The end of northern unity?
By Oduche Azih
If the North is disunited, is that such a good thing?
Not necessarily! I take that back. Actually no!
If northern unity is for a grand positive vision, then there is no reason to celebrate disunity in the North because it engenders immeasurable costs to those in the north and their neighbours.
Northern unity, not based on pure hegemony towards others, would necessarily rest of values and objectives that can be shared as far away as Banjul and Mombasa! A properly united North would be at ease with itself, its neighbours and wouldn’t be going through the rigours of overthrowing an unwanted and oppressive rulership class.
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If the Fulani hegemony had relented, foregoing its stated objectives, a democratic and inclusive Northern Nigeria would have positively impacted Southern Nigeria over the past six decades of paper independence. With good governance as the lodestar, we would have very little to disagree about.
There is also this notion that the ongoing development is something worth gloating about down south. No.
Some have also implied that growing disunity up north would be the basis for collaboration nay “conspiracy” between some southern folk and the restive elements in the north. That would not be a sustainable basis on which to build anything. Granted that some in the north, especially the Middle-Belt, are beginning to question old alliances made in the heat of anti-Igbo pogrom, before, during and after the Civil War, they must first forgive themselves and forget this funny trend of apologizing to #Ndigbo. Even if they tried, they can never make good the damage caused over the past six decades and since paper independence. Moreover, Ndigbo have moved on.
In conclusion, the current upheavals in Hausaland about Fulani overlordship is a two-sided coin. It acknowledges a two-century long lie about who the Hausa and Fulani are and the fact that the pecking order had been arranged to favour the Fulani without any reference to merit and indigeneship. If the non-Fulani majority of Northern Nigeria finally do right by themselves, they would find us down South ever willing partners. However we cannot be seen to be leading anything or goading one group against another. They must institute the necessary changes by themselves, peacefully. Not that we can stop them. We, who are supposedly geographically located far from the epicenter would not be immune from the fall-out. Even as we speak, we are yet to live down the negative impact of violent upheavals in far-away Libya.
Note that I have avoided dabbling in the calculus of electoral politics which the narrators dealt with extensively. It is only the dysfunction in the matter of self-determination by the nation states, clearly addressed in #TheNinasTemplate, that makes such focus even remotely necessary. If we fix the matter of free and unforced relationships, the politics would fall neatly into place.
- Engr. Oduche Azih writes from Lagos
