As
the debate on restructuring and secession engulfs Nigeria, Tori News
political correspondent - Osayimwen Osahon George was waded into the
threat to Nigeria's unity with a personalized account.
File Photo: An Igbo lady
Dear Chizaram,
As the forthcoming Anambra gubernatorial election which is a litmus
test of influence and power between the secessionists and the Federal
Government approaches; I deem it appropriate to express my fears through
this medium.
The popularity and surge in the campaign of hate and division by
the leader of the Independent People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu has remained
cancerous to the 'theoretical' unity of Nigeria. As a political
scientist and public commentator observing the state of political
affairs in the Southeast state, I am of the opinion that the electoral
exercise scheduled for the 18th of November, 2017 election will be
successful despite the intimidating confidence and proclamation of Mr.
Kanu. But what if I get my analysis wrong my love?
The implication is that the Federal Government will be strong-armed
into organizing a referendum for the exit of the Igbo Nation from
Nigeria which might go the inapt way. What will become of our seeming
formidable love amid the political squabble accrued to seceding? This
question has taken sleep off my eyes and caused me to look out of the
windows at night searching for answers that are beyond me under the
faint lights of the stars.
Aside our romance my future wife, I am more concerned about the
economic advantage of population size and landmass Nigeria is about to
throw away to the dogs due to the menace of inscrutable, impassive and
vacuous pseudo leaders making populist statements to hoodwink the
plebeians and the weak-willed citizens for self-absorbed gains. The
entrepreneurial skills of the South-easterners coupled With the agrarian
nature of the locals in the northern part of the country, the depth of
formal education in the Southwest and the crude oil in the South-south
part of the country if unified could provide the formidable force for
the economic recovery of the country if our strengths are efficiently
harnessed and exploited without corruption as we have today.
I am scared of my imaginations of the crises of Sudan and South
Sudan which degenerated into two different civil wars within 1955-1972
and 1983-2005 and also the South Sudanese civil war of 2013 till date.
What about the Syrian civil war which has been ongoing since 2011 with
the world losing count of the death toll? According to Al Jazeera, more
than 465,000 Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a
million injured and over 12 million Syrians - half the country's prewar
population - have been displaced from their homes.
I am disturbed about a repetition of gory incidents of violence
during the Nigerian civil war of 6th July, 1967- 15th of January, 1970
where brothers and sisters assumed different identities and killed each
other. According to history, over the two and half years of the war,
there were about 100,000 overall military casualties, while between
500,000 and 2 million civilians died from starvation. This excludes the
infrastructural facilities destroyed and economic activities disrupted
during the period of turbulence. Till date, the wounds have refused to
heal and they have become plagues spreading from one generation to the
other.
What about the Rwandan genocide involving the Hutu and the Tutsi
causing the death of about a 500,000 to one million people within a
period of 100 days from April 7 to mid-July 1994? An estimated 2,000,000
Rwandans were displaced and became refugees. The scars have refused to
fade away even under the beauty of expensive clothes and heavy make-ups
by the women literally speaking.
May that day not come when Nigeria will be divided across ethnic
lines and the Igbos will be called to evacuate the South-west and other
parts of the country for the Southeast for census as part of the
secession process.
Chizaram, I am scared of the uncertainties and spatial separation
this might cause between us. I can't imagine you applying for a visa to
see me wherever I find myself in the remains of Nigeria. I can't picture
my family obtaining visas for the traditional rites of our envisioned
wedding in Umudike, Abia State.
I am so much pertubed about the threat to the businesses
investments of the Igbos in Lagos State where they dominate the local
economy with enviable success. Business moguls like Ifeanyi Ubah, Orji
Uzor Kalu, Sir Emeka Offor Cosmos Maduka, Chief Arthur Eze, Vincent
Amaechi Obianodo, Leo Stan Ekeh, Pascal Dozie, Tony Ezenna, Pat Utomi
and other underground wealthy men running business empires in the
financial nerve-centre of Nigeria will be highly apprehensive over this
menace being blindly supported by a majority of youths acting on impulse
with no sense of history and foresight.
My Nirvana, I remember you telling me how you will like to own your
own consulting firm in Lagos and also give back to the society where
you grew up. With the imminent secession, the achievement of that vision
might be cumbersome as Nigeria and the Igbo Nation will likely part
with a war colder than what Russia and America have shared since 1947
after the Wold War II.
The governor of Plateau State, Solomon Lalong just recently
announced that the Igbos hold 70% of the Certificates of Occupancy in
his state which is a subtle threat to the indigenous people but nobody
is making a fuss about it. The Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi
Ganduje also affirmed the indispensability of the Igbos in economic
growth when he said Kano would not have risen to become a commercial hub
to reckon with without the presence of majorly the Igbos and other
ethnic groups. This describes how much we have been so mixed with each
other despite our over 400 ethnic nationalities. What about the
flourishing businesses of the Igbos in other northern parts of the
country as well as the Southwest? Some Igbo businessmen have even failed
to leave the war-torn north-eastern part of the country due to the cash
flows from their enterprises.
When I was posted to Bauchi State for my National Youth Service
Corp in 2010, I thought I was outside this world already because the
people looked strange to me physically coupled with their language but
to my surprise, some local merchants from the Southeast were joyously
trading among them and conversing freely.
I wish these youth supporting the ostensibly myopic and
ill-thought-out cause of the Independent People of Biafra and the
Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB
could see beyond their noses to realize that the strength of Nigeria
just like the United States of America lies in her diversity and size.
Dear Chizaram, I hope you don't feel I am insensitive to the plight
of your people. This national marriage that gave birth to Nigeria as
brokered by British colonialist, Sir Frederick Lugard's amalgamation of
Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914 is clearly imperfect. Nothing is
perfect in this world. A course work in Philosophy during my University
days taught me that perfection only exists in the Utopian world of forms
- a figment of human imaginations.
The way the northerners in Nigeria clinch to power is
mind-boggling. They make it seem like its their birth-right. Democracy
which is a game of the majority favours them. The appointments into
public offices made by President Muhammadu Buhari are truthfully
lopsided, the Igbos have only produced a President ceremonially (Nnamdi
Azikwe) for just 6 months in the 56 years of existence of the Nigerian
entity. Northerners are presently heading 14 out of the the 17 security
agencies in Nigeria while southerners hold 3, the rebuilding,
reconstruction and reconciliation process of the Southeast after the war
hasn't been sincerely and duly followed as promised by the government,
the 2017 budgetary allocation for capital projects - N28.22 billion to
the Southeast appears meagre compared to the north (North-Central got
N207bn; North-West, N73.7bn; South-West, N48.97bn; North-East N46.69bn;
South-South, N35.31bn), the migrating Fulani herdsmen have freely
maimed, killed people and destroyed properties without any
quintessential government interference, even Buhari once admitted on
foreign soil that he will not treat the regions in Nigeria evenly as
their voting pattern during the 2015 election will be considered in his
approach to national development; the pitfalls go on and on.
Power is transient, Aso Rock Villa is not Buhari's father's house
or his private property. His time will come and go but if the Igbos
leave, they might never come back. This reminds me of the words of the
former British Prime Minister David Cameron to the Scottish people when
he was faced with a referendum in 2014.
Here is an interesting excerpt from his lengthy speech:
"If you don’t like me – I won’t be here forever. If you don’t
like this Government – it won’t last forever. But if you leave the UK –
that will be forever.
Yes, the different parts of the UK don’t always see eye-to-eye.
Yes, we need change – and we will deliver it but to get that
change, to get a brighter future, we don’t need to tear our country
apart."
On a lighter note, I can't imagine the streets of FESTAC Town in
Lagos without those local dishes like Oha soup, Ofe Onugbu, Abacha and
Ugba, Ofe Akwu, Ofe Nsala, Isi Ewu, Nkwobi and others. Even though the
people of other tribes have learned it, you can't compare with the
expertise of the Igbo folks.
Imagine the club houses and other social gatherings in Lagos
without the light-skinned Igbo ladies constantly 'slaying' under the
colourful lights with those natural endowments American stars like Nicki
Minaj, Amber Rose, Black Chyna, Remy ma and others allegedly paid
plastic surgeons handsomely to acquire. But our sisters got them for
free in original form.
There is a widespread stereotype that our Igbo sisters love money
but some of us can't take our eyes off them due to the alluring beauty
they possess. Its two years now and I still remember the outstanding
Egusi soup a female friend, Chidinma once prepared for me. I was
intoxicated and had to suggest marriage as a way of tying her down still
she reminded me my bank account is as frail as Buhari in London. I will
never trade these sweet For gold or silver.
Chizaram dear, I hope my revelations haven't sparked any jealousy
in you with my very personal revelations. Its my utmost wish that they
serve the general will of keeping Nigeria together as one for our onward
movement. I urge the government to tackle the issue of poverty,
unemployment and debilitated economy which has caused undue anger in
people prompting the messianic status given to Nnamdi Kanu who has
struggled in United Kingdom as a black man.
I applaud the audacity of a former governor of Abia State, Orji
Uzor Kalu who has dared odium to publicly play down the essence of the
Biafra cause. I have no plans of marrying a foreigner or losing my
friends.
I believe in a united Nigeria and I will fight with my pen to keep
my beautiful Chizaram close to me till the day I meet my demise.
Yours sincerely,
Osayimwen Osahon George
Lagos State, Nigeria.
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