The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Season of referenda: Iraqi Kurdistan; Spanish Catalonia

    On September 29, Kurds in northern Iraq held a referendum which overwhelmingly asked for independence from Iraq. The Catalans in Spain also held their own referendum on Sunday October 1. Like the Kurds, the Catalans asked for independence on the grounds of self-determination. And just like the republic of Iraq has denounced the Kurds for wanting to secede from Iraq, the Spanish government has also rejected the outcome of the Catalan referendum. The Kurds are the largest nation on earth without their own country. There are 14 or 15 million of them in Turkey constituting 18% of the country’s population of nearly 80 million. They live in northern Kurdistan and in south-eastern and eastern Anatolia. Those that have just voted for independence are the six million of them in Iraq out of a total population of 33 million. They live in northern Iraq constituting 17percent of Iraqi population. Six million of this divided people also live in Iran out of total population of 80 million. About two million Kurds live in Syria out of that country’s 21 million and others live in Armenia and parts of the Russian Caucasus. In all there are about 35 million of them. The Turkish Kurds have traditionally been the most vociferous in their demand for a homeland where they can use their own language. They are Sunni Muslims generally but quite a large number of them are secular. At a point in their struggle, they fought guerrilla wars against the Turks but for some time now, the violence seemed to have been contained although the Kurdish militants do strike occasionally in urban centres in Turkey.

    The Kurds in Iraq have enjoyed some autonomy since the Americans drove out Saddam Hussein from their land in the first Iraqi war. In recent times and in the war against the Islamic caliphate of Abubakar al Baghdadi, the Kurdish Peshmerga force has been armed and equipped by Americans in driving ISIL forces out of northern Iraq and northern Syria. The Kurds in Syria and Iraq have earned their claim to self-determination. But the problem is that if independence is conceded to the Kurds in Iraq, those in adjacent areas in Turkey in particular may demand independence. Therefore Iran, Turkey and Syria are opposed to granting independence to the Kurds in Iraq. Both Russia and the USA are also opposed to their independence for different political and strategic reasons. America is worried that independence in Iraqi Kurdistan may affect the ongoing campaign against ISIL. Besides there is a disagreement about borders especially over the disputed oil city of Kirkuk which Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds have also laid claim to. America also does not want to upset Turkey, a member of NATO. Russia also has fears of the impact of independence on Russian Caucasus.   Iran which wields considerable influence in Shia-dominated post Saddam Hussein Iraq has also denounced the referendum and publicly stated that it was unacceptable. The Iraqi prime minister has publicly issued a ban on all international flights to Kurdistan and Turkey’s president has publicly come out that the result of the referendum is null and void.  Unfortunately, the Kurds are going to be the losers because of the interests of their neighbours.

    What is therefore the way forward? Apart from granting Iraqi Kurdistan large measure of autonomy, independence is not likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

    As for Catalonia’s referendum, was the culmination of what has been going on since 2003 over the question of autonomy. The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he would do everything necessary to stop the referendum. Some leaders of the largely autonomous Catalonia have already been arrested. Mr Rajoy claims genuine ballots have not been printed and there is no mechanism in place to hold a credible referendum. The American President Donald Trump has publicly come out against breaking up Spain, a NATO member and American ally. In spite of all this, Barcelona and Madrid continue to drift apart. The population of Catalonia is about 7.4 million out of Spain’s population of 46.56 million. Apart from the Catalans, there are the Basque-speaking people who speak a totally different language from Spanish  and they number a couple of millions, who, like the Irish in the British Isles, have for years waged a campaign of terrorism against Spain but has quietened down in recent years. The domino effect on Spain if Catalonia is allowed to secede can be imagined. Catalonia produces about a quarter of Spain’s wealth. Although Catalans speak a different language from Spanish, but it is not totally unrelated to Spanish and other Latin derived languages.

    Whatever one may say the referendum in Catalonia, it has created more problems than it has solved. It is very unlikely that any European country will support Catalonia because a country like France has its own minorities in Brittany, Basque Country and Alsace. So does Italy with its Germans in the north-east. Belgium is almost equally divided between its French-speaking people in Wallonia and its Dutch speakers in Flanders. The United Kingdom with its Scottish and Welsh nationalism to cope with will not recognize Catalan independence. In recent European history of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Russia, one can ask what is the difference?

    Russia was an empire and it remains an empire hence it went the way of empires. Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were relatively newly put together after the First World War. On the other hand, Spain has been a United Kingdom for centuries. What inference can one draw from this? It is that secession is doomed and only perhaps after bloody war is there a likelihood of secession succeeding anywhere in the world.

    What can Nigeria learn from this? The demand for a referendum by so-called IPOB in the South-east may not even be supported by a majority of the Igbo people. Even if it is supported, secession would have to be militarily asserted or negotiated and it is very unlikely that there will be a peaceful agreement.  Unless we want to fight another, I do not see secession being a reasonable and viable option. Besides how economically viable in the long run will an independent Biafra be?

    But calling for secession is a manifestation of deep disgruntlement with the current constitutional architecture of our country. It will be a mistake if we just ignore this without doing something about it.  It is also worth noting that it is not the Igbo alone who are dissatisfied and unhappy with the structural configuration of the country. This anxiety appears to be everywhere. There is a need therefore to look at our current structure and all of us should sit down and calmly see our way forward. As far as I am concerned, we have too many states and local governments and it is costing the nation too much to run these layers of governments. At the root of these agitations is the lack of development and economic opportunities for our people. So it is the economy stupid! –as Americans would say. We must find a way by which 70 percent of our budget will be spent on capital projects while the remaining 30 percent will be spent on administration unlike what operates now. To get to this happy situation, we must cut costs of government. We must also have a unicameral legislature by abolishing the Senate and reducing by half the number of people in the legislature.

    If we decide to keep the bicameral legislature, it must be part-time as was the case in the First Republic which was perhaps the golden years of Nigeria. This country cannot afford more than a maximum of 12 states/regions. Eight will actually be preferable and the federal government should handle only enumerated functions while every other thing should be reserved for the states which should also enjoy a transfer of commensurate resources that would go with the new responsibilities. This evolutionary path of constitutional development will be preferable to revolutionary path of secession which will amount to a leap in the dark.

    Looking at recent world history, many countries prefer to live with the imperfections in their countries than follow a violent trajectory of secession. The province of Quebec has tried three times to secede from Canada and the referenda have failed three times. Scotland has tried twice and failed. Eritrea succeeded after a bitter war, so also has South Sudan and has since erupted in ethnic violence. Casamance in Senegal has fought fruitless wars for several decades and it is now tired.  The Tamils tried unsuccessfully to carve out a separate state for themselves by force but eventually, the majority fire power of the Sinhalese overwhelmed them. Needless to mention the unsuccessful attempt by Biafra between 1967 to 1970 to justly secede from Nigeria. The record of secession or attempted secession is not too good to follow.

    The international environment seems satisfied with the political status quo as far as national boundaries are concerned, favouring where possible, regionalism as a strategy for world order. It seems the international order favours self-expression and ethnic self-actualization within the confines of existing states however imperfect the states may be. What this means is that national /ethnic autonomy and absolute independence is gradually becoming unfashionable. In this kind of global environment, secession in any state is doomed to failure. But this does not mean that apparent injustice and iniquity in the running of national governments should and would be tolerated by the global community.

  • Who will save Buhari and Osinbajo from the Sirens? (1)

    If wishes were horses, President Muhammadu Buhari would retain his seat, come 2019, likewise Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Strike that. Even if failing health incapacitates Buhari, his legacy and dream would live on with a ‘President Yemi Osinbajo’ – while Buhari remains crucial part of the political equation, from the shadows.

    The President and Vice President’s groupies excite by such pliant notions of realism or political pragmatism if you like.

    This writer belongs to neither camp but he believed and still believes in crucial parts of Buhari and Osinbajo’s ‘Change’ agenda irrespective of the team that implements it.

    Despite reservations about the duo’s leadership, Buhari and Osinbajo remain Nigeria’s best attempt at humane leadership, if they could muster the will to institutionalise truly benevolent leadership.

    Nigeria should consider it a treat, if by some radical twist of fate, a more promising and younger team emerges on the scene. But the possibility of such younger, promising team fades out in plain sight as the country hastens to 2019 in the absence of credible opposition driven by humane, patriotic ideals.

    Thus while it is indeed true that Nigeria may do better than Buhari and Osinbajo, it would be suicidal and quite impractical to ditch them in quest of younger leadership in 2019. Who are the youth? Do they include career aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, or comic relief, Ayodele Fayose? Or is it the ‘almighty’ Senate President, Bukola Saraki? Do these men possess the nerve, wisdom and moral character epitomised by Buhari and Osinbajo?

    To the ‘mythical’ cabal allegedly holding Buhari hostage to power, it’s Buhari or Nigeria implodes come 2019. A less scary alternative is for Nigeria to stand by, while they (the cabal) anoint their preferred northern candidate to succeed Buhari, in the event that his health fails him. Let’s hope his health does not fail him as Osinbajo is anathematic to the cabal’s fantasies of power.

    Amid the plots and counter-plots, Buhari and Osinbajo suffer the affliction of savage forms. Political apologists comprising mutant aides and associates, like the medieval Sirens, form a thick wall around both men. Like the Sirens, they belt out mellifluous notes of shady intent and ill bliss, luring both men to doom and disrepute.

    These political aides, advisors and associates are driven by greed and a curious fear of irrelevance should Buhari and Osinbajo get booted from office hence they do not tell them truths they ought to hear.

    Instead, they humour the President and VP with outright lies, honeyed praise and half-truths. The president’s media team for instance, has developed a curious knack for demonising Buhari’s critics and attacking them with puerile ‘facts.’ The media team metamorphoses as you read, into savage and juvenile forms emblematic of the president’s most virulent and often venomous critics. This  tragic alteration of Buhari and Osinbajo’s apologists eventually manifest as dumbing down of presumed intellects and leaders of thought.

    Recently, the Special Adviser on Media Affairs, Femi Adesina’s recent spiritualized, damning allegory about the president’s critics. Adesina, in an article titled: ‘PMB and the Descendants of Shimei,’ published on Saturday, July 22, 2017 in The Sun Newspaper, said that Buhari had ended the “dream of the PDP to rule the country for 60 years” and as such PDP members wanted him dead.

    He identified PDP members as the descendants of ‘Shimei’ who could “have their heads removed” if not for the kind benevolence of Buhari. The former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors has certainly evolved from his ‘A new sheriff is in town’ cloying deification of Buhari to more hysterical praise.

    The presidential media team’s ripostes range from juvenile retorts to outright prophecies of doom for Mr. President’s critics. Sometimes, they channel their inner comedian and utter ridiculous counters to constructive criticism of the presidency’s perceived missteps.

    For instance, Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, recently issued what he considered a brilliant retort to Buhari’s critics, claiming the president couldn’t resume work after his medical tourism abroad because his office was ravaged by rodents. Predictably, local and international media including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), mocked the presidency and the country over Garba’s gaffe.

    “Following the three months period of disuse, rodents have caused a lot of damage to the furniture and the air conditioning units,” he told a local medium. Garba conveniently forgot the fact that his principal’s office initially budgeted an outrageous sum of N1.9 billion, according to The Punch newspaper investigations, on clearing of sewage and fumigation in the 2017 fiscal year.

    They also forget that despite the confidence inspired by the Buhari/Osinbajo leadership, it is apparent that the All Progressives Congress (APC), the platform by which they emerged, does not wish Nigerians well.

    The presidency’s apologists should understand that Nigerians do not confuse the APC’s tiresome platitudes for an abiding love for Nigeria. By the antics of APC public officers, it is apparent that they only wish Nigeria prospers in order to milk her. The APC, like its predecessor, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) does not want the Nigerian citizenry to prosper.

    Consider goings on in the National Assembly for instance; legislators carry on insensate to the miseries of the electorate they claim to represent. Lawmakers bicker, fight and conspire in pursuit of selfish interests, at the expense of citizenry.

    Recently, senators protested late payment of salaries even as state pensioners, mostly senior citizenry who voted them into power, wither away in an endless wait for their gratuities every year and as you read.

    It was hardly surprising that they drew the ire of Prof. Itse Sagay, foremost lawyer and presidential adviser on anti-corruption. Sagay recently stated that a Nigerian senator earns N29 million in monthly pay, in a speech he delivered at the Nigerian Society of International Law public lecture in Lagos. “From the information I have gathered, a Nigerian Senator earns about N29 million a month and over N3 billion a year,” he said.

    “Basic salary N2,484,245.50; hardship allowance, 1,242, 122.70; constituency allowance N4, 968, 509.00; furniture allowance N7, 452, 736.50; newspaper allowance N1, 242, 122.70.

    “Wardrobe allowance N621,061.37; recess allowance N248, 424.55; accommodation 4,968,509.00; utilities N828,081.83; domestic staff N1,863,184.12; entertainment N828,081.83; personal assistant N621,061.37; vehicle maintenance allowance N1,863,184.12; leave allowance N248,424.55; severance gratuity N7, 425,736.50; and motor vehicle allowance N9, 936,982.00,” Prof. Sagay added.

    Sagay subsequently challenged the Senate to prove him wrong by publishing what the lawmakers collect as salaries and wages.

    But rather than respond in a civil manner, the Senate accused Sagay of hate speech, claiming he is a “senile, jaded, rustic and outdated Professor of Law” who may be “under influence of substance.”

    The Senate’s response was of course crafted by kindred spirits to APC media and political apologists. It is instructive to note that these apologists, mostly media aides and political associates, were erstwhile regarded as leaders of thought in their respective fields. They were believed to of superior intellect, refinement and unimpeachable candour.

    But they offer themselves for deployment in ways that contradict everything they ought to stand for.

  • At the crossroads

    Ever since independence has there been such a hot debate as to the future of Nigeria. Many are not satisfied with the present arrangement; they feel shortchanged in a country to which they believe they are making enormous contributions, but are not getting a just reward. Whether in the South, East, West or North (S.E.W.N) as All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart Asiwaju Bola Tinubu tagged it, the sentiments are similar.

    To the north,  the other sections are better off than it and so also do the other sections see one another. All the sections believe that they are marginalised. If that is the case, who is marginalising who then? The fact is whenever other sections are not in power, the next thing they cry of is marginalisation. So, if the north is in power, it is not marginalised. If the south, east and west are also in power, they are not marginalised. But once they are not in power, it is marginalisation.

    We should not dismiss the fear of those shouting structural imbalance because marginalisation goes beyond one section lording it over others. Even among people of a particular section,  there are cries of marginalisation. In a state with diverse ethnic groups,  not all the people get along because they do not trust one another when it comes to the issue of power.  Every ethnic group will prefer to hold power rather than trust it with the others because of the fear of marginalisation.  If kinsmen cannot trust themselves,  what do we expect of the larger society?

    We have tried so many things to correct this social imbalance. Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan held national conferences during their respective tenure to find a way out of this problem. The reports of both conferences did not see the light of day. They are gathering dust where they are kept. Moreover, there is no consensus on which of the reports we should settle for.  Those who attended the Obasanjo conference are flaunting their report as the panacea for the nation’s ills. Delegates to the Jonathan conference believe that the adoption of their own report will settle all our problems.

    As we turn 57 on Sunday, the national question has yet to be settled. What do we do with Nigeria as presently constituted? Is it restructuring we want? These posers,  among many others, gave rise to the clamour for restructuring.  What is it about this restructuring that it has become a singsong in the polity? We will not do justice to the issue by giving it its ordinary and dictionary meaning. The restructuring Nigerians are clamouring for goes beyond reorganising a set up to enhance efficiency and cut cost.

    The restructuring Nigerians are seeking has to do with the way they are governed.  What powers should devolve to the three tiers of government? What happens to the resources of the nation? How should the resources be shared? Who gets the lion’s share – the central government or the states,  where the resources are found? To some, restructuring is all about state police, to others, it is resource control or principle of derivation. Yet to others, it is true federalism or devolution of power.

    As we turn 57, may we find the grace to turn this bend in our national life without turning everything upside down.

  • Judicial activism in Africa

    The expression “judicial activism” is from contemporary American politics where legal interpretation of its constitution can have ramifying and fundamental impact on its society and politics. For example after years of segregation, the American Supreme Court in a landmark decision came out with the judgement that there cannot be separate and equal education as it concerns black and white schools maintained at public expense. It was this kind of decision that forced public schools to desegregate. Although during the colonial phase of Nigerian history, there was a colour bar in hospitals and housing as well as salaries, this remained largely legally unchallenged. There were European/white hospitals and blacks as recent as the 1950s could not lodge in Broad Street Hotel in Lagos and Hill Station Hotel in Jos. There were different salaries for African and European workers doing the same thing. The various GRA (Government Reserved Areas) where only whites lived, ostensibly to shield them from African diseases, ensured physical separation of races. In Kenya, the Congo, central and Southern Africa where there were white settlers, separation or apartheid was the practice.  This was also the case in Algeria where close to three million French men had settled. There is no legal record  saying this  separation even though unacceptable, was challenged systematically until the 1950s when  the wind of change was gathering pace and becoming an hurricane as remarked by Sir Harold Macmillan a British Prime Minister of the time.

    The point I am making is that political change took place as a result of direct action or what Kwame Nkrumah called “positive action”, by nationalists either through political protests and or armed pressure. In other words, one can say that the idea of judicial activism is alien to African colonial history and even to contemporary politics until recently.

    The recent decision to annul and invalidate the presidential election in Kenya won by President Uhuru Kenyatta has drawn attention to the role of the judiciary in Africa. It should be recalled that this is the second time Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga are squaring against each other politically. In 2013 Kenyatta won a highly and hotly contested election which eventually eventuated into violence when Odinga rejected the result. There is no difference ideologically between the two of them. The National Super Alliance (NASA) led by  Raila Odinga and the Jubilee Party, a reincarnation of the old Kenya National African Union (KANU) led by Uhuru  Kenyatta are  centrist parties politically speaking. Their difference like in most African countries is rooted in ethnic difference between Odinga, a Luo and Kenyatta, a Kikuyu. These are the two major ethnic groups in the country. Uhuru is the son of the founding President of Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who along with Raila’s father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, formed the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and Raila’s father was made the Vice President. They eventually fell out because after some years, Oginga Odinga also wanted to be president. Kenya to begin with would never have been independent but for the rebellion of the Kikuyu who bore the burden of British settlerism following the expropriation of their land for British settlers in the 1920s after the First World. The Mau Mau ((Kenya Land and Freedom army or KFLA 1952 -1960) uprising forced the British to realize that Kenya was not going to be a settler colony. Without the moderating hand of Jomo Kenyatta, an anthropologist and author of a scholarly book, “Facing Mount Kenya” there would have been more bloodshed in Kenya before the British finally conceded independence to Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta.  Jomo Kenyatta was President from 1964 to 1978 when he died. He was succeeded by Daniel Arap Moi a member of a small Kalenjin tribe who was Jomo Kenyatta’s Vice President and he remained in power till 2013. He was succeeded by a Kikuyu Mwai Kibaki who remained in power till 2013 and again replaced by another Kikuyu the younger Kenyatta in 2013. In all this musical political chairs, the Luo the second largest ethnic group has always been worsted in the contest for power. Any unnecessarily ambitious Luo during the time of Kenyatta and after was not tolerated and for example the ambitious, affable and handsome young minister, Tom Mboya a Luo was mysteriously assassinated on July 5, 1969 within the first few years of independence and this sent a warning to anyone who might raise his hand against the dominant force of the ethnic status quo.

    This is the background against which to see the current struggle for power in Kenya between the Kikuyu and the Luo. Politics in Africa is a matter of numbers and the Kikuyus have the numbers. When in August, the 72-year old Raila Odinga lost to 62-year old Uhuru Kenyatta in a presidential election judged by international observers coming from the West, the Commonwealth and African Union, it was felt Kenya had overcome its monster of disputed elections. But Odinga protested the outcome and rather than asking his supporters to go on the streets, he went to the Supreme Court to challenge the validity of the election process.  Surprisingly, the court in a split decision along ethnic lines invalidated the election and called for another election within 60 days.

    This outcome has been welcomed by the opposition. The president accepted the judgement but deprecated it. He even called members of the judiciary “crooks” who had been bought over by “Jews and homosexuals”. This is really an unfortunate development. Raila Odinga while welcoming the judgement called unrealistically for the dismissal of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The cancelled election cost Kenya $500 million. This is a lot of money in a poor country. The logistics of holding another election in 60 days involving printing of new ballot papers remain daunting. It is therefore almost axiomatic that the result of a new election may not be different from the old one.

    The question to ask is whether the judicial decision has been worth it and whether it has met the yardstick of legal wisdom and sagacity in view of the fact that the decision was based not on grounds of actual rigging and intent of rigging but on the grounds of lack of compliance with transmission of results electronically from wards to collating centre. It will be a tragedy if the re-run were to terminate in violence costing thousands of lives as it was in 2013.

    Some commentators have commended the judicial decision in Kenya and asked other African courts to learn from it. What happened in Kenya is not new to us in Nigeria. Results of elections have been changed at local, gubernatorial, House of Representative and senatorial levels but not at the presidential levels.  In the United States, Al Gore went to court to dispute the narrow win of George Bush in 2000 presidential election after the political shenanigans in Florida where Bush’s younger brother was governor but in the interest of the country and democracy, he withdrew the challenge so that the USA was not plunged into a constitutional crisis.

    In 1999 in a similar situation and to hasten the departure of the military from power, Chief Olu Falae withdrew his case in the Supreme Court challenging Olusegun Obasanjo’s election. In 2003, 2007 and 2011, President Muhammadu Buhari challenged unsuccessfully the elections of his opponents. Even if there were grounds for annulling the elections of his opponents, the Supreme Court upheld the outcome of the elections. These decisions were the right and sagacious decisions if only to save our country from political uncertainty and violence.

    Legal purists may dispute the wisdom of political imperative in judicial decisions at the highest level of a country but the overall interest of the country must always prevail. This is not a call for electoral brigandage and deliberate crime but when as in the case of Kenya, no such grounds were established, it would have been prudent for the judiciary to make haste slowly. This is particularly the case in African countries where there is evidence of corruption in many courts including the highest courts as it is the case in our country as can be seen in recent exposures of corruption in Nigerian courts.

  • The miracle boy of Chibok

    The miracle boy of Chibok

    ALI AHMADU IS just six,  but he has a strong will. He is alive today by the grace of God and his own will to live. Boko Haram did not mean well for the boy when some of its members ran over him with their motorcycles in 2014 in Chibok, Borno State. The incident happened few days after the insurgents abducted over 200 pupils of the Government Girls Secondary School in the early hours of April 15, 2014.

    Ali broke his spinal cord and he was left in that state in the bush for days. No treatment,  nothing. People gave up on him because they thought his case was hopeless, but the small boy did not give up on himself. Where others saw despair and a bad case, he saw hope and life. This was why when he was being taken to Dubai on September 14 for corrective surgery, he called on God in Hausa repeatedly to let him walk again.

    Since He is God that answers prayers,  He granted Ali’s wish. The boy successfully underwent surgery and he can now walk again. The surgeons gave him 14 days to get back on his feet after the operation,  but he surprised them all when he rose on his feet after seven days and began to walk. He is a child of promise and since he is back on his feet, nothing can stop him again. Many thanks to the foundation which footed his hospital bill. By your humanitarian gesture, you have made a bold statement that what matters at the end of the day is our service to humanity and not the wealth we amass.

  • PMB cannot escape his destiny

    I am proud to be Yoruba; I am happy to be a Christian.  But this was not by design but by accident of birth. If I had been born in the north, I would probably have been a Muslim or if in Middle East, a victim of sibling war between obstinate Arab and their equally obdurate half-brothers – the Jew non-believers who, upon killing their most illustrious son, Christ the saviour, invoked “His blood to be upon them and upon their children.

    I love Nigeria. I cherish being a Nigerian. My little contribution to society and my modest contribution to knowledge had been made possible by the interventions of other Nigerians notably of Edo, Urhobo and Igbo extractions despite obstacles put on my path by my own Yoruba compatriots. Nigerian unity, for many in my group, unlike those who repeatedly shout ‘Nigerian unity is not negotiable’ even as they exploit the imperfections in the present structure, is imperative.

    As it is often said, you only repeat the obvious when you are not persuaded. Those who therefore shout Nigerian unity is non-negotiable from the roof top perhaps constitute the greatest threat to Nigeria unity.

    Sociologists have traced sources of most social dislocations in the world to social injustice. We are no exception. Nigeria has been haunted by a spectre of injustice since 1962 when Tafawa Balewa, our otherwise harmless Prime Minister, was stampeded by self-serving Fulani and Igbo politicians to sow seed of injustice by destroying the structure agreed upon as the basis of our federal arrangement, shortly before independence in 1960.

    With victims of the 1962 injustice still languishing in prison, the January 1966 military intervention came as a result of perceived injustice by the NCNC junior partner in the NPC/NCNC coalition government.   Its execution led to greater injustice as only the leaders of senior coalition partners were killed and Ironsi who emerged as new leader went on to institutionalize a unitary system as a result of  manipulation by Igbo politicians and intellectuals according to Richard Akinjide , a witness and a participant.

    With the July 1966 vengeance coup, the mindless killing of Igbo in the north and the subsequent civil war, it became the case of one injustice begetting greater injustice.

    With the control of power at the end of the civil war by the north that had been violently opposed to a unitary system, it was like Hitler using democracy, the weapon of his opponents to fight his opponents by using it to first acquire, power before unleashing terror on Germans and the world. The north deployed the Igbo weapon –unitarism, advocated by Zik and Igbo political elite up to 1959 and by Ironsi in 1966, to fight the Igbo and to subjugate the rest of the country through creation of more states and LGAs that derive direct funding from the centre. With all powers concentrated in the centre through the exclusive and concurrent items with no residual list, what was designed as a federal state is today run as a unitary state as all the states and LGAs look up to Abuja for survival.

    What President Buhari is being called upon to address therefore is the issue of injustice arising from this unworkable arrangement. The National Assembly, a product of injustice, by design and by composition, to which he has tried to delegate by abdication of the responsibility fate has trusted on him, is ill-equipped to help. President Buhari can similarly not rely on veteran of northern politics of ‘if the north does not have it, no other person or group must have it’, who because they are beneficiaries of current injustice, now pretend not to understand the meaning of restructuring.

    Not too long ago, Ango Abdullahi, former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and now the spokesman for Northern Elders Forum,  after correctly tracing agitation for restructuring of the country to post independence power rivalry between the Igbo and the Hausa Fulani, a rivalry he admitted has defied solution for 50 years, he was advising, President Buhari to rely on the constitution which by ceding power to the centre controlled by northern majority has made any change including ordinary local policing impossible.

    Elder statesman Tanko Yakassai after describing Kanu and his supporters as irritants annoying government and other groups was on Channel Television last Monday to put the blame for agitation for restructuring of the country on the door steps of the Yoruba. He blames Yoruba for supporting self-actualization struggle by restive groups like the Tivs, Beroms, Katafs and others in the Middle Belt as well as the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers states of the South-east since 1953. With advisers like Ango Abdullahi and Yakassai, President Buhari needs no enemies.  Since they have nothing but disdain for him because of his ‘talakawa’ ideology, they will just be too happy to see him miss a historic opportunity to write his name in gold.

    But if President Buhari is ambitious, he will realize he is uniquely favoured to address the issue of injustice in the country. Since he is trusted by his northern masses who loathe other politicians from the area, all he needed to do, as Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, our former foreign affairs minister has argued last Sunday, is to convince those who have faith in him that restructuring is about redressing injustice in order to save the country and not about the north committing political suicide.

    Buhari also has a unique opportunity to save the country because he is generally regarded as a good Nigerian. Our late statesman, Maitama Sule said this much when he led a delegation of Northern Council of Elders to congratulate him after his election in 2015. He had then told him “You are a Nigerian with sense of justice and fair play; Do justice to us, do justice to them and do justice to everyone”. By doing that he told Buhari, he will be “a potential Nigerian greatest leader we can ever have’, adding, “with justice you can rule Nigeria well. Power remains in the hand of infidel if he is fair but not in the hand of a believer if he is unfair.”

    Restructuring is about justice. All the President needs to ask himself is if the current arrangement that allows a dysfunctional centre to mismanage over 50% of resources by leaders like ex-President Jonathan is just. A leader who boasted that  “within this period that the PDP has been ruling, we’ve actually created a number of millionaires and billionaires” – while Nigerians looked up to neighbouring countries like Republic of Benin and Togo for quality education for their children and  reliable healthcare services for loved ones.

    If a constitution that made no provision for residual list  thereby denying the states of  looking  after themselves is justice; if deploying  resources from oil-producing riverine states where bridges are needed, to build bridges over land in Abuja is justice.  If it is fair for the federal government to create about 80 LGAs for Kano and Jigawa with a lower population than Lagos which has only 20. If it is fair for the centre to undermine the states by dealing directly with LGAs that constitute the state. As Charles Soludo, a former Central Bank governor once observed, ours is the only known federation in the world where the centre allocates funds to LGAs that are not accountable to it.

    It is hoped Buhari will write his name in gold by preventing our beautiful country from collapsing under the weight of injustice as we saw it happen in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and neighboring Sudan

  • OF activists, separatists and terrorists

    OF activists, separatists and terrorists

    WHERE is Nwannekaenyi ‘Nnamdi’ Kenny Okwu , who is simply known and addressed as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu?

    The fiery young man of Afara-uku, a London returnee who is the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has gone underground since the military’s Operation Python Dance II grounded his group of cudgel-wielding and stone hurling youths in whose hearts he had ignited a huge fire of revolution.

    He promised a new country, Biafra, an Eldorado that will offer the teeming army of suffering youths new opportunities to realise their dreams. The shepherd has fled and the sheep are in disarray. What a pity.

    Kanu was deified by many. They kissed his feet and ascribed to him some ethereal powers. He talked tough and loud. His rhetoric was venomous and acerbic. He poured out insults as if he was engaged in a motor park brawl. His supporters goaded him on. He was their Pied Piper to whom they flocked like bees to honey. Old men, who should have cautioned him to pull the brakes, muffled their voices of wisdom. They had found in him a messiah. He was their Moses who would lead the march to the promised land of Biafra.

    Alas, it was all a castle in the air. Fantasy. Dreams. Illusion with perhaps a tinge of hallucination. A young man who loves life like any other of his age, romantic (photographed on a London street planting a kiss on a woman’s face), educated and enlightened with prospects of a great future dumping it all for a secessionist tendency. What sense do we make of this? Ambition? Chivalry?

    You never get it wrong in a barber shop. There will always be answers to seemingly knotty questions. Besides, the air of freedom, the conviviality and the sheer camaraderie are unmistakable. And so to the place I headed yesterday.

    As usual, it was throbbing with people – ordinary folks with no airs, self-acclaimed experts and emergency analysts.

    From a loudspeaker planted on one side of the door, a hip hop artiste was dishing out some danceable stuff with esoteric lyrics. Some youths watched as two men slugged it out on the draught board.  Others just sat down, sharing jokes and laughing like guests at a comedy show. Some were holding cans of a popular energy drink. Others clutched bottles of beer, which they held tightly as if they were some prizes given out after a race.

    On the wall is a big portrait of the late Jamaican songster, Robert Nesta Marley, a big roll of weed in his mouth, which was belching out thick white smoke. Under the picture is inscribed “thank you for not smoking”.

    A commercial motorcycle, popularly called okada, rumbled its way to the frontage of the shop and stopped suddenly. An old man with a big bag slung on his ageing shoulder walked in, dragging his feet and flashing some teeth that could obviously do with some brushing.

    “Papi D is here o,” a young man called out.. It was an announcement fit for the royalty. All heads turned in the direction of the new guest. The barber, who had been immersed in his work like a painter doing some murals, turned and smiled. He shook his balding head and went back to work.

    The man dumped his bag on the cluttered floor and headed for the bathroom. He returned and raised his two hands in salutation like a politician paying obeisance to his constituents. A young man yielded his seat to him. He sank in and the seat creaked.

    A fellow with a loose tie and a pair of glasses, said to be a banker, set the ball rolling. He unleashed a torrent of questions.

    “Welcome sir. What is all the noise about Kanu? Has the government handled the matter with tact? Are we breeding another Mohammed Yusuf scenario that bred Boko Haram? Do we really need to kick his ass? Where are the elders?”

    The old man smiled. “You see, the first question to ask is, are the actions of Kalu and his cohort of excited youths legal? I will answer that. Yes and no. Yes; they are entitled to their freedom of speech and association. No; there is no freedom that is limitless. It all ends when it becomes a threat to the corporate existence of the nation and a pain in the neck for others. The young man’s belligerency was getting worrisome.

    “Can there be tact without facts? Should the government have smashed the group? Again, yes and no. Since the Kanu matter was in court, the way to go was to return to court and sort it out. Yes; if it is true that his boys hurled missiles at soldiers who were getting set for the new dance craze, the dance of pythons. Soldiers will always kill a fly with a sledge hammer, you know.”

    “As for the elders, I think they either tacitly sanctioned Kanu’s excesses or were just indifferent, believing that ‘a young man who would not heed the warning to stay away from leprosy should be ready to live alone in the forest’.  The governors didn’t move fast and other politicians were obviously positioning themselves   to profit from the delicate matter. Now the chicken has come home to roost.”

    “Sir, Papi D. But, there were respectable people who either showed solidarity  with Kanu or persuaded him to embrace peace  and give Nigeria’s unity a chance.”

    The old man covered his mouth as if he was going to cough. His eyes creased in a sudden burst of some strange emotion. He reached out for his bag and pulled out a sachet of a white liquid, which he tore open with his teeth. He gulped it down all at once and the smell of gin perfused the place.

    “I’m sorry, gentlemen for that short break in transmission. My spirit tells me I should be in high spirits as we seem to be approaching the spiritual angle to this matter. You see, it wasn’t for lack of eminent people that Kanu had to cross the line. Being eminent does not confer wisdom on you.   I recall that a governor once dressed up like an Igbo gentleman – a long dress decked with glittering buttons, red cap and all that – and went to the hearing of Kanu’s case to encourage him. He even declared that his state was part of the Biafra Kanu dreamt of.  How is this fellow different from those exuberant boys who kissed Kanu’s feet?”

    “Thank you, Papi D. Is it right to call IPOB a terrorist organisation?”

    “You see, the government pressed the panic button too early. Two wrongs a right do not make. That is that. Activism should be distinctly differentiated from terrorism, but it is convenient to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it. The government said IPOB had its secret service, Kanu was inspecting guards of honour mounted by his Biafra National Guard and the group was extorting money at checkpoints.

    “Looking back, isn’t the young man lucky? When Fela – of exciting memories – proclaimed his Kalakuta Republic – pulsating Afrobeat music, scantily dressed women, ganja, gin and all that – soldiers stormed the place and burnt it down. His aged mum was thrown down from the balcony. She died of the trauma.

    “Besides, isn’t the civil war enough a lesson for us?”

    “Sir, where is Kanu? “

    “Kanu? Look young man, that question is not for me. Ask Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and the Jewish high chief priest, Immanuu El-Shalum who took his bail. I am sure they can produce him.

    “I also asked that question when somebody was saying he may have disappeared for some spiritual hibernation to mitigate the traumatic effect of the military assault he suffered. The fellow was suggesting that the Kanu family should hire the musician – activist and architect of the  “Our-mumu-don-do” protests to stage a million-man march for Kanu. The aim will be to unravel the mystery of Kanu’s sudden disappearance.”

    “Hmm, Papi D. What is the way out of all this and other related matters, including the marginalisation of the Igbo.”

    “Marginal-what? You see, I was delivering a speech at the palace the other day and one learned fellow raised this matter. My take is that the Igbo man is too resourceful – connected, educated, rich in cash and intellect, and talented – to be marginalised. He will find fulfillment in a restructured Nigeria. Secession is extremism. It won’t help.

    “I recall a joke that once made my day:

    “An Edo man invited his friends for his mother’s burial. After lowering the coffin, the family placed a piece of yam, rice, meat etc in the grave– in line with tradition.

    “Why, a Hausa man asked?

    “The Edo man smiled and said, according to our tradition, the dead go on a long journey and need all the food items they can get.

    “The Hausa man dropped N100,000 inside the grave and said, ‘when the food finish, buy more’.  A Yoruba man dropped N50,000 and said,  ‘Add this in case the money is not enough’.

    “The Igbo man smiled, brought out his cheque book and wrote a cheque of N200,000, dropped it in the coffin and took the N150,000  as  change. He then said, ‘Nwanne, withdraw when you reach dia o…It is going to be a dangerous journey; we don’t know how many robbers are out there and, after all, we are in a cashless economy na! Travel well o!”

    “Tell me, can anyone ever marginalise a people like that?” Papi D said with a mischievous grin.

  • Tragedy of Nigerian poor’s herd mentality

    What President Muhammadu Buhari was persistently ridiculed and condemned as a failure even before his second year in office, was a direct consequence of his inability to uphold the corrupt but highly lucrative systemic bazaar of the past. Although Buhari’s leadership suffers the affliction of crooked men and women, his glamourised aversion to corruption and his ongoing anti-corruption campaign, resonates dangerously to the country’s crooked divide. Too many men and women accustomed to pocketing and spending money that they didn’t earn are suddenly aghast and petrified by their inability to conduct ‘business as usual.’

    That former President Goodluck Jonathan took God for a fool also attests to the plague and degenerate sway of money. Jonathan, in abject desperation for acceptance and goodwill of Nigerian masses, travelled from the presidential villa in Aso Rock, Abuja, to stage a dramatic communion with God, on his knees, before Enoch Adeboye, a respected cleric.

    Cut to another hodgepodge of the ex-president on his knees, before Ayo Oritsejafor and other self-appointed “men of God” in faraway Jerusalem, Israel. Jonathan in flagrant disregard of religious tenets advising that man’s communion with his Creator should be personal and unpretentious, deserted his abode in Abuja to embark on a spiritual jamboree of his self-styled ‘humility’ and communion with God across the country and overseas.

    Predictably, psychologically and materially-impoverished loyalists cum the ex-president’s media aides argued that he simply loved to ‘lead by example’ thus politicizing his “humility” and “love of God” to the fascination and appreciation of all. It is however, unclear by what standards they will prove that heartfelt prayers muttered by the former president on his knees, in the corners of his room, would have been less significant than his theatrical communion with God.

    Were these spiritual shows emblematic of Jonathan’s unpretentious love of God or were they symptomatic of a desperate wish to perpetuate him in power for the attendant fiscal and material perks? Cut to Stella Oduah, aviation minister’s N255 million bullet-proof automobile scandal Sambo Dasuki’s $2.1 billion arms purchase scam and Abdulrasheed Maina, former pension boss’ N21 billion pension fund racket to mention a few, and you have an interesting picture of the Nigerian ruling class’ inexorable lust for money and other material things.

    There is the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame this persistent malaise on capitalism; however, attractive as such sophistry may resound, the impulse for acquisition, pursuit of gain and money in fact, has nothing to do with capitalism – it is merely a symptom, like perverse capitalism, of the society’s steady descent the slope of the decadent and grotesque.

    Max Weber, the late German economist and social historian would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.

    This deficit manifests in deficiencies of personal and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the preponderance and regeneration of eejits, tyrants, greedy-guts, fraudsters, narcissists, murderers and bloodhounds of all kinds and of all nature, across the country’s landscape.

    The trials of Nigerians’ moral degeneration as exemplified by the citizenry’s inordinate lust for money, the country’s recurrent tragedies and propensity to self-destruct, reveals an overarching tendency to savour short-term greed and relief over long-term prosperity. Despite a protracted and tumultuous history of impoverishment and bad leadership, Nigerians continue to look for quick fix solutions thus mortgaging the country’s present and future for short-term benefits.

    Through decades of moral perversions and self-inflicted disasters, Nigerians continue to bemoan their tragic fate. While many argue that the country ruins because the youth are too weak and too selfish to spill as much blood as is required to rid the nation of every human and institutional affliction, many more contend that the country’s woes will disappear immediately poverty is eradicated by the ruling class.

    Today, the fear of poverty as the irrepressible lust for money, drive too many to commit gross acts of dishonesty and irresponsibility. Personal greed is pervasive and poverty is endemic. It represents the triumphal punch delivered by the proverbial system against the country’s poor, hopeless masses. Nigeria suffers the consequence of the supremacy of money. Money elevates and ennobles the possessor of it; whatever the nature and import of the rich’s membership of society, as long as he has money to flaunt and throw around, nobody cares what value he adds to and denies society.

    Thus the pardon and acquittal of several corrupt politicians and deposed bank chiefs; even after insurmountable evidences were marshaled against them by prosecution, they got off too easily with court sentences that were tantamount to a pat on the back.

    The poor, on the other hand, epitomise more of what is wrong and contemptible with the society. They represent that segment of the society that is easily swayed, viciously condemned and trodden by the power of money.

    The power of money is indeed frightening and overwhelming. Like Okwudiba Nnoli notes, it uplifts and crushes, enhances and debases, exhilarates and disenchants, dignifies and dehumanizes, enlightens and blinds, unites and divides. Under the influence of money, humaneness and the quest for the collective good are ferociously smothered by disruptive and selfish considerations. Materialism is fostered and greed is ennobled in the mad dash for money. Consequently, justice, freedom, equality, dignity and other human rights, are sacrificed.

    More worrisome is the reality of the poor in Nigeria being unquestioningly docile to the power of money. This impoverished lot is hardly impressed by humaneness and promising leadership. To them, these are manifestations of weakness. Their loyalty and sympathies are reserved for tyrants that treat them like dogs on a leash. It is to these latter that they exhibit the greatest obsequiousness and erect the greatest statues.

    While it is true that the poor would often trample maniacally on the despot, who by a poetic twist of fate – be it by class politics or masses revolt – gets stripped of his power and authority, they do so because having lost his strength, the despot becomes relegated to an ignoble spot among the weak and repressed, who are to be loathed and not feared.

    This is emblematic of Gustave Le Bon’s philosophy of ‘The Crowd,’ which was valued not only by Pareto, Freud, Mussolini, and de Gaulle, but even by Horkheimer and Adorno. Le Bon contends that the type of  “hero dear to crowds will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instills them with fear…Should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the crowd, always obedient to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy.”

    Democratic ideas are therefore in profound disagreement with the psychology and experience of the Nigerian poor. It is unsurprising then, that materially and mentally impoverished folk would distrust democracy and its promise of collective good, to covet and pursue the vain and ephemeral perks of socio-political harlotry.

  • Yoruba Summit: Triumph of Yoruba character

    Like most citizens of the Yoruba nation of south-western Nigeria, I am still thrilled by the huge success of the Yoruba Summit which was held in the city of Ibadan a fortnight ago, on Thursday September 7. That was a wonderful triumph of true Yoruba character, and I cannot resist revisiting it.

    To the heated debate going on concerning the restructuring of the federation, the summit was a powerfully positive contribution – a guide to how we all, the many nationalities of Nigeria, should conduct even the most contentious arguments concerning our common country of Nigeria. It was a very effective demonstration of the Yoruba nation’s understanding of how citizens should behave in situations in which their society is divided, in which their country is agonizing to find agreement or consensus over critically important issues.

    Countless Nigerians, young and old, as individuals and as groups or nationalities, are answering the call of duty by speaking up in this all-important debate. With the Yoruba Summit, the Yoruba nation stepped forward with the strongest national action yet.

    Over 6000 Yoruba citizens gathered at the Lekan Salami Stadium for the summit. It was the most representative assembly of Yoruba people in modern times. Tens of Yoruba civic organizations sent members to attend. Representatives of some youth organizations arrived with the kinds of fanfare that only youths can whip up – and earned the loud applause of the entire stadium. Representatives of various women organizations added colour to the gathering. Hundreds of the people in the large assembly were members of the Yoruba elite and intelligentsia – lawyers, doctors, owners or CEOs of leading Nigerian businesses, religious leaders (Muslim, Christian and traditional), university lecturers and professors and other educators, leading Yoruba politicians of all political parties including elected public officials, former governors, legislators, federal ministers and state commissioners, etc. Every one of the current governors of the six states of the South-west sent representatives. One of the governors, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, also came in person, to the great applause of the assembly. Masses of Yoruba people streamed in from all directions. Many Yoruba Obas, including the Ooni of Ife, came to add enormous dignity and gravity to the assembly.

    Also, very importantly, leading non-Yoruba Nigerians from other regions of Nigeria – leaders of the prestigious Ohanaeze Ndigbo of the Igbo people of the South-east, and leaders of PANDEF of the Delta peoples of the South-south – came to grace this great summit of the Yoruba people. Naturally, their arrival added much to the mounting excitement preceding the opening of the summit. No known national assemblage of any Nigerian nationality has ever been so honoured by other Nigerian nationalities. This was a first in Nigeria.

    Very many who attended the summit had travelled from distant parts of Yorubaland, including the Yoruba parts of Kwara, Kogi and Delta states. A torrential rain suddenly broke out as the summit was about to open, and threatened for some minutes to cause serious disruption. But it ended quickly (or, as we Yoruba would say, and are now saying, it was made to end quickly) – and it was not able to do any harm at all to the summit arrangements.

    All the wonderful success of the summit arrangements was the outcome of very detailed and careful planning over months, handled for the Yoruba nation by a competent Summit Planning Committee. The committee in its ultimate form comprised tens of members from different Yoruba organizations, with no one organization having more than one or two members on it. Every governor of the Yoruba South-west also sent a representative to serve on it.  Its over-all chairman and the chairmen of its various sub-committees were, deliberately, chosen from different Yoruba organizations. The Summit Planning Committee and its Contacts Sub-committee did all the heavy work of mobilizing the Yoruba people, leaders of all organizations, Yoruba leaders of political parties, Yoruba elected public officials, Yoruba traditional rulers, etc., to come to the summit. To maximize this mobilization effort, they used, not only personal contacts and letters, but also radio and television messages and jingles. Knowing that they had succeeded in rousing large numbers of people, they chose a stadium as venue. In this summit, the Yoruba put up the most emphatic show of Yoruba national unity in recent times.

    At the summit, a high-tech Summit Administrative Centre (with computers, printers and other communication gadgets) was set up, under highly qualified persons. This centre helped speakers who brought speeches and wanted their speeches reproduced for circulation. More importantly, it monitored all the speeches and ultimately digested them to produce the two important documents resulting from the summit – namely, the ‘Summit Communique’ and the ‘Ibadan Declaration’.

    The Summit Planning Committee handled the speaking on the raised platform with impressive discipline, allowing each speaker only a few minutes, and thereby making it possible for very many people to speak. Nobody who wanted to speak was denied, although particular recognition was given to representatives of organizations, youth organizations and women organizations, to persons who brought messages from the governors, to traditional rulers, religious leaders, etc. The opening speech by the chairman of the day – the legal luminary Aare Afe Babalola, founder of Afe Babalola University – set the tone for most other speeches of the day. The speech was powerfully reinforced by the speech of the chairman of the Summit Planning Committee, the eminent medical practitioner Chief Kunle Olajide.

    The core message from all the speeches was essentially the same, although each speaker rendered it in his or her own way and supplied his or her own details. That core message was a resounding call by the Yoruba nation for an urgent restructuring of the Nigerian federation. It was a serious warning that the over-concentration of power and resource control at the federal centre, an over-centralization which had been forced upon Nigeria by successive military dictatorships from 1966 to 1999, was grossly unsuitable for a country like Nigeria with hundreds of nationalities, that it had hurt Nigeria disastrously, that it is still hurting Nigeria, and that it now threatens the outright break-up of Nigeria. Every speaker pointed out some of the painfully destructive effects of this over-centralization on the Yoruba nation.

    The message sent by Governor Aregbesola of Osun State offered the most details of the proposed restructuring process. The speeches by Governor Ayo Fayose and Lawyer Femi Fani-Kayode (former Federal Minister of Aviation), excited the youths most and therefore generated enormous applause. Very loud applause also went to speakers who urged that the Yoruba nation should continue to give its well-known support to the existence and progress of Nigeria, but that if the restructuring of the Nigerian federation continues to be delayed, the Yoruba nation must begin expeditiously and peacefully to seek to have its own Oduduwa Republic separate from Nigeria. The august guests from the South-east and South-south were allowed time to speak, and they expressed their admiration for the summit, and the strong support of their nations for the same thing that the Yoruba nation desired – namely, a restructuring of the Nigerian federation without delay. The speeches ended with the greetings, thanks and blessings by the Ooni of Ife, voice of Oduduwa, the father of the Yoruba nation.

    The summit then ended by reading and loudly adopting the two documents – the ‘Summit Communique’ and the ‘Ibadan Declaration’. The motion to adopt this document was moved by the eminent Yoruba lawyer, Chief Niyi Akintola and seconded by another eminent lawyer, Chief Kehinde Sofola. The Yoruba nation thus created the documentary materials for the continued collective Yoruba contribution to the struggle of an increasing majority of Nigerians, for the restructuring of Nigeria – for the continued existence of Nigeria on the basis of an appropriate federal structure, thereby on the basis of equity and justice, and thereby towards progress and prosperity for Nigeria and expanded and expanding opportunities for all Nigerians.

    The summit at Ibadan was a possession of all Yoruba people of all religious and political persuasions and socio-economic pursuits and statuses. We Yoruba organized it to demonstrate our strong desire to see the Nigerian federation restructured without delay, so that Nigeria may survive the current serious threats to its existence, and so that Nigeria may become an orderly, harmonious, productive and prosperous country, a place of bouncing opportunities for us Yoruba and for all other peoples of Nigeria. We offer the Yoruba Summit as a powerful and patriotic step, hopefully worthy of emulation by other Nigerian peoples. In the swirling controversy over the restructuring of Nigeria, it is our potent answer to the call of duty as we know it.

  • Population bomb in Nigeria

    I have just seen a BBC documentary on future demographic development in Africa zeroing in on Nigeria and its neighbour Niger Republic. The thrust of the documentary is that if both continue at the current rate of growth, Nigeria’s population will nearly hit a billion by the year 2050. Nigeria will be the number three most populous country in the world next to India and China because India would have overtaken China by that time.  The documentary points to the unsustainable population growth in Niger Republic which is over three percent and that this should be a cause for worry for Nigeria because the excess always spills over to Nigeria. Nigeria in other words, is the safety net for Niger republic. In the meantime, Nigeria itself is growing at three percent or more on average even though there are regional differences and diversities in this growth pattern.

    The question to ask is what is responsible for this exponential growth in population in these two countries and what can be done about it. In Nigeria and Niger the main reason is cultural. Niger is largely a Muslim country while the far north of Nigeria is similar to its northern neighbour. These are Islamic societies where polygamy is acceptable and not against the Islamic religion. One young man in Niger was interviewed on the size of his family of four wives and 16 children and he readily agreed that he is not able to feed them and virtually begged for available contraceptive measures. He immediately became an advocate of all measures to stop this obvious population explosion.  One of the things the man said which the documentary highlighted was that he will encourage his children to go to Kano and Lagos to seek their fortunes. The focus of the documentary was on the Hausa speaking town of Zinder.  One interesting thing the government of Niger has done is to embark on massive family planning campaign including public medical contraceptive practice on women from village to village in a desperate measure to stem this tide of uncontrollable population explosion.

    Now what is happening in Niger as far as population growth is concerned is also happening on the Nigerian side of the border on a bigger scale because of its huge population. Apart from religious similarities, the two societies are largely agricultural with farmers raising large families to help them on the farms. The level of illiteracy is also high. This is responsible for the people not benefiting from contraceptive measures that would readily be available to the people if they were educated. The status of the girl-child remains abysmally low in human development index. Illiterate parents pay little or no concern for the interest of their female children other than just looking forward to payment of marriage price or dowry by their suitors.  Children, sometimes while very young in age, are married off to their husbands where they are turned into breeding machines. In the past, the high mortality rate of children at infancy stabilized and moderated population growth, but the improvement in maternity care means that more children survive to live in abject poverty to the detriment of their families who need to be taught that large families are no longer of any economic value.

    It can thus be seen that there is a complex interplay of factors that lead to this extraordinary population growth. The difference between Niger and Nigeria is that there is some fitful effort to address the problem north of the border but here in Nigeria nothing is being done. Population growth is not limited to the north of Nigeria alone; it is no doubt a national problem. In fact, the size of population has become political! Like in Northern Ireland where the Catholics are trying to outbreed the protestants  for political parity, the  various ethnic groups  in Nigeria seem to fight a silent and perhaps unconscious “crib” war because as seen in their census battles, population figures have economic significance because of their being tied to revenue distribution from the federation account. This means nobody is seriously thinking about population control in the country or any part of it.

    In the south-east of Nigeria, some men encourage and celebrate their wives for their effort in outbreeding their neighbours. Some communities give their wives and their wives ‘ parents cows when a single woman is able to have 10 or more children without caring for the health of the woman involved. The factors of illiteracy, economic demand for more hands on the field of farming or even trading and preferably their own children drive people in the south generally to have large families and multiple wives.

    In the south-west of Nigeria, the monogamous example of their Christian cousins tend to moderate the polygamous tendencies of the Muslim community .This can be seen in the apparent slowing down of the population growth in the South-west. This is evidenced by national statistics. As western education spreads, the culture of small families and monogamy develops in all people irrespective of the religion one practices or the region where one lives. There is no doubt about the correlation between family size and education particularly female education. With women staying longer in school, the years left for them to have football size families have been reduced. There is also medically proven fact of too many children leading to high female mortality. On top of this is the fact that our economy and food production cannot really cope with this huge population growth. The situation calls for a national approach to defusing this population bomb. There must be a national population growth policy that would have to be enforced. This must be coordinated with the leadership of the two monotheistic religions of Islam and Christianity, because the clerics of the two religions seem to encourage large families by their followers. Even the African culture of seeing children as gifts from God would have to change if we are not to be overwhelmed by a deluge of children. There ought to be a legislation to discourage multiple wives. I pray we do not have to do what Indira Ghandi, the former prime minister of India did when she started castrating the men which eventually led to an assassin taking her life.

    We are actually facing an emergency and we must adopt enforceable population policy and coordinate it with that of the Republic of Niger and perhaps other neighbouring countries of Benin and Chad where massive movement of people into Nigeria is currently occurring. People from as far as Togo and Liberia are flocking to Lagos because of its attractiveness as an economic magnet. The thought of Nigeria having a billion people 30 years to come is frightening. We will just not be able to handle it. Our economy cannot sustain or support it. We do not have the technology or the medical facilities to support such an unthinkable population problem. Lagos State claims one million people are moving to Lagos every year. This massive movement of people to Nigeria is pregnant with social, economic and political consequences. We must reverse this demographic trajectory by all means.

    Because of the freedom of movement of people and capital enshrined in the ECOWAS treaty compels us to champion a population policy in the region, the control of population growth is not only an economic but a strategic and security issue. The population of Nigeria is also very young .Those under 30 years is more than 60 percent. This means they are at the high reproductive stage of their lives. If serious campaign of limiting every man to two children is not urgently embarked upon, it will be too late. The emphasis must be put on men not on women. Some years ago we had this debate but it was quietly forgotten. The time has now come when we must take serious measures to roll back this economically crippling population growth and  a phenomenon which has become unsustainable.

    When faced with similar problems, China limited a family to one child and medically enforced it. As a dictatorship, the communist regime was able to stabilize population growth at zero percent although the policy is being relaxed in special cases. In democratic India, this could not be done and this accounts for India catching up with China. In Europe, generally economic factor of the cost of raising children has stabilized the population growth. In the USA, massive immigration has led to what is an unsustainable population growth and this is responsible for the rise in right wing nationalism. Latin Americas’ poverty is related to its huge population growth and countries in the region, in spite of being largely, Catholics with their aversion for abortion are doing all they can to stabilize their population growth. Nigeria has a choice to make and this choice has to be made. The sooner the better. The time bomb is ticking.