By Godwin Etakibuebu
A few days ago,
President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as telling a group of agitators from the
Niger Delta region of the country that “Nigeria ’s
unity is not negotiable”. He
went further by pulling from a former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon,
most popular quote while the Nigeria/Biafra war lasted to buttress his point.
That quote said: “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”.
I want to
convince myself that the President meant this “clarion” call of “non-negotiable of the Nigerian
nation’s unity” for the
attention of all militant groups or agitators in the country. This is necessary
because what is good for the goose of the Niger Delta geo-political region of Nigeria is even better for other and all
geo-political zones of the country. Of course, this slogan of “Nigeria ’s Unity not
negotiable” is not new; it is
an age-long and over-used phrase by most political leaders in Nigeria .
Proof at hand is that this slogan has failed the test of time.
It is time for us
therefore to go to the other side of the current bargain of “non-negotiable” in
finding solution to the peculiar and perilous challenge that may likely put
Nigeria asunder sooner than expected by exploring the benefits of “negotiating
the unity” of this geographical enterprise called Nigeria. First and foremost,
there was no country by the name Nigeria until 1914 when the amalgamation took
place under the watchful eyes of Lord Lugard. He happily adopted the name ‘Nigeria ’,
a loudly pronounced thought of that British journalist, Dame Flora Louise Shaw
[1852 – 1929], who later became Lady Lugard – the adoption itself was
negotiated.
In a
well-researched lecture given very recently [2013] by one seasoned and old
British Scholar in the Nigerian House, London, under the chairmanship of
Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, then Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom,
the revelation on the reason for the 1914 amalgamation by the British Empire
was laid on the table. I was there at the lecture just by co-incidence of
events. The two separate protectorates of both south and north coming together
in 1914 was “based on the
economic consideration of running the protectorate of the north which could not
pay its bill”, according to
the scholar/researcher, adding that “while
the south protectorate was economically self-sufficient, the north protectorate
was not”. It is in the face
of this reality that the decision was taken by the Home Office to fuse both
north and south protectorates together “so
that the ‘unified’ country
would be self-sufficient economically.
We, the people of this
“area of the Niger ”, as opined by Lady
Lugard, were “negotiated” into a nebulously packaged unity by powers and
influences out-side, even the continent of Africa , purely for the economic exigency of
the British. I want to submit therefore, that a clarion call for the survival
of this fraudulent unity that is operational in Nigeria presently should be negotiation-based,
by the Nigerian people. Any opposition to this is begging for rapturous
disaster. Let us pull from one major historical event of the past to be surer
of the most likely profitable route, in enduring national survival, which we
need to follow in this matter.