Nigeria: To secede or not to secede
Our diverse cultural background, ethnicity and religion as a matter of fact supposed to be our strong foundation of tolerance, survival and other psychological barriers, or face break-up. Our divergent views will not let us face issues headlong because of our various parochial interests! We carry our parochial interest to deceitful high heavens.
I’ve always admired the Igbo people, they do not only possess business initiative or being hardworking, they are also innovative and that region seems to be the centre of industrialization in this country. However, they tend to believe they can achieve more as a separate state, if granted, I’m inclined to believe that too. Besides it is of no benefit forcing them to remain in a country they happen to dislike.
Come to think of it, Nigeria itself is a creation of the white man, joining together regions of almost entirely different culture and way of life and they expect them to thrive? This forced marriage called Nigeria doesn’t seem to be working, the Niger Delta avengers were busy blowing up oil wells last year and trying to cripple the economy, which by the way, we felt the heat, “Biafrans” are not happy also, the protests are getting violent, 3 policemen were killed at some points, likewise some of the protesters allegedly, regardless of the ulterior motives of their so called grievances, this marriage is clearly not working.
It is for a fact that if one region should secede then Nigeria has come to its end, other regions will start demanding a separate state; thereby breaking up into pieces of smaller countries. Hence, smaller economy, Less trade opportunities, more instability and if land-locked, that will be terrible; Africa already has a disproportionately large number of landlocked countries, hampering its access to foreign markets. In addition, you would have your own currency, which would be less trusted than the Naira.
In most of the countries in Africa where secession is proposed, poverty trumps violence as the most immediate challenge. Economic growth, the required elixir, would be strengthened by more integration, rather than the fragmentation that secession would engender.
Great and prosperous nations like US, Britain, China, India are great mostly because of their land mass, population and human resources. And Nigeria seems to have all that, we have every tool we need to be the greatest black nation. So, the problem is not secession per se, but corruption, take out corruption and everything will fall in place.
If we should break-up, the Giant of Africa will become nothing but a group of small countries, we will lose our place in the continent, hence the “unity in diversity” is indeed “strength in diversity”. These regions all have their grievances, it’s either their demands should be met or the Federal Government should atleast consider restructuring the country. The British may have brought us together without necessarily consulting us, but it is time to decide whether to stay together by consulting each other.
Isa E.Mubarak, Abuja, isamubarak66@yahoo.com