LET’S TALK ABOUT THE BREAKUP Category: Opinion Published on Friday, 15 November 2013 05:00 Written by Abulrazaque Bello-Barkindo Hits: 28 The strongest impres-sion in my mind after a week of listening to the pros and cons of the national dialogue committee headed by Senator Femi Okurounmu is that Nigeria’s political stability has reached an impasse at all levels. Since the announcement months ago, that a national dialogue is to take place, a lot of arguments have made me especially, uncomfortable, and most of it has to do with the notion that the north is steadfastly opposed to any form of dialogue, sovereign or tele-guided. This is true only to the extent that those who hold the view believe that the north comprises only of city people. They, city people are the ones who fret over the oneness of Nigeria. The rest do not care. Those who do not care, whether Nigeria continues to remain this loose federation or crumbles, at least in the north, are in the majority. And their reasons are simple and myriad. First, if one goes by the opinion of most northerners, this is the right time for the country to fall apart. The federal unit called Nigeria which the southern part of the country continues to think has favoured northerners more than their southern brethren has done little to improve the lot of the local population. A run around the federating states of the north show strong vestiges of poverty and deprivation and since the current government came to power hard facts of neglect leading to the conclusion that the union called Nigeria has failed the region. So why would the people fear to experiment with balkanisation? To the average literate northerner, and even the radio listening illiterate, there should be only one item on the dialogue agenda – for Nigeria to be or not to be. Some of the people I talked to even suggest that we adopt the David Mark style of voting for or against, in which the “ayes” almost always have it. The compelling argu-ment, if you ask any non- northerner, is that the north cannot stand life without oil. Even the fact that several states in the north have announced the discovery of the black gold in their domain and that exploration is about to commence does not help matters. I am not one of those who rejoice at the disclosure knowing fully that the longevity of oil in the global scheme of things may not extend beyond the next two decades. But those who cannot imagine life without it, have turned this national dialogue into a scarecrow to whip the north back-into-line. However, why don’t we discuss the break-up of Nigeria if that is what the president wants anyway? We must not allow the insecurities of one man to destroy our self-esteem. If Jonathan cannot live without the presidency, does that give him the right to call for this senseless dialogue at a time when his power and authority is challenged by seven members of his Ku Klux Klan? As Nigerians, our dis-comfort with history is well known. Past national confabs have only resulted in enormous waste of resources. None of them was implemented. As a country and society, we squirm against the turbid facts of our creation; instead of trying to iron out the uncertainties, manufacture clarity in place of ambiguities and look at ways of developing at speed with other countries of the world, we stick our heads in the sand and grandstand. There are more compelling issues that the president alone could address and return the nation to the cherished path of sanity. They include the morally challenging issues involving Diezani Alison- Maduekwe, Stella Oduah, Patience Jonathan, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala, and Mohammed Bello Adoke, among many others, and the attitude of a president who does not give a damn. Address these and kill corruption and Nigeria is home and dry. Whether we like it or not, our pride as a country is in the successes of previous governments. I am not saying that those leaders have done awesomely well to keep Nigeria one, but yes we have been one for the past fifty-three years and if it is our choice to disengage from one another at this time of our national life, why not? If, on the other hand, inflating the inadequacies of the north and then forcing your children into consuming them over and over again until they become xenophobic towards the north makes you happy, so be it. But it must not be used as a political weapon to cow people into submitting to a grossly incompetent administration such as Jonathan’s. The question of our inability to confront what may be shameful or ambiguous or what simply doesn’t fit into what we wish to believe of ourselves from our colonial compromises has until now been considered a public problem. But Nigerians must read history properly and give it accurate interpretation. The day’s difficulties lie solely on Jonathan’s shoulders. He is thezero who used faith to get to power and legitimise his brutality on the populace. It may not be his making that Nigeria has become used to a manufactured history and fallen in love with the green and white colours of national fiction. But the story doesn’t end there. There are many countries that create histories and hope that a nation can be created out of them. Ours has turned out differently. What was an affliction of political and public history has extended its tentacles into the private sphere, into concepts of self, of what is and what will be. This has influenced the habits of our youth who believes in fiction to sustain his self- image; who lies about his income, spends above his means and insists on princely or semi-feudal origins. The solution is not in dialogue, but in cultural rejuvenation and ultimately, in justice.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 04:40:32 +0000
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