Sunday 21 April 2013

Musings! By Efe Wanogho: On Nigerian Unity.


 On Nigerian Unity.


Efe Wanogho
In the post-World War 2 era, the international arena witnessed an increasing resort to international groupings as a means to resolvingconflicts and furthering a peace-engendering multilateralism. The forming of the United Nations Organisation has been credited by many to be the singular most important reason for the non-occurrence of a Third World War, a marked departure from the seeming haste that brought about the Second World War, not long after the First World War. In Europe, the formation of the European Union, which succeeded the European Economic Committee, has seen to the non-resurrection of the virtually ubiquitous feuding that characterised the countries in the region in the period preceding its formation. The point of the above and it’s relationship to the subject of discourse is to bring to the fore, the increasing resort to a coming-together of peoples for the purpose of their mutual development interests.
In more recent times, the world stage witnessed the formation of BRICS, by the emerging national economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. An amalgam of nations strategically brought together to further their interests. The gains of coming together of even a seemingly diverse people, cannot be over-emphasised. Countries that are far apart from each other, are seeking closer ties to address issues of collective concern. One would then wonder, why Nigeria, five decades after political independence, and almost a century after the amalgamation of the North and South of the country, is still being plagued by discordant tunes. Is it impossible for the people of Nigeria, with their ethnic and religious divergence from each other, to live together in peace and harmony? Is there anything inherent in our cultures and religions that forbids us from peaceful coexistence with people of varying origins? Is it not possible to understand the so-called differences of the various parts of Nigeria, evolve an atmosphere of mutual respect for such differences, and derive strength from the conscious working together of the divergent parts?
Apart from the increasing need of people to cooperate to address common issues, Nigeria has a prevalence of adherents of the Christian and Islamic Faiths; religions which preach a common ancestry for humanity. If both religions are right about the common origins of man, and by extension, all Nigerians; what then is fuelling the debilitating intolerance of people of other faiths, as is particularly witnessed in the Northern fringes of the country? Wouldn’t it be sheer hypocrisy to purport to be followers of supposedly peace-loving and peace-propagating religions, whereas, at every flimsy excuse, we are quick to be at daggers drawn against those who have different ethnicity or who profess different religions from ours? Who does this situation of needless rivalry among peoples – for matters that were clearly a function of the circumstances of their birth – actually benefit? If we are ever to be intolerant, such intolerance should be targeted at vice and criminality, the very bane of our socioeconomic quagmire; and not at others who are themselves victims of criminality in public and private office.
It must be stated, however, that the argument for a united Nigeria, need not be predicated on its being sacrosanct and non-negotiability. People have an inalienable right to self determination and should not be forced to cohabit. What should be paramount in advancing Nigerian unity, should be the comparative advantage that the unity brings to everyone in the arrangement, as against a state of suspicion and pernicious rivalry that would attend a balkanised Nigeria. This brings me to the crux of the matter.
What is the Federal Government, which should be the main unifier in the Nigerian arrangement, doing to further the course of national unity? What resources are being deployed to get the citizenry to have faith in the continued unity of the country? Are federal institutions strengthened or receiving enough support to respond to crises situations, so much so that, ordinarily dissident groups would have a sense of belonging that their fears would be sufficiently addressed in the subsisting arrangement? What is the correlation of amnesty to national unity? Does the brand of amnesty witnessed in Nigeria since the era of militancy in the Niger Delta, and which is being clamoured for Boko Haram terrorists in the North; do anything to further the unity of the country? I think not. What the amnesty does is to empower and embolden dissident groups through cash gifts, multi-million Naira contract awards, and the assuming of an air of invincibility occasioned by the ineffectiveness and incompetence ofsecurity agencies and policy somersault on the part of the government; to prepare for an armed onslaught against the Nigerian State, and resulting in the emergence of ethnic-based and militant-led empires.
I would reiterate what I have stated endlessly on this column: the surest way to promote criminality is to clothe it in the robes of ethnicity or religiousity by generalising the perpetrators and referring to them as unknown gunmen, whether of the Southern, kidnapping and robbing stock, or of the Northern, bomb-detonating and mass-murdering stock. Every crime is perpetrated by an individual or a group of individuals. The perpetrators should be tracked and brought to justice according to the law of the land as it pertains to the crimes committed. The surest way of bringing a Nigeria to an end, is to continue to pamper criminals and dissident groups, which, sooner than later, would be positioned to successfully engage and overpower the State, militarily; or railroad the country to a sovereign national conference, with a predetermined end of national disintegration.
I am @efewanogho, on Twitter.
Laus Deo!

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