Some Yoruba Nation agitators recently had their day in court where their arraignment was an ample opportunity to paint Nigeria as a country deafened by cries of secession.
The biggest blot on the conscience of Africa’s most populous democracy and economy would be Biafra which dragged the country into a bloody civil war between 1967 and 1970. Nigeria’s remarkable resilience since the war ended is testament to the efforts of many people who want things to work out.
Even today, Biafra remains an issue which needs to be addressed urgently.
The country is not unfamiliar with the siren songs of secession that assail it from time to time. In a country of more than two hundred and fifty ethnic groups, each with its agenda, it is not strange to see that there are those who want their country. A country of discontent in a continent of disillusion, even among Nigeria’s thirty-six states, there are many who cannot wait for the creation of their own states.
Of all Nigeria’s disparate and disgruntled parts, it is the Igbo that are pushing hardest for their country, at least according to the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) whose leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, remains in detention.
On April 13, 2024, twenty-seven members of Oodua Republic under Yoruba Nation agitators were arrested for invading the Oyo State Government Secretariat allegedly to declare the Sovereign Republic of Yoruba Nation, (Oodua Republic)
Whether the twenty-seven arrested agitators considered themselves more Yoruba than others to engage in such a daring act or were sponsored by any of Nigeria’s many saboteurs to disrupt peace and distract the country at a time when the government is providing enough distraction with its lack of clarity, the courtroom or any of Nigeria’s squalid correctional centers is surely not where they want to be.
Since their arrest and detention around April 13 when they invaded the secretariat, if the fire of agitation for Oodua Republic in them has not exactly died, it must have grown really cold under Nigeria’s notoriously inhospitable detention conditions.
Perhaps, the saddest commentary on the state of the world today is that there are only a handful of people who believe that political disagreements can be resolved peacefully. Many others believe that violence is the way forward. The jarring war in Gaza which has been endorsed by many around the world more than it has been condemned is testament to this.
As long as there is neither legitimacy nor legality to any separation or secession, Nigeria remains a single, undivided entity even if it is crumbling under the weight of its disruptive diversity. Anyone who wants to carve a country out of a country of curveballs knows what to do before they become a victim of state dysfunction and their folly.
If they are being sponsored by anyone outside Nigeria who is taking advantage of rampaging unemployment and rampant historical grievances to destabilize the country, those asked to take to the front lines must ensure that they are being led into the battle by those sponsoring them.
Getting people out of a country they have always known to another is a monumental move that is bound to have historical and geographical repercussions. Such cannot be left to the aggrieved unemployed, many of whom may even have a history of petty crimes.
Since legitimacy can only be conferred by the people, they must be carried along at all stages of the quest to carve out another country.
An ambling agitation
The solution to agitations for secession is not to round up some agitators and squeeze them into the dock of some desperately overworked court. The long-term solution lies in engaging them, listening to their grievances and addressing them speedily and satisfactorily.
Experience has shown that force can only go so far, which is never far enough.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com
