Abdullahi M. Gulloma
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has stressed the need for the geographical entities that made up Nigeria to remain together. The federating entities and the country itself are far better off together, 50 years after the attempt to seceed by the Igbo nation, led by the late Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Osinbajo spoke, last week, at the colloquium on “Biafra: 50 years after.”
The event was organised by the Yar’adua Foundation at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja.
The Acting President said: “As we reflect on this event today, we must ask ourselves the same question that many who have fought or been victims in civil wars, wars between brothers and sisters, ask in moments of reflection…. ‘What if we had spent all the resources, time and sacrifice we put into the war, into trying to forge unity? What if we had decided not to seek to avenge a wrong done to us, what if we had chosen to overcome evil with good?’
“The truth is that the spilling of blood in dispute is hardly ever worth the losses. Of the fallouts of bitter wars is the anger that can so easily be rekindled by those who for good or ill want to resuscitate the fire. Today some are suggesting that we must go back to the ethnic nationalities from which Nigeria was formed.
They say that secession is the answer to the charges of marginalization. They argue that separation from the Nigerian State will ultimately result in successful smaller states. They argue eloquently, I might add, that Nigeria is a colonial contraption that cannot endure.
“This is also the sum and substance of the agitation for Biafra.
The campaign is often bitter and vitriolic, and has sometimes degenerated to fatal violence. Brothers and sisters permit me to differ and to suggest that we’re greater together than apart.
“No country is perfect; around the world we have seen and continue to see expressions of intra-national discontent. Indeed, not many Nigerians seem to know that the oft-quoted line about Nigeria being a “mere geographical expression” originally applied to Italy. It was the German statesman Klemens von Metternich who dismissively summed up Italy as a mere geographical expression, exactly a century before Nigeria came into being as a country.
From Spain to Belgium to the United Kingdom and even the United States of America, you will find many today who will venture to make similar arguments about their countries. But they have remained together.
“The truth is that many, if not most nations of the world, are made up of different peoples and cultures and beliefs and religions, who find themselves thrown together by circumstance. Nations are, indeed, made up of many nations. The most successful of the nations of the world are those who do not fall into the lure of secession. But who, through thick and thin, forge unity in diversity.”
The Acting President also underscored the need for Nigerian leaders to give the younger generation the vision on a pathway to unity in diversity. “Every new generation can take a different and more ennobling route than its predecessors,” he said. “But the greatest responsibility, today, lies on the leadership of our country, especially, but not only political leadership.
“The promise of our Constitution, which we have sworn to uphold, is that we would ensure a secure and safe environment for our people to live and work in peace, that we would provide just and fair institutions of justice, that we would not permit or encourage discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, beliefs or other parochial considerations. That we would build a nation where no one is oppressed and none is left behind.
“These are the standards to which we must hold our leadership. We must not permit our leaders the easy but dangerous rhetoric of blaming our social and economic conditions on our coming together. It is their duty to give us a vision, a pathway, to make our unity in diversity even more perfect.”
Unfortunately, most leaders in Nigeria lack vision and can, therefore, give none to the led. All they can share are ethnic jingoism and hatred. There’s no doubt that in the years of our existence as a country, Nigeria has grappled with several challenges, many of which were highlighted by the Acting President.
Though we have surmounted many problems as a nation, still, mutual suspicion and ethnic jingoism that have deprived us of reason, sense of justice and fairness exist. Development is low in almost all parts of the country and there appears to be nothing to be proud of in almost all spheres of our national fabric. Basic amenities, which ought to make life meaningful for citizens, are lacking. Issues that other nations have long taken care of are still hard for us to crack.
Regrettably, corruption, mainly perpetrated by the elite and handlers of the nation’s affairs, some of whom, in their foolishness, believe they stand to benefit from a disunited Nigeria, is threatening to kill the country and its people.
Of course, there’s little or no doubt, that our challenges of nationhood, like Osinbajo has observed, are linked to the inadequacies of some of our leaders at all levels.
Yet, another compelling argument explaining our developmental backwardness is failure by citizens to take ownership of their country. Therefore, common Nigerians must take ownership of this country and appreciate the fact that we are all better off as Nigerians, and the more we remain as such the better we shall continue to be.
We must, as Osinbajo demands of us, refuse to allow the inadequacies and particularly selfish tendencies of our leaders, which have largely contributed to, and compounded, our national problems and widened the parochial divisions among us, to continue to destroy our nation.
