Separatist struggles are hazardous everywhere. It is as much the case in perhaps every nation of the world as it is in the staunched aspiration for Biafra secession in Nigeria. Just take a look at Spain, and you would see a country that had a huge dose of the attendant animus in the past week.
Catalonia – an autonomous region of Spain – had lately revved up its quest to cut loose from the country, thus escalating a standoff with the Spanish government. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont last Tuesday walked the tight rope by signing a unilateral declaration that gave his region all-clear to break away from Spain, while simultaneously dialing down on the region’s bluster to immediately spring free. Puigdemont said the effect of the declaration was being suspended for some weeks as his government sought dialogue with the Spanish state to resolve the self-determination dispute. Catalonia is one of Spain’s wealthiest regions, accounting for a quarter of the country’s exports, and separatists have argued that they yield far more to the national treasury than they get.
If he gambled on forcing the hand of Spain, the Catalan leader drew a blank. He was backed up the wall by Madrid, which on Wednesday issued him an eight-day ultimatum to drop the independence bid or the region risked losing its constitutional autonomy. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Puigdemont had five days to confirm that Catalonia had indeed cut free from Spain; and if so, three more days to back down or Madrid would invoke Article 155 of the country’s constitution that empowers the central government to roll back a region’s autonomy and assume direct control if such region defaults on “obligations imposed upon it by the constitution or other laws, or acts in a way that is seriously prejudicial to the general interest of Spain.”
Puigdemont had on Tuesday cited a controversial referendum lately held in his region as the basis for independence declaration. Catalonia on October 1st forced its way through with a vote that the Spanish government deemed illegal and tried to halt, and which the country’s Constitutional Court forbade. The referendum’s outcome was predictable, as opponents of the independence bid largely boycotted the ballot in which some 43 percent of the region’s 5.3million eligible voters were reported to have participated, and from which Catalan leaders declared nearly 90 percent ‘yes’ vote for independence. There were reports of widespread irregularities in the ballot, and pervasive violence as security agents laid siege on polling stations to head off the vote.
Addressing the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, but with the rapt attention of an apprehensive world audience, Puigdemont had said: “Thanks to the results of the referendum of 1st October, Catalonia has earned the right to be an independent state.” But he stepped back from immediately activating the declaration, so to make room for talks with Madrid. “We are reaching out in the hope of dialogue,” he stated.
His fudging did not wash, though, with hardcore Catalan separatists, who described his speech as “an unacceptable act of traitorship.” Radical elements within Catalonia’s political establishment, like the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy party (CUP), wanted him to push through with the independence declaration.
And neither did it assuage the irritation of Spanish authorities in Madrid, who threatened the hitherto unused Article 155 to thwart Catalonia’s bid. But even as Rajoy, the Spanish premier, foreclosed negotiation on Catalan independence, which he considered the most serious threat to Spain’s 40-year-old democracy and a violation of the country’s constitution that stipulates “indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation,” he indicated willingness to discuss constitutional reforms that would further strengthen regional autonomy.
As with all separatist bids, Catalan independence from Spain is by no means a unanimous goal of all Catalans. In other words, there are many pro-status quo Catalans over whom Puigdemont and his separatist crowd are riding rough shod with their push. Besides those who boycotted the recent referendum, for instance, there are political parties within that region espousing a cardinal mission to leash the separatists. Even the mayor of Catalonia’s capital city of Barcelona, Ada Colau, counseled restraint on both sides and urged preference for dialogue. “I ask them (Puigdemont and Rajoy) not to take any decision that might blow up the…space for dialogue and mediation. That is the most courageous act they could do now,” she said.
On the other hand, Spanish politicians reached across the partisan divide to root for the constitutional order, even though they recognised a need to pursue reforms. That is to say they would not ‘play politics’ with their country’s destiny. The leader of the main opposition party, Pedro Sanchez of the Socialists, said his party would back action by the government “in the face of any attempt to break social harmony.” His party and the government, according to him, had agreed to explore using constitutional reform to end the crisis, but this would focus on “how Catalonia remains in Spain, and not how it leaves.”
Catalonia’s independence bid faced other challenges, which included the cold shoulder from the business and international communities. Even with the economic primacy of the region, a stream of companies announced plans to move their head offices out of the province in response to the crisis.
And contrary to apparent expectation by the Catalan leadership, the international community tanked up on not wading in what was considered an internal affair of Spain. Although the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, reportedly placed an 11th hour call to Puigdemont on Tuesday, urging him to respect the constitutional order and not do anything that would hinder dialogue, no third party has shown willingness to mediate the crisis. Meanwhile, the European Union has made clear that should Catalonia break off from Spain, the region would cease to be a part of the EU. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had “affirmed her backing for the unity of Spain” in a phone call with the Spanish premier, Mariano Rajoy. And in France, the government said if Catalonia declared independence from Spain, it would not be recognised.
Unilateral breakaways are never a cakewalk – neither in accomplishing the goal nor in securing legitimacy for the outcome. That is a reality the recent manic push for Biafra secession from Nigeria by hotheaded South-East youths seems to miss out on, and the reason why the moderate disposition of the elders and political leaders of that region have moral primacy. There is no question there are challenges of gross inequity in the Nigerian federation today requiring urgent redress; and that is not just for the Igbo, but even more so for ethnic minorities. And so, it is far from true that Nigerian unity is settled, as President Muhammadu Buhari declared on his return from medical leave recently. Nigerian unity must be renegotiated and the federation restructured – a call that seems to be catching on now even in the conservative North.
But the helmsman of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nnia Nwodo, was bang on the nail when he said last week that though the Igbo were unhappy with their position in Nigeria, agitation for Biafra was off the mark. “We should forget Biafra and insist on restructuring,” he admonished. That, to my mind, is a realistic and more feasible option.
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