THE MYTH OF ‘ONE-NIGERIA’: FACTS FROM 1960–2020
THE MYTH OF ‘ONE-NIGERIA’ — FACTS FROM 1960–2020
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Ordinarily, citizens do not need to be ‘tutored’ that they are one with their fellow countrymen and women or that the unity of their country is something ‘sacred and sacrosanct’, one that must never be doubted or debated. On the contrary, as always with Nigeria, barely every Nigerian alive today grew up hearing the rather diversionary cliché: ‘Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable’. This singsong, for many Nigerians, is the first betrayer of the myth of Nigeria’s unity, the grand illusion of a ‘united’ Nigeria, whether as a country or as a people or as whatever. Nigeria is thus the only nation known to us, where ‘unity’ is taught and forced upon citizens.
Another one like it is the post-war slogan: ‘One-Nigeria’ which was simply an effort at ‘brainwashing’ Nigerians again with the notion of a united Nigeria, especially after the Nigerian-Biafran war; which itself is the vandal of the myth, the fallacy of ‘One-Nigeria’. For sixty years Nigerians have tried to convince themselves that they are one people or rather one nation. Yet for sixty years they failed to so convince themselves. If you prefer to sound more patriotic, then we can say that: for sixty years Nigerians tried to evolve to become one people or one nation, but so far have failed to do so.
Yet it is common to hear politicians and their elite-collaborators — who are the common enemies of Nigerians — drumming the claim that ‘Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable’, to everyone who cares to listen. This is a singsong among politicians, but also a byword among the masses. The reason is simple! Everyone knows that there is nothing like ‘unity’ in Nigeria. In fact, a united Nigeria has never existed. This fact is known in every street corner in Nigeria. The proves to this effect are scattered all along the history of the union from before independence to the present day and has been made even more evident by the overbearing parochial proclivities of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In the final analysis, events around Nigeria today, substantiate the constant truth that the claim of One-Nigeria has been a long-lasting lie. Scenarios such as the now fully fulanized federal executive arm of Nigeria’s government, as it pleased President Muhammadu Buhari; the now all-out self-determination agitations across the four poles of Nigeria’s geography, now being championed by ‘chief-creants’ and ‘elite-creants’ as against IPOB’s pioneering ‘miscreants’; the gradual return to regionalism being pioneered by the new reign of regional security outfits and vigilantes who are fighting crimes, bandits and herder-land-grabbers in their various regions, while ignoring or even expelling Nigeria’s police and army; the glaring state of distrust, disrespect, discord, dissonance and even war-readiness that is palpable among the major ethnic and regional blocks of the country; all speak volumes about the fraudulent claim of One-Nigeria, which sadly has been used as a justification to cut short the lives of millions of our people. Yet, 60 years afterwards, this ‘unity’ remains a mirage.
This is the fact, let’s face it: the idea of a united Nigeria is simply a myth and it has been so all along; Nigeria’s claim of being a ‘federation’ is a farce, and it has been so at least since 1967; the mantra of One-Nigeria is a fraudulent claim because Nigeria was not formed originally to operate in the mode that the faulty idea of ‘One-Nigeria’ imposed on it, especially since after the civil war. In other words, ‘One-Nigeria’ as it came to be understood and applied even to this day, is a ‘corruption’ of the original concept of Nigeria as a ‘federation’ and a ‘republic’, a ‘union’ of self-governing regions. ‘One-Nigeria’ has rather been a tool of political deception used against the various peoples of Nigeria by those who have been profiting from such a sickly nation.
The plain truth today is that contrary to the claim of ‘oneness’ Nigeria is a ‘divided house’ and on account the false claim of ‘oneness’ Nigeria is a restive nation. Today Nigeria is not a ‘federation’ as it claims to be. Today Nigeria is not ‘united’ as it claims to be or wishes to be. Today Nigeria is not ‘one’ as the false ‘oneness’ of ‘One-Nigeria’ wants it to be. This is the hard truth and everyone has to take courage to face it.
Another truth is this: Nigeria’s fathers of independence knew the truth that the peoples that became Nigeria were never one people — historically, genetically, culturally, linguistically, ideologically, religiously. Wisely, they never pretended about it, neither did they envision or put in place a ‘unitary’ Nigeria, as we have it today. Rather, contrary to the false ‘federation’ and fake ‘One-Nigeria’ that is touted today by self-serving politicians, the founding fathers crafted a mutual union of equal and autonomous regions, that could at the same time, maintain the diversity/peculiarities of the different regions and the ‘unity’ of the country. This is what we glean from the pre- and post-independence period of Nigeria.
Let’s begin at the amalgamation! From its very onset in 1914, Nigeria was a union of separate protectorates and was administered as separate protectorates (but by one governor-general). Following agitations for self-rule by various groups and ethnic nationalities, at least from the 1st of October 1954, Nigeria was divided into three autonomous regions with regional assemblies and regional governments who had administrative powers over their regions. These regions were the Eastern, the Western and the Northern Regions. (The fourth: the Mid-Western Region was created in 1963 following strong agitations for their own autonomy) At independence in 1960, the three existing regions agreed to form a ‘federal’ or rather ‘federalist’ government in which the regions would be autonomous federating units. These regions did not give up their autonomy and the control over their resources to the ‘central’ government at the point of independence. Thus, they were not financially dependent on the federal government, rather the federal government was dependent on them. They gave ‘monthly allocations’ called taxes to the federal government and not vis versa, as the case is today.
It’s important to underline that these regions retained their regional self-rule, regional constitutions, regional parliaments, regional judiciary, regional economy and even maintained foreign diplomatic relations. From 1960 to 1966 Nigeria operated a true federal system that respected the autonomy (not independence) of the four regions, unlike what obtains today. It was the 1966 coup d’état and the subsequent military regimes, especially Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s frantic efforts to neutralise the unity and strength of Gen. Chukwuemeka Ojukwu’s Eastern Region, after reneging on the terms of unity as agreed at the Aburi Conference in Ghana, that led to the destruction of Nigeria’s original regional structure. This disruption happened shortly before the Nigeria-Biafra war and has remained so.
Gen. Yakubu Gowon unilaterally dissolved the original 4 Regions, created 12 States and consequently ‘confiscated’ the autonomy and resources of the regions now called States. From that point Nigeria lost its soul and has since then been wobbling. But it is also worth recalling here, that it was the meddling in the affairs of the Western Region’s Action Congress by the then ruling northern NPC federal government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa that led to the riots and the rigging of the 1965 elections in the Western region. This finally led to the coup, which was actually intended to oust the then meddlesome Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, release Obafemi Awolowo from detention and so restore sanity to the riotous Western Region. Unfortunately, it was at this point that Nigeria’s problem of ‘disunity’ worsened, beginning with the false labelling of the coup as an ‘Igbo’ coup as well as the ethnic-profiling and pogroms against Ndigbo that followed.
Let’s return to the time before independence! It is a well-known fact that the North was not developmentally at par with the South and was not on the same page with the Eastern and Southern Regions regarding the quest for Independence. At the time the peoples of the South and the East were set for self-rule, the peoples of the North were way behind and never wanted it. In addition to the lag in social infrastructure and educational empowerment, this was also because their worldview, aspirations, culture, religion and even climate, were not the same as those of the other regions. The peoples of the various regions of Nigeria have never been on the same page even to this day. The Igbos are ‘on their own’, the Yorubas know their interests, the Hausa/Fulani will not give up their firm grip on power and on the resources of the South. It can be said that they all come from different ‘worlds’ and exist in different worlds.
The riots, clashes, pogroms, massacres, the ‘vacate the North’, ‘vacate the East’, ‘vacate the South’ threats that has been ringing in this country since the Jos riots of June 22, 1945 and still rings even in April of 2021, speaks volumes about the fundamental ‘down-to-the-root’ flaw, about the clash of cultures and worldviews, about the lingering crisis of co-existence between these various peoples that were selfishly lumped into one country by Fredrick Lugard to serve his administrative convenience and the economic interest of the British nation. Speaking to Channels Television on the 12th of April 2021, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State confirmed that Nigeria has been orphaned. According to him, there are no more Nigerians. There are only Igbos and Hausas and Yorubas and Itsekiris living in Nigeria; and sadly, he is right.
Other events and formations, before and after Independence are also very instructive regarding the myth of ‘One-Nigeria’ that has been sold to the various peoples who live in Nigeria. Prior to the 1959 elections, political parties were formed along regional lines. Thus, the first ever set of political parties in Nigeria reflected the multi-regional, multi-ethnic, multi-religious character of Nigeria. The political parties corresponded to the three regions: Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroun (NCNC) thrived in the Christian East; Ahmadu Bello’s Nigerian People’s Congress (NPC) dominated the Muslim North; Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Congress (AG) controlled the then largely-traditionalist West.
Independent Nigeria was formed as a union of autonomous regions, as equal partners. Unfortunately, this ‘Nigeria’ was destroyed by the bad omen of military junta and vicious politicians. The ‘One-Nigeria’ that we have today has proven to be a political fraud. And this is why nothing has been working in Nigeria, except that the military aristocracy and political elite are getting richer. Make no mistakes about it, the military and the political class are the hinges of Nigeria’s woeful failure, beginning from 1963. Recall the #Endsars saga and you would have a little idea of the collusion of the military and political class in subjugating Nigeria and oppressing Nigerians. But taken from another angle, even the #Endsars protests ended up showcasing the ‘disunity’ of Nigeria; as agents of government and politicians used the ethnic-card to create disaffection and disunity among the protesters. At no point in her history, has the ‘disunity’ of Nigeria been hidden.
Barely everything in Nigeria is given a tribal or religious or regional colouration, some rightly, others wrongly. For instance, the north (wrongly though) saw the January 1966 coup d’état as an ‘Igbo’ coup. Based on this misconception, northern military officers staged the counter-coup of July 1966. But, note that their concern was not the interest of Nigeria
It was to avenge the North, their region. Such ethnic inclinations and regional polarizations have remained with us in spite of the constant pontification of ‘One-Nigeria’ by fat-feeding politicians. Before our very eyes the #Endsars protest nearly became another Igbo coup.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, every Nigerian knows that he is Yoruba or Anang or Igbo or Hausa or Ijaw or Fulani or Urhobo even if he lives in Sabon gari in Kano or Ama Hausa in Owerri or in Aso Rock in Abuja or in NNPC Towers in Garki. This is unfortunate and unnecessary, but it is true. It is the stark everyday reality of Nigeria, that cannot, that can no longer be wished away. The so-called unity of Nigeria has remained a farce, from independence till date. The concept of ‘One-Nigeria’, good as it may sound, has been a political irony, as far as the everyday experience of Nigerians is concerned. Therefore, the path of honour is to renegotiate the ‘unity’ of Nigeria, and to do so without further delay, seeing that the ’unity’ card has not worked after 60 years of playing it.
Though much has gone into the effort, yet ‘unity’ and ‘oneness’ have remained scarce commodities in the Nigerian polity, one hundred years after the amalgamation. National unity has been sold to the peoples of Nigeria with forced amalgamations, with federalism and constitutions; it has been forced upon the people with military booths, gunships and bloodbath; it has been enforced with Unity Schools, NYSC programmes and Federal Character precepts; it has been guarded with tags of ‘secessionist’ and threats of treasonable felony; it has been given many names, painted many colours and propagated everywhere; but it has not yet sunk. We just need to try another method! We need to rethink the union.
As already noted, Nigeria began as a truly federalist State, a union of consenting autonomous peoples. But today this status has been lost and has been replaced with an oppressive unitary system that usurps the rights and resources of the previously autonomous regions without their consent. Should we remind Nigeria what a ‘federation’ means? A federation is a system of government that grants and guarantees autonomy and self-governance to its federating units. It is a system of shared-sovereignty in which power is devolved or delegated to the federating States by the federal or central government, based on agreement and consent. Our nationalists who negotiated independence understood this and went for it. They did not sign-up to the disguised unitary system or false-federation which obtains in Nigeria today.
The peoples of Nigeria, in turn, did not give their consent to the unitary-type constitution which governs Nigeria today; neither by a referendum nor by their representatives. Worst is the so-called ‘Exclusive List’ of the 1999 Constitution, with which Nigeria’s central government confiscated the resources and rights of the federating States. Not the people, but two groups were responsible for the current 1999 Constitution — which has been called ‘fraudulent’. These are Nigeria’s erstwhile military dictators and the Fulani-Muslim-Northern oligarchs, who as well, are the chief beneficiaries of its deliberate flaws and intended injustices.
However, we must not make the mistake of blaming ordinary Nigerians for the lack or failure of unity in Nigeria. The sole culprits and indeed real enemies of a united Nigeria are Nigeria’s political and elite class, who for 60 years have manipulated both the resources and the peoples of Nigeria to serve their whims and interests. One of them is President Muhammadu Buhari who behaves as though Nigeria belongs to his tribesmen, the Fulani and by extension to his Northern Muslims kinsmen. Tendencies and conducts, such as the mindless nepotism seen in the appointments and projects of the Buhari administration, are the reason for the failure of unity in Nigeria. Though he has served Nigeria as supreme leader for over a decade, looking at the actions and inactions of President Buhari, it is hard to believe that he believes in ‘One-Nigeria’. It is on account of persons like Muhammadu Buhari that ‘One-Nigeria’ will remain a myth.
Michael Richmond Duru
21st April 2021
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