Opinion: Nigeria’s careless dance to the drumbeats of disintegration

by Nduka Odo

It is obvious to all that Nnamdi Kanu and his Indigenous People of Biafra disparage a continued existence of one united Federal Republic of Nigeria. Their agitations for the secession or restoration of the sovereign state of Biafra from Nigeria landed him and others into Kuje prison under the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari – an act Kanu himself predicted through his Radio Biafra. Now, his supporters continue to believe it is the last stroke that breaks the chord of one united Nigeria.

Considering recent happenings, one may be pushed to ask, is Nigeria on the brink of disintegration? Is Nigeria dancing to Nnamdi Kanu’s drumbeats? How is Nigeria handling the issues of agitations? What are the roles of leaders in the imminent unity crisis facing the nation?

While Biafra agitators on May 30 tested their popularity by urging members of South East and South South to sit at home in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the Nigeria-Biafra war 50 years ago. The success of the sit-at-home surprised doubters, as well as supporters. In what has been termed a response to that, a coalition of northern Nigerian youths backed by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum met in Arewa House Kaduna. They came out of the meeting with a quit notice to Igbos living the region. They ordered Igbos to vacate before October 1, 2017. Isn’t this exactly what Nnamdi Kanu has preached, wished and agitated for?

I started listening to Nnamdi Kanu long before he became this popular. My first contact with Kanu was through a frequency in Short Wave radio band that I stumbled on while searching for the BBC frequency. Then Radio Biafra could only be received in the middle of the night. Kanu has never hidden his hatred for the continued existence of one Nigeria. From the days of the Short Wave to today’s ubiquitous transmission of Radio Biafra through the Frequency Modulated(FM) and the Internet, Kanu and his co-agitators have made it clear that they want to disintegrate Nigeria into several independent nations or at least the secession of Biafra from Nigeria. It is since the FM that the world started feeling the impact of his mission.

The Federal Government has attempted severally to jam its signal but the station continues to transmit up until now.  I listened to his broadcasts for a study on the utilisation of Radio for propaganda and mind control. Kanu wasn’t lacking in good application of propaganda. One thing about propaganda also called half – truth is that it is not good or bad in itself. Happenings in the country provided enough facts to win more sympathisers which came more from his newspaper analysis. He would analyse headlines and tell his listeners to check Nigerian dailies if they doubted him.

For those that think that the struggle for Biafra heightened simply because Buhari won 2015 election and Jonathan lost, it is not true. Back in 2012 and 2013, former President Jonathan was Kanu ‘s biggest target.  He called Jonathan imbecile and several other unprintable names. From 2014, when Buhari came to the forefront, he tagged Buhari several negative terms related to paedophilia, despotism, Coup d’ Etat, and tribalism. Severally did he predict on his radio programmes that he would enter Nigeria and would be arrested by the Federal Government. Eventually,  he entered Nigeria in October 2015 and got arrested by Nigeria’s Department of Secret Service. This happened four months after Buhari assumed office. His arrest and flouting of court orders to release him from detention by Buhari’s government made Kanu’s supporters to argue that his allegations of despotism against Buhari were true.

If people didn’t believe Nnamdi Kanu and his mission of Biafra secession, Buhari’s government has won more supporters for the cause. The Buhari-led Federal government has made Biafra agitation far more popular than Nnamdi Kanu himself could. While campaigning for election, Buhari and his promoters spent a good amount of energy in convincing Nigerians that he was not what the likes of Kanu termed him: a tribalist.  Like other political aspirants, Buhari did not only dress in the traditional attires of almost all tribes including that of Igbos, he adopted an Igbo name Okechukwu. Unfortunately, all that didn’t win him considerable votes in South East and South South, though he went ahead to win.

But once he won the election, a lot changed.  It could easily be forgiven that Okechukwu disappeared and he started donning only traditional Fulani attires. Once he won, Buhari declared the 95 percent versus 5 percent ratio of his government. This was against his campaign promises and the statement that he belonged to everybody. What he meant is that those regions that voted for him (mostly Northern – Hausa/Fulani Muslims) would benefit 95 percent in all ramification of his government.  Those who voted against him (mostly South East/Igbo-South South-Christians) would benefit 5 percent in all ramifications of his government. Like a joke, Buhari went ahead to implement this divisive policy in the appointment of his kitchen cabinet.  Ministerial nominations which is enshrined in the Constitution that each state must be represented took the government six months to come up with. Another recent move to effect the 95percent versus 5perfent ratio is the recruitment in Nigeria’s secret police –  the Department of State Service. Buhari’s home state Katsina got 51 slots while the six States of South-South got 42 slots and five States of South East got 44. In acts like that, the government proves right and convinces more people to join the agitation to leave the amalgamation.

After spending another 50 days in London without any communication to Nigerians, the presidency on Sunday, June 25th 2017 released an Eid-el-Fitr audio message in the Hausa language to Nigerians, alleging it to be Buhari’s voice. Nigerians are asking if Buhari is now the president of only the Hausa-speaking Nigerians.  To such end, the success of the sit at home order on May 30th which has sent fears down the spines of anyone who believed that concerned regions would vote against exiting Nigeria should a Biafra referendum be held. Even though security agencies filled the roads, thank God, no lives were lost –  especially being that the sit at home was a freewill urge and no member of IPOB to enforce it. Earlier held events weren’t peaceful being that people lost their lives. Amnesty International accused Federal government of over militarization against Biafra agitators.

Angered by the sit at home and its success in the agitating zones, a coalition of northern Youth groups issued quit notice to Igbos living in the North. The youths asked the government to give the agitators their Biafra –  that they (the north) were tired of sharing the same country with Igbos. Though Government officials condemned the quit notice, the spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum Professor Ango Abdullahi came out to state that the elders backed the quit notice. Latest backing to the Arewa Youths came from a sitting member of the Nigeria House of Representatives from Kano State Alhaji Aminu Suleiman.

This quit notice and similar acts are drumbeats of disintegration carefully played by Biafra agitators but carelessly danced by Nigeria. Biafra agitators are tactfully and peacefully pushing Nigeria to the edge to get Nigeria to tactlessly and violently grant them what they want: the secession of Biafra, Nigeria’s continued display of nepotism, high-handedness, negligence, and violence against Biafra agitators is what the agitators want in order to show the world why it’s pertinent for an independent state of Biafra.

Unfortunately, Nigeria keeps dancing along. The persons that issued the quit notice to their fellow citizens are yet to be apprehended by agencies of Nigeria. What are appropriate agencies waiting for before arresting them? These persons are not faceless. They met in Arewa House from where they issued the quit notice. They met there again to reaffirm their stand. All of them including Ango Abdullahi and Rep Aminu Suleiman should be given the same kind of treatment given to Kanu, if the same law applies to everyone in Nigeria. The sit at home is different from the quit notice which the issuers threatened to enforce by “mopping up Igbos still remaining in the North after October 1st.” Their utterances are not less inciting and violent than those that got Kanu locked up in Kuje prison from 2015 to 2017. However, they are only playing into the hand of Biafra agitators.

If Nigeria government continues to show nonchalance until October 1st, when the quit notice expires, violence may erupt. The Arewa Youths may want to execute their quit notice. This may lead to loss of lives and properties of the Igbos and generally of southerners. That will be crises! Southerners will retaliate. That will be war! That will be disintegration! That is what Biafra agitators want! Disintegration! Doesn’t it seem like the 1950s /1960s all over? Therefore, FG should act appropriately. Assurance of protection of Igbos by the Emir of Katsina isn’t enough. By October 1st, let no Igbo person lose life or property if Nigeria must continue to be. This country can’t stand another civil war.

For those in the North who thinks that once they ask Igbos to leave the country, other regions would stick with one Nigeria, this is 2017 not 1967! Understandings and relationships have adjusted boundaries. Times have changed. Events have changed things from what they used to be: before Igbos reacted to the quit notice, responses came from South South asking northerners to hand over oil blocks before October 1st. Middle Belt (North Central) dissociated self from the quit notice and extended welcoming arms to Igbos/southerners should the north (far north) make good their threat of quit notice. A careful look at recent events tells that middle belt States might prefer to stick with an independent southern country, be it Biafra or whatever. So, if one is asking and encouraging Igbos to quit Nigeria, one should be prepared as well to lose as far as Plateau and Southern Kaduna to Biafra or to a Middle Belt independent country. Recently, North Central (middle belt) geopolitical zones held a meeting to discuss several issues affecting the nation such as Fulani herdsmen attack, Biafra agitations, restructuring, 2014 National Conference recommendations. Also in attendance were minorities from as far as southern Kaduna, southern Borno, southern Kebbi, Adamawa, Taraba, Niger, etc. Should all these leave the union as well, you can imagine what will be left of an independent state of (Northern) Nigeria.

It is heartwarming, as the United Nations stated, that political leaders are condemning the quit notice publicly. It is heartwarming that other peoples of Nigeria condemn the act as well. But as a non-Igbo Southerner or Christian, don’t rejoice yet until October 1st passes without violence.  Many cannot tell the difference between an Igbo, Ijaw, Ibibio, Idoma,  Igala and light skinned Yorubas.

A scrutiny of Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s comment reveals that the North (political leaders) is fighting more than a war. Apart from the Biafra agitation, the North seems discomforted by a possible loss of the presidency to the South, to the Yorubas. Someone has even argued that Igbos are being scapegoated with the quit notice. After all the rigmarole and cover-ups that President Buhari was hale and hearty, it is obvious to all that Buhari is incapable of carrying out the functions of his job. The incoherent Salah audio message purported to be Buhari’s voice did nothing to convince Nigerians that their president is hale and hearty.  The enmity created by this possibility between Fulanis and Yorubas hasn’t been good to the interest of Nigeria. Remember also that the immediate prelude to the Nigeria-Biafra war was a crisis involving western Nigeria. Great leadership vacuum has been created due to Buhari’s continued hold onto power in sickness and in absentia. The cabal of the 95percenters Buhari surrounded himself with didn’t like the accolades an Acting President Yemi Osinbajo got during Buhari’s first medical exile in 2017.  So, they brought Buhari home to make Osinbajo a coordinator before returning him to London. The cabal holds Nigeria hostage.

This is a drumbeat of crisis, a drumbeat of disintegration.  As a human being, all I want is a functional country I can proudly call mine –  a system where everyone is equal before the law and political positions are not most lucrative jobs –  be it Nigeria or Biafra. If we must remain together, we must negotiate the terms and conditions of the togetherness; the negotiation is not only about the different tribes coming together but also about public offices.

Leaders consume too much of our common wealth without adding values.  Remunerations of Public officers must be slashed to make it less enticing for greedy persons.  If Nigeria isn’t willing to redefine and restructure its cumbersome and unfair political, leadership and economic systems, why won’t one seek a new country if such would? Millions of Nigerians die of hunger while less than one percent steal themselves to fatness; vacation and medicate in best hospitals abroad! Economic recession is snatching children from mothers; Nigerians die everyday because there are no hospitals and even where health centre exist, they are not equipped. Aso Villa Presidential Clinic receives billions as yearly allocations that are far more than what all Federal University Teaching hospitals receive, yet the president and his officials travel to London, Germany, Saudi Arabia, U.S. and so on for medical treatments. So hypocritical that President Buhari who is now spending more than 100 days in six months in London for medical tourism, promised to ban medical tourism!

A seemly conspicuous non-salvageability of Nigeria may make one want to believe that hope only lies in a new nation. If Biafra has no plan for functional leadership, there’s no need agitating.

Nigeria seems comfortable in accepting to play the role of villain in this round of Biafra agitations, by dancing carelessly to the drumbeats of disintegration that is being played carefully by the agitators.


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

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