Time To Revisit that Nyakos Treasonable Memo To His Northern Counterparts The contents of Nyako’s memo to his northern counterparts are too unedifying to warrant any repetition, but suffice to say even in his existential state as an individual, Nyako was caught in a seemingly clannish grandstanding, after he accused the Jonathan administration of perpetrating the mass murder of Muslims for partisan political advantage. It was not the first time Nyako was making these disturbing accusations. Recently, in faraway America, he directly accused the Federal Government and its security agencies of fueling the Boko Haram insurgency. The choice of a foreign country for such an accusation was clearly inappropriate and less than patriotic. Nevertheless, coming from a former high-ranking military officer and the governor of an affected state, these are weighty allegations from someone who knows better, and so must be taken seriously. In a swift reaction, the Presidency dismissed Nyako’s letter as “extremely divisive and intentionally meant to incite one section of the country against the other...Nyako’s claim that President Goodluck Jonathan is from the Eastern region, which, according to him, was responsible for the killing of Northern political elites on the 15th of January 1966, is a very disgraceful remark by the governor and a pathetic embarrassment to the Nigerian Military from where Nyako derives his career antecedents,” adding that the letter is an “unmitigated leadership disaster and a sad betrayal of trust by a major beneficiary of the Nigerian Nation. The content of the Governor’s letter unfortunately exposes him as lacking a sense of history as well as incapable of rising above parochial sentiments and possessing a morbid hatred for facts and truth in public discourse.” The unsavory exchange, of course, made sensational headlines but it certainly will not stop the insurgency. In point of fact though, Nyako and the northern governors should be hiding their heads in shame, for failing to walk the talk by apparently looking the other way, while pointing accusing fingers at the federal government for the horrendous gravity of the insurgency and senseless killings going on in their States. Too many security personnel are being killed by a presumably less trained terrorist group. Even far more innocent civilians are falling victims. The air is rank with tension, there is disenchantment everywhere. In short, what is currently on display is a groundswell of anger, occasioned by poverty and public distrust for government and this has fueled the insurgency into a time-bomb. The halting grammar and rambling syntax notwithstanding, Nyako’s admonition seem an expression of concern, if not worry, of someone who has seen the good, the bad and ugly of Nigeria. A retired Chief of Naval Staff; Nyako has been endowed by circumstance and history with the attainment of a position that is symbolically above government intrigues and ethnic patronage. As a governor, he has attained a statesmanlike height and pedestal of influence and experience whereby the roadmap for national reconstruction could be crafted from his public utterances. Because of the volatility of Nigerian politics, Nyako ought to maintain a graceful distance from any form of clannishness and refrain from utterances that overheat the polity, given his status. His understanding of the civil war was a despicable vilification of the multitudes who died in that grotesque campaign of human savagery and barbarism. But by electing to disperse his missive only to the Northern Governors Forum, an ethnic coalition in which he is a chieftain, Nyako validated ethnic nationalism, and negated the very notion of one Nigeria he was espousing. The monumental contradiction was self-evident with Nyako wearing the garb of an ethnic jingoist while dishing out preachments about a united Nigeria. His bellicosity highlighted what is truly definitive in contemporary Nigeria, namely the phantom unity of the multiplicity of nations that make up Nigeria, and the absence of a distinct national character. Yes, its time to revisit that treasonable memo that was written by Nyako.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 12:26:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015