“Oribibe ko l’ogun efori” (“Beheading the patient is never an antidote to headache”) – A Yoruba Wise Saying
With the imminent inauguration of his cabinet President Muhammadu Buhari needs to generate a fresh momentum fast with the articulation of a grand strategy. This is indispensable for him to tackle the immense challenges of the Nigerian political economy. And as they say, the incoming ministers would have their jobs well cut out for them. What with the rising expectations out there on the streets. This is really no time for a leisurely approach to the emergent issues of the economy, polity and the larger society. A sense of urgency is apposite in many respects.
For instance, the increasingly bold political challenges would tax the leadership skills in the administration. While the Nigerian state is still busy re-asserting the territorial integrity of the nation in the northeast, there is a growing ferment of separatism in parts of the south. A few weeks ago some respected Yoruba leaders issued a threat of secession out of frustration with the destructive activities of Fulani herdsmen. The sort of response they got from their compatriots in the north was not helpful. Virtually nothing is being done to neutralise the suspicions and angsts in the land.
Unsettling developments are also taking place in the east of Niger. There is a resurgence of the Biafran movement. The arrest of the man behind Radio Biafra, Nnmadi Kanu, has exacerbated the spreading of agitation for the “sovereign state of Biafra.” While some elements located outside Nigeria are waging the war on the Internet, an army of agitators on ground mostly youths in some parts of southeast and south are giving expression to their alienation from a united Nigeria.
For many years, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has made self-determination of the Igbo a battle cry. But the movement has hitherto remained on the margins of politics and perhaps tolerated by the Nigerian state as “a pressure group.” At least in the last 25 years no Igbo politician of consequence has campaigned to be president, governor or senator by identifying with MASSOB or adopting its political platform. MASSOB is now joined by the Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM). By the way, Zionism is completely another dimension to the matter. And there is yet another emerging group: the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Indigenous to which territory now? Perhaps no one has bothered to pose that question. You only waive the flags of indigeneity to ward the domination of alleged settlers on your land. Pray, who is contesting the land of southeast with the Igbo? If there is any contest at all it is the frightening environmental contest between menacing erosion and the poor people left behind on the land while others move to other parts of Nigeria. The problem of erosion, for instance, cannot be magically solved by secession. It requires an honest implementation of an environment policy by different tiers of government with the federal government taking the lead in terms setting the standards and provision of funds.
The separatist upsurge should be seen as another index of the challenges before the Buhari administration. It is an eloquent proof that the gathering of momentum by the administration is being outpaced by the rising expectations in the land. The problem seems compounded by the fact that the administration could hardly be characterised as hitting the ground running. So the realistic thing to do by government is not to dismiss the activities of the separatists as a non-issue. We should remember with sadness that the rudiments of Boko Haram were perceived as some irritants by the Nigerian state.
Now it has turned out that Nigeria did so at its own peril! The variants of the Biafra mission in the southeast constitute a distorted posing of the National Question. Yes, the legitimate National Question exists, but the answer does not lie in the approach of these latter-day dreamers of the sovereign state of Biafra. It is even more discomforting that many of these dreamers were born years after the fire of the real Biafra State was extinguished.
Although in different contexts, there are similarities in the dreams of an Islamic Republic in the northeast; an Oduduwa Republic in the southwest and the actualization of a sovereign state of Biafra in the southeast. They are all governed by misdirected separatist impulses. It is not clear if those pushing these positions know the bloody implications of their missions.
To govern Nigeria properly today is to come terms with the contradictions based on ethnicity, regions, gender, religion and even age. However, the sharpest of all the contradictions is the one based on class. The class-based contradiction is the primary contradiction of the Nigerian society. It is the most urgent and dangerous. The most glaring expressions of this contradiction are burgeoning mass poverty and ever widening inequality. Whereas some of the other contradictions could be vertically defined, the class contradictions are invariably horizontal.
It is the contradiction between the following polar ends: the miserably poor and the obscenely rich; those who would go to bed hungry tonight and those who would thrown away unconsumed food; the more than 10.5 million children out of school and the few ones whose parents could afford to pay thousands of dollars for quality education in Europe and America; the private jet owners and those for whom motor cycles are the means of mass transit etc. The class contradiction is horizontal because those who constitute the polar ends of the spectrum of the Nigerian society are to be found among all ethnic groups, regions, religions and genders.
Poverty unites all members of the exploited and powerless class. It is also the same poverty that makes this class vulnerable to cynical manipulation by the rapacious elite. The class of the poor is a veritable ground for recruitment of foot soldiers by those dreaming about carving out of Nigeria an Islamic State, Oduduwa Republic or the Sovereign State of Biafra by misapplying the concept of self-determination. To negate the blossoming separatist impulse, therefore, the government should see poverty as public enemy Number One. There is no region or ethnic group in Nigeria that is immune from illiteracy, diseases, hunger and homelessness.
So separating a section from the whole without resolving the socio-economic contradiction does not automatically solve the problem. You would only be replicating poverty-ridden republics. On the contrary, there are immense advantages in standing on the vantage of a united country to make poverty history, to borrow the phrase of the Global call to Action Against Poverty.
This is the core of the problem from which the exploitative and opportunistic elite would prefer to divert people’s attention. All ethnic groups, regions and religions are represented in the composition of this elite responsible for the underdevelopment of Nigeria. This implies that the enemy is not the fellow belonging to the other region; religion or ethnic group against who hate speech should be directed.
The common enemy is mass poverty against which people-oriented policies should be developed. Here we are referring to policies that transcend the neo-liberal shibboleths of privatisation, liberalisation, “private sector-led economy” and the rhetorical fancies of free-market fundamentalists.
To stem the tide of socio-political convulsions in the country, the government should go beyond the usual security response. The situation at hand earnestly requires competent economic management with a social conscience. This should be the underlying philosophy for the memos to be debated by the new cabinet.
Furthermore, there is a legitimate sentiment to invoke in responding to the arguments of our aspiring separatists. To start with, the aspiring separatists in all regions and ethnic groups pretend to be unaware of the formidable integrative forces being propelled by deep socio-economic interests in this country today. Those who like to carve out many nations out of Nigeria should carefully study the history of these forces at play.
On this occasion, the Igbo youths in particular who are being mobilised on the Internet for separation should be reminded of the heroic efforts of the Igbo people in the building of Nigeria across generations. In fact, to talk of pulling the Igbo out of Nigeria in 2015 is an egregious assault on the glorious place of the Igbo in Nigeria. And for heavens sake, we are talking of the country of the great Nnamdi Azikiwe who was born in Zungeru and not in Onitsha! It has been well acknowledged that Azikiwe, a man proud of his Igbo roots, actually made Nigerian nationalism his lifetime career.
However, the role of many nationalists younger than Azikiwe has not been sufficiently applauded. The matter is worsened by the increasing contempt for history. Along with their compatriots from other parts of Nigeria the Mokwugo Okoyes, Mbazulike Amaechis, Osita Agwunas, Smart Ebis, MCK Ajuluchwus, Fred Anyiams, Amaefula Ikoros, Okei Achambas, Bob Ogbuagus and several other young men in those days sacrificed their time, energy and comfort to build a Nigerian nation.
Instead of the MASSOB of today, the youths of the pre-independence Nigerian belonged to the Zikist Movement, a national vanguard for freedom. In the 1940s and 1950s, these Nigerians of Igbo origins along with their other Nigerian comrades were the ones at the vanguard of nationalism. For a lot of them the only career they aspired to was the freedom of Nigeria. They dreamt of a united and prosperous nation. By the time these nationalists performed the historic role they were younger than some of those agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra today.
It would be more productive if the passion and energy being invested in separatist movement were directed to build a national movement for socio-economic justice and indeed a humane social order in a united Nigeria. That is the way today’s youths can build on the legacy of the Zikist Movement. Nigeria should be well governed in the interest of all instead of balkanising this pride of the black man. As the Yoruba would say, you don’t have to behead the patient to cure him of his headache.
This article was originally published on Thisday