Other than the usual congratulations,
platitudes, expressions of joy and
offerings of thanks to God I believe that
as we celebrate our nation's 53rd
independence anniversary it is time for
us to bare our minds in a candid and
frank manner and to really sit down and
think.
During her election campaign just a
couple of weeks ago, Angela Merkel, the
Chancellor of Germany and the world's
most powerful woman, said
''multiculturalism is dead in German.''
In 2011, David Cameron, the Prime
Minister of Great Britain, echoed the
same sentiment when he asserted, in
his first major speech as Prime Minister,
that ''multiculturalism has failed in the
United Kingdom''.
Can we learn anything from these
assertions as Nigerians about the
shortcomings and dangers of a
multicultural state? What are the
implications of these observations for
Nigeria's massive multi-cultural and
multi-ethnic super-state?
Are we really a nation or are we nothing
more than a melting pot of squabbling
and bickering ethnic and cultural
incompatibles? Was Chief Obafemi
Awolowo right when he described
Nigeria as ''not being a nation'' but a
mere "geographical expression''?
These questions surely need to be
answered.
On September 11, 2013 1.6 million
people of the Catallan region in Spain
staged a dramatic protest and
expressed their desire for secession by
forming a 400 km long human chain
which stretched from one end of the
region to the other.
According to the polls 52 per cent of the
people from that region wish to break
off from Spain and establish a new
European sovereign state. Similar
agitations have emanated from other
parts of Spain over the years some of
which have degenerated into a bitter
and protracted armed struggle such as
that of the Basque people in the north
who share their boarders with France.
Again the palpable tensions that exist
between the French-speaking Walloon
people of northern Belgium and the
Flemish of the south are legendry and
the call for a break-up of that nation
into two separate entities is as old as
the hills. Such aspirations and
agitations for ethnic emancipation from
unitary and quasi-unitary states is by
no means limited to the European
mainland.
For example the beautiful ''emerald
island'' of Ireland successfully broke off
from Britain in 1921 after much
agitation, conflict and bloodshed.
Northern Ireland, which remains part of
Britain till today, still experiences
varying degrees of tensions between
the protestant and the ''Finian'' catholic
communities, one of which wishes to
remain in the UK whilst the other
wishes to be part of mainland Ireland.
Over the last twenty years Britain itself
has finally acknowledged the fact that
the cry for regional autonomy,
secession and ethnic nationalism
cannot be resisted forever and she has
gradually devolved power from
Westminster in London to the various
regions of Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland each of whom now have their
own parliaments.
As a matter of fact later this year the
people of Scotland are having their own
referendum to determine whether or
not they wish to stay in the United
Kingdom.
From the polls, it is very clear that the
majority of Scots wish to have their own
new sovereign state and that the
Scottish Nationalist Party, which has
championed the secessionist cause,
enjoys massive support.
FEMI FANI KAYODE
Nobody in Spain, Belgium, Ireland or
the United Kingdom has insulted those
people or labeled them as ''ethnic
jingoists'' or ''primitive tribalists'' for
wanting to break off from the greater
whole and establish their own country.
This is because everyone respects the
right of the various ethnic groups and
nationalities within their wider nation to
exercise their right of self-
determination which is an integral and
fundamental aspect of international
law.
Exercising that right does not turn
them into villains and does not make
them any less patriotic than their
compatriots who do not share their
views. It just means that they have a
different perspective and that they
believe, as many believed before
Malaysia and Singapore broke up and
before Indonesia and East Timor broke
up, that the interests of their various
peoples are better served when and if
they go their separate ways.
They opted to be friendly neighbours
rather than to be compelled to remain
within the same territory against their
collective will.
As we in Nigeria approach the 100 year
anniversary of our 1914 amalgamation
and, as the 2015 elections are fast
approaching with both the northern
region and the south-south zone
desperate to take or to hold on to power
at any cost respectively, we need to
begin to ask ourselves some basic and
fundamental questions about our
future.
For example is our interest better
served by remaining as one nation or is
it time for those nationalities that wish
to leave the federation in a peaceful and
orderly way, as a result of a legitimate
and honest referendum, be allowed to
go?
If the breaking up of larger countries
into smaller and more viable ones is
good enough for India (which broke into
three), the Sudan (which broke into
two), Czechoslovakia (which broke into
two), Yugoslavia (which broke into five),
the Soviet Union (which broke into
fifteen), United Arab Republic (which
broke into two) and numerous other
countries over the years why is it not
good enough for us?
Again why should those that believe
that Nigeria ought to break up be
subjected to so much suspicion,
ridicule, contempt and insults from
those that do not share their views?
Some of the questions that need to be
answered are as follows- firstly is our
union working? Secondly is our
marriage a good one and if it is it a
happy one as well? Are we satisfied
with what has essentially become a
country that has been turned into
nothing more than (with apologies to
Chief Bode George) ''Turn-by-Turn
Nigeria?'' where each ethnic group
simply looks forward to enjoying its
time to control the federation and all
the nations resources from an all
powerful centre? Are we not meant to
be far more than this? Is this what the
founding fathers of our nation
envisaged?
More than anything else the recent
Igbo/Yoruba debate over the issue of
who owns Lagos state and the
deportation of a handful of Igbo
destitute back to the east has proved to
me that we as a people are very
different from one another and that our
interests may be better served if we are
no longer bound together as one.
I dare to voice this opinion even though
many Yorubas share it but will not say
so publicly. Is it not time for us to begin
to
accept the bitter truth that our
marriage is uncomfortable and unhappy
and that it may not have been made in
heaven or ordained by God? Is it not
clear that each region or each
nationality ought to be able to develop
at their own pace? Is it not time for us
to have a confederation of nationalities
in Nigeria and to restructure the
country drastically to give maximum
autonomy to the various regions and
nationalities or indeed is it not time to
just break up and go our separate
ways?
Many may disagree but one thing that I
believe that we can at least agree on is
that perhaps it is time for us to be
courageous enough to begin to talk
about these issues openly and debate
them.
We must not sweep our differences
under the carpet and ignore them as if
they do not exist but instead we must
find the courage and muster the resolve
to acknowledge them and understand
them.
As far as I am concerned this is the
challenge of our time and these are the
questions that need to be answered.
Whatever happens in 2015 and
whoever wins, whether it be a
northerner or Goodluck Jonathan of the
south-south, I see blood on the horizon
and I see disaster approaching.
Stark promises from notable players
such as ''there will be bloodshed if
Goodluck is not re-elected'' do not help
and are not encouraging. There are
equally strident and bellicose
murmurings from the other side as well
and some have threatened that if there
is a repeat performance of the massive
rigging that the north witnessed in the
Presidential election of 2011 anywhere
in the country in 2015, ''Nigeria will
burn'' whilst another key player said
that ''both the dog and the baboon shall
be soaked in blood''.
These words must be taken very
seriously indeed and they reflect the
thinking and mindset of millions of
people from both sides of the political
and regional divide. Worst still, whether
we like to admit it or not, religion has
now become a major factor in our
politics with Christians being told in
their churches that it is their solemn
duty to support a Christian presidential
candidate and Muslims being told in
their mosques that it is theirs to
support a Muslim. We are sitting on a
keg of gunpowder and in my view 2015
really will be the year of make or break
for Nigeria. Sadly, in my humble
opinion, it is far closer to ''break'' than
it is to ''make''. If we wish to avoid the
road to Kigali we must change our
mindset and make the necessary
concessions that we need to make. We
must begin to think outside of the box
and be far more innovative and
adventurous.
For example why is it a must in the
minds of some that the PDP must field a
southern Christian as its presidential
candidate and why are some in the APC
of the view that the party must field a
northern Muslim as its own?
These hard and fast fixed positions are
most unhelpful and the right thing and
proper thing to do is to completely
discard them and attempt to find a
presidential candidate that is a Nigerian
before being a northerner, a southerner,
a Christian or a Muslim. And thankfully
there are quite a few of such people
around in the new generation if only the
system will be far-sighted and
enlightened enough to allow them to
emerge and run.
Failing that we must open up the space
now and consider the unpleasant
assertion that the premium that a
united Nigeria attracts may not be
worth paying simply because we are
getting nothing but failure after failure
and sorrow after sorrow as our
consistent return.
I do not have all the answers and
neither do I claim that I do.
Indeed I may well be wrong which is
why I would be interested in hearing
the views of others. Whichever way it
goes and regardless of what we all think
let us not allow this debate to be driven
by the uninformed or ignorance,
pettiness, hate and acrimony.
Let us not insult one another or act as if
any tribe or nationality is a collection of
angels whilst others are nothing but
demons. Let us join issues and
exchange ideas in a civil, restrained and
decent manner without hurling insults
at one another or allowing our emotions
to becloud our thinking.
At the end of the day we all want the
same thing- namely, to put in place a
system that is in the best interest of the
Nigerian people and to empower a new
leadership that will allow them to
achieve their full potentials. That is the
objective and that alone.
Permit me to end this contribution with
two points that are worthy of note.
Firstly Chief Bola Ige once said that
''the oil of the Niger Delta area acts as a
glue that keeps Nigeria together''. This
is true.
Yet the question that often comes to my
mind is as follows- If the oil and gas had
been situated in the core north, the
west or the east would the major ethnic
groups that hold sway in those areas
have willingly shared it with the rest of
Nigeria? Would they have remained in
the federation?
Secondly at the 1954 Constitutional
Conference that was held in Lagos, the
Action Group, under the distinguished
leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo,
demanded that the "right to secession"
be included in the proposed new
constitution.
This was rejected by the Colonial
Secretary, Oliver Lyttleton. Prior to this,
in 1953, after the Kano riots, the
Northern Nigeria legislature passed an
eight-point programme which in effect
demanded the dissolution of the
Federation. Again this was rejected by
the British. By way of contrast the
''right to secession'' clause was
incorporated into the Ethiopian
constitution in the 1990's though it has
never been invoked.
Perhaps if we had been permitted to
adopt that provision in 1954 we would
have avoided a whole load of problems
including a very brutal civil war
between 1967 and 1970 and today's
challenge of Boko Haram. Perhaps it is
not too late to adopt it now. Perhaps
that is what may save us from the
impending carnage of 2015.
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