AGITATION FOR BIAFRA AND THE NEED FOR UNITED NIGERIA

In my own appraisal the declaration by General Yakubu Gowen in 1970 of "No Victor, No Vanquished" should have put an end to any secessionist agitation in Nigeria. The Civil War has truncated Nigeria's unity and the wounds of disunity were supposed to be healed with the country inching on. But alas! The elements of disunity keep on revising us and the ghost of Biafra refuse to disappear for good.

When we were growing up our parents persistently relayed tales of the Nigerian Civil War, the devastating effects and how Nigeria almost got divided across ethnic lines. Our parents took us through history on the genesis of the secessionist agitation.

We learned through history that the Federation of Nigeria, as it is known today, has never really been one homogeneous country, for it's widely differing peoples and tribes. This obvious fact notwithstanding, the British colonial master decided to keep the country as one entity in order to effectively control her vital resources for their economic interests. Thus, for administrative convenience the Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated in 1914. Thereafter the only thing this people had in common was the name of their country since each side had different administrative set-up. This alone was an insufficient basis for true unity. Under normal circumstances the amagalmation ought to have brought the various peoples together and provided a firm basis for the arduous task of establishing closer cultural, social, religious, and linguistic ties vital for true unity among the people. There was division, hatred, unhealthy rivalry, and pronounced disparity in development.

The Nigerian Civil War broke out in July 1967. The war was the culmination of an uneasy peace and stability that had plagued the Nation from independence in 1960. This situation had its genesis in the geography, history, culture and demography of Nigeria. The immediate cause of the civil war itself may be identified as the coup and the counter coup of 1966 which altered the political equation and destroyed the fragile trust existing among the major ethnic groups.

The consequences of the Civil War was as devastating as the war itself. Almost half a century afterwards, angst amongst the populace persisted, with ethnic sentiments threatening to destabilise the country. Virtually every ethnic group in Nigeria is one way or the other guilty of rekindling hatred towards other ethnic groups. What seems to be a human tragedy all through ages is the inability of man to learn a good lesson from the past so as to avoid the pitfall of those who had gone before. There is also the innate and unconscious desire of man to remain oblivious of the lessons of the past.

The emergence of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB seemingly sounding the drums of war at a time when Nigeria more than anytime need to be united in fighting corruption and instituting economic dependency. While IPOB are trying to unleash their agenda, resistant forces in the north are echoing the war drums by brazenly "ordering" the relocation of Igbos from northern Nigeria. Do we really need to be divided? I'm a strong believer in the fact that every region in Nigeria can sustain itself, but we need not go to that extent. Nigeria's unity need to be resuscitated, every ethic group is as important in Nigeria as every Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa. We are all joint shareholders of the enterprise called Nigeria.

It was President Olusegun Obasanjo who once dismissed IPOB and MASSOB as mere swindlers: "The people who are doing this," he said, "are the same people in the 419 business, they are the same people you will find in drugs all over the world. To them this is another source of making money." I won't believe that Nnamdi Kanu and Ralph Uwazurike are mere con men, their resurgence supersedes that. Nigeria don't need another Civil War, we need national unity and tolerance. One Nigeria is what we should agitate for.