Negotiation, a must

Playing host to a group of officials, mostly
of Northern extraction recently, to mark the

end of the Month of Ramadan and to
celebrate the Eid el Fitr festival, President
Muhammadu Buhari grew ebullient in the
spirit of the occasion. He declared that the
unity of Nigeria was not negotiable. The
remark has given rise to reactions over a
wide spectrum of judgment. Opinions are of
course divided into two main camps—those
who agree, and those who do not. Swinging
around the fence are also those who leave
you unclear of whether their yea be yea, and
their nay be nay.
Fortuitously, the President also referred to
the reigning slogan of those trying days
around the period of the Nigerian Civil War
when the prospect of the unity of Nigeria
was in a very shaky situation. It was on
everybody’s lips:
“ To make Nigeria one is a task that must be
done!”
There were politicians who cared little about
how many parts the country was made of
as long as they got their main chance in the
deal; there were also genuine patriots who
were also very keen to see it through; and,
of course, there were the innocent ones
who mouthed it just for the sound of it. Only
one patriot – and I should write that with a
capital ‘P’ — seemed to know the score. He
had been in prison where he was held in
duress vile to silence his voice because of
the truth he declared about the Biafra issue.
At the first opportunity he had on his way
home from the prison, he loudly made
Nigeria joined the slogan, but in his own
way:
“ To make Nigeria one,” he countered, “ justice
must be done!”
And that voice of great renown was once
again raised to argue that the unity of
Nigeria can be negotiated. He is eminently
right, as several other Nigerians have
supported him. The question we must
answer is this: Did Nigeria ever have what
could really be described as “unity”—except
on the occasions when our national football
team, the Super Eagles, were engaged in a
serious international encounter? That was
truly the period when one might say we
were in harmony with one another, in the
expression of the same feeling, in the desire
of one aim, and in the pursuit of the same
goal.
We have always been at loggerheads, even
from the post-colonial days, when our
differences as distinct elements of various
nationalities stood between us and a
common destiny. We clamoured together for
independence from the colonial rule which
super-imposed a geographical unit on our
identity, but failed to bind us together as a
nation. Our tongues and tribes indeed do
differ, as the former National Anthem clearly
related, but so also do our cultural appetites
and our inherent aspirations.
We do not think alike, we do not speak
alike, we do not act alike. We are Nigerians
because insensate historical fate has thrown
us together in close proximity, without our
knowledge of the implications. Nobody ever
seems to pause and wonder what we
sincerely mean to one another. It is
presumably accepted that we would, that
we should accept one another as we are,
for what we are. It has not worked out that
way.
In his fascinating biography of Sir Ahmadu
Bello, the late Sardauna of Sokoto and
Premier of the defunct Northern Region of
Nigeria, John Paden recounted an oral
traditional story of a meeting between Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Premier of the Eastern
Region and the Northern Premier. Ever open
and urbane, the Eastern Premier approached
his Northern counterpart and said, “Let us
forget our differences… “ But the Sardauna
replied, “No, let us understand our
differences. I am a Muslim and a
Northerner. You are a Christian and an
Easterner. By understanding our differences,
we can build unity in our country.”
“ By understanding our differences” … that is
from where the task of “making Nigeria one”
begins. Mistrust and bad faith stand firmly
at the borders of our differences today,
keeping us no nearer now than we had
been, at least, some seven decades ago:
that was when some Igbo inhabitants of
Lagos went about arming themselves with
machetes and sticks to defend themselves
from the indigenes that never caught up
with what was going on.
It was the same good old Zik who preached
good sense to his people, by explaining that
the Egungun masquerade, which some
Easterners found repulsive, was not staged
to frighten or harm them in any way. It
stopped the tendency of some Igbo men
preferring to live on the Mainland, instead of
the Island.
The clamour for Biafra has risen from the
level of a negotiable demand to the pitch of
another armed confrontation. As we once
pointed out on this page, contending groups
are now developing within that demand,
though they are, all the same, joined by the
common issue of resource control. But
there are other pressing issues which cover
a wide area of perennial interests, like the
National Grazing Bill, the uneven choice in
federal appointments and the persistent
stifling stricture of a unitary control against
a federal fiscal procedure.
Not negotiable? The unity of this land has to
be negotiated.
Time out.