Restructuring is a Necessity

By Ogiri John Ogiri

We seem, now, to be witnessing a refurbished era of re-invigorated regional and sub-regional nationalism. Citizens' allegiance now appears to have been tilted away from national defence and survival towards regional survival and self-preservation so that it is now difficult to establish a premise upon which a conclusion can be drawn that our corporate existence as a nation is non-negotiable. This age-long belief in and adoration of the principle of non-negotiability of our corporate existence as a country is now being betrayed by the realities on ground. Nothing threatens our corporate existence as a sovereign country more than these realities. Unfortunately, over time, we have continued to hold on to the choice of living in denial of these unfair, unjust realities. Thanks to the recent shameful escalations in the spate of unprovoked attacks on indigenous communities by suspected marauders or herdsmen, many Nigerians are now resorting to self-help. The body language from the current administration has not significantly encouraged bestowment of trust and repose of confidence by the citizens on the government. A particular group seems to be treated as more important than others. This has not been without some retaliatory consequences as many citizens now take to self-help.

In the allegorical novella, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell first published in England in August, 1945, a group of animals led by Napoleon (the pig) came up with seven commandments to guide their affairs. One of such is that "all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others". What later followed as a result of the dictatorial posture of Napoleon and his cohorts was the loss of their struggle for equality, freedom and happiness which left the farm in a worse condition than before. The implication of this for us is that we can lose our country if we keep treating one tribe as more important than the others in the way and we make key appointments and run our country. Placing a tribe over others in a plural society like ours will, in the end, not augur well with our collective unity. Those who feel threatened by the domination by the enthroned tribe will not be able to resist the adrenal urge to resort to self-help. To insist on, and pursue, by way of deliberate policy, that dangerous principle that " all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others" in this 21st century is to pitch one tribe against another in a mutually unfavourable way.

In recent time, Nigeria has witnessed countless cases of coordinated attacks from a particular ethnic group against others without a very satisfactory and fair response from the government. This silence has continued to be interpreted by the daring attackers to mean consent as they now act as though only they posses monopoly of violence.

It should be noted that no tribe possesses monopoly of violence and no tribe is afraid of violence. In fact, every tribe is capable of it. It is just that, for love of God, neighbours and country, some tribes choose to establish a clear boundary between primitive madness and reasonable cool-headedness, restrain their "mad men" from having to exhibit the former while guiding them to embrace the way of the latter which is the way of sustainable peace and development. 

It is therefore unacceptable for any tribe to take an undue advantage of a people's age-long culture of hospitality, accommodation, tolerant spirit and peaceful nature and convert such an advantage into a launch pad for ethnic subjugation and territorial conquest and expansion. 

Honestly, it is foolhardy to keep pretending that one Nigeria is possible in the absence of a comprehensive restructuring of the foundation of our corporate entity as a nation. I am glad that a core Nigerian academic from the north, the revered Professor and former INEC umpire, Attahiru Jega, has contributed his seminal intervention in the whole debate on the inevitability of restructuring in Nigeria. More intellectual giants from the north should follow suit as a way of helping many understand what restructuring entails.

A fundamental way out of this is an unconditional resort to true federalism and this can brought about only through sincere restructuring. I prefer a restructured Nigeria to a divided one. But if we, by deliberate choice, ignore the urgency of the former, we should be prepared to face the inevitability of the latter. We cannot afford to keep pretending that Nigeria under the current structure is sustainable. To do so is to postpone the evil days.

May Nigeria succeed!

©Ogiri John Ogiri.