The Search for A true Federalism – Part Two

Southern Greed, Opportunism, and Acquiescence (sleeping on their rights)

(1) Orkar’s coup, as formed and executed was to achieve exactly what prominent opinion leaders and the majority of the Nigerian bloggers (Internet writers) want, but when he was overpowered and apprehended then, there was complete silence in the land. No mutiny in the army, no mass protest by the civil society in support of what he stood for. He was tried and executed. And like Kaduna Nzeogwu’s coup was nipped in the bud, while a docile populace went about their normal business as usual.

(2) Comrade Uche Chukwumerijie a social activist to the core, made a caricature of his egalitarian credentials when he became the mouth piece of a military government following the annulment of June 12, 1993, election.  His loquacious buffoonery assumed a dismal absurdity in an effort to drum up support for a military government that refuses to acknowledge Abiola’s popular mandate. In one instance at a community address in the old Gongola State, he declared: ‘for the first time in the history of Oduduwa, Onakankonfo ran away from the war front.’ The Aare Onakankonfo of Yoruba Land later returned from self-imposed exile and died mysteriously a few days later. Umaru Dikko did not write that speech for the Comrade. IBB never did, neither Sani Abacha. Professor Aminu, in spite of his hatred and abhorrence of southern interests, would not have written a better line or contrived such a sacrilege. It was written and verbalized by a southerner.

(3) Also, a Yoruba Judge sent Awo to prison and vanquished the Action Group and its progressive agenda in the west, while lamenting that his hands are tied.  The treasonable felony trial and the imprisonment of Awo did not only derail the one-of-a-kind socio-economic and sustainable development initiatives orchestrated in the history of developing world, it set Nigeria backward unimaginably.

(4) When IBB stepped aside he handed the reign of government over to Chief Shonekan who willingly accepted the label of an interim President, while a fellow Yoruba man who won the mandate fled to faraway England for his dear life. As expected, the incoherent Sani Abacha came, sacked Chief Shonekan, and brought in social activists, intellectuals, and military officers of southern extraction; and like Chief Shonekan, they willingly obliged their master’s command, while Abiola wasted away in exile.

(5) Twice, the respected Zik of Africa and the Father of Nigerian Nationalism negotiated alliance/accord/ power sharing arrangements with the ruling party, but forgot to integrate his own core principles into the ideological framework of the new coalition, as if his motivation in power was simply to serve as a ceremonial figure head. It is the same trends today. Nigeria is now a no-party state because every aspiring political leader gravitates towards political parties where chances of winning are assured.

(6) With due respect to the eminent and distinguished scholar, Professor Ben Nwabueze, who is today calling for a revolution; when he had the opportunity to transform our educational system as a Minister in 1993, he turned out to be an unrepentant ASUU antagonist.  A so-called “imperfect obligation” was first negotiated by Professor Bab Fafuwa, his predecessor, on behalf of the Federal Government and Dr. Jega, then ASUU Chairman. Imperfect as the obligation was, there was no strike by ASUU. When Professor Nwabueze came into the scene, the negotiation collapsed immediately contrary to all expectations. He gave a convoluted interpretation to the working agreements reached between ASUU and Pa Fafuwa and plunged the Nigerian educational systems into a perpetual darkness. According to the Guardian Newspaper, Dr. Jega, visibly exasperated, lamented that he did not understand what the Minister was talking about. Thanks to his mumbo jumbo and legalistic acumen, the entire university system was paralyzed during his first five months as Minister of Education. Nigerian Law School was the only higher institution in Nigeria that was not affected.

(7) When Dr. Jubrin Aminu (then Executive Secretary of National University Commission) authored that infamous memo “Educational Imbalance: Its Extent, History, Dangers and Correction in Nigeria”, there was no rebuttal from the thousands of professors and PhDs of southern extraction. The memo became public when it was published verbatim as a paid ad in the Guardian Newspaper when Dr. Jubrin Aminu was the Minister of Education. Even though the Obasanjo military government convened a Committee of Vice - Counselors to review the substantive issues in the memo, nothing was changed and Dr. Jubrin Aminu succeeded in his quest to unilaterally define the fundamental framework of our university educational system. And he did. There was no alternative view or a rebuttal from southern scholars and academics to debunk his thesis, even though the memo was ill-motivated, ethnically biased, retrogressive, and openly canvassed the rejection of free university education because only the south would take advantage of the program. See details in Part Three.

(8) In Nigeria, corruption transcends race and geography; therefore, you cannot reasonably and justifiably hold northerners responsible for the stupendous wealth fraudulently accumulated by politicians, CEOs of regional and national Banks and the ten-per-centers phenomenon and “kick-back” trademarks popularized by public service administrators all over Nigeria.

(9) Under President Obasanjors (a southerner), the fleecing of Nigerian wealth took a disturbing proportion unprecedented in the history of Nigerian creation.   In the past 10 years, acquiring exotic property overseas by governors, mostly southern governors, became a status symbol under the watchful eyes of the President.  Electricity and Roads constructions swallowed millions of dollars without ascertainable significant changes in the two sectors.

(10) For eight good years the Benins, the Esans and the Afemais went into a deep slumber while Governor Lucky Igbinedion transformed Benin City and the entire Edo State into a ghost region. Governor Ibori of Delta State is not a Hausa or Fulani man by any stress of the imagination. Presently, he is hobnobbing from one jail house to another, from Abuja to Dubai and to London on account of stupendous wealth stealthily acquired, the source or sources of which he cannot explain.

(11) As you read, the former Speaker of the House of Assembly (a southerner) is facing indictment for embezzling public funds that he cannot spend in his life time. Similar stories are true of Tafawa Balogun, Bode George, and Uncle Deprieye.

(12) Though I would like to reserve my comment on the list of the names of Nigerians who allegedly benefited from the oil subsidy windfall, released by the Senate, suffice it to say that the list supports the argument that southerners are as culpable as the Hausas and the Fulanis in the appropriation of the oil wealth.

(13) Adding to that, the period of the subsidy windfall supports the inference that squandering of our riches and misappropriation of our oil wealth also do occur under an administration headed by a southerner and not only in the so-called Hausa/Fulani dominated regimes.

(14) In this section, we do not intend to cast aspersion on any one, or on any group, but to prove that the underdevelopment and the northern dominance that southerners resent, would not have happened, without southern blind allegiance and greediness. Southerners do not know when to take a stand and to say no to greed, corruption, and ineptitude. Therefore, it is unreasonable to hold the Hausas and the Fulanis solely responsible for everything wrong with Nigeria - to the extent that we now want to disintegrate - when majority of the southerners who served as Ministers, Advisers, Governors, Commissioners, etc., at the so-called northern dominated military and democratic governments did not perform better than their colleagues of northern origin who served in the same governments.

In spite of everything, I would like to add at this juncture that some southerners who did participate in the recent military governments - Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, Ebitu Ukiwe, Professor Olikoye Ransome-kuti, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Professor Eme Awa, Dr. Olu Agunloye (FRSC), and Pa Bab Fafuwa were exceptionally above board in the respective government under which they served.

(15) Accordingly, to hold as conclusive that Hausa/Fulanis and the military wing of that cabal are solely responsible for the underdevelopment of our natural and human resources, is analogous to concluding that corruption, greed, nepotism, kidnapping, educational crisis, leadership failings, celebration of wealth by few in the midst of nationwide poverty, and the overall socioeconomic stagnation are the handiwork of the geographical north.  Also, the argument by disintegration agitators that vanquishing the Hausas and the Fulanis from present Nigeria and undo the amalgamation as the only solution, is a complete hogwash. It will not stem the tide of corruption and fraud. Furthermore, that their departure will engender a brand new leadership cadre in the new south, devoid of a Bode, Diepreye, Ibori, Balogun, and Igbinedion’s affliction is a mere utopia and does not hold true in facts or common sense.

Finally, it is beyond my understanding why southerners always discuss in a whispering mood about alleged northern dominance. How many southerners have gone to court to argue for equal protection violation following the abuse of federal character and quota system by the Nigerian government? Must you wait for the elusive Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to be convened before you table your grievances?  By the way, where is your case for SNC? Where is the education in you if you cannot articulate the purpose and benefit of SNC? Must you wait for SNC before you articulate what ails you? What is wrong with now? Wake up southerners! SNC might not happen in your life time. You are part of the problem.

December 2011