By: Babajide Faleru, bamfale769@yahoo.co.uk
There is an imminent drum of war in Nigeria, a country in the African continent, only that it hasn’t been pronounced yet.
This may not be unconnected to associated story of the 1966 Civil War that took the lives of many souls, especially the Easterners; those living in the Eastern part of the Country. Their livelihood, property and many heads were displaced, hence, giving rise to the fear of such similar occurrence.
Without any fear of equivocation, it will be very difficult for a country to survive two successive civil wars.
The mistake the leaders did in the past is hunting the country, and of which they knew, and the present ones find it difficult to rectify, hoping it can be managed.
Similarly, the nation can co-exist and at the same time save the country from the hands of the colonial master, the British.
The British may have had in-depth knowledge of its difficulty in working perfectly well, because it was a different company that the merger will end up what it is today.
There is one thing many of us are missing, Nigeria isn’t a country, but a company formed by the colonial masters with the instruction given by the British Empire then and made Lord Lugard the CEO, Royal Niger Company based in the Northern part of the country.
The unification of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate with Southern Protectorate was done for economic reasons, rather than political because the Northern Protectorate had a budget deficit and the colonial administration sought to use the budget surpluses in the Southern Nigeria to offset this deficit.
If we go back in the history of the country, Lt Glover of the Royal Navy selected 18 indigenes from the North and organized them into a local force, known as “Glover Hausa” in 1863, the purpose was to protect the British trade routes around Lagos.
That is why we have the majority of the North in Army today and they will continue to be the majority holding key positions in the Army hierarchy and there is not the south can do about it.
The 1st division is in Kaduna, North-West, 2nd division in Ibadan, South-West, 3rd division in Jos, North-East and 82 division with headquarters at Enugu, South East.
The recent meeting of the governors of the Southern part of Nigeria to ban open grazing in their provinces has kept the North uncomfortable because it has never happened to see the South-South governors come together and reach a consensus to stop the agenda of the Northern Caliphate in occupying the whole territories of the South-South under pretense of cattle raring with AK47 guns, regarding as self-defense ammunition.
This is the twenty-first century, genuine innovation should be brought in, creating of ranches in their territories and modernizing the way of rearing cattle should dominate Africa in terms of meat supply and other by products that can be derived of cattle.
The existence of Nigeria as a nation lies in the hand of its leaders, and leaders can be chosen by its citizens but the system won’t allow it to exist. Most leaders that have ruled the nation till date are being imposed on the people.
For Nigeria to co-exist as a nation, it will be difficult due to the way the country is being governed and its administration is handled lopsided with different ethnicity and differences.
According to the US analysts, they said that “Nigeria is still very much a tribal society” where local and tribal alliances count more than “national attachment”.
Where is the way forward for Nigeria as a nation? If we must make it to work, we must start with forgiveness, reconciliation and re-organize the structure from the way it’s being administered.
If the stakeholders disagree on the new structure, it will be ideological to go back to the regional system of government of which both parties will be autonomous to govern themselves and as well control their resources and pave way for economic development.
The ‘Aburi’ treaty won’t be ideological now because of the complexity of the country as everything has been interwoven that is why it is alleged that some Northerners are disagreeing for the country to be restructured.
The Buhari administration doesn’t view it that the nation is bleeding, his perception is that his government is being sabotaged by the opposition parties whereby secessionists are advocating for their nations.
The irony of this matter, the nation is bleeding and its citizens are in pain and I hope it won’t lead into calamity, it will be better to revisit the treaty of the amalgamation of 1914 which stated that if the parties decided to leave together or separate.
By: Babajide A.Martins Faleru, freelance writer and Alumni London School of Journalism.
bamfale769@yahoo.co.uk
