by Chidi Onumah
Nigeria is not working, and here I don’t mean the collapse of education or public infrastructure. I am talking about the very essence of nationhood which ensures that even though we may not have a “common descent, history, culture, or language”, after decades of being an entity we ought to have developed a common future, national identity and philosophy.
During his Independence Day broadcast on October 1, President Goodluck Jonathan announced to a somewhat surprised nation his intention to facilitate a “national dialogue” on the future of Nigeria.
To this end, he set up a 13-member Advisory Committee which was inaugurated a few days ago.
It is understandable if Nigerians have mixed feeling about the national conference announced by President Jonathan considering his opposition to such conference in the past. I shall return to this.
This intervention has become necessary for a number of reasons. Whenever the issue of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) comes up, some people become agitated and defensive.
First, let me note that the hysteria that has gripped the opponents – and in some instance, proponents – of SNC is completely unnecessary.
Second, it is important to respond to the crippling ignorance of those who ought to know but would rather obfuscate this issue, just as it is imperative to highlight the insufferable indifference of those who are in a position to act, but have refused to do anything.
Third, we need to confront not just the arrogance and hypocrisy, but the egregious folly of those who think this piece of real estate called Nigeria is their grandfather’s barnyard.
Once the issue of SNC is mentioned, all you hear are weasel words and fear mongering: “We want Nigeria to break up”; “Nigeria won’t break up”; “We are not afraid of break up”; “We will survive if Nigeria breaks up”. These have become the refrain of ethnic chauvinists in our midst. If you ask them to define who this mythical “we” is, they can’t offer any coherent answer.
Of course, unless we sit down to have a sincere and meaningful national dialogue, this country will disintegrate before our very eyes, but not in the way some people envisage. That is why the SNC is imperative.
The SNC comes about when a nation is faced, as we are currently, with a lingering and intractable crisis. The basic aim is to rescue the nation.
The SNC would not “solve all Nigeria’s political and social problems”.
The SNC is not meant to address – as some people erroneously think – the problem of corruption, the crisis in the education sector or other sectoral problems plaguing Nigeria. These are minor problems in the scheme of things.
It is the survival
Recent Comments