By Mac Odu
Tel: 0806 8909 467
ezemarkodu@yahoo.co.uk
Biafra is a statement that is loud and clear that increasing productivity of individuals and group components of a nation are the only guarantees to national peace and progress not only in Nigeria but also in the world. Those who desire not to labour for their wages are not ever going to add to national productivity. Those who want to depend on national resources for their group welfare and happiness are doomed to irrelevance in an increasingly productive world. Those who claim leadership as their right with eyes on national resources to share among their kinsmen are less than human in the final analysis. That is why it is imperative that the federal government should be whittled down to unattractive levels of control of resources, so that energies for productivity may be unleashed in the same manner as occurred in the regions of the First Republic. The rationale supreme is that we must return to the federation of the First Republic.
Biafra was an idea which arrived too early for the apprehension of Nigerians. The geographical reality is dead and gone from the minds of majority of Nigerians. Only the metaphor survives and still exists. The reality now lies in the realms of politics and persuasion with superior dialectics. The path mapped out for realisation of the metaphor must be a relentless battle for true federalism. The federating states of Nigeria must control resources native to their lands.
Federal government has shown amazing incapacity to husband resources and create wealth for our majority. It so far has a bloated structure and has created a labyrinth of avenues for frittering away resources in Abuja. Yet, Abuja does not have any productive life beyond state flow resources. This is unhealthy. Abuja has become a worthless city that has exceeded its mandate to provide a simple administrative city for efficient administration of the country.
People who have contemplated Ndigbo roundly and deeply must chart the path of Ndigbo. Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) should metamorphose into a pressure group founded on current realities of mutual dependence, with each group contributing energies in tune with its talents.
Ndigbo need Nigeria. We are mobile, aggressive and productive. We are gifted to provide leadership in commerce and industry to Nigeria. We must operate in a larger ambience because we are gregarious. But we must not be vulgar and vain. We must show good example in thought, word and action and earn the respect of our neighbours only through integrity and good conduct in private and public affairs. We must not be vulgar and vain in the process. We must bond together only because we have something to offer Nigeria in exchange for our own security and increasing levels of choices which translates to overall development.
Forcibly derived states do not have a chance of survival in current day international community. America cannot export democracy by force of arms. Nigeria cannot grow by fear of a component of Nigerian society. Productivity cannot be improved without justice and equity. Nationalism cannot develop when there are pockets of grief and dissatisfaction with modalities for sharing national resources. One finger hurting sets a whole body on fire and discomfort. Poverty of a section of the country brings poverty to the whole country. The current dilemma of Boko Haram is born of poverty and inequities within the incident localities.
Elections properly conducted, tallied and allocated to varying shades of opinion shall for the foreseeable future determine the destiny of states globally. Corruption that has not been appropriately trumpeted is the falsehood of those currently wielding power in Nigeria. They have consistently doctored themselves into power and are now incurring the wrath of the nation. It is futile to buy power when there is no vision and mission to change situations positively. Power should lie with those who have both vision and knowledge of the object of power and the meaning of life and existence.
Forcibly created states remain liable to fracture into component parts unless the homogenous groups are allowed rights to self-determination. Nations develop and grow from slow and steady blending of ethos.
The Niger Delta should not be besieged because they are waging war on the country. They sought attention and wanted it before we knew some peace. Now we have the extreme North in turmoil for poverty of the majority in a bipolarity of income groups with an inexistent middle class. The disadvantaged now seek to be heard. It is sad that what ought to have been done was not done. We are now up in arms with our own countrymen and their imported cohorts. The end game must be persuasion of those who are at war that war serves no positive purpose in the end.
One system of different nations forcibly held together by artificial bonds will lead to collapse of the entire system on account of unformed ethos. Where varieties of belief systems are not blended, bonds are weak and stability is a distant dream.
This is the metaphor which Biafra eloquently bespeaks. True federalism is the shortest route to stability of the whole Nigerian nation, and the chance for it has swung round again after 40 odd years. We must now save ourselves and embark on that singular option for group survival.