A theatre of absurdities

Professor Ango Abdullahi will never cease to amuse me. While the rest of the world is moving on, the likes of our dear Professor don’t seem to be bothered. They still want to keep running the social system in the same old fashion and by the same anachronistic standards as their forefathers did, before the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 – despite telling the world they know better than that.

On the one hand, they give you the impression that they are yet to feel the gentle breeze of change the world at large is experiencing. On the other hand, they keep you wondering if that ‘change’ is even necessary if it is designed to cut their authority short as elders of the land.

It reminds you of the clout the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Teachers of the Law had built around them before Jesus came into the arena. When Jesus came, these teachers of the law became afraid that with the new method Jesus taught publicly and the miracles they saw him perform, he was bound to discredit them in the estimation of the people at some point in time. They hated Jesus on that account, and they planned to kill him.

For whatever the confession is worth, our respected Professor Ango is quoted recently as saying he was surprised when people started to condemn him for

supporting Arewa youths who ‘decreed’ that all Igbo must leave Northern Nigeria by the first of October.

He had supported the massively ignorant youths in their most unconstitutional demand because South-East leaders failed to caution Nnamdi Kanu and other Biafra agitators against their consistent divisive comments. And as if that was not enough exposure of his level of commitment to the national spirit, the learned professor said he was open about his position unlike other Northern leaders who pretended about it. I just couldn’t help laughing at this marvellous logic. Wonderful Nigerian people!

Here is a man who was recently interviewed by Henry Umoru of the Vanguard newspaper [Vanguard 4 June 2017]. Hear him:

“Take for example, what Donald Trump, who only recently assumed office as the President of the United States of America said: ‘America first, America second, America third, employ America by America’ and so on and so forth. This is what every country now has to do. This is a policy to protect America, an annunciation by the leader of the capitalist world protecting the American economy and the American people and this is the kind of courage that African leaders require to get up and say ‘my country first, my country second, my country third’. This is what happened to quite a number of countries: the Chinese did the same, they disappeared for some time and now they have resurfaced as one of the leaders of the world because they protected themselves, they protected their country.”

That was Professor Ango Abdullahi speaking. On the one hand he practically speaks in the same vein as the Igbo who see Nigeria first as their country, second as their country and third as their country. On another hand, he is telling the Igbo that they are foreigners in some parts of their own country.

Whether the Igbo are coming or going, however, their position in the entire Nigerian experiment is very easy to understand. It is not complicated in any shape or form. It just tallies with what our eminent professor says is ideal, but finds it absurd to implement.

We are saying that Nigeria has a constitution. We are saying that the Nigerian constitution clearly stipulates who can and who cannot be called a Nigerian. We are saying that in its content, the Nigerian passport which is the document that authenticates a Nigerian’s nationality does not specify that a Nigerian must be Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. That simply means that Nigerian nationalism does not recognise Nigerian ethnicity. Nigerian nationalism supersedes Nigerian ethnicity. That is the law both within and outside of Nigeria.

We are essentially saying that it is not acceptable for anyone from any part of the country to overtly or covertly doctor or manipulate the spirit of this most vital document. Any attempt to denigrate the spirit of the Nigerian passport is what the Igbo are vehemently against. It is like denigrating the national anthem. And for standing up for what the entire world knows is the true spirit of nationalism, the Igbo have become continuously vilified by Nigerian authorities like Professor Ango Abdullahi who should know better.

Most Nigerians see the urgent need to restructure Nigeria after the failed experiment at amalgamation during the first 100 years of its colonial creation. They testify to the fact that the last decades of those hundred years only succeeded in breeding armed insurgents of sorts across the country, agitating for a restructuring of the nation in its present state. Those Nigerians who are educated enough to interpret the spirit of the Nigerian passport know that the Federal authorities will definitely not bulge about restructuring Nigeria unless serious pressure is put on the government by stakeholders.

The break-up threat by several organisations like IPOB is one such major pressure point. Another instance would be if by 2019 the federal government is still hesitant to call for a referendum and if the Easterners decide to boycott the 2019 elections in the East. If that happens, the Nigerian government will be seriously hit because no President can emerge without a 25% win across the 12 states that make up the East following, the dictates of the Nigerian constitution. Otherwise anarchy will rule the country.

Any plan to boycott the 2019 Presidential elections in the East would be a major move that could force the government to hold a plebiscite so that Nigerians can decide for themselves whether or not they want to remain as one united country and if so, redefine the terms of their association. It will be a strong political weapon, a political move that is designed to bring the Federal Government to uphold the collective desire of the voting masses. And that is as it should be, in a democracy. There are no guns, no knives, no swords and no arrows – only the people’s franchise.

So, what we are saying is that carrying a Nigerian passport means that ethnic chauvinism must be expunged from the Nigerian national dictionary much in the same way as ethnicity is not recognised by the Nigerian passport.

We are saying that any Nigerian child born in any part of Nigeria has legitimacy of citizenship of his or her place of birth.

We are saying that any citizen of Nigeria can live, work and help develop any village, any town and any city in Nigeria where he feels comfortable to live in,

without being constantly harassed and reminded by those who ignorantly claim to own the land that he is a foreigner in his own country.

We are saying that stringent laws must be put in place and ardently enforced to ensure that Nigerians of whatever extract are made to feel at home in any village, town or city of Nigeria they choose to live in, or this vexatious question of United States of Nigeria can never be fully resolved.

We are saying that most Nigerians believe that they will be happier living side by side as Nigerian citizens with various ethnic backgrounds, working together and enjoying one another’s company despite their ethnic differences and dreaming of their respect in Africa and the rest of the world just because they are Nigerians.

We have at-least seen through their desire to shame those super-powers that predicted the breakup of Nigeria after the first 100 years of its amalgamation. And they have their reason. They are saying that as the most populous, most endowed African nation and as a leader and the gateway to the African economy, Nigerians must decide.

Take a look at America. It has about 50 states, some of them bigger than Nigeria. Yet all the people from different countries, different backgrounds and a variety of culture live under one national umbrella called the United States of America. Every state is autonomous. They make their own laws. They police their own state. And if you don’t like their laws, you don’t live in the state. You settle in a state you are happy to live in. They come, they throw back the culture they came with and imbibe the American way of life. It doesn’t matter whether they were Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Africans, South Americans and so on. They all strive to be American because it makes them proud to be identified as Americans.

In Nigeria, with only 36 states, our people are still paddling upstream to enjoy the dividends of a United States of Nigeria. The leaders don’t think Nigerians want to be proud to be identified as Nigerians, the same way as Americans are proud to be seen as Americans. Anyone may think that the masses of Nigerians are fools. But Nigerians are no fools. They know that their so-called leaders have not been frank with them over the years. They know that their so-called leaders are not willing to integrate the various ethnic nationalities that make up the country because tribal leadership pays them better. Nigerians know that their so-called leaders are more concerned with their private pockets and the welfare of their private families than the welfare of the generality of people who defy rain and extreme sunshine and troop out en masse to vote them into public office.

But the Igbo have gone past that stage in their social development. No Igbo at this stage is thinking of calling anybody to order because they all know that there is a need to put pressure on the Federal Government to restructure the country.

So, when Professor Abdullahi says he supported the quit order given to Eastern Nigerians by the Arewa youths to leave Northern Nigeria by 1st October because he was particularly worried that notable political leaders in the South East like Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Emeka Anyaoku, Jim Nwobodo, Mbazulike Amechi, among others, failed to call Kanu to order on time, it becomes easy to see that these are the people taking the country backwards in its stride towards development.

How can anyone carrying a Nigerian passport be asked to quit any part of his own country and get back possibly to his state of birth or parents’ birth and educated people like Professor Abdullahi readily give their support to a mass of ignorant young rascals making such unconstitutional demands?

If Nigeria belongs to Nigerians, why must some Northern leaders insist on balkanising the country or refuse to call for a plebiscite so that Nigerians can decide if they actually want to stay together in the first place, and if so, by what terms? Northern elders like Professor Ango Abdullahi should wake up from their slumber, join the modern trend and please save this beautiful country with its extremely talented citizens from being dismissed by the rest of the world as a theatre of absurdities.

· Mr Asinugo is a London-based journalist and publisher of Imo State Business Link Magazine