Nigeria: Things Have Truly Fallen Apart.

by Eze Eluchie,

"Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...." {The Second Coming' by W.B.Yeats, 1919}

The maxim, ‘no news is good news’ has in the course of the past two years, attained the status of fact in Nigeria. Whenever there is a news item on Nigeria in the global news media, it is either the extremist Islamist terror outfit, Boko Haram has staged yet another fatal attack in Nigeria’s north-eastern region leading to the death of innumerable persons or that a suicide bomber has blown him/herself up, taking some innocent bystanders to an early death; or that militants in the ever restive oil-rich Niger Delta region have blown up one oil pipeline or abducted some expatriate staff of oil producing companies; or the ever aggressive Fulani Herdsmen/militia have struck at yet another village in Nigeria’s middle belt region in what is now realized as systematic acts of ethnic cleansing; or one of several separatist ethnocentric groups, such as the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)/Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the south-east region, the Republic of the Niger Delta (RONDEL) in the south-south region, the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) in the western region and the Arewa Youths (AY) in the north-central region, all threatening to secede from Nigeria or issuing quit notices to members of other ethnic groups to evacuate from their respective regions.

When there appears to be a pause in news of extreme terror and physical violence, a tirade of fiscal violence which further deepens the poverty of the Nigerian population overwhelms news coverage. Its either millions of US Dollars stashed away in some unwholesome place (such as burial grounds, septic tanks or in abandoned buildings) surfaces with no one coming forward to claim ownership; or the entire public sector workers in a given state are being owed several months salaries, while thousands of ‘ghost-workers’ {names which receive salaries but are really non-existent} get continually unearthed without any efforts to recover monies paid to ghosts nor prosecute those who received these salaries on behalf of the ‘ghost-workers’; or entire budgetary allocations of government agencies get carted away be those charged with the peoples welfare.

Agreed, Nigeria had never been an El-Dorado. Like most mineral-rich emerging states, divisions along ethno-religious lines, being governed by kleptocrats and prevailing endemic corruption served to impede any real prospects of sustainable national development. Yet the level of depreciation and degradation in national and human life, expectations and prospects has sharply declined in the course of the past 2 years, has been most astonishing. From being the largest and fastest growing economy in Sub Sahara Africa in year 2014, a choice destination for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Nigeria has plummeted to being a pariah state for investors.  

Indeed in Nigeria, things have fallen apart. The question however now is: how did we get here and what can be done to hasten an exit from the quagmire we find ourselves enmeshed in before the situation generates to full-blown mayhem requiring international intervention to quell?

Cause of the Sharp fall: Conscious of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition of Nigeria, past rulers of the country had gone to great lengths to ensure some semblance of equity and balance in their appointments, allocation of national revenue and resources and showing respect for the various ethnicities and religious groups in Nigeria – thus creating a semblance of equilibrium and unity. The emergence of Muhammadu Buhari altered this delicate balance.

The hasty descent begun on the 29^th May, 2015 with the swearing in into office as President of Nigeria of a man of known extremist Islamic disposition who had severally committed himself to ensuring that the Islamic law principles, the Shari’a, was implemented all across Nigeria and who seems more intent to promote nepotism and ethnic preferences far and above any pretence at national cohesion and unity. The insensitivity to the yearnings of the various ethnic groups which the Buhari regime perceived as ‘opposition groups’, gave rise to heightened agitation for self-actualization and disintegration from Nigeria. The component ethnicities of the Nigerian federation who felt disrespected, unwelcome and insulted by several statements, nature of appointments made and general mannerism of the new President naturally felt they would be better off on their own than by being subservient citizens in a country that should ordinarily be theirs.

The agitations for self-determination and splitting from the Nigerian federation are gathering momentum across various regions of Nigeria. A combination of the following factors: 1). the proliferation of arms in the West African region, 2). seizure of several container loads of illicitly imported arms at various ports in Nigeria – raising the prospect that many other containers had surreptitiously been smuggled in, 3). extremely high unemployment rate amongst Nigerian youths, and 4). the festering violent agitations by Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen and some elements among the Niger Delta youths exposes the fact that Nigeria in perched on a very precarious position, akin to being atop a ticking time bomb which can blow-up at any moment.

A way out of the mess:  There is need, as a matter of utmost urgency, for the constituent peoples of the Nigerian federation to dialogue over the avalanche of perceived and or real issues of marginalization, injustice and inequity which continue to fan the embers of discord amongst the peoples of Nigeria. Considering the fact that the very coming into existence of Nigeria as a single entity was by fiat from erstwhile colonial overlords, Great Britain; that the present structure of the Nigerian state into 36 States and 774 Local Government Areas; and the composition of the State and National Assemblies are all factors causing disaffection, such a dialogue process must be sovereign with broad scope and powers to inquire into all and everything surrounding the Nigerian state including but not restricted to its structure and continued existence.

In the event that such dialogue process cannot be organized internally by Nigerians, it would be advisable for such dialogue process to be supervised/moderated by external authorities such as the United nations or the African Union to ensure objective outcomes.. 

Considering Nigeria’s projected population size of over 180 million, the prospect of the ongoing tension in Nigeria degenerating into full-scale conflict and the nightmarish scenario of its huge population streaming across international borders ad overwhelming neighbouring West African countries is too horrendous to be contemplated. It is therefore advised as a matter of utmost urgency, that a sovereign dialogue process of the various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria be convened to discuss on a path forward for the Nigerian state, to determine whether the country will continue to exist as one entity or as separate entities, and under what conditions such coexistence shall be based.

Picture: Map of Nigeria featuring the present 36 States structure which must be restructured if the country has to have any chance at a future:

Open Letter to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: Mr. President, Resign! Let's Restructure Nigeria!!

Mr. Muhammadu Buhari

President of the Federal republic of Nigeria

Presidential Villa

Aso Rock – Abuja

Mr. President,

Sir,

Resign Mr. President, Let’s Restructure Nigeria!

Deliberately, I had postponed penning an open correspondence to your goodself in the hope that the dire expectations and sufferings the people of Nigeria were projected to endure under your government would not materialize. Having delayed for over two years, it is now in the interest of posterity that this letter be written.

In the political campaign seasons prior to the 2015 general elections, I had severally asserted that your being a person who had led your fellow renegade soldiers to overthrown the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari in December 1983 rendered your goodself, technically, a treasonable felon, who was unfit to govern Nigeria under a democratic disposition.

I had also emphasized the fact that ever since your sack from the office of Head of State of Nigeria in August 1985 uptil the time you were contesting for the 2015 presidential elections, you had devoted yourself to two basic causes: championing the interest of your ethnic group (the Fulani) and championing the cause of Islam, with the primary purpose of ensuring that the Shari’a laws are enforced throughout the Nigerian federation. This focus of yours made you an unsuitable person to lead a multi-ethnic and multi-religious entity where the various component peoples were already quite sensitive to ethno-religious nuances.

I had directly also questioned your academic (on account of your lack of requisite academic credentials and observed language defects) and physical (on account of visible depreciation due to age) capacity to govern a multi-ethnic and multi-religious high-population country with under-35 year olds comprising over 80% of the population.

Two years into your 4-year tenure, the worst of our expectations have been surpassed by a wide margin. Nigeria has fallen from heights and is turned into a living nightmare, a real-life horror experience that is scaring the daylights out of its citizens, its immediate neighbouring countries and setting the wider international community on edge on account of the unimaginable consequences and humanitarian expectations from any socio-economic explosion or mass uprising.

When it took you over 5 months to appoint your cabinet Ministers, and by self-inflicted harms arising from policy summersaults and hurtful pronouncements against the State and peoples of Nigeria, ignorantly pushed the Nigerian economy into a vicious recession, it dawned on even the most optimistic observers that there had indeed, all along, been no plans on your part to govern for the general good – your desperate quest for power had merely been for non-altruistic purposes.

Your pronouncements, mannerisms and deliberately skewed pattern of appointing persons into government positions betrayed a disdain for some specific sections of the Nigerian population and ethnic groups, and thus engendered increased clamour for self-determination and at times disintegration of Nigeria. It is deplorable to note that throughout the 2-years you have thus far spent in office, in keeping with your policy thrust that you (your government) cannot be expected to treat those who gave you 5% of their votes during the presidential elections in the same manner you treat peoples who gave you 97% of their votes, you have not deemed it fit to visit, or in any way set your feet down in any of the five states in Nigeria's South Eastern (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo Stats) indigenous to the Igbo ethnic nationality. Questions have thus rightly been raised as to whether you are a President of Nigeria or merely the Sectional President of Nigeria.

Under your watch, deception, ethnocentrism, nepotism and unfair/unjust use of state security and prosecutorial powers against perceived opponents and or peoples of ‘despised’ ethnic groups has been elevated to cardinal principles of governance in Nigeria. Your so-called ‘war against corruption’ has, as a result of your unwillingness and or inability to apply the investigatory and prosecutorial powers of your government evenly on your perceived opponents and political allies alike, been exposed as a mere witch-hunting exercise which only serves to embolden some of your associates to perpetuate more brazen and daring acts of corruption and profligacy.

Even in the area of containing the Boko Haram insurgency which your government has touted as its ‘unique selling point’, the continuing increase in the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s), refugees from Boko Haram insurgency and the fact that BH continues to show an ability to attack military formations with ease, questions the authenticity of such containment. Whatever lull that might have been witnessed in BH terror attacks in Nigeria’s Northeast region is more than adequately replicated in the gruesome and vile attacks Fulani herdsmen/militia have been emboldened to carry out across the various geo-political zones in Nigeria. Under your watch, Mr. President, Herdsmen who had traditionally negotiated their way across territories of other ethnic nationalities, now have the audacity to herd their livestock with sophisticated weapons which they freely use on hapless villages across Nigeria.

The suspicious and questionable manners in which the release of the so-called Chibok girls secondary school ‘abductees’ were effected, additionally, leaves so much to be desired and questions the integrity, objectivity and good faith of the State.

Can anything good be really said to have been occasioned as a result of your ascension into office? I really did try, really hard, to find one, but unfortunately, nothing good was found worthy of mention, as resulting from your occupying the office of President of the Federal Republic.

In the course of the past few weeks, fuelled by an absence of a President from office and country and a vacuum of leadership, all manners of extremist elements have had a field day in the Nigerian polity issuing ‘quit notices’ to entire ethnic nationalities and threatening mass atrocities in the land. The ensuing instability has led to a nose-dive in Nigeria’s fortunes; economic, social and political stagnation and instability; and palpably diminished quality of life for Nigerians. Nigerians have never had it so bad.

Dear President Muhammadu Buhari, it is in the light of all the foregoing and acknowledgement of your most unfortunate poor state of health and indisposition (which has made it increasingly impossible for your goodself to exercise authority and control of affairs of state for positive changes - presuming that you now desire for such in your later days) which makes it impossible for you to either be an agent of or effect positive change in the Nigerian polity, that make it imperative to urge you Sir, to as a matter of urgency, resign from your position as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As a man who I suspect may still have a desire to leave some positive footprints in the sands of the Nigerian time, it is further hoped that prior to such your resignation from office, you will use the enormous powers at the disposal of your office to put into motion the processes that will lead to a holistic restructuring and the renegotiation of Nigeria in such a manner that will abate the perennial threats of violence from various quarters within Nigeria and ensure equity and justice amongst the various peoples of Nigeria.

It is projected that sequel to or contemporaneous with your resignation from Office, the federating units and component peoples of the Nigerian state will in keeping with the several agitations and clamour for restructuring, justice, equity and ‘true federalism’ and situate in the platform of the Recommendations of the National Conference convoked by your immediate predecessor-regime, converge to peacefully formalize the basis of a new Nigeria.

Arguably, entities who believe they are benefiting from the current fluid and tenuous situation may want to rely on legalese to question the ‘constitutionality’ of the process of realignment suggested above. Faced with unfolding realities and the fact that the Constitution which serves as Nigeria’s grundnorm is itself of very dubious origins and foundations, the congregation of federating units and component peoples to dialogue over the future of Nigeria remains the one option to diffuse tension and chart a path forward. And even this option is fast ebbing away.  

Mr. President, Sir, as I wish you recovery from your ailment, do the right things: set in process the machinery for sovereign national dialogue and Resign from Office, and perhaps posterity may yet treat you kindly when assessing your stewardship as ruler of the Nigerian state.

Wishing you Happy Eid celebrations.

Yours sincerely

Eze Eluchie, Esq.

Concerned citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

Picture: President Muhammadu Buhari