A very important issue came up at the maiden edition of a Unity Talk organised at Canaan Plaza, Lekki, Lagos, by a group called Centre for Unity Advancement and Peace Development, led by George Ezeugo, on May 1, 2017. It was an occasion for discourse around a very important topic-the unity of Nigeria-that I could not miss for anything in the world. I told George and the audience that I hadn’t seen any serious engagement in Nigeria’s top intellectual places, with the question of unity.
Successive governments love to mouth the mantra that ‘our unity is non-negotiable’, drawing the ire of a growing majority of the people who believe that Nigeria is no longer workable and so should be split in, at least, three places. Some propose six spaces along the lines of the geopolitical zones. Some propose smithereens.
I noted that even at the last National Conference in 2014, the delegates were informed that this was a no-go area, and those who tried to raise issues in this regard were those who had already made up their minds on Nigeria’s hopelessness as a single entity. For a while now, many Nigerians have been working assiduously towards the dismemberment of the country-with the likes of Nnamdi Kanu at the forefront. Others are clamouring for an Oodua Republic and are being vehement about it. Even in the North of Nigeria, there is a growing number of people who have come to terms with the likelihood of Nigeria falling apart; so they say that they can no longer be blackmailed. A sizeable proportion of middle class Northerners now say that they feel more at home in Niger Republic and Chad than in Abuja, Lagos or any other part of Nigeria.
Homogeneity itself has been shown not to be a sine qua non for progress, development or cohesion anyway. And for those who complain that the British cobbled all these 500 nations in Nigeria together into one country, one can only remind them that the shrewd Brits were never going to create 500 countries out of Nigeria
The truth is that, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Nigeria but us. If all Nigerians were exported to the best lands in the world, we would most likely quickly make a mess of wherever that may be. On the issue of Nigeria’s unity, I don’t believe we have tried enough to make it a success before giving up entirely. Today, we have enough reasons to not even engage with it; many instances of ethnic and religious wars, costing human lives, have given us good excuses not to try. Add to that, mindless leadership that usurps the lifeblood of the country and that has continued to do so for decades. It seems we should give up right now, but I think not. I still believe we haven’t tried enough to make this one work, and, perhaps, more importantly, that the present crop of leaders cannot validly take that decision on behalf of Nigerians (and this is not about Buhari and Osinbajo but about those who have risen to become ministers, senators and the rest). I believe they have failed woefully and that we don’t have the critical mass from among them to engage in a debate that can begin to logically consider the pros and cons.
Again, decades of neglect and ego-worshipping means that our issues have metastasised and positions have hardened. A very good debate with open minds would have solved many of these problems, but we have now become incapable of sustained debate in an atmosphere of mutual intellectualism.
Let me get one issue out of the way. There aren’t three nationalities in Nigeria, or three languages. There are more like 500. And most, if not all, of them-even when very similar-are not agreed on their own homogeneity (every Gwari village will prove to you how they are distinct from the next, when the time comes). Homogeneity itself has been shown not to be a sine qua non for progress, development or cohesion, anyway. And for those who complain that the British cobbled all these 500 nations in Nigeria together into one country, one can only remind them that the shrewd Brits were never going to create 500 countries out of Nigeria by moving from one thatched settlement to another in the year 1800, asking whether they wanted their own countries.
The British didn’t even have 500 of their own citizens in Nigeria at the peak of their colonial administration. They achieved much with little. I still marvel when some of our bright minds complain about Britain joining us together ‘even though we are different’. We are talking about the Dark Ages here. Even the white man wrought so much injustice on his own kin. Ireland was the first country that the English colonized-in the 16th Century-and they only granted part-independence to what is today known as Republic of Ireland (South Ireland), while retaining the northern part of Ireland, only in 1922. Thirty-eight years later, Nigeria got its own independence but today we rush to the Republic of Ireland as refugees, for greener pastures and better living.
When I posted the list of 371 Nigerian languages on my Facebook page recently, someone commented that there were Yagba people in Ekiti, while another corrected him that it was the other way round; that there were Ekiti people in Yagba. Another commented magisterially that there were Igbo people in Benue and Akwa Ibom, to which I replied that there are Benue/Idoma people in Igboland as well and Ibibios/Anangs in the border towns of what is today known as Igboland. I know Idoma people with names like Anyanwu, but also Igbo people on the other side of the river from the Igalas, with a name like Omale. At the root of much of our problems lies our method of oral history, and what my political science lecturer, Dr. Agbogu, referred to as Ptolemic Parochialism, some 30 years ago.
Back to Lekki…One of the highlights of the seminar was the talk given by Pastor John Enelamah-a younger brother to the Minister for Trade and Investments. The enthralling lecture focused on leadership, and drew copiously from the works, statements and experiences of Lee Kuan Yew, the iconic saviour of Singapore. Pastor John’s conclusion was that we needed such a leader-with the focus, selflessness, vision, determination, stubbornness, philosophy, grit, savvy, intellectual prowess, and ability to stand their own in international circles, for Nigeria to move ahead, and to get itself out of this rut that it has found itself. The lecture opened another vista in my thoughts about the Nigerian problem. I became afraid. Where will our Lee Kuan Yew come from? And will that be a feasible strategy?
It will be great to find a Lee Kuan Yew. The problem is, they don’t make them like that anymore. Even his son, who currently leads Singapore, has been under criticisms just like his father, and many people are wondering if the entire legacy is about maintaining Chinese leadership over Singapore, or worse still about building a dynasty. Singaporean economy has been losing some steam lately. Lee is a one-in-a-million leader.
If we would wait for a Lee, we may have to wait forever. How many people can readily say that they can stand shoulder to shoulder with Lee in Nigeria today? Buhari was meant to be our best export, until (I’m sorry), his own self-demystification. Before that demystification, I had cause to be very angry with one of his handlers, Garba Shehu, who, on the occasion of Buhari’s 100 days in office, penned an article in which he slagged off Lee Kuan Yew as a ‘micromanager’, while extolling the great leadership qualities of his boss, none of which has come true.
Where will Nigeria find a Lee Kuan Yew among its young leaders?
*Fasua is National Chairman of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party
