In memory of Nigeria?, By Wole Olaoye

Like a pack of biscuits on the shelf beyond the expiry date, the country called Nigeria already expired in 2014 — ten years ago! It therefore ought to be baked afresh. 

That was the view of the convener of the Northern Elders’ Forum and a former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Ango Abdullahi at a national conference on a home-grown model of the parliamentary system organised by the Home-Grown Parliamentary System Support Group in Abuja. PSSG is a group of 83 members of the House of Representatives, sponsoring three bills seeking the alteration of the 1999 Constitution to transition from the current presidential to a parliamentary system at all tiers of government.

Antecedents

Abdullahi wasn’t saying anything new. Prominent historian, Professor Banji Akintoye, Worldwide Leader of Yoruba Global Movement, Ilana Omo Oodua, who also doubles as chairman of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) is on record as describing the present political arrangement in Nigeria as fraudulent and campaigning for the peaceful secession of the Yoruba from Nigeria. He has formalised his campaign by submitting a petition to the United Nations. 

Akintoye even made a solemn declaration after his group’s 2020 outing: “For the avoidance of doubt, the NINAS proclamation of constitutional dispute on December 16, 2020, terminated the life of the fraudulent 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and therefore restored our sovereignty that was confiscated by that constitution. What we are doing today is to outline the processes and modality for the necessary and orderly transition to our full self-determination and sovereignty in the World. Therefore we hereby call on the peoples of our alliance territory to rise to the challenge of shaking off the shackles and manacles hitherto imposed on them by the defunct 1999 constitution.”

As if that was not ‘treasonous’ enough, last month, prominent Yoruba rights agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho, submitted another petition at 10 Downing Street, London, calling for international recognition of the Yoruba people’s quest for self-determination. 

On the home front, Chief Edwin Clark and Chief Ayo Adebanjo have, for years, campaigned for the ditching of the 1999 constitution which they describe as a big swindle imposed on Nigerians by the retreating military government in 1999. Another member of the nonagenarian club, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, has been making strident calls for the renegotiation of a new constitution in a peaceful way before the wave of separatist agitations become a storm. He particularly describes the presidential system as unsuited to the temperament and experience of Nigerians. 

Nnamdi Kanu’s agitation for the actualisation of the Republic of Biafra for the Igbo people of the present day southeast geopolitical zone through his organisation, Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), is well known. 

Changing Tide

In government circles, particularly in Abuja, It used to be anathema to mention anything about a renegotiation of the terms of the Nigerian union in certain quarters without exposing oneself to the possible eventuality of losing a tooth or two. It is gratifying that the issue of a total overhaul of the apparatus of the Nigerian union is an idea whose time has come.

The current economic hardship has contributed its quota in making us take a hard look at ourselves and wonder if we couldn’t have made a better use of the independence we won from the British in 1960. 

But here we are. In intellectual discourse, there is no right time or wrong time. Certain intervening variables may have impinged on the ability of certain interlocutors to perceive empirical reality from the same prism as their fellow citizens. With time, however, as governments come and governments go, it has become clear that we are only doing the same things the same old way and populating the land with mendicants who soon transmogrify into violent civilian armies waylaying us at the portals of our mansions.

It appears that a consensus has been reached that, no matter what happens, it is advisable to renegotiate the terms of our union as a nation, or go our separate ways in peace so that we can at least remain as friendly neighbours.

Love him or loathe him, the voice of the 86-year-old Prof Abdullahi is a very noteworthy one in Nigeria. The younger generation have him to thank for taking that trip down memory lane to remind us all that we have been living a lie.

Memory Lane 

“Nigeria was born in 1914”, Abdullahi recalled. “It was a product of an Edict by the colonial officials that were largely military, in consultation with a few of our elders, about five or six of them — The Sultan of that period, the Shehu of Borno of that period, the Alaafin of Oyo of that period, the Obong of Calabar of that period, and other names, I have forgotten.

“The North was conquered in 1903. So, by 1914 the colonial masters from Britain wanted to solidify their gains so that they could more easily exploit the resources of the colony. That is how they sat down and decided that they would amalgamate the Lagos Colony and the South and the North into one country.

“The wife of Lord Frederick Luggard, the Governor General at that time, gave us the name Nigeria, a name derived from the ‘Niger Area’. In the Edict, it was very clear that we were being encouraged from various backgrounds to come together and build a country called Nigeria. And our leaders at that time agreed that we would try. But we were advised in the details of the Edict, that we should be monitoring progress over the years but the life of the Edict was 100 years.

“This meant that the Edict expired in 2014, which is 100 years after its formation. The question is that we are now in 2024. This kind of dialogue reminds us that we have a history that started In 1914. In the conclusion of that edict, it said that if we failed to build a country that we can call our own and be proud of, by the expiration of that period the various components that were in that amalgamation could go their separate ways. 

“Go and check; that is what you will find. The edict tells us to either do what is right or if we can’t do what is right we can decide to go our separate ways,” declared Prof. Abdullahi.

Apparently dissatisfied with the pace of development in Nigeria since independence in 1960, the former vice-chancellor lamented that 64 years after, Nigeria can only boast of 3,000 megawatts of electricity for a population of over 200 million people. He said that Nigeria had failed to live up to the expectation of its founding fathers.

New Constitution?

Netizens have since taken over the debate. The ubiquitous commentators of the intemperate hue who always want to reduce every commentary on Nigeria to a tribal warfare, seem to have spared the elderly professor their usual flack. Abdullahi’s candid historical excursion appears to have given them some food for thought. However, there was a coterie of doubters who wondered why it had taken Prof Abdullahi so long to come to the party. “Is he taking this position because the presidency is now occupied by a southerner?”, they ask.

In the coming days and months, I see the jaw-jaw among political leaders revving up tempo to such an extent that the 2027 elections may be conducted under a new constitution for the sake of Nigeria’s survival as one entity. I think the present generation of politicians would rather do that than bury Nigeria with the battlecry, “To your trenches, O Tribesmen!” 

Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021.