I have a very good friend, who is also a brother and we were classmates and course mates in the university over 30 years ago. We also belong to a platform on the Internet where issues are frequently raised and debated. The subjects range from the mundane to the serious. Passions can also be strong on positions taken by persons on any particular subject. No prior rules were set from the onset, no parametres and no ‘no-go’ areas. The interesting thing about this ‘chat’ platform, in the many months that it has been on, is that there have been no quarrels and no name-calling. There had been marked differences of opinions, which had been vigorously canvassed but somehow we had, without being prompted, known where to apply the brakes. In June, we had cause to speak to the issue of the ubiquitous National Question and the perceived inclinations of the extant class of the ruling elite. As you would expect, passions were high and the voices for and against the choices we are making now, as a country were strident and unyielding, until the intervention of that my brother.
His name is Mike Asuquo. He wrote in response to my submission to the forum and the amplification by Chido Nwakanma, another friend, brother, classmate and course mate, concerning the goings-on in Nigeria. He said: “Thanks, Ugo, for crystallising our thought and perspective. And Chido, for further honing it. When a country dies, it does not do so in its geographic attributes, but in the hearts and minds of men – and women.” Mike went on to say that some of our so-called leaders are by their actions and inactions driving the nails deeper into what could turn out to be the country’s coffin. The “undertakers”, he said, “are hovering. But then, I pray that I am proved a failed prophet on this particular score! We are living witnesses to a Nollywood, nay Shakespearean, tragedy being acted out before our very eyes. Even the good Lord must have regretted this Lugardian contraption or project. Achebe was a seer – THERE WAS A COUNTRY”. I observed that after the intervention by Mike, everybody became sober and a lot more contemplative. The phrase that a country starts dying from the ‘hearts and minds of men – and women’, young and old was sobering. And frightening. In truth, I have not averted my mind to that profound statement in the context of what is happening in Nigeria today.
Is it not possible that in the hearts and minds of the promoters of the Indigenous People of Biafra [IPOB] and their sympathisers, Nigeria is dying in spite of the fact that Nigeria’s geographic space and attributes remain largely unaltered? In the hearts and minds of the sponsors and militants of the Niger Delta Avengers [NDA], the country may also be dying. In the hearts and minds of the Fulani Militia, popularly but wrongly referred to as Fulani herdsmen, the country, as we know it, is also dying. In the hearts and minds of the activists in the Oodua People’s Congress [OPC] and the Afenifere Renewal Group [ARG], the country is dying. The same can be said for every other self-determination group spread across the country. To be sure, there are many Nigerians who will dismiss this assertion as idle talk, and indeed the ranting of the latest losers in the perennial power struggle among the ruling elite.
The problem is that the country did not start dying because one Muhammadu Buhari was elected its president a little over one year ago. Like his predecessors, Buhari’s actions are adding to the hurt. But unlike others before him, his own approach in hurting sections of the country is brazen and utterly insensitive. To use the local parlance or lingo, the president appears to be telling the sections of the country, who are hurting from his actions and policies and utterances and appointments: ‘Do your worst’. I dare say that never in the history of this country have we had a more divisive and insensitive leadership.
The ‘do your worst’ disposition of the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC] and President Buhari is now playing out in the clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria. For the avoidance of doubt, the demand for the structure and direction of the country pre-dated Nigeria’s independence. If the structure of Nigeria did not matter, the North would not have insisted that Britain delayed the granting of autonomy to Nigeria’s regions in 1958. If the structure of the country did not matter, there would not have been the need for the London conferences ahead of independence. If the structure and the restructuring of Nigeria did not matter, the Aburi [Ghana] Accords would not have arisen. President Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, their spokespersons, the APC and their militant arm, the Arewa Consultative Forum [ACF], can never wish it away, no matter how hard they try.
Buhari’s new love for rehashing Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s era slogan of ‘to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be accomplished’ is completely misplaced. The circumstances are different. Gowon’s was a military regime and he was engaged in a shooting war. We are not in a shooting war in spite of the many documented shooting and killing of unarmed agitators for Biafra by the Nigerian Army and Police in the South East and South South regions of the country as well as the unconscionable massacre of members of an Islamic sect in Zaria, Kaduna State, late last year and the burial of the victims in a mass grave, also by the Army. The only thing that is permanent is change and change is supposed to be the raison d’être of this administration. When the president says the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and the restructuring of the country is haram, what he does is to put a disclaimer on a key element of the manifesto of the APC. And to make peaceful negotiations difficult.
The demand for the restructuring of the country cuts across board. Former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyoku, has been on it for years. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has spoken on it. The same for Prof. Wole Soyinka. True federalism has been the battle cry of the Yoruba nation for decades until recently when the voices of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu section of the Yoruba got it muffled. Even then some voices in that group have spoken up in support of restructuring. It might be helpful for Buhari to take to heart the admonition of the Afenifere Renewal Group [ARG] when it said: “Both the president and the ACF need to take lessons on managing an all inclusive, pan-Nigerian government. We wonder on what consensus or authority the so-called non-negotiable unity of Nigeria stands. Is it based on government’s ability to silence all dissenters or the capability to manage a diverse society in a manner that makes every component proud.”
Those who canvass restructuring of the country should not relent in spite of the president. In fourteen months, Buhari had flip flopped on key policies. He was wrong on petroleum products subsidy. He was wrong on Naira exchange rate. He was wrong on refineries. He was wrong on employment. He was wrong on N5000 for unemployed youths. He was wrong on one million barrels of crude oil stolen daily. He was wrong on the budget being the panacea for our woes. So far he has not come through on feeding school pupils. The employment of 500,000 graduates has entered voicemail. He has failed the integrity test given the grossly lopsided appointments into government positions. He was wrong on power supply. And he will also ultimately be wrong on restructuring.
•Concluded.

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