It’s time to think about how to think about our nation
Merely clocking 57 bears no special significance, whether in numeric or symbolic terms. But Nigeria marks its birthday today amidst a serious fracture in its sense of itself. So, this October One calls for a deep sense of introspection.
As soldiers march in the capital city, Abuja, and the president and governors salute guards of honour, the country is not popping champagne bottles. There are no dances nor minstrels in ecstasy. Those present at the creation wonder if this is the country they birthed.
Never has the country been split in several layers since the crisis of the 1960’s that exploded in a war that pitted brothers against brothers. Just now, the Federal Government has proscribed a group of irredentists who wanted a part to go. While the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) was at its turbulent climax, those who did not agree with its tactic believed it tapped into a core of disenchantment in the land. That has been expressed in a word: restructuring.
That word is contentious. Some believe it stands for abandoning the presidential system, others say it means devolution of power from the centre. The forces who stand for devolution do not conform in their definition of the word. Some follow what is seen as a classic view which subjects the local governments to the states. They battle with the standpoint that the states oppress the local governments.
At the bottom of this contention is a lingering hobgoblin of mutual suspicion among the various ethnic groups and regions. Those who resist the agitation for restructuring suspect the call as code words for secession even when the callers deny it. But the secessionist hit the core of the dissentient voices because they want the mammoth structure tweaked.
Although those who resist restructuring come from the north, especially the North West, some voices outside have aligned with the northerners. For instance, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come down on the idea of “true federalism,” putting him at odds with what analysts see as the mainstream in his own region.
Recently, top political groups and chieftains of the west held a landmark meeting in the Oyo State capital, Ibadan, in which the consensus was a strident endorsement of restructuring and a recall of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Also significant was that colleagues from the south-south and south-east regions attended and gave their backing to the communique.
That meeting brought to the fore a major fault line in Nigerian politics: north versus south. It portrays an ideological face-off. One group seen as conservative at peace with the stagnation of the country. The other seen as upstart, rebellious, craving anarchy.
There is not much dialogue going on but a compulsion of cacophony, voices trapped in their own echo chambers, pigs happy and tumbling gleefully in their own sties. It is not as if both sides are not aware of the fruitlessness of this stand-off. But we seem as a nation helpless to move away from the rut of rancour.
Calls for a national conference have been heeded in farce. During the era of President Goodluck Jonathan, a conference was held. While some of its resolutions would have pulled Nigeria a few steps forward, the most difficult outcome was that there were no institutional follow-ups to give flesh and bones to them.
Even today, the Buhari administration as well as the backward recalcitrance of its senate have failed to provide a platform to turn ideas to hope.
But the stress of the country is not wholly political, although that is where it draws its wellspring. Economically, we are at a strange place. The hallmark of that is that for the first time in our history, states cannot pay civil servants’ salaries. When Osun State fell into that morass, it was seen as an isolated case of trauma. But it is now widespread. Recently, Benue State announced that it was declaring a state of emergency on the matter. But it has been a state of emergency for most states for over a year.
While we are debating devolution of power, we also need to contemplate the viability of states. Yet, part of the call for restructuring is marked by calls for the creation of more states. Some of the calls want states prised away from some of the same distressed ones.
Our birthday also rumbles with what many call the first challenge of the realm: corruption. How shall we change our course as a nation without tackling bribes, kickbacks, thievery in high places? The lawmakers are disconnected with the country as they would not disclose what they earn even when a prominent professor and lawyer, Itse Sagay (SAN) has accused them of earning, by a wide margin, more than their counterparts in other parts of the world.
It is a terrible pass we are in as a nation. We cannot say this is a birthday to celebrate. There is too much poverty, birth of the mind and the body, for us to sing or dance. It is, perhaps, another opportunity to think. But more than just think, what is important is an opportunity to think about how we should think.
For now, we are thinking at cross purposes.
