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.”