An event of immense significance for the overall progress of this country took place last week in Enugu, Enugu State. It was a landmark parley between two of the nation’s key socio-cultural groups- the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Ohaneze Ndigbo.
Though that outing lacked the usual media blitz that should ordinarily accompany it, its absence did not in any way, whittle down its larger heuristics especially at this point when ethnic, primordial and religious cleavages seem to be on high ascendancy. Given the foreboding scenario, it remains largely curious why such an important event attracted very little or no media attention.
It is either the organizers opted to keep the media off that symbolic outing or the media did not quite appreciate the larger implications of socio-political groups interfacing on how to move the country forward especially in view of our current experiences.
Be that as it may, the meeting came out successful as its outcome, made available through a communiqué signed by the national chairman of ACF, Alhaji Ibrahim Coommasie and national president of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey respectively, vividly indicates. The two groups while reaffirming their belief in the corporate existence of Nigeria with justice, fairness and equity to all, pledged their total support for the war against terrorism and corruption even as they urged all citizens to cooperate with the federal government in these areas. They also resolved to meet regularly to discuss the state of the nation and forward their decisions to the federal government to aid good and equitable governance.
The meeting is symbolic in more ways than one. Perhaps, it is the first time in recent times the ACF and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo will be putting heads together to share each others’ views and feelings on the multifarious problems buffeting the country. For another, most of the objectives they set out to achieve are at the root of the cycle of instability which this nation has had to contend with since independence. Coming from the ethnic nationalities themselves, the initiative gives a rare of hope that there may be light at the end of the tunnel. This should be something to cheer.
Yet for another, the visionary outing came at a time centrifugal forces have been on top gear such that led two former heads of state to lament that even those who have before now, been ascribed the role of patriots were beginning to question the continued basis for the unity and indivisibility of the country.
That was about two years back when the resort to parochial and primordial attachments became the order of the day. That was at the time when a study group in the United States of America (US) predicated that Nigeria would break up come the 2015 elections. Events prior to that election did not help matters as threats and counter threat from groups on the dire consequences that awaited the country should any of the contending forces fail to win that election held sway. By divine providence however, that doomsday prediction failed to materialize due to the acceptance of defeat by the government in power- a feat that attracted acclaim from world leaders.
But not much has changed in terms of the dispositions and loyalty of the various nationalities to the Nigerian state. Not only is the war against the Boko Haram insurgency that is bent on levying an Islamic state on the country still on, separatist tendencies still hold sway as evident from the rise in tempo of agitations for the sovereign state of Biafra and the renewed blowing up of oil installations in the Niger Delta region. There is also, a pervading air of mutual suspicion, hate and distrust among the nationalities.
All these are palpable signs of the impatience and dissatisfaction of the federating units with the capacity of the system to do justice to the subsisting units. Matters are not remedied by the ambivalence of the Buhari regime on the implementation of the report of the National Constitutional Conference convened during the last administration- a conference seen by many as holding the ace for much of the nation’s problems.
In the absence of any concrete commitment to the implementation of that report and increased impatience of the inclusive units with extant structure of the federation leading to separatist agitations or threats, the bottom up initiative of the ACF and Ohanaeze to solving the fission within the polity, offers another veritable window.
They hit the kernel of the sources of this schism when they spoke of their commitment to the corporate existence of Nigeria where justice, fairness and equity will reign supreme. The purport of this resolution is that the country can only count on the loyalty of its citizens and make real progress when it is seen to be just, fair and guarantees equity to all citizens. These are the irreducible decimals the component units demand from those who preside over our national affairs.
It is also an admission that much of the destabilizing tendencies we have witnessed in recent times derive in the main, from the glaring inability of the central government to guarantee these minimum conditions for co-habitation. It is heart-warming that the groups resolved to meet regularly to brainstorm on the state of the nation and pass their recommendation to the government to aid good and equitable governance.
In this wise, they intend to expand the meeting to involve the Afenifere, the Itsekiri, Urhobo, South-South Peoples’ Assembly and all ethnic nationalities to find common ground on all issues stoking division amongst them. It is their calculation that consensus reached at such meetings when implemented by the government, would go at length to eliminate sources of friction and mistrust among our diverse peoples.
If conducted with a high sense of patriotism and responsibility, the enlarged meeting of ethnic nationalities may be the elixir out of the fissiparous tendencies that have made national integration very elusive on these shores. Not surprisingly, in the absence of that sense of common belonging and identity, the primordial units have had to compete with the government for the loyalty of the citizens. Today, despite all posturing and pretensions, the influence of these parochial loyalty centres on the citizens is still very pervasive.
They subsist due to lack of confidence in the ability and capacity of the central authority to guarantee justice, fairness and equity to the component units. A situation where certain sections feel the country belongs to them or where certain positions are reserved for some people is a negation of a just, fair and equitable order.
Such a system cannot make for stability and progress. And in it can be located most of the nation’s multifarious problems- the pervading corruption, centrifugal tendencies and the inability to imbue a sense of nationalism in all. That also accounts for the loose moral bearing associated with affairs that impinge on the civic public.
Incidentally, the elite have a penchant for parroting and grandstanding on these pristine principles. They are not lacking in identifying what needed to be done for us to make quick progress. But when it comes to the necessary sacrifice or compromises that will bring these ideals to fruition, parochial considerations and the tendency take undue advantage over others, overshadow all senses of rationality. That has been the problem.
If the ethnic nationalities eschew this self-serving predilection; if they are genuinely committed to these irreducible decimals for order and good governance, and the government listens to them, then we are on the right track out of our woes. We now have a new window to tap the feelings of the people at the bottom to effect those necessary changes that are direly needed to build a nation where citizens will first see themselves as Nigerians rather than members of their ethnic groups. That challenge must be taken up by the government now.
