concerns one of their icons.

Perhaps, what we should question is the loud silence of the Igbo about the death of one of their own whose assassination signposts the endangered position of the Igbo in Nigeria. Why are the Igbo not talking about the murder of Ironsi on July 29, 1966, by northern military officers?

The most immediate reason for this is not far-fetched. The Igbo hardly celebrate any­body. They may recognise you for who or what you are, but they are not interested in symbol­isms. They have never celebrated any one of their greats, be it Nnamdi Azikiwe or Chinua Achebe. Whereas the Yoruba place Obafemi Awolowo on the same pedestal as a demigod, the Igbo are hardly bothered about whatever Azikiwe represents or does not represent in the pantheon of the great.

Perhaps, the only Igbo man the people lion­ise is Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra. The reason for this is simple. Biafra means a lot to the Igbo. The passion flows in their blood veins. It matters to the Igbo that Ojukwu was more than committed to the Biafran cause. He never wavered in his belief in and fight for the cause until death. The Igbo revere him for this. He is their war hero for all times.

Apart from the inherent disposition of the Igbo, which does not encourage the celebra­tion of anybody, there are also remote rea­sons for the non-celebration of Ironsi by the Igbo. The Ironsi story is not an isolated one. It carries with it a myriad of sub plots which, when woven together, define the Igbo story and situation in Nigeria. There is no story of Ironsi without the story of the organised mas­sacre of hundreds of Igbo military officers by their northern counterparts. The story of the murder of Ironsi also necessarily dovetails into the story of the pogrom visited on the Igbo in northern Nigeria. One pogrom followed the other. In all of this, there was no whim­per from the federal military government led by General Yakubu Gowon. The government, which was supposed to protect the life and property of its citizens, as a primary responsi­bility, merely aided and abetted the organised massacres. All of this eventuated in the birth of Biafra. The Ironsi story is, therefore, a complex tapestry, which can hardly be unravelled and understood without making Biafra the subject matter.

Renegotiating The Nigerian Project

By Dan Amor

​A two hundred and thirty-six page book written by Dr. Amanze Obi, literary scholar, critic and journalist, who until recently was chairman of the Editorial Board of the Sun Group of Newspapers and published in 2013, is an engrossing tapestry of the Nigerian condition. Drawing afflatus from history, politics, philosophy, culture and every day experience, Delicate Distress: An Interpreter’s Account of the Nigerian Dilemma, navigates the beleaguered contours of a nation, interrogates her chequered post colonial heritage and protean existential predicaments defined by recrudescent, fratricidal debacles, military misadventure, institutionalized corruption and prostrate economies as well as a loud poverty, disease, willful inexplicable deaths, amnesia, and gleeful self negation. 

As a renowned editorialist and distinguished newspaper columnist, Obi, in this book, harmonizes a robust stalking style with a penetrating apocalyptic deconstruction of Nigeria as a failing state. It is written with a fresh, pulsating, stark and chillingly unsentimental prose style.

​Divided into five unequal parts, Delicate Distress is truly a delicate intermeshing of the congealed monumental tragedies and other emerging contemporary realities in the Nigerian historical continuum which have conspired to drive the country to the precincts of a yawning precipice. In refracting these prismatic realities, the essayist generously benefits from variegated trajectories that have yielded a heaving intellectual harvest. Obi impressively combines lyrical lightsomeness and rhythmic richness with abiding patriotism and perspicacity of cultural thought and insight. The result is a bold and visceral gnawing at a nation’s soul and psychology and the rankling of the weeping sores of a mortally wounded nation at odds with itself.  

Amanze Obi’s reservoir of literary resources and reportorial experience has interlaced all the essays in this collection.

​Part One: Tales Unpleasant, which begins with a critical introduction, distills the hydra-headed Nigerian society with such precarious equilibrium that facilitates the paradox of happiness in a shrinking federalism. It circulates the anti-intellectual politics that heralds the perils of disunity and the challenge of constitution-making in a country in which inequity has been elevated to state policy. 

Part two: North-South Divide, appraises an elusive rapprochement that has failed to balance the regional agenda between East and North but rather aggravates regional war even at the Confab. In gloating and fretting over oil, Northern leaders who misruled Nigeria for 39 years out of her 53 years of post independence experience have succeeded in creating a dangerous class of youth in the North who agitate amidst excruciating poverty. While remaining divided by the advocacy for state police, Northern governors and their Southern counterparts are still swimming in the illusion of politics of number.

Nigeria: A Country Of Unequal Stakes

By Amanze Obi  

It is sometimes said in certain circles that the Yoruba is the only ethnic bloc, among the ma­jor ones in Nigeria, that has not called for the dismemberment of the country. Individual Yoruba may have, at various times, wished and called for a divided Nigeria. But the people as a group have never done so publicly. Rather, the Yoruba have been advocating for a regional ar­rangement that will whittle down the powers of the centre. This is a middle ground position.

However, you can hardly say the same thing of the other ethno-political blocs. Those who have a sense of history will readily recall that the North was the first to call for the dismem­berment of Nigeria. The bloody coups of Janu­ary and July 1966 ignited feelings of secession in most northerners. Even though the coun­ter coup of July 1966 and the pogroms that followed were supposed to calm the frayed nerves of the North, they did not. Rather, the region bayed for more blood. It was in that fit of bitterness that the idea of secession crept into their imagination. Consequently, the less restrained among them began to advocate for a divided Nigeria. It was in response to the pre­vailing mood in the North at the time that the Yakubu Gowon government, in August 1966, declared that the basis for one Nigeria no lon­ger existed. Even though the North later went to war to enforce the idea of one Nigeria, it is a historical fact that the region was the first to nurse and propagate secessionist sentiments in the country.

If the North was the author of a divided Nigeria, the East was its finisher. The coun­ter coup of 1966 and the pogroms had taken a heavy toll on the people of East. The situation was made worse by the fact that the people of the region had nobody to appeal to. The Feder­al Government led by Yakubu Gowon, a north­ern army officer, was complicit in the blood­letting. The situation, regrettably, drove the Eastern region into a precipice. That was how it came to declare its own republic. Strangely, however, the Gowon that had, a few months earlier, held that the basis for a united Nige­ria no longer existed was the one that took up arms against the secessionists. That was hy­pocrisy in action.

The war has since been lost and won but the Igbo, who were at the receiving end dur­ing the war years are still perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a group that is ever ready to quit the Nigerian setting once an opportunity pres­ents itself.

Given the fact that it is always the preroga­tive of the victor to rewrite history, events took an unexpected turn in post-Civil War Nigeria. The ruling military junta, which was dominated by the North gradually but steadily bastardised the country’s federal set-up. The principles of federalism were not only eroded, the country’s republican status was yoked to­gether with strange systems, which ended up corrupting the original idea. The result is that Nigeria, as we have it today, is neither a federa­tion nor a republic.

This incongruous set-up has been fueling agitations for either a divided or restructured Nigeria. While the North is holding tenacious­ly to the present order, apparently because it is benefitting unduly from the incongruity, the other blocs of Nigeria are differently per­suaded.

Buhari: Misguided Passion For One Nigeria

By Amanze Obi

President Muhammadu Buhari was recently quoted as saying that it is better for all Nige­rians to “jump into the sea and get drowned” than for Nigeria to divide. The president had his reasons. He said Nigeria fought a civil war which claimed over two million lives in or­der to remain united. This supreme sacrifice by Nigerians for Nigeria, he seems to be say­ing, cannot be thrown away just like that. The country, he also argued, is strong and united to­day because some people laid down their lives. For these reasons, he said he would not allow “kids” promoting the agitation for the division of the country to have their way.

*Buhari 

A few weeks into this outburst, the president is already living up to his vow. His army and po­lice have descended mercilessly on defenceless Biafran agitators, killing scores of them. The president has also deployed warships and fight­er jets to track down militants who have been blowing up oil installations in the Niger Delta.

Curiously, however, the president has taken no action against Fulani herdsmen whose mur­derous activities have become a clear threat to national unity. Maybe someone should remind the president that if Biafran agitators and Niger Delta militants are a threat to national unity, armed Fulani herdsmen are much more so.

There is no doubt that the president is pas­sionate about the idea of one Nigeria. But his passion appears to be driven by sectional, if not self-serving factors. That may explain why he has ignored or overlooked the historical fact that no country has ever survived two civil wars. If he is truly conscious of that, he will be less belligerent in his declarations and ac­tions on Biafra, Niger Delta militancy or any other separatist agitation in the country. The president is probably under the illusion that a segment of the country will rise against the fed­eration in the way it once happened with the possible consequence of an armed struggle.

Regardless of this extremity in language use by the president, we must indulge him by over­looking his flagellations about war and suicide and, instead, address our minds to the idiosyn­cratic convictions and motivations that inflame the language of passion in some old breed Ni­gerians.

We will, without relying so much on the pas­sions of the Buharis, the Obasanjos and the Go­wons of this country about one Nigeria, agree that the country, ideally, is better of as a united entity. We need not elaborate on this here. Suf­fice it to say that the aforementioned veterans are essentially driven by one passion. They do not want their labours over a united Nigeria to be in vain. Having fought in their individual and collective capacities to keep the country one, they would not want to witness a reversal of this in their life time. That is why they are always on edge whenever any reference, no matter how casual, is made to the possible dis­integration of Nigeria.

Herdsmen Menace: Gov Fayose Confronts The Monster

By Amanze Obi

It is hardly surprising that the rampage of Fulani herdsmen has continued unabated. This is in spite of the outrage that trailed the organised massacre that they unleashed on Enugu State. The itinerant killers are not yet deterred by anything. When they soaked Enu­gu State with blood, what they got was mere condemnation. No deterrence was placed on their way. That is why the story of their kill­ings has remained unending. They have con­tinued to strike elsewhere in the south and the Middle Belt. So far, Nimbo and Agatu communities in Enugu and Benue states re­spectively have borne the worst brunt of their attacks.

Regardless of the wanton destruction of life and property in Agatu and Nimbo, the Federal Government has not acted in a way that suggests that we have a monster in our hands. The governments of the affected states did not also respond as stridently as ex­pected to the emergencies.

But it is gratifying to note that Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has departed radi­cally from the complacency that we saw in Enugu State. Just a few days ago, we were told told that the herdsmen struck in Ekiti State, leaving two people dead. Fayose could not accept this. He was appalled by it. He did not just condemn the murder in Ekiti, he also talked tough. Then he followed up the tough talk with concrete action. He has banned cattle grazing on Ekiti soil. He has told the herdsmen to take their cattle elsewhere. They are no longer wanted in Ekiti State. That is the order. That is the situation in Ekiti at moment.

In taking that decision, Fayose was only doing his job. As the chief security officer of his state, the governor has a responsibility to take necessary steps to protect life and prop­erty in his domain. He did not have to wait for the authorities in Abuja who, obviously, are not interested in the murderous activities of the herdsmen.

I consider Fayose’s action very appropri­ate. It is the answer to the impunity and impudence that surround the activities of the herdsmen. It is also gratifying that the governor’s action is enjoying the blessing of Afenifere. By so doing, the region, which has come under attack, has stood up to be count­ed. This is unlike what obtained in Enugu State where neither the state government nor any Igbo group responded stridently or appropriately to the ugly development.

In a harassed and cowed region, such as the south of Nigeria, it can only take a man of un­common courage, such as Fayose to confront this monster of oppression and suppression. To demonstrate that somebody somewhere is enjoying the bad situation, Northern states Governors Forum shocked decent minds with their response to the Enugu killings. While blood was still flowing in Nimbo, the governors had the audacity and temerity to defend the Fulani killers. They berated those, who condemned the action of the Fulani herdsmen. The governors said they were unhappy that the Fulani were being vilified. They warned against further demonisation of the Fulani race. That was impudence walking with a swagger.