TEAM Nwabueze
The second-to-the-last chapter of the campaign for restructuring appears to have been written at the just-concluded meeting of the Southern Leaders of Thought (SLT), which was preceded by that of the Southern Leaders Forum (SLF).
Readers may be puzzled by the existence of two separate groups but with near-identical membership and same goal(s). So, take the SLF as the advocacy or teeth arm of the campaign and SLF as its think-tank and final authority.
The outcome of the Southern Leaders of Thought meeting was the “constitution of a high-powered consultative team from southern Nigeria” to engage a “Northern/ middle belt team in national consultation on restructuring.” It’s revealing that a single southern Nigerian team is proposed but a hybrid one is suggested for the North: unanimity of purpose may account for the former, divide and conquer tactics for the latter.
At all events, a consultative team whose nucleus includes personalities who, over time, have exhibited bias, prejudice, even outright hostility against a section of the country and its people is suspect, ab initio. Hostility against the North, in the many colours it is now being painted, has become a veritable political platform.
Professor Ben Nwabueze recently crafted a lengthy article, a treatise really, refuting the notion of a precolonial Northern Nigeria based on the continuous territories of the Fulani and Kanem Borno empires. For good measure, he disavowed the Islamic character of the peoples of these territories. His dalliance with Nnamdi Kanu is inexplicable, but given that he isn’t in his dotage, it is a pointer to where his sympathies lie.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Afenifere chieftain has been fighting the AGNPC battles long after the demise of these political parties. Thus every issue is viewed through the prism of those “concerns” of the 1960s, but with a new twist. In the First Republic the call was to the sensibilities of Northern ethnic minorities; however state creation has, over time, eroded its appeal. Today, it is the most dangerous fault line, religion that is being called to service. Hence you hear Core North, Caliphate North and Muslim North, all appellations designed to de-couple Hausa/Fulani/ Kanuri from other Northerners whose identity has hitherto not been in doubt.
Chief Solomon Asemota (SAN), the leader of the curiously-named Nigerian Christian Elders Forum on the other hand, has visibly tasked his organisation to forment sectarian strife in the North by regular rants about “plans to Islamise Nigeria.” Unfortunately he managed to inveigle some prominent Christian Northerners to join the Forum: those who indeed know that commonality of religion is not a safeguard against political stress.
Meanwhile journalists like Tolu Adeniyi employ a mix of sophistry, misrepresentation and revisionism to “simplify” issues to a captive audience.
It is easy to visualise both the proceedings and the outcome of an engagement between the southern Nigerian team and it’s North/middle belt counterparts in “national consultation on restructuring” if it does hold. Opening preliminaries over, TEAM Nwabueze will take turns to badger, cajole, conciliate, educate, harangue, hector and lecture the other team on the imperatives of restructuring as identified by them. At a suitable moment in the marathon proceedings “the instruments of surrender”, the Nwabueze draft constitution will be unveiled to the Northern/middle belt team. Any sign of resistance or even lack of understanding and the dam will burst - they will face a stream of vitriol - as has happened time and again in such situations.
The release of the 22-page document detailing the thinking of the SLF means the campaign is now over - except for the show dubbed the “Yoruba Summit” due this week. It is now time for the North to prepare for a struggle even more existential than the Civil War.
M T Usman aboumahmud@yahoo. com