As long as Nigeria is run as it is, the mainstream leaders will continue to hold sway. Until the system of government (executive winner-takes-all) and the geo-political structure (artificial and arbitrary federating units) are changed, nothing will change for good, instead things will get worse.
No administrative or political ingenuity have been discovered that can successfully run a multiethnic and multi – national country devoid of autonomy to the federating states or regions. No matter how well meaning a leader may be, the contending interests, forces, competition, and mutual distrust between different nationalities held down under a unitary system will tear him apart. And if he is only pretending to be well-meaning,the temptation to fleece the treasury become a pastime.
The energies and talents of the ethnic nationalities can find expression only when they have the liberty to run their own affairs in their own self chosen manner. Hobbled together by force as they presently are, they can only blame each other or trade blames for the inherent failure in the system. No effort by quota system or a so-called federal character will ever succeed, because they too will be run the same way and manner the entire polity is run. Neither can unity be achieved by a one-year youth service as the scheme has proved, after about four decades of existence, that a one-year exchange programme is incapable of making ethnic groups to forget their nationality, language, religion and culture for another which no one has successfully defined.
The states (36 in all) cannot be truly considered as federating units. Why? Because, except in the case of the South-West, the South-East and to some limited extent, the North- West other regions or states of the country are arbitrary creation and so, they remain inorganic and artificial.
The call or request for creation of more states is an eloquent evidences of the various ethnic nations asking for internal autonomy and self-rule. However, the states as they are and would be created will remain atomized entities of little or no value to the people if they exist within a unitary, centralized system of governance.In other words, the states as they exist are not strong or viable enough to be regarded as federating units.
Most of the states in the North-East, South- South, so-called North-Central and part of the North-West are too artificial as they were forced together by military fiat and not by ascertained needs or requests of the people. Which is why they are the homes of ethnic and religious riots, ecological degradation and environmental disasters?
Is there real unity between the Zuru and the Hausa in Kebbi State or the Southern Kaduna People (SOKAPO) and the Hausa /Fulani in Kaduna State ? Can we honestly say that the Ebira and Igala are united by Kogi State or that the Tiv and Idoma are the best of friends in Benue State? Are the Fulani of Ilorin true brothers of the Igbomina/Offa Yorubas of Kwara State? What has been the cordiality in the relationship between the Ika, Urhobo, Itsekiri and Isoko of Delta State? Are the Burra and the Shuwa Arab of Borno State truly at home with the Kanuri? Why the minority Adama descendants are the ruling elites of the old Gongola (now chartered Adamawa State)? Who can prove the fact that the Nupe, the (Baggyi and the Hausa are enjoying their union in Niger state)?
Why are the cattle Fulani and Hausa farmers in Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States always at each others throat?
What is the cause of the incessant Tiv / Jukun war in Taraba State? Only the willfully blind or the mainstreamers will deny the fact that the underlying causes of the crises are: ethnic, religious, linguistic and territorial /geographical / cultural differences.
And unless each group enjoy internal self-rule, no amalgamation can engender unity. If amalgamation will work, it will only work by choice, a voluntary choice rather than by force or imposition. This is why Nigeria has refused to work since the 1914 forceful amalgamation by Lord Fredrick Lugard.
The military arsenal of our soldiers has proved powerless in the face of the force of freedom and liberty- which is why most of the forcefully created states are not working. The Soviet Union broke into 15 natural autonomous nation states partly because they were only forcefully hobbled together. The July 2009 Muslim rebellion in the North (Boko Haram) against the state is both a rejection of the artificial structures as well as an expression of a strong desire for self-rule or internal autonomy.
Questions Without Answers?
Why is it that Kano with comparative population with Lagos in 1979, suddenly metamorphosed into two states and Lagos remain one? Why is the new baby state of Kano called Jigawa now have more local government council areas than Lagos? Why has the federal or central government threatening Lagos for creating more LGA’s in Lagos- if the state is responsible for the creation of LGA’s? Katsina State carved out of Kaduna State now has more LGA’s than the mother state; what accounts for this?
If Nigeria is a federal republic, why are federating units not autonomous of the federal government? Is the central government not owned or created by the federating units? Why is the relationship between the states and the central government not a coordinate one rather than the subordinate one it is ? Who owns the land, the organic federating units or the artificial central government ? If it pleases God to create hundreds of ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, why couldn’t they exist without control from the central government ?
Who is afraid of the God-given ethnic nations and why ? Why is the mainstreamers ashamed of their ethnic background? How is the Hausa/Fulani more Nigerian than the Yoruba or the Igbo and vice-versa? What makes the large ethnic nationalities superior to small nationalities ?
When will each ethnic nationality learn the art of self governance and who will teach them? Where is the teacher to come from and who trained the trainer? Nigeria mainstreamers has no answer to any of the above questions are not interested in answering them. So long as the Nigerian cow is still spewing out the proverbial milk, Chike na!
Federalism and Constitution Making
But the much mouthed peace, unity and stability have all remained a mirage because Nigerians do not put in place a workable body of laws capable of regulating inter-group relationship between the hundreds of ethnic nationalities. Assumption and presumption have so far defined such relationship, none of which is either accurate, sincere or correct.
It is assumed that every ethnic nationality wants to be called or known as Nigerian. Nobody want to entertain the issue of formalizing such presumption, i.e. by putting the question into a referendum in order to decide it once and for all in a democratic manner. Whereas, the universal notion of self-determination is being felt and expressed by all ethnic groups, even if indirectly and in different ways.
The present 1999 Constitution does not recognize Nigerians in their ethnic nationalities which remained the lenses through which Nigerians sees themselves. Self-determination does not also recognize artificial and arbitrary states as they presently exist. And so, there is no meeting point between ethnic nationalities and the states. Nigerians are so-called when they meet or relate outside Nigeria. Inside Nigeria, they belong to different ethnic nationalities, even where they come from the same state, in many cases.
Even if all Nigerians choose to be so known and called, the terms and conditions of the union have not been defined or agreed upon. Meaning that the 1999 Constitution is not the peoples’ document as the makers never sought its approval nor were they mandated to so do by Nigerians. Moreover, a unitary instrument of government as the 1999 Constitution is, cannot regulate but stifle or suffocate a heterogeneous federating nationalities. The question is: can the 1999 Constitution be amended to suit the needs of Nigeria? Our answer is an emphatic ‘No’. Why?
Because it cannot.
The 1999 unitary Constitution succeeded only in breeding and nurturing, mutual suspicion between the various ethnic groups, different religious faith and different territorial cum geo-political regions. The result? Hundreds of intermittent riots and internecine massacres in inter-ethnic relationship. And the growth of clientelism, cronyism and patronage in inter-ethnic political relationship. What more, the relationship between the tiers of government, that is between the local and state governments and the federal government is that of subordinate one, making local government appendages of state governments and the states as fiefdoms of the federal government. The effects?
States and Local Governments lacks authority to act in their own interest. They lack the autonomy to act or move, having been saddled with unnecessary uniformity and regulated speed. They lack the financial resources to embark on programmes and projects beneficial to their people as the federal government allocate the lion share of revenues to itself. They are stifled and suffocated by their forceful composition as the ethnic groups hobbled together are resisting the unwanted ‘marriage’. And because the Chairmen and Governors sees themselves as appointees of the President, they do everything to please him instead of their people. Thus, the meager resources are misappropriated by functionaries of government, accountable only to the appointing authority who alone matters in a unitary environment.
Unitarism in a heterogeneous environment breeds unilateralism, arbitrariness, impunity and gross inefficiency all of which gives birth to the monster called corruption. In a pluralist society, unitary structure or system are perfect conditions for absolute corruption. The only unity that can be achieved in a unitary polity imposed on a plural society is to despoil the public wealth. Thus public institutions, establishments and corporations in Nigeria are citadels of corruption. The fight against corruption is a non-starter in a unitary polity, if it is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural one as Nigeria. The answer?
Nigeria needs an ethnic nationalities conference out of which a Constituent Assembly should be appointed to fashion a befitting federal constitution for Nigeria. A constitution formed on the basis of the heterogeneous nature of the country for a symbiotic relationship. One in which the relationship between all tiers of government is a co-ordinate one and where self-rule or self-government is accorded as a right to deserving or desiring ethnic groups.
A Constitution to which each ethnic nationality, each religion, each geo-political region feels a sense of belonging, in which they could invest faith, which they could call their own and therefore voluntarily upholds and selflessly defend when need be. Who will give this ideal Federal Constitution to Nigeria: The National Assembly?
The National Assembly as presently constituted is a product of the unitary 1999 Constitution as well as the discredited elections of 2007. Therefore, they lack legitimacy and have no mandate of Nigerians to embark on constitution making. To amend the 1999 Constitution is like sewing a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment and the tear is made worse. Or putting a new wine into old wineskins, the wineskins will break and the wine is spilled and the wineskins are ruined. A new wine is put into new wineskins and both are preserved!
To continue to hide under the deceitful refrain of “dwelling on those things that unites rather than our differences” is another way of saying that problematic issues be swept under the carpet as if they don’t matter. Mutualism, if it is to be attained must be voluntary, a choice and not by force. Problems are challenges which must be confronted, not avoided if they are to be surmounted. Challenges must be defeated if we are to be champions.
Any amendment of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly is a postponement of the evil day. The day of reckoning will come, whether anyone likes it or not. Why not be proactive? How ? By taking steps to make a new and better Constitution!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
A Country without Nationhood
If a nation is a large aggregate of people united by common descent, culture, or language inhabiting a particular state or territory, it is hard or difficult to describe Nigeria as one. While Nigerians involuntarily inhabit a common land space christened Nigeria, they belong to hundreds of ethnic nationalities each with her own distinct, descent, language and culture.
Britain was the colonial power which forcefully merged various territories /kingdoms together and named it Nigeria in 1914. The either never wanted to make a nation out of Nigeria, or they purposely designed the country to fail, never to evolve into a nation.
This, we have a country, not a nation and a country without nationhood. The centrifugal factor which ought to have been well managed in order to develop some centripetal forces which could help move the country toward nationhood were and still being mishandled misused and misapplied.
Nigeria as a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country, speaking or having a lingua-franca alien to her and whose people are largely illiterate in their own native tongue has become a candidate of a failed state. This is partly because the country has never been fortunate to be a nation state –a sovereign state of which most of the citizen or subject are united also by factor which define a nation, such as language or common descent. Three issues are the underlying cause of this state of affairs; ethnic nationality, religious faith and linguistic diversities.
Since the military forced themselves into the political leadership of the country in 1966,the true federal system and structure of government area subverted and changed to the unitary and executive system and structure . So that instead of the constituents units enjoying self rule through regional autonomy in tandem with their peculiarities, the regions or federating units are emasculated and tied to the apron-string of an artificial, over bloated and all powerful center.
It thus emerged that which over group or individual controls the center foisted their own religious faith and ethnic nationality on the country in a nepotistic manner which often antagonize and instigate other nationalities in opposition, resentment or rebellion. With the central system of winners- take-all, it is not surprising that leaders often misuse their power of hire and fire, of reward and punishment, and of sharing the common wealth in a skewed manner to the discontentment of the majority. Unfortunately, this majority is only in the number and not in nationhood and so they are easily and always divided and could not take a united action to redeem their fate and or destiny
As Nigeria trudges on, her self-deceit is made manifest by the collapse or failure of her public institutions. A unitary state masquerading as a federal republic, the country has been hijacked by a tribal cabal through a system of patronage and clientelism oiled by religious hypocrisy. Both the patron and their clients are now known as mainstreamers running neocolonial structure.
Regardless of whoever runs the system and structure, whether the patron or his client, the country remains a non-starter in most indices of growth and development. Which is why development goals are often attained in the breach, although the lifestyle of the mainstreamers are a conspicuous picture of concupiscence and avarice. The poor majority, disparate and destitute of unity and commonality as ever, remain the butt of cruel jokes of the leaders: one of which is the demand that they be patriotic and remain burden bearers of a life –long sacrifice! It is yet to be seen a people who are continually fleeced by their leaders and will remain as patriotic or as docile as Nigerians!
Again, the reason or factor of their docility lies in their diversity and the lack of the ingredients of common nationhood or nationality. When and where the docility is the norm, it would appear that cowardice reigns supreme. Where everyone is helpless, no one is useful and every effort made by anyone ends in futility.
Meanwhile, the mainstreamers are waxing stronger, what with the familiar tool of divide- and – rule strategy. So that while ethnic, religious and linguistic differences are getting blurred between and among mainstreamers, these same factors are used to widen the gap between the poor majority. The two groups are sustained differently: one by their common thievery of public funds and the other by their common poverty. In other words, the shared poverty of the disparate majority sustains the devilry of the thieving minority mainstreamers. But for how long will this situation last?
Britain was the colonial power which forcefully merged various territories /kingdoms together and named it Nigeria in 1914. The either never wanted to make a nation out of Nigeria, or they purposely designed the country to fail, never to evolve into a nation.
This, we have a country, not a nation and a country without nationhood. The centrifugal factor which ought to have been well managed in order to develop some centripetal forces which could help move the country toward nationhood were and still being mishandled misused and misapplied.
Nigeria as a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country, speaking or having a lingua-franca alien to her and whose people are largely illiterate in their own native tongue has become a candidate of a failed state. This is partly because the country has never been fortunate to be a nation state –a sovereign state of which most of the citizen or subject are united also by factor which define a nation, such as language or common descent. Three issues are the underlying cause of this state of affairs; ethnic nationality, religious faith and linguistic diversities.
Since the military forced themselves into the political leadership of the country in 1966,the true federal system and structure of government area subverted and changed to the unitary and executive system and structure . So that instead of the constituents units enjoying self rule through regional autonomy in tandem with their peculiarities, the regions or federating units are emasculated and tied to the apron-string of an artificial, over bloated and all powerful center.
It thus emerged that which over group or individual controls the center foisted their own religious faith and ethnic nationality on the country in a nepotistic manner which often antagonize and instigate other nationalities in opposition, resentment or rebellion. With the central system of winners- take-all, it is not surprising that leaders often misuse their power of hire and fire, of reward and punishment, and of sharing the common wealth in a skewed manner to the discontentment of the majority. Unfortunately, this majority is only in the number and not in nationhood and so they are easily and always divided and could not take a united action to redeem their fate and or destiny
As Nigeria trudges on, her self-deceit is made manifest by the collapse or failure of her public institutions. A unitary state masquerading as a federal republic, the country has been hijacked by a tribal cabal through a system of patronage and clientelism oiled by religious hypocrisy. Both the patron and their clients are now known as mainstreamers running neocolonial structure.
Regardless of whoever runs the system and structure, whether the patron or his client, the country remains a non-starter in most indices of growth and development. Which is why development goals are often attained in the breach, although the lifestyle of the mainstreamers are a conspicuous picture of concupiscence and avarice. The poor majority, disparate and destitute of unity and commonality as ever, remain the butt of cruel jokes of the leaders: one of which is the demand that they be patriotic and remain burden bearers of a life –long sacrifice! It is yet to be seen a people who are continually fleeced by their leaders and will remain as patriotic or as docile as Nigerians!
Again, the reason or factor of their docility lies in their diversity and the lack of the ingredients of common nationhood or nationality. When and where the docility is the norm, it would appear that cowardice reigns supreme. Where everyone is helpless, no one is useful and every effort made by anyone ends in futility.
Meanwhile, the mainstreamers are waxing stronger, what with the familiar tool of divide- and – rule strategy. So that while ethnic, religious and linguistic differences are getting blurred between and among mainstreamers, these same factors are used to widen the gap between the poor majority. The two groups are sustained differently: one by their common thievery of public funds and the other by their common poverty. In other words, the shared poverty of the disparate majority sustains the devilry of the thieving minority mainstreamers. But for how long will this situation last?
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The NENAM Vision and Mission
Vision
“To engender a polity that is accommodative of all opinions and interests such that will bring about equity and liberty of all people regardless of their ethnic nationalities and religious affiliations."
Mission
“Issues of minority rights and ethnic nationalities will be discussed and exchanged. This website will also serve as a freelance communication media for exchange of political ideas and matters both local and international with relevant organizations.”
“To engender a polity that is accommodative of all opinions and interests such that will bring about equity and liberty of all people regardless of their ethnic nationalities and religious affiliations."
Mission
“Issues of minority rights and ethnic nationalities will be discussed and exchanged. This website will also serve as a freelance communication media for exchange of political ideas and matters both local and international with relevant organizations.”
Nigeria: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
That Nigeria is an amalgamation of hundreds of heterogeneous ethnic nationalities is a well-known fact. That the amalgamation was never a product of choice by the various groups, kingdoms and chiefdoms but a product of force by a colonial occupation army is another incontrovertible fact. That neither the colonial government nor their successors both civilian and military made efforts through a democratic process to ascertain the wishes or desires of Nigerian peoples as to whether they wanted to be a part of Nigeria is another undeniable fact. It is on record that the only time Nigerians were asked of their wishes through a plebiscite was on the question of the United Nations Trust Territory (Northern Cameroon); and as such they were not yet Nigerians when the referendum was conducted. The northern part of the Trust Territory only became part of Nigeria after the exercise in 1961.
It is equally on record that the acts of state creation in 1967, 1976, 1987, 1991 and 1996 respectively were all by autocratic military regimes and none by democratic choice of the people. In effect, it means that the present geo-political structure of 36 states is an arbitrary creation bereft of any organic roots. This is more so, as none was put to referendum for adoption or approval by the people. Consequently, all the decrees that brought the states into the federation are also products of the whims and pet desires of a few military potentate and their civilian friends or clients.
What more, no effort was made before, during and after military rule to imbue Nigeria with the properties of a common nationhood; such natural properties as a common culture, native lingua franca and agreed articles of association. Instead, the authorities adopted a foreign language which perpetually reminds the people of their differences and divergent descent. The implications of these defects in the structure of Nigeria are many, one of which is that most of the states are unfit to be a federating unit; given the manner in which different ethnic peoples were hobbled together without regard to their divergencies or wishes. In addition, those states are economically too weak to be self sustaining thereby depending on resources from elsewhere for their subsistence— a condition made worse by their illegitimate or inorganic origin. The skewed geo-political structure made some of the units to be a perpetual threat to the others; for example, the size of Northern Region compared to the other three regions of the First Republic. And the suppression of the desire of many ethnic groups for self rule or internal autonomy for example, the Tiv riot, the Operation Wetie in the Western Region—all in the First Republic- which gave birth to the first military coup/intervention in government in January 1966.
The January 1966 coup brought to the fore the ethnic factor in the makeup of Nigeria in that most of the leaders of the coup were of Igbo ethnic nationality but the victims were largely from some other ethnic nationalities of the then Northern and Western Regions. In May 1966, a wave of ethnic hatred and cleansing erupted in the North which was targeted at the Igbo and resulted in the violent and premeditated death of hundreds of thousands of the people. This was quickly followed by the July 1966 counter coup, the end result of which was the three year Nigerian-Biafran war of 1967 to 1970.
Unfortunately, the federal government did not include re-integration as one of its programme of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation. It is obvious that the few inter-ethnic marriages before and after the civil war could not avert or mellow down the mutual suspicion between the various ethnic nationalities. Between 1970 and 2009, hundreds of ethno-religious disturbances took place in Central Nigeria between the Hausa/Fulani ethnic group and the other ethnic groups over ethnic, religious and socio-cultural differences. During the forty year period, there were coups and counter coups in 1975, 1976,, 1983, 1985 and phantom coups in 1985 and 1995. In the same period, there were semi-successful general elections and outright electoral frauds in 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003 and the most outrageous in 2007 and the re-election exercises arising out of nullified elections in 2008 and 2009.
The poor electoral practice and the partiality of the electoral bodies, umpires and security agencies and the excessive use of the power of incumbency combined to demean and devalue Nigeria’s democratic experience.
The pretence at federalism while running a unitary structure and system is not only more vexatious but most injurious to the unity and integration of Nigeria. Unitarism accommodates and nurtures hegemonies of the ethno-religious and territorial types by larger ethnic nationalities. Resistance to hegemonic attempts or efforts has often resulted into street riots, mayhem and death of many people and destruction of billions worth of property. More harm and damage is thereby done to the fragile peace and unity of the country.
The cumulative effects of these distortions has ensured that Nigeria remain a geographical expression, a mere country and not a nation. Running a pseudo nation- state with all the apparatus of a nation, yes, but lacking the ingredients and properties of nationhood. As a result, the institutions of state such as the Judiciary, the Legislature, the Police, the educational system, health system, etc. suffer perennial collapse, are ineffective, massively corrupt and irredeemably compromised --- all pointing towards and speeding fast along the path of a failed nation-state.
As if to make the future of Nigeria irretrievably bleak, all attempts at Constitutional Conferences in 1979, 1988/89, 1995 and 1999 had flawed outcomes because of entrenched privileges and interests even as they lack inputs from the masses of the people. Recommendations which resulted from such constitutional conferences were always distorted, doctored and mangled by governments’ White Papers and subsequent implementation. Even when government on its own or as a result of popular clamour embarked on reforms, the result and effects on the polity has always been worse than the ills earlier diagonised. Examples are the 1976 Local Government Reform; the various reforms of the General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, the 1995/96 geo-political zones; the 2004 Ndayako’s Local Government Reform; the National Political Reform Conference of 2005 by Chief Obasanjo’s regime. In terms of their effects on the polity, these were disasters, unmitigated disasters. What of the attempts by the National Assembly to amend, alter or review the 1999 Constitution throughout Obasanjo’s regime, attempts which is still being made by Senator David Mark’s led Legislature, nothing has emerged from them. And there is no guarantee that any amendment carried out will meet the true needs of a heterogeneous society which Nigeria is.
The only bold, genuine, people and issues oriented attempt at re-engineering the polity in line with the plurality of the Nigerian society is the one organized by the Pro-National Conference Organization(PRONACO) led by foremost nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro, CFR. The PRONACO Peoples National Conference took place between 2005 and 2006, the result of which is the 2006 Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In all humility and with the utmost sense of responsibility, most of those who participated in the conference are convinced that the only way Nigeria could avoid being a failed state is the adoption of the Peoples’ National Conference proposed Constitution. Given the example of the more cohesive Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the disintegration or collapse of Somalia, the perennial civil war of Sudan, the division of Ethiopia into Eritrea; East Timor from Indonesia and other contemporary disintegration of nation-states, the current Unitary geo-political structure and winners-takes-all system of government will only hasten the demise of Nigeria.
It is our conviction that the 1999 Constitution is incapable of redemption by whatever alteration, amendment or review as it is the very antithesis of the rules and laws useful to a multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious entity such as Nigeria.
The Nigeria Ethnic Nationalities Movement(NENAM) is an off-shoot of the PRONACO Peoples National Conference with the vision to embark on dialogue, discuss, negotiation and exchange of ideas, views and opinions on how best to avoid the disintegration of Nigeria and indeed any heterogeneous country in Africa where possible. And if impossible, to engender a non-violent method, approach and manner of disintegration such as adopted by the defunct Soviet Union.
Our vision at NENAM is the restructuring of Nigeria into contiguous ethnic, homogeneous cultural and territorial regions as federating units befitting a plural and heterogeneous country whose shining examples are India, Switzerland, Canada, United States of America, etc.
We therefore align ourselves at NENAM to Nigeria’s 1960 Independence anthem:
“Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all are proud to serve
Our own dear fatherland.”
It is equally on record that the acts of state creation in 1967, 1976, 1987, 1991 and 1996 respectively were all by autocratic military regimes and none by democratic choice of the people. In effect, it means that the present geo-political structure of 36 states is an arbitrary creation bereft of any organic roots. This is more so, as none was put to referendum for adoption or approval by the people. Consequently, all the decrees that brought the states into the federation are also products of the whims and pet desires of a few military potentate and their civilian friends or clients.
What more, no effort was made before, during and after military rule to imbue Nigeria with the properties of a common nationhood; such natural properties as a common culture, native lingua franca and agreed articles of association. Instead, the authorities adopted a foreign language which perpetually reminds the people of their differences and divergent descent. The implications of these defects in the structure of Nigeria are many, one of which is that most of the states are unfit to be a federating unit; given the manner in which different ethnic peoples were hobbled together without regard to their divergencies or wishes. In addition, those states are economically too weak to be self sustaining thereby depending on resources from elsewhere for their subsistence— a condition made worse by their illegitimate or inorganic origin. The skewed geo-political structure made some of the units to be a perpetual threat to the others; for example, the size of Northern Region compared to the other three regions of the First Republic. And the suppression of the desire of many ethnic groups for self rule or internal autonomy for example, the Tiv riot, the Operation Wetie in the Western Region—all in the First Republic- which gave birth to the first military coup/intervention in government in January 1966.
The January 1966 coup brought to the fore the ethnic factor in the makeup of Nigeria in that most of the leaders of the coup were of Igbo ethnic nationality but the victims were largely from some other ethnic nationalities of the then Northern and Western Regions. In May 1966, a wave of ethnic hatred and cleansing erupted in the North which was targeted at the Igbo and resulted in the violent and premeditated death of hundreds of thousands of the people. This was quickly followed by the July 1966 counter coup, the end result of which was the three year Nigerian-Biafran war of 1967 to 1970.
Unfortunately, the federal government did not include re-integration as one of its programme of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation. It is obvious that the few inter-ethnic marriages before and after the civil war could not avert or mellow down the mutual suspicion between the various ethnic nationalities. Between 1970 and 2009, hundreds of ethno-religious disturbances took place in Central Nigeria between the Hausa/Fulani ethnic group and the other ethnic groups over ethnic, religious and socio-cultural differences. During the forty year period, there were coups and counter coups in 1975, 1976,, 1983, 1985 and phantom coups in 1985 and 1995. In the same period, there were semi-successful general elections and outright electoral frauds in 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003 and the most outrageous in 2007 and the re-election exercises arising out of nullified elections in 2008 and 2009.
The poor electoral practice and the partiality of the electoral bodies, umpires and security agencies and the excessive use of the power of incumbency combined to demean and devalue Nigeria’s democratic experience.
The pretence at federalism while running a unitary structure and system is not only more vexatious but most injurious to the unity and integration of Nigeria. Unitarism accommodates and nurtures hegemonies of the ethno-religious and territorial types by larger ethnic nationalities. Resistance to hegemonic attempts or efforts has often resulted into street riots, mayhem and death of many people and destruction of billions worth of property. More harm and damage is thereby done to the fragile peace and unity of the country.
The cumulative effects of these distortions has ensured that Nigeria remain a geographical expression, a mere country and not a nation. Running a pseudo nation- state with all the apparatus of a nation, yes, but lacking the ingredients and properties of nationhood. As a result, the institutions of state such as the Judiciary, the Legislature, the Police, the educational system, health system, etc. suffer perennial collapse, are ineffective, massively corrupt and irredeemably compromised --- all pointing towards and speeding fast along the path of a failed nation-state.
As if to make the future of Nigeria irretrievably bleak, all attempts at Constitutional Conferences in 1979, 1988/89, 1995 and 1999 had flawed outcomes because of entrenched privileges and interests even as they lack inputs from the masses of the people. Recommendations which resulted from such constitutional conferences were always distorted, doctored and mangled by governments’ White Papers and subsequent implementation. Even when government on its own or as a result of popular clamour embarked on reforms, the result and effects on the polity has always been worse than the ills earlier diagonised. Examples are the 1976 Local Government Reform; the various reforms of the General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, the 1995/96 geo-political zones; the 2004 Ndayako’s Local Government Reform; the National Political Reform Conference of 2005 by Chief Obasanjo’s regime. In terms of their effects on the polity, these were disasters, unmitigated disasters. What of the attempts by the National Assembly to amend, alter or review the 1999 Constitution throughout Obasanjo’s regime, attempts which is still being made by Senator David Mark’s led Legislature, nothing has emerged from them. And there is no guarantee that any amendment carried out will meet the true needs of a heterogeneous society which Nigeria is.
The only bold, genuine, people and issues oriented attempt at re-engineering the polity in line with the plurality of the Nigerian society is the one organized by the Pro-National Conference Organization(PRONACO) led by foremost nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro, CFR. The PRONACO Peoples National Conference took place between 2005 and 2006, the result of which is the 2006 Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In all humility and with the utmost sense of responsibility, most of those who participated in the conference are convinced that the only way Nigeria could avoid being a failed state is the adoption of the Peoples’ National Conference proposed Constitution. Given the example of the more cohesive Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the disintegration or collapse of Somalia, the perennial civil war of Sudan, the division of Ethiopia into Eritrea; East Timor from Indonesia and other contemporary disintegration of nation-states, the current Unitary geo-political structure and winners-takes-all system of government will only hasten the demise of Nigeria.
It is our conviction that the 1999 Constitution is incapable of redemption by whatever alteration, amendment or review as it is the very antithesis of the rules and laws useful to a multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious entity such as Nigeria.
The Nigeria Ethnic Nationalities Movement(NENAM) is an off-shoot of the PRONACO Peoples National Conference with the vision to embark on dialogue, discuss, negotiation and exchange of ideas, views and opinions on how best to avoid the disintegration of Nigeria and indeed any heterogeneous country in Africa where possible. And if impossible, to engender a non-violent method, approach and manner of disintegration such as adopted by the defunct Soviet Union.
Our vision at NENAM is the restructuring of Nigeria into contiguous ethnic, homogeneous cultural and territorial regions as federating units befitting a plural and heterogeneous country whose shining examples are India, Switzerland, Canada, United States of America, etc.
We therefore align ourselves at NENAM to Nigeria’s 1960 Independence anthem:
“Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all are proud to serve
Our own dear fatherland.”
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