Nigeria is indeed a complex country with well over 350 ethnic groups straddling the 37 states including the federal capital territory.
It is not an easy task governing a country like Nigeria. This is where I empathize with President Muhammadu Buhari. But again, he signed for it, and it should ordinarily not be a surprise if he is overwhelmed with the myriads of challenges confronting us as a people.
In recent times, there have been calls for a break-up of Nigeria by various interest groups. And in truth, the agitations have been strongly resonating from the creeks of the Niger Delta region and the valleys in the South East region. They all have come out with one demand. Break up Nigeria.
The complexity inherent in the Nigerian state is not something that can be wished away with a whisker because of certain factors. One of such factors is politics. In truth, the outcome of the last presidential elections is somewhat a significant element in the recent agitations most political analyst would allude. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was defeated in a very free and fair contest; he accepted defeat. But his kinsmen from the Niger Delta region have refused to agree on the reality. They felt their “son” was cheated. A willing ally in the South East suddenly remembered that their pride of place in the Nigerian setting was no longer guaranteed because “ Ebele” is no longer president. Hence they must all leave for a non-existent Biafra. Most of the agitators didn’t experience the civil war and as such their ignorance should be forgiven.
These and much more are the various undercurrents rocking the boat called Nigeria and by extension the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which is barely one year gone and has recorded giant strides in the areas of insecurity, and management of our scarce resources. And of course the restoration of law and order in a country where before now, one individual can decide to dip hands into government coffers and allocated billions of naira to himself without any question, while our brothers and sisters in the North East were displaced by insurgents and rendered homeless despite voting large sums of monies for that purpose. Then Nigeria wasn’t good enough for the division because the “milk of Ebele’s” kindness flowed freely at our collective detriment.
God bless President Buhari! And I want to appeal to our brothers and sisters that have suddenly realized that dividing Nigeria is the best option to have a strategic rethink and allow their conscience prick them. For some of us, there is no place called home except Nigeria because creation is always harder than destruction, and greed easier than greatness. And just like President Buhari rightly stated, Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable. And there can’t be anything farther than that.
What is the way forward for Nigeria? President Buhari must be given all the support he needs at this critical point of our existence. For once we are beginning to experience a new lease of life in a setting where impunity and outright theft of public funds are highly prohibited. For once we can boldly say Nigeria is no longer a banana republic where anything goes. But for the activities of a group of people that are blinded by crass ignorance not to see their actions as not only inimical but senseless in all ramification. If you continue to blow up pipelines and destroy our economic infrastructures on a daily basis, of what benefit is that? What are you avenging? And on whose behalf? It is estimated that Nigeria loses about N1.3 billion daily because of the attack on oil pipelines and other economic infrastructures. Are we that confused as a people? Imagine what such an amount can do for us in the face of dire economic crisis? This is untoward a huge distraction. The government has called for dialogue as a responsible way of resolving whatever the issue is, but it hasn’t yielded any tangible result because the Avengers as they call themselves don’t even know why they are blowing up pipelines and attacking other economic infrastructures.
I stand to be corrected; President Muhammadu Buhari has performed creditably well since he assumed leadership of the country. In no particular order, I will list some of the outstanding achievements. There is a great reduction is the size of government administration, monies more than three trillion Naira which would otherwise have been wasted or shared out to officials at the end of the financial year have been saved with the full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). There is also the restoration of diplomatic relationships between Nigeria and the rest of the world made possible by the various foreign trips the President has embarked on in the last one year, One million of the country’s poorest of the poor will get a monthly supplement of N5,000.00. Another one million will get start-up loans from the Bank of Industry, Boko Haram insurgents have been decimated and no longer in control of any territory, and the sustained war against corruption and much more.
I am convinced more can be done towards restoring our greatness as a country. And this is where it behooves on all well-meaning citizens to speak in one voice against those who do not wish us well with their actions and words. We can’t continue to see those whom through their actions are enemies of Nigeria continue to distract the president. For them, Nigeria must fail, but for us, Nigeria must succeed. We also need to remind them that there are consequences for our every actions and inaction and the earlier they retrace their steps and join the progress train, the better for them. We have to give our unalloyed support to President Buhari.
There is just one message that is stronger than all other whispers. The unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable! And so shall it be by God’s grace.
*Agbese is Coordinator, Stand Up Nigeria (SUN), a civil rights group based in the United Kingdom and contributed this piece from London.
