Every problem Nigeria has ever faced and will ever face can
be traced to that demonic event of 1914 where the British merged the Southern
and Northern protectorate into one country that is today known as Nigeria.
Britain had only one thing in mind while carrying out the amalgamation;
their administrative and economic convenience. Nothing more.
The action of the British can be compared to a man who
bought both herbivorous and carnivorous animals from the market and chose to
put them in one cage to make it convenient for him to transport them home. This
man knew that herbivores feed on herb and are very harmless and easy going
while carnivores feed on flesh and are most times very aggressive and violent.
In other words, the herbivorous animals in that cage might end up as meat for
the carnivorous ones even before the man would reach his destination. He knew
all these but still chose to put both animals together.
Do we need the brain of Albert Einstein to figure out the
fact that the welfare of these animals was the last thing on this man's mind?
Rather, all he cared about was getting them all home whether dead or alive
without spending extra money for another cage and extra transport fare for that
new cage.
Even my 3-month old niece knows that the North and South has
absolutely nothing in common. Not the same language, not the same culture, not
the same religion, not the same ancestry, not even the same world views and as
such, can't possibly live together as one country.
Nigeria is many nations forced to remain within an
unworkable forced marriage. The amalgamation was borne out of compulsion.
That line "one Nation bound in freedom, peace and
unity" in our national anthem is one hell of a dirty lie. Where is the
freedom? Where is the peace? Where is the unity?
I really think we've had enough of the rhetorics, the lies,
the delusion. It is time we get down to the real business of paying ourselves
the courtesy of being blunt.
The #OneNigeria slogan is one of the biggest organised lies
of the century. There is absolutely nothing #One about Nigeria.
If we look at all the happenings in the country since 1914
till date, we will discover that the only thing that bind us together is mutual
suspicion for one another.
it is beyond arguments that while the South wishes to live
and compete in a new modern free world, the North only aspires to go back to
the bondage of the dark ages.
A very influential Yoruba monarch once threatened to drown
Igbos resident in Lagos in the lagoon, yet, not even a single shop owned by an
Igbo man was burnt in Lagos as a result of that threat. Of all the cat and dog
fight between the Yoruba’s and the Igbos, there has been no case of these two
tribes attacking each other physically. It always end in long grammar which is
how decent beings end their misunderstanding.
But, for the average Northerner, every disagreement must end
in bloodshed.
A Northern Muslim doesn't really need a reason to start
spilling blood. No reason at all. He could start killing southern Christians
living in the North for such a flimsy excuse as the shooting of a Palestinian
by an Israeli soldier in the far away West Bank in the Middle East. Even a
planned hosting of beauty pageants somewhere in Kano by the federal govt
resulted in the killing of hundreds of Southerners living in the North. A
cartoon of Mohammed drawn in far away Denmark by a cartoonist who was neither
Igbo nor even an African ended in the death of hundreds of Igbos in the hands
of these Northerners few years ago.
Even as I type this, the two terrorist groups (Boko haram
and Fulani militants) currently killing and maiming thousands and displacing
millions are from the North and they are all Muslims.
Despite all the brutalities of the govt, IPOB has never
killed innocent people. Despite the volume of arms at its disposal, OPC has
never attacked innocent people. Despite the gravity of environmental terrorism,
the federal govt has carried out in the Niger Delta, neither MEND nor the
AVENGERS ever bombed innocent people.
But even without provocation, the Fulani terrorists kill and
maim innocent people and take over their land with the active support of the
govt headed by a Fulani man and the security forces controlled by Fulani men.
Charles Ogbu is not accusing the North of anything here but
the truth remains the truth and no matter how bitter it is, it must still be
said.
It is the North that is drawing this country back.
All the killing of innocent people that have been carried
out so far starting from the Igbo pogrom of 1945 in Jos and that of 1953 in
Kano were all carried out by Northerners. And remember, those 1945 and 1953
pogrom against Igbos living in the North happened long before Nigeria gained independence.
This is for you to understand how long the North has been in the business of
spilling blood.
Are we all waiting for a Rwanda 1994 example before we
summon up the needed courage to stop believing our own lie about Nigeria being
one???
This country has since reached its elastic limit. It can no
longer stretch again.
India and Pakistan were once a country. Today, look at India
and look at Pakistan and tell me what you see.
The only solution to all the problem of this country is
total balkanization. Anything short of this will only leave us with a peace of
the grave yard which is no peace at all.
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