Vunderkind
Social Member
The deaths of Yar Adua, Abacha and Abiola plunged Nigeria into a crisis. That is, a period portending great danger for the corporate body called Nigeria as well as near limitless opportunities for progress, for a departure from the tension, the stagnation, the corruption and the injustices associated with the dark period known as the Abacha days.
For the leaders of Southern Nigeria and, in particular, the two dominant tribes, the Igbo and Yoruba, it represented an opportunity once more to make a move for the presidency, and shift power (whatever that means) away from the North which has come to be portrayed as the source of all the problems of the nation. The desire to win over power is the natural goal of political activists. The use of propaganda, blackmail, lies, bribery, deception, even threats of secession has been the hallmark of many an astute political strategy aimed at attaining set goals. Yet the choice of which method is appropriate to a specific polity in a specific historical context is a difficult one, requiring a high sense of perception, a knowledge of history, a natural intelligence and political sophistication.
In choosing the path of black-mail and ethnocentric diatribe, the leaders of the South have once more displayed to the world their political naivete, and set the stage for another defeat that may see them remaining in opposition for the next four years.
For a people who take pride in the depth of their Western Education and who have often expressed contempt for the "backwardness" and "illiteracy" of their northern brothers, southern politicians have presented to the world the ever-present proof that "book - knowledge" and intelligence are not necessarily correlated.
One recalls Chief Awolowo's description of Shagari as a "glorified Grade Two Teacher". It was missing on Awolowo' that the more contemptible the adjectives he used to describe Shagari, the lower he sank in the eyes of perceptive watchers, as the man he was describing had clearly shown that he was better by defeating him in a race both participated in from start to finish.
Western Liberal Democracy is a product of the nation-state. It takes as given, the corporate existence of the state and establishes institutions and the rule of law such as to ensure that the system, rather than an individual, is relied upon for safeguarding individual rights and societal values. To the extent that Nigerians have decided to pursue the path of the Western Nations (or at least those in power have decided that this is the way to go) participants would do well to bear this fact in mind. A democratic system is primarily about Institutions and the rule of law. It is not about individuals.
We need a system, based on laws and a constitution agreed upon by all, that guarantees each and every Nigerian wherever he is from the right to full political participation and unfettered expression. A system that protects each and every one of us from the tyranny of an individual. A system in which our dignity and liberty are not protected only when the president comes from our own part of the country.
Abacha was a corrupt, ruthless dictator - period. Where he was from is immaterial. All Nigerians, Northerners and Southerners, Muslim and Christians, suffered from the corruption and injustices of his regime with the exception of a small band of family members, sycophants and traitors who joined him in looting the coffers of our nation. Those who stood against his tyranny and spoke out for freedom and equity suffered: among them Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Abiola, Rimi, Ige, Lamido, Nwakwo and Ken Sarowiwa. A cursory look at the list of those detained, framed, murdered, lied against, pauperized and otherwise abused in the last five years will prove to honest persons that Abacha was no respecter of region or religion and that he represented the least form of humanity degenerating dangerously close to bestiality, which is why, like Pharaoh, he is remembered today for his evil rather than his good, for no good of his can obviate the memory, etched in the individual and collective consciousness of Nigerians, of what it is like to live in an environment of terror, not knowing who next will be struck with impunity.
In pretending that these are not the issues, in teaching their followers to oppose Abacha not for his corruption, greed and cruelty but for his ethnic origins, in portraying the annulment of the June, 1993 election as an act against the Yoruba, in pretending that Abiola's death in prison was in some way different from 'Yar Adua's death in prison, in claiming that the solution to this country's predicament lies in changing the ethnicity of the president and producing a "Southern" President: in all this, the political leaders of the South have displayed the highest degree of naivete, the lowest sense of responsibility and the crudest application of their intellectual faculties. Worse than all this, they have played straight into the hands of their political rivals, the Northern Politicians.
The history of Nigeria since independence is too recent, too many real-life participants are still alive, for it to be rewritten with impunity as a political strategy. It was only in the 1960's that the Nigerian Army's officer corps was predominated by officers of Igbo extraction. It was only in 1966 that a group of such officers decided to destroy the peace of this nation and wage a war against other tribal groups. That was when the five majors decided to eliminate the Premiers of the North and West while letting the Igbo Premier go scot-free, to assassinate the Prime Minister who was a northerner after having advised the Igbo President to flee and letting the Igbo Senate leader go scot-free. To execute the Minister of Finance who was from the Mid-West; to execute the most senior military officers from the North and the West while letting the most senior military officer and army commander who was Igbo go scot-free. Not one prominent Igbo leader, military or civilian was touched . All the prominent civilian and military leaders from other regions were executed. The Igbo senate leader, acting for the Igbo president in his absence was, by the constitution, mandated to swear - in the most senior NPC minister as Prime minister. He did not. Instead, having consulted his Igbo President, and the president alone, he handed over power to the Igbo GOC in flagrant disregard for the provisions of the constitution. The speech of Nzeogwu, the magazines and newspapers published in the six months of the Ironsi government, his declaration of a unitary state, the provocation of northerners by Igbo traders who laughed at them in Sabon Gari markets, all of these are too recent, too well-documented to be rewritten.
The Igbo people were responsible for the first military coup in this country; They were responsible for the first attempt at ethnic cleansing; They were responsible for the first violation of constitutionally laid down succession procedures; they were responsible for the destruction of the federation and the creation of the unitary system of which they are now victims (since the initial objective was for the Igbos to dominate the other groups); they were responsible for Nigeria's first civil war.
It makes no sense, in the face of these facts, repeat facts, for the Igbos to shed tears today and claim to have always been an aggrieved party. It will convince no one. Granted, the Igbo people as a whole must not be punished for the action of some. Granted, there can never be full reconciliation without justice and equity. Granted, the Igbo people, like all Nigerians, have the right to fight against perceived injustices. The way to do this is by integration into the country, by joining broad-based parties and establishing a system that guarantees all individuals and groups their rights and liberty. It is not by crying Biafra again. It not by following the man who led them to defeat and ran away to come back later and enjoy his wealth. The Igbos have always had alliances with other parts of the country. The astute political strategy is to go into one now. Tribalism will lead to defeat, once more, and even more humiliation.
As for the Yoruba, they have not been known to call for secession or the break-up of the country until recently in the aftermath of the June 12 crisis and Abiola's death. One may not agree entirely with their description of themselves as peaceful people, but they clearly are a peace -preferring people, consistent with their well-known nature of seeking maximum enjoyment from life at minimal personal cost. The Yoruba instinctively know that more can be gained in peacetime than in war. Being business people, they have an acute sense of the risks of war and its implication in terms of destruction of accumulated wealth and property.
Yet in spite of this, the Yoruba have in their politics displayed two consistent streaks that have consistently kept them in opposition and cost them opportunities for coming to power. The first is vanity - a dangerous state of self-delusion borne of imagined intellectual and academic superiority over opponents and rivals alike. Thus, Yoruba politicians have consistently underestimated their northern opponents who thrive on wily intrigues and far-sighted manipulation of the political process. They have also assumed to their peril that other southern tribes would naturally acquiesce to their leadership and be lured into a southern alliance whose objective is to help secure supremacy and power for the south - west. Even the so-called Oduduwa republic assumes that the people of the former mid-west who had fought for an independent region in the sixties will willingly resubmit themselves to Yoruba domination.
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For the leaders of Southern Nigeria and, in particular, the two dominant tribes, the Igbo and Yoruba, it represented an opportunity once more to make a move for the presidency, and shift power (whatever that means) away from the North which has come to be portrayed as the source of all the problems of the nation. The desire to win over power is the natural goal of political activists. The use of propaganda, blackmail, lies, bribery, deception, even threats of secession has been the hallmark of many an astute political strategy aimed at attaining set goals. Yet the choice of which method is appropriate to a specific polity in a specific historical context is a difficult one, requiring a high sense of perception, a knowledge of history, a natural intelligence and political sophistication.
In choosing the path of black-mail and ethnocentric diatribe, the leaders of the South have once more displayed to the world their political naivete, and set the stage for another defeat that may see them remaining in opposition for the next four years.
For a people who take pride in the depth of their Western Education and who have often expressed contempt for the "backwardness" and "illiteracy" of their northern brothers, southern politicians have presented to the world the ever-present proof that "book - knowledge" and intelligence are not necessarily correlated.
One recalls Chief Awolowo's description of Shagari as a "glorified Grade Two Teacher". It was missing on Awolowo' that the more contemptible the adjectives he used to describe Shagari, the lower he sank in the eyes of perceptive watchers, as the man he was describing had clearly shown that he was better by defeating him in a race both participated in from start to finish.
Western Liberal Democracy is a product of the nation-state. It takes as given, the corporate existence of the state and establishes institutions and the rule of law such as to ensure that the system, rather than an individual, is relied upon for safeguarding individual rights and societal values. To the extent that Nigerians have decided to pursue the path of the Western Nations (or at least those in power have decided that this is the way to go) participants would do well to bear this fact in mind. A democratic system is primarily about Institutions and the rule of law. It is not about individuals.
We need a system, based on laws and a constitution agreed upon by all, that guarantees each and every Nigerian wherever he is from the right to full political participation and unfettered expression. A system that protects each and every one of us from the tyranny of an individual. A system in which our dignity and liberty are not protected only when the president comes from our own part of the country.
Abacha was a corrupt, ruthless dictator - period. Where he was from is immaterial. All Nigerians, Northerners and Southerners, Muslim and Christians, suffered from the corruption and injustices of his regime with the exception of a small band of family members, sycophants and traitors who joined him in looting the coffers of our nation. Those who stood against his tyranny and spoke out for freedom and equity suffered: among them Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Abiola, Rimi, Ige, Lamido, Nwakwo and Ken Sarowiwa. A cursory look at the list of those detained, framed, murdered, lied against, pauperized and otherwise abused in the last five years will prove to honest persons that Abacha was no respecter of region or religion and that he represented the least form of humanity degenerating dangerously close to bestiality, which is why, like Pharaoh, he is remembered today for his evil rather than his good, for no good of his can obviate the memory, etched in the individual and collective consciousness of Nigerians, of what it is like to live in an environment of terror, not knowing who next will be struck with impunity.
In pretending that these are not the issues, in teaching their followers to oppose Abacha not for his corruption, greed and cruelty but for his ethnic origins, in portraying the annulment of the June, 1993 election as an act against the Yoruba, in pretending that Abiola's death in prison was in some way different from 'Yar Adua's death in prison, in claiming that the solution to this country's predicament lies in changing the ethnicity of the president and producing a "Southern" President: in all this, the political leaders of the South have displayed the highest degree of naivete, the lowest sense of responsibility and the crudest application of their intellectual faculties. Worse than all this, they have played straight into the hands of their political rivals, the Northern Politicians.
The history of Nigeria since independence is too recent, too many real-life participants are still alive, for it to be rewritten with impunity as a political strategy. It was only in the 1960's that the Nigerian Army's officer corps was predominated by officers of Igbo extraction. It was only in 1966 that a group of such officers decided to destroy the peace of this nation and wage a war against other tribal groups. That was when the five majors decided to eliminate the Premiers of the North and West while letting the Igbo Premier go scot-free, to assassinate the Prime Minister who was a northerner after having advised the Igbo President to flee and letting the Igbo Senate leader go scot-free. To execute the Minister of Finance who was from the Mid-West; to execute the most senior military officers from the North and the West while letting the most senior military officer and army commander who was Igbo go scot-free. Not one prominent Igbo leader, military or civilian was touched . All the prominent civilian and military leaders from other regions were executed. The Igbo senate leader, acting for the Igbo president in his absence was, by the constitution, mandated to swear - in the most senior NPC minister as Prime minister. He did not. Instead, having consulted his Igbo President, and the president alone, he handed over power to the Igbo GOC in flagrant disregard for the provisions of the constitution. The speech of Nzeogwu, the magazines and newspapers published in the six months of the Ironsi government, his declaration of a unitary state, the provocation of northerners by Igbo traders who laughed at them in Sabon Gari markets, all of these are too recent, too well-documented to be rewritten.
The Igbo people were responsible for the first military coup in this country; They were responsible for the first attempt at ethnic cleansing; They were responsible for the first violation of constitutionally laid down succession procedures; they were responsible for the destruction of the federation and the creation of the unitary system of which they are now victims (since the initial objective was for the Igbos to dominate the other groups); they were responsible for Nigeria's first civil war.
It makes no sense, in the face of these facts, repeat facts, for the Igbos to shed tears today and claim to have always been an aggrieved party. It will convince no one. Granted, the Igbo people as a whole must not be punished for the action of some. Granted, there can never be full reconciliation without justice and equity. Granted, the Igbo people, like all Nigerians, have the right to fight against perceived injustices. The way to do this is by integration into the country, by joining broad-based parties and establishing a system that guarantees all individuals and groups their rights and liberty. It is not by crying Biafra again. It not by following the man who led them to defeat and ran away to come back later and enjoy his wealth. The Igbos have always had alliances with other parts of the country. The astute political strategy is to go into one now. Tribalism will lead to defeat, once more, and even more humiliation.
As for the Yoruba, they have not been known to call for secession or the break-up of the country until recently in the aftermath of the June 12 crisis and Abiola's death. One may not agree entirely with their description of themselves as peaceful people, but they clearly are a peace -preferring people, consistent with their well-known nature of seeking maximum enjoyment from life at minimal personal cost. The Yoruba instinctively know that more can be gained in peacetime than in war. Being business people, they have an acute sense of the risks of war and its implication in terms of destruction of accumulated wealth and property.
Yet in spite of this, the Yoruba have in their politics displayed two consistent streaks that have consistently kept them in opposition and cost them opportunities for coming to power. The first is vanity - a dangerous state of self-delusion borne of imagined intellectual and academic superiority over opponents and rivals alike. Thus, Yoruba politicians have consistently underestimated their northern opponents who thrive on wily intrigues and far-sighted manipulation of the political process. They have also assumed to their peril that other southern tribes would naturally acquiesce to their leadership and be lured into a southern alliance whose objective is to help secure supremacy and power for the south - west. Even the so-called Oduduwa republic assumes that the people of the former mid-west who had fought for an independent region in the sixties will willingly resubmit themselves to Yoruba domination.
Click to read full article
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