By Obunike Nwosu
Addressing a delegation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ex tempore (from the heart) in the Villa on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, President Buhari threatened that he would treat the South-East in the language they understand, with special reference to those destroying INEC and other public facilities in the region. That declaration is pregnant with meaning but can be easily related to the genocidal Civil War of 1967 to 1970 in which he participated and in which millions of Easterners, mostly, innocent children and civilians, perished. He is fond of recalling that war with glee, as a matter of blackmail.
Also, contrary to popular belief, he insisted that he had always adhered to the Constitution. He did not see why anyone should complain and he implied that the Constitution itself is fair and square.
With all due respect, Mr. President’s declaration is alarming and a classical Hate Speech, to the extent that Twitter promptly took it down. It betrayed his muted special hatred for the Igbo. He had never used such a harrowing snide language on the people of the North-East and North-West who had longer been in turmoil – equally by their own citizens against the state – not to talk of the Fulani herdsmen traumatizing the whole of Southern Nigeria and the Middle-Belt for over 10 years and whose terrorism fuels the secessionist sentiment. It is also an indication that his mind might be closed to objective and realistic narratives and options for the management of Nigeria’s centrifugal tendencies.
It could mean that the Armed Forces and the Police would leverage on the incidents, largely attributed to Unknown Gun Men (UGM) to inflict another genocide on the Igbo. The presumption is that the UGM is a fighting wing of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) widely supported by Igbo youths for secession – despite repeated disclaimer by the IPOB. Meanwhile, no one can bet on who the UGM is and neither the UGM nor the IPOB is endorsed by the generality of the Igbo – just like the bandits and Boko Haram in the North. The President’s language amounts to a declaration of war on his citizens for a few errant ones.
There was Python Dance. There was Crocodile Smile. As a matter of progression, his new strategy against insecurity in the South-East might border on full-scale military action, as it is beginning to seem.
In addition, a purported memo by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Malam Abubakar Malami, S. A. N., for the suspension of the Nigerian Constitution (with the right to life and fair trial to be taken away) has been circulating in the social media. The purpose is to enable the President deal with the threat of secession in the South-East and South-West at large – without constraint.
Already, a Human Rights group has reported that about 2100 Igbo youths had been randomly arrested and incarcerated in various dungeons while another 670 had been executed extra-judicially, in the first five months of 2021, in the name of IPOB/ESN members, without any regard for fundamental rights. Air and ground sorties are ongoing, as if it is intended that no youth should be left in the South-East. Had the Federal Government been half as ferocious against terrorist Fulani herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers (with abundant evidence of heinous crimes) the call for secession might have been subdued.
Hasty recourse to force (rather than dialogue) by the state for political disagreement is a symptom of internal imperialism that is stoutly resisted everywhere in the world. Accordingly, it has never worked for Nigeria. For example, the siege on the Western Region, in the First Republic, dragged on for three years and ended in a bloody coup d’etat. The ‘Police’ action against the Eastern Region, in place of the Aburi Accord, lasted 30 months. We are yet to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency after 12 years.
No region is now stable, safe and happy with Nigeria. Opening another front in the South-East (when you are not sure of the other regions) is to say goodbye to Nigeria which can do without the Igbo and, even, the larger Biafra, contrary to the prevailing attitude. But, if, indeed, Nigeria cannot do without the Igbo – or any other group, for that matter – it had better deal with the issues fueling secession rather than go to war again, when the first war did not resolve the issues. Rein in terrorist Fulani herdsmen. Embrace equal citizenship, restructure the federation and the change of the predatory Constitution!
Meanwhile, this threat of secession in the South-East and South-West, that is now an anathema, was the invention of the Moslem North, led by Sir Ahmadu Bello and the Northern Peoples’ Congress. They deployed it in 1953, 1957, 1960 and 1966 to (1) defer Nigeria’s independence from Britain to the convenience of the Northern Region (2) secure strict regionalism in the Constitution – in order to control their resources and way of life and (3) snatch the first independent Federal Government in 1960 (with 1.6 million votes against NCNC’s 2.6 million and AG’s 1.9 million) from the NCNC which should have formed that government with the AG, given their combined majority of parliamentary seats.
The counter coup of July 29, 1966, by Northern soldiers, was to revenge the killing of Northern leaders in the January 15, 1966 coup and then pull the Northern Region out of Nigeria, in protest of the Unification Decree which tampered with regionalism. Nobody could stop them but the British. In other words, the Fulani-led Moslem North vehemently rejected the concentration of power on the Federal Government!
It just happened that once crude oil became a robust source of public revenue (for which you did not have to sweat) the greedy Northern Military Establishment (that subsequently and continuously seized power) systematically, usurped resource control and all essential powers from federating units, carved up the country into numerous states and local government areas (to the advantage of the North) and imposed a predatory Constitution in which the North would maintain control of the legislature and public offices as well as the lion share of crude oil proceeds. The Northern Region (one region out of four) now has 19 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, while the remaining three regions, together, have 17.
Now that we are back in democracy, why not reciprocate and address the unsustainable anomalies?
President Buhari witnessed the pre-independence era and participated in the First Republic and in all the travails of Nigeria till today. He knows full well that the current predatory and hegemonic system and Constitution (worsened by the terrorism of savage Fulani herdsmen) are to blame for the country’s disconsolate situation and the bids for secession. Unless the anomalies are corrected, Nigeria would disintegrate – and faster with further show of force.
It has deteriorated to the stage that only a Constitution in the likeness of the Aburi Accord of 1967 or the 1963 Constitution could save it. Tinkering with the current Constitution cannot. By word and by action, the AGF and the leadership of the National Assembly will not permit any fundamental change, therein.
Without justifying the UGM or destruction of life and property in any way, let Mr. President begin the healing process by retreating from the military mindset of fire and brimstone and go for dialogue.