Per Azazi, Nigeria now embracing the Somali path; is South Sudan option still possible?
A few days ago, the very National Security Adviser to Nigeria's government, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi, declared that 'Terrorism has come to stay [in Nigeria]', after admitting what was rather obvious-that 'the [Nigerian] nation's security outfits were
caught unawares by the new dimension introduced by Boko Haram sect'. Whatever. He also implied what is general knowledge: Nigeria's military and security outfits, alone or in combination, could never muster the resources, courage or skills to match Boko Haram-if for no other reason than that majority of the personnel from those outfits are sympathetic to, share the same views with or are even strictly members of, Boko Haram. Else, they are afraid of Boko Haram because of vowed personal reprisals by Boko Haram, where nothing stops Boko haram from making good on those vows.
It is clear that Azazi was not delivering a personal opinion on this matter. The government of Nigeria-the shadow government, the facade-government, and the real 'owners' of Nigeria, along with foreign stakeholder-controllers of Nigeria-have come to that conclusion. Or actually, they are just now admitting what was obvious starting years ago.
For the common person, what does this mean? It means that those 'who matter-those who rule Nigeria and speak for Nigeria'-have decided and accepted that the chaos and bloodletting, the terrorism, violence and paralysis that describe Somalia, is now the fate of Nigeria, and there is nothing that can be done about it. For the avoidance of doubt, Somalia is the international 'poster-child' of a 'failed state', one of the poorest and most violent states in the world. For twenty years since 1991 there has not been a central governmental authority or control over majority of the territory because armed factions have quartered and taken over different parts, there to lord, rule and inflict their brutality. Somalia is a haven for the training of current and future terrorists by terrorist organizations because there is nothing to stop such anti-people activity.
When the so-called government of Nigeria declares that it cannot control Boko Haram (and the territory claimed and occupied by Boko Haram) and then asks the hapless peoples living in Nigeria to accept that situation, it really means that the first official step has been taken by the government of Nigeria to condemn the peoples to the fate of Somalia. Let's be clear on one thing: It is the peoples who will suffer-not the government officials and functionaries and their dependents. For sure, like Somalia, the peoples will be thrust into more poverty; but unlike Somalia, the government of Nigeria still controls the revenue from Delta Oil and a thirsty world continues to buy, thereby supplying cash to members of the government who get stupendously wealthy off it. Hence, while the peoples continue to languish in abject poverty now coupled with lack of security, the members of the Nigerian government remain rich and can remove their families and themselves off .the failed Nigerian state and off its geography. But the rest of the peoples-99% or so-will suffer; are suffering.
The peoples living in Nigeria relished the defeat of Biafra forty years ago, in so doing, demonstrating their foolishness and shortsightedness, and also, condemning themselves to eternal passivity. Biafra stood and still stands for the Spirit of a people who would take action, even against all odds, at the risk of perish, in the face of evil, rather than succumb to such evil without a fight to finish. Thus, today, the peoples living in Nigeria do not have the verve to rise up and challenge the individuals and the so-called government these unscrupulous, conscienceless individuals hide behind while driving the people as herd to slaughter. They lie in paralysis and die in misery, and they are happiest when they claim that they are to be known as the happiest people in the world. Such sickness! So, in fact, Biafra, the Spirit and idea and concept thereof, has the last laugh.
Nigeria's intelligentsia is no help. Those of this class become spokespersons for any administration (of the same 'government') in power. They travel to America and Europe to deliver pompous lectures on topics such as Democracy, Corruption, Economics, Police, Security, Elections, Governance, Religious Tolerance, and Patriotism even as their host-countries laugh themselves silly at the obvious more-than-hypocrisy joke and jokesters. All the while, they prance around as if they are completely unaware of their circumstances and fate in Nigeria.
Of course, the moment of truth, the moment of decision, has come for these Nigerians. Azazi has told Nigerians what the government of Nigeria wants for them. The peoples living in Nigeria will now have to make a conscious effort to either passively go to and become West Africa's Somalia, whence their government leads them; or they may choose the path of Sudan / South Sudan, where the people can choose to take control of their individual group destinies, away from an erring and inept government.
Earlier this year, South Sudan chose to break away from Sudan because of similar incompatibilities that define Nigeria: now, there are two independent countries, and each people will choose her own path. In so doing, both countries have ended a relationship which for a long while placed them in the same category as Somalia. Not surprisingly, some Nigerian intelligentsia consider the nation-building problems of South Sudan today as 'proof' that separation did not solve South Sudan's problems, another example of the stunted reasoning and cretinoid rationalization of such pundits.
The formula used in Sudan / South Sudan solution is called 'Self Determination', a by now household term around the world which all by itself is proving to be the true paradigm and principle of the much touted 'new world order.' It is to be seen whether the peoples suffering in Nigeria, about to be forced into Somali-type bondage, can find the courage to free themselves by adopting this paradigm. The alternative is obvious.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
 .