by Eze Eluchie
As the Nigerian
contraption approaches its centenary (since the 1914 amalgamation of three
entities, to wit: the Northern Protectorate, Southern Protectorate and Colony
of Lagos into a single entity by British colonial authorities), the internal
dynamics which has continually seen its various component factors, ethnic,
religious and social, pitched in perpetual conflict, one against the other,
appears to be approaching a climax.
I have been
repeatedly asked as to why I refer to my country as a ‘contraption’. The answer
is trite. That is simply what Nigeria truthfully is – a contraption. Referring
to Nigeria as either a ‘nation’ or a federation’ would tantamount to telling a
lie, as the country is neither! There is however nothing wrong in being a
contraption – many nations today started off as contraptions, such as the
former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of
America (US) which started off as a contraption of 13 British colonies. The
problem is however what you do with your contraption.
With regards to the
US, its founding fathers, worked hard towards transforming their contraption
into the behemoth success it is today, setting in motion policies and practices
which sought to integrate the various diverse peoples and cultures in their
contraption into one homogeneous entity. Transformation from contraption into
nationhood is however a continuum, as can be gleaned at from the
racial-tensions which continue to blight the American dream.
Ours on the converse
has been most retrogressive. From a contraption which saw ourselves as divided
along three distinct geopo0litical lines in 1914, divisive colonial rule and
its attendant legacies, left us sharply divided along myriad ethnic and
religious lines by the time of ‘political independence’ in 1960.
Since ‘independence’,
rulership under a primitive, thieving and self-destructive ‘elite’ class who,
as a collective, seem to derive joy in inflicting hardship on their fellow
co-travelers in the contraption has further widened the gulf between the
various peoples of Nigeria into over 36 States, 774 local enclaves, a
multiplicity of religious sects and denominations and now sexual/marital
preferences. In a bid to retain a stranglehold on power, the rulers manipulate
peoples who had previously felt some form of amity into blood enemies; brothers
are turned against brothers; and brethrens against brethrens.
The worrisome state
of our contraption has engendered despondency amongst the populace. All manners
of separatist organizations (most of these are actually pseudo-businesses, as
the leaders of such groups smile home to the bank on the back of the hapless
coerced membership and the silence of the enlightened), each laying a bogus
claim to representing one segment of the contraption or the other, have sprung
up to feast on the decay.
If we were to go the
way the various ‘separatist pseudo-businesses’ are clamoring, virtually every
family group will be a republic unto itself – a travesty that will leave each
and every of such new entities at the mercy of larger and more entrenched
players in a new world order where might is increasingly becoming right.
Moreover, as can be gleaned at from the modus operandi of these ‘separatist
pseudo-businesses’, the people such groups claim to represents will fare far
worse under the dictatorship of the ethnic war-lords in the event of an all out
splitting of the contraption.
Resulting from inept
rulership being experienced in all strata of governance, more easily noticeable
at the center because of the overconcentration of resources there, too much
innocent blood has been, and continues to be shed, to sustain our contraption.
Certainly, it is better to be alive in family-group republic than to be a
corpse in the gigantean contraption
Do we throw in the
towel? Certainly not!
My persistent call
for restructuring and renegotiation of the contraption is being cunningly
re-crafted, reconstructed and presented to the populace, by a more lethal and
dangerous band of kleptocrats posturing as ‘progressives’ and their cohorts
comprised mainly of rejects from the ruling party, as a call to merely replace
the present crop of rulers at the federal level.
Let me be explicitly
clear in this instance: rather than falling into the trap being spawned by the
band of opportunists led by and comprised of certificate forgers who see
nothing wrong in placing their entire families and bootlickers in different
political offices, ethno-religious extremists who are out of touch with our
present realities and have no affinity across geo-political divides, and
discredited criminal elements who after fleecing public coffers in the offices
they were opportune to be appointed/(s)elected into now turn around and have
the temerity to deem themselves as ‘opposition/progressives’ described in the
preceding paragraph, we will be far better off continuing with the status quo
(at the Federal level)! If the nightmarish probability of falling into the trap
was to ever occur, it will tantamount to a re-destruction of the contraption.
My call has been for
a restructuring and renegotiation of the contraption and certainly not for a
re-destruction.
Goodluck Jonathan now
simply has to buckle up!
Agreed Jonathan came
into office primarily on the basis of the virtues enshrined in his and his
wife’s first names (Goodluck and Patience); Further agreed that entrenched
interests who had fed fat from the blood and resources of Nigerians and Nigeria
had assured Jonathan upon his electoral victory in May 2011 that they will make
Nigeria ungovernable for him; Also agreed that these same
‘opposition’/’progressives’ have unleashed benumbing violence on a scale
unprecedented in the history of any African country against the polity to
ensure public ill-will within the contraption; The reality remains that for now, someone occupies the office of President of the Federal Republic,
and that person should act accordingly.
In the interim, and
certainly before any further pretense at national elections, Nigerians should
be allowed the opportunity to discuss the framework for the continued existence
of our contraption with a view to ensuring peaceful coexistence of peoples not
only within our contraption but also forestall upheavals that will, with all
certainty, impact negatively on the entire West and Central African regions.
Time is running out!
Picture: Anger in the
land. An explosion in Nigeria will present a humanitarian disaster as has never
before been seen anywhere since the end of WWII
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