Debating the Rule of Laws and the Future of Our Union: Reminiscing on the Treasonable Felony Trial of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

INTRODUCTION

Without the Treasonable Felony Trial and the indefensible incarceration of Chief Obafemi Awolowo that was orchestrated by the Government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, there would not have been the Nzeogwu/Ifeajuna/Banjo Military Coup of 1966. And without that first military coup that resulted in the killing of most Northern political leaders, like Ahmadu Bello and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, but sparing Nnamdi Azikiwe and Michael Okpara, the Premier of Eastern Region, there would not have been a counter-coup executed by the young Northern Military Officers, led by Murtala Muhammed, Theophilus Danjuma, Abba Kyari, Joseph Gaba, Muhhamadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Mamman Vasta, Sani Abacha, John Shgaya, Suka Dimka, etc. And without that counter-coup and the slaughtering of millions of Ndigbo in the Northern Region and the killing of Aguiyi Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi, there would not have been a total break down of laws and orders, which culminated in the bloody civil war that lasted for about three years. Sadly, the mistrust that the civil war generated and trusted on us is alive and well today. Despite the declaration of "No Victor and no Vanquish" by the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon at the time, history remains unkind to the defeated Biafrans. And to the extent that they cannot be President, Minister of Defense or of the Interior, the civil war is still being fought against them. Therefore, for Nigeria to move forward as one great nation, we must move beyond that mistrust and the conquest theory that is unfailing to obsess the retired Northern Military Officers and their political successors.

DEBUNKING THE CONQUEST THEORY

What is troubling though, and, which, in fact, motivated this essay, is that disturbing truism - the conquest theory. For a start, the Federal Military Forces, led by Yakubu Gowon, Benjamin Adekunle, the Black Scorpion, Alani Akinrinade, Obasanjo, Danjuma, Murtala Muhammed, Ibrahim Babangida, Muhammadu Buhari, fought the civil war on the federal side. It was never a war between the North and the East, and the North becoming victorious. Besides, Chief Anthony Enohoro, a Mid-Westerner, moved the first motion for Nigerian independence, which was rejected, not by Great Britain, but by Northern political leaders on the excuse that the region wasn't ready due to shortage of man-power. That conquest theory or born to rule mentality has no foundation in reasonable judgment and unsupported by the facts on the ground. As long as we continue to have Northerners who think, behave, and act like President Buhari as the head of affairs at Aso Rock, and surrounded by all the privileged and lawless Abubakar Malami, the highly sophisticated Islamist El-Rufai, and the unapologetic ethnic chauvinist Chief Anthony Sani, Nigeria will not know peace and will never experience real economic growth as one nation-state like Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Egypt of today. Every day, we focus our analysis on the atrocities of the so-called cabal. That is no longer a viable approach. We must move beyond the machinations of the cabal and the people in that age bracket. Because, in every cabal of today, there are thousands of El"Rufai and of Abubakar Malami, emerging from that same power block who believe that the Southern region is a conquered territory. 

To them, no one else matters, but their interests, and the interests of a few Southerners and Middle-Belters who benefit from the crumbs falling from their tables. And for Nigeria to move forward as one nation, that has to stop. I am not here suggesting that it must stop. I am declaring that WE WILL PUT A STOP TO IT. Ending that feudal culture and northern irredentism is no longer negotiable. This country does not belong to President Buhari and does not belong to Attorney General Malami.

We are fed up and tired of the idiosyncrasies and the inherent dictatorial traits of the Abacha, the Buhari and the Malami of the North. That El Zakzacky, a northerner, is incarcerated like Sowore, a Southerner, is not a plausible excuse for your sectionalism. That retired Col Dasuki is suffering from undue prosecution is not exculpatory, either. The Northerners who are the focus of this essay are power-drunk and infatuated with their ability to be chaotic in real-time. They have inflicted irredeemable harms on our Armed Forces and the security networks through lopsided appointments and unmerited promotions through the ranks.

At this juncture, your feelings of self-supremacy and your culture of entitlements - repugnant as they are - have psychologically, socially and economically brutalized your subservient subjects and Nigerians at large. We don't want your types at the helm of affairs of this country again. The period of a few of you holding sway and dictating the terms and pace of our co-existence as one nation-state is over. Why are we agitating for True Federalism or Restructuring? Simple. You don't believe in the Nigerian dream and the culture of one nation-state is in abeyance. Therefore, we shouldn't subscribe to your self-imposed authority to dictate what becomes of Nigeria.

HOW NORTHERN MILITARY LEADERS REJECTED REGIONALISM AND IMPOSE A UNITARY MODEL.

Historically, Northern political leaders were vehemently opposed to integration with the rest of the country called Nigeria. They vehemently opposed the creation of another region (Middle Belt) out of the huge Northern region. They espoused regionalism - a confederal option as against the Unitary model that we have at the moment. By the way, the main reason given by the Young Northern Military Officers for the counter-coup and for the execution of Aguiyi Ironsi was the promulgation of the Unification Decree. What type of political system do we have today, and on whose machinations? I will come to that later.

It may also interest Nigerians to know that Sir Ahmadu Bello did not consider it patriotic or wort his while to come to Lagos to form a government following the departure of the British. Rather, he stayed back in Kaduna and sent his second in command, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to Lagos to manage affairs at the other Nigeria. By interpretation, he didn't believe in the union; the Northern region is more important in his reckoning than the geographical expression called Nigeria.

Surprisingly, when the "Young Northern Military Officers" who executed the counter-coup became the power brokers at the center and realized that crude oil has become the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, they went about creating more new states and local government councils out of the once untouchable Northern region. In translation, the more new states and local government councils a region has, the larger its share of the national cake. Above all, the larger the states and local government councils it commands, the larger the number of Senators and the members of House of Representatives it has at the National Assembly. And with that numerical strength, they can afford to kill any Bill or determine what becomes of Nigeria. This is not a mere hypothesis; it's happening already. And it is a Unitary form of government as opposed to the regionalism model or loose federation that Sir Ahmadu wanted.

NO ONE IS MORE NIGERIAN THAN ME

I am proud of my country, but you are proud of your tribe and your religion. You have never been sincere in this union in your dealing with your southern colleagues. It has never been about Nigeria, but about you. You voted against Mr. Anthony Enahoro's 1953 motion for self-rule because you did not want "second colonialism." Second colonialism from where and by who? From the South and by the more educated Yoruba and the Ndigbo. But I thought we are one and the same people. Not exactly. In the opinion of the Northern political leaders at the time, we are not one and the same people. That belief is inhered and it is still ripe and well today. You cannot resent me and hate me, brother, but cherish my fertile land and reverend my crude oil. You want the crude oil, but you cannot vote to approve a Petroleum Industry Bill and pass it into law, because it makes provisions for ecological ills that are connected with exploration-related disasters and natural catastrophic occurrences. What type of a union or country is that? Certainly not a country of my dream. 

I am NOT fighting for the dismantling of this country. I am NOT agitating that the Northern region must go or that the Southern region must go. I am against the few Northern Characters who created the type of anomalies that sent Papa Awo to jail and led to the bloody civil war. As I write, thousands of similar Characters are still with us in the federal government, holding strategic political offices and managing affairs at all our security networks. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General is one of them. And Governor El'Rufai of Kaduna State is an addition. Name one national crisis since October 01, 1960; it is their crisis, their making. These are the characters holding Col Dasuki and El Zackzaky in captivity despite a series of court rulings that they should be released.

IDEA DEFICIT AND  PAROCHIALISM

As I write, many Nigerians are suffering from undue persecution. Some are languishing in jail and some have disappeared without a trace. Insecurity has enveloped the land and they are chasing imaginary enemies. You cannot generate electricity and you have no means of identifying and appointing those who have the skills to manage the Energy sector. Egypt, today, is generating more power/electricity than it can consume. Our road network has deteriorated beyond explanations. Yet, President Buhari reappointed the same opportunist who presided over those failures in the last five years to continue in office. If that was Papa Awo's approach in the old Western Region, his political party, Action Group, would not have accomplished all the numerous firsts in the old Western region as they did before October 01, 1960.

What about security? Complete breakdown, to the extent that the Chief of Army Staff has resorted to spiritualism as a panacea. Yet, the President is highly reputed as a man of integrity and a no-nonsense retired General. Give me a break. You guys don't have it. And you don't have the interest of the nation at heart. We have thousands of unemployed university graduates who, under normal circumstances, would have been ready enlistment pool for our Armed Forces. But that won't happen, because it will not benefit the Buhari and El'Rufa of the North. They would rather plead with captured members of the Boko Haram sect whose loyalty is undeniably doubted to enlist into the Military than encourage the well-qualified university graduates of southern extraction to get enlisted. What about education? They destroyed our education system, because, in the opinion of one of them, free education at all levels is not realistic, because it will not benefit the Northern region. In other words, Boko is forever Haram in that part of Nigeria. Where are we today? None of them can travel by road from Kaduna to Abuja.

You do not represent us and you have no understanding of our interests and aspirations. Even if you do, you do not care. Time and time again, you have shown no scruple, openly canvassing and rebelling against federal programs that seemingly benefit the South at a higher scale than the North. We have moved beyond the level of your managerial capacity. Your understanding of government and public administration is still rooted in the rudimentary stage. Nigeria is not your private property. We had enough of your bloodshed, poverty of ideas, and feudalism-influenced dictatorship.

CONCLUSION

Now the choice is yours. You either change your ways and behave as true Nigerians or get out and get yourself a new nation. But if you must stay, the me me me mentality must be rejected and discredited for peace to rain and for a sustainable egalitarian culture to take root and thrive for the benefit of every one of us. and to Mr. Abubakar Malami, don't bite more than you can chew. Remember your topics in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibilities. Your prosecution will be televised for what you have done to Col Dasuki, El Zakzacky, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, and other Nigerians languishing in jail under your watch. If I have my way, you will be stripped of your SANship. Your opportunism is revolting. But it won't last long.