By A Concerned Yoruba Man
The agitation for the state of Biafra has reached a boiling point, with hate mongering and threats of war from various groups in the country, its time to speak up and address the status quo.Just before i highlight the ways to silence Biafra, one fact should be made clear to all relevant groups heating up the polity.No ethnicity is more important than the other in Nigeria.In a country that boasts of over 250 ethnic groups ,or as i like to say Nationalities, we are better described as UNITED NATIONS OF NIGERIA.
Irrespective of your stereotype or prejudice against the Igbo Nation, they are one of the most enterprising and innovative people in Nigeria.
However unverified statistics also shows that Igbos are the most travelled Ethnic group in Nigeria, You will literally find them anywhere and everywhere.They have built vast business Empires in various states of the country.They have formed semi-colonies in different corners outside the proposed Biafra.They have taken commerce, industrialization and Business economics to a new level even in the midst of Scarcity.
Would you say such a people want their own country or just a place where there is prosperity?
With all these beautiful attributes of the 34 million Ndigbo, can we take away the Scholarly, Innovative,modern and hospitable tendencies of 40 million Yorubas ? Or can we deny the rich Agricultural, Artistic, cultural ubiquity of the combined 31 million Hausa/Fulani?
What about the colourful culture of Efik people or the Rich farm lands of Tiv/Idoma people?
Can we ignore the deep cultural roots of benin or the social organisation of Nupe people?
So the truth is we need them so much but just as much as they us!
I must say at this point that i am not against the right of People for self determination but we cannot ignore the echoes of history, which should be a lesson to all.
Here are the questions we must answer:
Can we survive another civil war?
Will disintegration solve our many problems?
Does the 1999 constitution permit the current agitations by IPOB and MASSOB?
What does the Igbo Nation really want?
What lessons have we learnt from the last civil war?
Why were there no agitations during Goodluck Jonathan’ s Presidency?
Every reader will provide different answers to the above questions but one thing is clear- WE NEED A COUNTRY WHERE OUR INTERESTS ARE EQUALLY REPRESENTED.
If we want this agitations that threatens our unity and freedom to go, we need all these and more:
1.RESOURCE CONTROL-This is a component of True federalism, where every state explores and manages its own resources and contributes a quota to the central government.The whole country has depended on the “liquid gold” from the south-east and south-south for decades but there is little or no prove that these states are the sources of the nation’s wealth(a consequence of poor national and local leadership).Resource control gives the Igbo nation the freedom they really want.This will help other states of the country to look inward for lifelines.
2.RESTRUCTURING- There are still arguments on what this really means. This would likely come with resource control, true federalism, federal character principle, decentralization of power, deconcentration of power, devolution of power among others.There is a need to revert from the
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