Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra activists are
calling for the referendum to become a sovereign state.
Brady Nwosu in this piece for Today shares his views on how
President Muhammadu Buhari writing the epitaph of once a
A king that transformed a jungle to a city will forever be
remembered. At the same time, a king that turned a city into
jungle forever would not be forgotten.
The way things are going, it is obvious that many nations
are likely to emerge from Nigeria. When the histories of such
nations that were hitherto Nigeria would be written, one
name that would be scrolled in bold prints is President
Muhammadu Buhari for presiding and writing the epitaph of
once a country.
The prophetic book “There was a country”
In this vein, “There was a country,” the last book of the late
literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe, becomes prophetic.
When in the early 2000, it was alleged that the American
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had predicted that Nigeria
would fragment in 2015, there was palpable tension in the
country, especially in the face of the general elections that
generated so much acrimony and hatred and the country
was polarised along ethnic and religious divides. The
elections came and have gone, with many heaving sighs of
relief believing the worst was over.
Is Buhari interested in the unity of the country?
True to their thoughts, the worst could have been over if the
winner of the presidential election, President Buhari was
interested in the unity of the country. He could have
embarked on reconciliation and unification across the
country so that the grievances and disappointment that
attended the elections would be forgotten. Instead, he
started to position people from one section of the country
and equally started promoting his religion, while he saw the
rest as conquered people, who should not impugn his
authority even in a democracy..
Events the last one year gave rise to the frenzy of self-
determination by various ethnic groups. Before it was only
the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB) in the south-east and right now more
groups have sprang in the region all working in synergy
towards self-determination. Then, like a joke, another
uprising is going on in the Niger Delta region. It started with
Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), and now many other groups
have come out working in the same direction for self-
determination. They are holding the nation to its jugular and
their persisted attacks on oil facilities in the region has
reduced the nation’s crude oil export from 2.2 million barrels
to about 1.2 million.
The reason is that Buhari saw the south-east and the south-
south as conquered people. He has been accused to have
an agenda to Islamise the country and his actions and body
languages lay credence to such accusation. In his
disappointing May 29 broadcast, the emphasis was how to
crush militants in the Nigeria Delta and the unarmed
agitators of Biafra, but he was mute over the Fulani
herdsmen, who are carrying out heinous crime of genocide
in the Middle Belt and the South. Should that be the position
of a leader who is interested in the unity of the country?
While Fulani herdsmen walk freely with sophisticated war/
assault rifles, soldiers saw the gathering of Biafra agitators
as an avenue to test their marksmanship; but thumb up for
the atrocities of Fulani herdsmen, which the Global
Terrorism Index rates as the fourth most deadly terrorist
organisation in the world. There is no way the country can
stand by suppressing the other ethnic nationalities feeling
the brunt of the Hausa/Fulani hegemony.
President Buhari and his success in the Boko Haram war
We should do a rethink before crediting Buhari with the
success in the Boko Haram fight. It is on record that as at
the time he was decimating the Islamic insurgent group, the
military was yet to get new order for military hardware. The
success was because of the cooperation of northern
leaders. This is a nation of hypocrisy. We remember that
when the former Chief of Army Staff, Azubike Iherijirika was
crushing the Boko Haram to finish, northern leaders started
shouting genocide and threatened to drag him before ICC
and Buhari equally called on former president Goodluck
Jonathan to stop killing their people. But what happened,
the military came down heavily on the sect under the
present government and the northern leaders didn’t cry
genocide. Who is deceiving who?
The war against corruption is a mere peer struggle. It is just
against those he felt had crossed his paths in the past. We
remember that in 1984, the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) in
less than one year was ingrained in the consciousness of
the citizens. But today, it is business as usual in the Police,
Customs, Immigration etc, nothing has changed.
For nearly 60 years, Nigeria has gone a long test running
and now reduced to hard starting. We can’t continue trying,
the engine has finally knocked and needs either a complete
overhauling to re-fix or a brand new one.
Everything has gone wrong with us and Nigeria as an entity.
Honesty is life and worthy living. We must honestly and in
true faith believe patriotism renegotiate to mingle together
and redo Nigeria.
SOURC: NAIJ.COM
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