NIGERIA @ 57: A MESSAGE TO NIGERIA AND HER LEADERS By Basic Rights Enlightenment Foundation

Nigeria has come a long way. It is not every country that will pass through what Nigeria has passed through and still stand as one. Despite our differences (and there are many of them), we have, somehow, managed to still exist as a single entity, albeit with secessionist agitation here and there; the biggest and the most prominent being the IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu.

Nigeria has a lot to be commended for, but she has a lot more to be reprimanded for. At 57, she is still battling with epileptic power supply, poor infrastructure, abysmal roads, appalling educational institution, inadequate security, injustice, the list goes on and on and on.

These could have been solved long ago and even now, if her leaders wanted or wants to, but leaders after leaders (or should I say rulers) have chosen to buy high powered generators instead of fixing the electric power problem. They have chosen to build mansions in choice locations in London instead of developing Nigeria’s infrastructure. They have chosen to fly posh private jets instead of fixing our abysmal roads. 

They have chosen to send their wards to choice schools in London and the USA instead of fixing our poor educational institution. They have chosen to surround themselves with policemen paid with taxpayers sweat instead of fixing our very poor security. 

Again, the list goes on and on and on.
Our leaders, no more than the present one, have wittingly or unwittingly, been the purveyor of disunity. This has been manifested in the lopsided appointments of the current administration against the spirit and dictates of the federal character as enshrined in the constitution. 

Without over hitting the issue, our constitution and federalism is built on the three principles of freedom, equity and justice, which the President, by his actions seems not to have taken to heart.

The problem is not t that we don’t know what to do, but that we have chosen to do the opposite. Our leaders have chosen the path of selfishness instead of nationhood, and when you sacrifice nationhood on the altar of selfish interest there is bound to be a problem. The problem is that those who feel that they have been short-changed will want out of the union. It is little wonder then that we have many secessionist groups today.

In dealing with these secessionist groups, like always, our leaders have again chosen to follow the path of selfishness rather than the heroic path of selfless nationhood. 

Mohammadu Buhari has, instead of appealing to the secessionists’ conscience and sense of unity, appealed to their traumatophobia and cowardice; telling them that Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable and that secessionist agitation will not be tolerated. He went further in his 57th Independence speech to say that “those who were there (referring to the civil war) should tell those who were not there what happened… as if telling the agitators, we killed you in your numbers before, we will do it again. This is the hallmark of a bully and a tyrant.

Someone should remind the president that, not only does every group of persons have the right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN charter of which Nigeria is a signatory to, threat and force does not and has never worked in quelling secessionist agitation or any agitation for that matter. If anything, threat and force only serve to make it popular.

It is surprising that a president who condemns the Israeli occupation of Palestine would use force and threat of force against his own citizens. It is even more baffling that a president under whose watch a governor told Nigerians that he has traced the Fulani herdsmen who has been murdering innocent Nigerians to a foreign country and have compensated them monetarily not to harm Nigerians, would send pythons to dance with his own citizens. 

How does this make sense in any guise?
We use this opportunity to advise the President to approach this issue of secession and other issues troubling this nation as a democrat and not as a dictator. Your rhetoric, Mr President is only serving to embolden the secessionists and make their movement more popular. If they were to abandon their cause now based on your utterances, they would be telling themselves and the world that they are cowards, because that is the side you are appealing to by telling them to remember what was done to them in 1967.

It would serve the country well if Mr President would thread the path of dialogue and reasoning rather than appearing to issue threats. When a child is aggrieved, it is only wise for a father to find out the reason for his grievance and, as much as is possible, try to ameliorate said grievance.

Signed:
For: Basic Rights Enlightenment Foundation

AUGUSTINE OKECHUKWU, President and IKECHUKWU MADUIKE, Secretary General

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