Nigeria Can’t Survive Another Civil War, Soyinka, Ooni Warn

Segun James

Given the numerous challenges facing Nigeria in her quest for national cohesion and survival, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, and Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, have warned that Nigeria could not survive another civil war.

They lamented that religious fanaticism and intolerance have been on the rise as some people who considered themselves privileged fanned the embers of war, adding that they confessed that they have been increasingly distressed and appalled that the hitherto harmonious co-habitation between all peoples of the nation was being eroded.

The warning was contained in a communiqué issued after a meeting at Soyinka’s residence at Abeokuta, Ogun State in which the two leaders expressed their deep concern “with the alarming drift of the Nigerian nation into a dysfunctional state on multiple levels of citizenship, community belonging, security and productive opportunities.”

They said: “The colonial contraption known as Nigeria cannot survive another upheaval in the nature of the civil war of Biafran secession.

“All efforts must therefore be made to anticipate and douse socio-political flare-ups that advance the chances of a recurrence of such a conflict, no matter how reduced in scale, its devastating effects on Nigerian humanity, and erosion of the prospects of continuance as a cohesive entity.”

They lamented that “among such issues of urgent import are the ongoing insurrectional movements that derive from religious fanaticism and intolerance, exemplified by Boko Haram and allied tendencies, as well as aspects of commercial enterprise, in which some groups consider themselves especially privileged, singular, and above laws and entitlements that are binding on other vectors of commercial and industrial undertaking.”

According to them, “We have in mind destructive forms of social transactions that characterise groups such as nomadic cattle herdsmen, and their umbrella groupings in the nature of Myetti Allah.