We salute the courage of Governors of the Southern part of Nigeria for their recent meeting at Asaba, Delta State, where they deliberated on the intractable Nigerian problems, and came out with bold statements on the state of affairs in the country.
Not that this was a novel meeting, or that it was the first time any such meeting was held, but that the meeting came at a time when most Nigerians were dispondent, or in quandary over the fate of the country, and the direction it was going.
We have no problem with the Southern Governors for committing the South to the unity of Nigeria, but as they clearly stated, such unity must be on the “basis of justice, fairness and equity.” That is where the problem has always been. From ínception, Nigeria had never got it right. Everything was upside down, in topsy-turvy, in disorder.
Nigeria itself is in disorder. This is a country where one section was made three times the size of other sections put together; where population density was said to be more in the arid zone than in the coastal area; where one section occupies all important positions in government and in the security forces; where all the military institutions and installations are sited in one section; where those holding contracts for oil rigs come from one section to the exclusion of even those where oil is mined at their backyard, etc.
Some Nigerians take themselves to be the owners of the country and see every other people as strangers. That is why they will audaciously march with their cattle into people’s farmlands and destroy their crops. If anybody dares raise alarm, they will pounce on him with their well fortified arms and ammunition, AK-47 rifles and all that, and begin to kill, maim, rape women, and burn down people’s houses, while the security agencies will look the other way.
The Southern Governors’ bold step in banning open grazing of cattle is very commendable, but the question still remains, who enforces the ban? We have heard many of such bannings before, but we still see hundreds of cattle march into people’s farms, along major roads and streets, and nobody dares to touch them.
The conventional security agencies owned and controlled by the federal government will not enforce any such ban unless they get directive from those that control them. That was why the locally vigilante groups, like Amotekun and the Eastern Security Network (ESN), were created, but if they now begin to enforce the ban, katakata will burst, such as in Imo and Ebonyi States.
The federal government said they had approved new security measures for the South East and South South zones, which means that any of the vigilante groups seen driving away cattle from people’s farmlands in the name of enforcing ban on open grazing, will be shot by President Buhari’s security forces, in compliance with his “shoot at sight” order. Egwu di kwa.
We are completely in tune with the Southern Governors’ submission, that “urgent and bold steps” should be taken to restructure the Nigerian federation, which would lead “to the evolution of state police, review of revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance our commitment to and practice of true federalism.”
Nigeria, as presently constituted, is a misnomer. It is suffocating, choking, and bleeding people to death. We need the creation of a wider space. People are no longer comfortable with the existing state of affairs in the country. We need to talk to each other, to decide which way to go. We have had enough of communiques without communicants, speeches from the pulpit. That is why we are in support of the Southern Governors that the Federal Government should “convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency”.
The Southern Governors want President Buhari to talk to the nation. What will he say? There is no point. He has Garba Shehu, Femi Adesina and Lai Mohammed who have been fouling the air. Let them continue, while the man we gave our mandate is on sabbatical.
The main reason for the current restiveness in the country, for the various agitations for separateness, is the unequitable distribution of the country’s resources. It is most insulting and dehumanizing to see one section, or one ethnic group, corner what belongs to all, to the exclusion of others.
We applaud the Southern Governors for their boldness in recommending that “in deference to the sensitivities of our various peoples, there is need to review appointments into Federal
Government Agencies (including Security Agencies) to reflect federal character as Nigeria’s overall
population is heterogenous.”
But the South is the undoing of itself. If they should now wake up from slumber, the better for them, and for the country as a whole. The North as the master of the game. They know how to manipulate the South so that when the South would be fighting each other, they would simply collect what belongs to all.
If as the Southern Governors had stated in their communique, that the South would work together to develop and institutionalize mechanism that would foster cooperation among themselves it would definitely enhance the comparative economic advantages of the South.
But the problem is that the South would hardly do this. They would hardly unite. There must be black legs among them, to thwart whatever were their programmes. Why was Governors Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, and Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State, not at the meeting, and not represented?
But while we applaud the beautiful communique of the Southern Governors, the issue is: will they live up to the billing, or will it be like what one-time Malawian President, Kamuzu Banda, had said of former Organization of African Unity (OAU), that it had been “passing tons and tons of unfulfilled resolutions”?
