Any time they tell you that Nigeria “is indivisible,” you should not take them by their words. They know that Nigeria is divisible and the North has been preparing seriously to leave Nigeria. But they will not let the South know about their plans until they have put everything in place, to suit them.
From the beginning the North never believed in one Nigeria, whether they are of the bourgeois or of the talakawa class. They always see themselves as distinct. Look at the two names the dominant political parties in their area bore in the First Republic – the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and the Northern Elements Peoples Union (NEPU). Everything they did, and still do, points to the interest of the North, and not what will benefit all Nigerians.
In July 1966, when they rose in mutiny against the Ironsi regime, the battle cry of the mutineers was “araba,” “secession.” That was until their British masters reminded them that it would be disastrous for them to secede at that point in time.
The North, then, retraced their steps, and from that time onwards, they began to seek ways and means to better their lot, to make the North comfortable before the eventual breakup.
What General Yakubu Gowon, who it first fell on his laps to implement the Northern agenda did, was to redraw the political map of Nigeria whereby the North, which previously had only one region, would become at par with the South, which then had three regions. Gowon had carved up Nigeria into twelve states, giving the North six states, and the South the same number of states. He followed this up by altering the revenue allocation formula in favour of the central government so that the resources from the South would be used to develop the North.
In 1974, Gowon proposed that a new petroleum refinery would be built in the North, in Kaduna, so that crude oil from the South, through petroleum pipelines, would be pumped up North to be refined there.
When Murtala Muhamed came, he again divided Nigeria into nineteen states in 1976, giving the North ten states, and the South, nine states. At the same time, he carried the capital of Nigeria from Lagos in the South, to Abuja in the North. Since that time, and even before then, Nigeria’s wealth has been flowing from the South to North, leaving the South completely desolate.
In 1996, during the Abacha “One Million March,” where Nigerian youths were to “persuade” or “beg” the former Military Head of State to put off his khaki uniform and adorn babariga and transmute to a civilian President, participants from the Niger Delta region were shocked with what they saw, the amount of money sunk into developing the new national capital, while their own area, where the money was generated, was completely abandoned. They then began to agitate.
Aside of Abuja as new national capital, virtually all the major critical and sensitive institutions of the country are up in the North. The Nigerian Defence Academy is in the North. The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria is in the North. The Nigerian War College is in the North. The Nigerian Aviation College is in the North. The Nigeria Police Academy is the North. The Transport University is in the North, and so many other establishments.
Just two days ago, the Nigerian Navy decided to establish a naval base in a desert area of Kano. The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, while on a courtesy visit to Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, told the world that the Nigerian Navy was establishing a Naval Base in Kano, and had already appointed Captain Muhammad Abubakar Alhassan as Acting Commander of the Kano Naval Base. Nigeria is thus the only country in the world which would be having a Naval base in the desert.
Those who therefore may have been wondering what the Navy would be doing in a desert area of Kano, should not be surprised, because when you juxtapose all that have been happening in the country for a very long time, particularly the imbalances in political and administrative structures of the country, will know that the North is up for something very serious.
The North gave themselves more states and more local governments, and altered the revenue allocation system, so that they would be channeling the country’s revenues to these states and local governments. They occupy all sensitive and top positions in government and in the security agencies, and have been manipulating the system to favour their people.
They have put a lid to crude oil exploration and exploitation in the Lake Chad Basin where they said that oil was found, until the oil in the South is completely exhausted or got dried up. They muzzle and decapitate all the vocal voices in the South so that they will not expose their plans.
So, the next time you hear them say that Nigeria “is indivisible,” do not take them by their words. What they are merely saying is that they are not yet ready to leave Nigeria. But for sure, they are making all arrangements to secede.
You think that the people were fools when they started building railway lines from Nigeria to Niger Republic, or when they started supplying electricity to that country? They know what they are doing: getting ready to leave Nigeria!
