[caption id="attachment_33728" align="alignright" width="400"] Zik, Bello and Awolowo:“The vast majority of the founding fathers that led the struggle for our independence were relatively young. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was 37, Akintola was 36, Ahmadu Bello was 36, Balewa was 34 and Enahoro was 27 when they led the struggle for independence after the death of Sir Herbert Macaulay. Only Nnamdi Azikiwe was over 40 (he was about 42 at the time).”[/caption] [caption id="attachment_63691" align="alignright" width="400"] Hope Eghagha[/caption] By Hope Eghagha It must be said that even at the time we cherished the coat of many colours, the union was not perfect. It had its contours, its patches, and its unevenness. Yet we endured because we were hopeful. The will to live together was great. At the end of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War in January 1970, after the bloody tears had cleared, after we could now see clearly somewhat, the spirit was ‘never again’. Never again would we call out our brothers to a war of attrition. Never again would we starve children in the name of war. Never again would we give the impression that some constituent parts of the Federation were vassals or conquered territory. The coat of many colours, it seemed, could be beautiful, could be harnessed and when properly managed could provoke envy from enemy forces, both within and outside the continent of Africa. The war slogan To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done, seemed to have triumphed, seemed to have etched something in the consciousness of everyone. If you missed part 1, read it here: https://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2017/10/nigeria-as-a-coat-of-many-colours-part-1/ Perhaps I should rewind a bit and say a few things about the Biafran occupation of Midwest. It was not a tea-party. They grabbed ladies and anything they liked. They terrorised us. Some prominent citizens were taken away and some returned only after the war. They killed at the slightest provocation. One of the casualties of that period was Mr. Ughubetine, a goldsmith who was killed a few weeks or month after his wedding. His offence? He was seen outside his house within the compound after 7 p.m. He ran into his room when he heard the voices of the soldiers and in the presence of bride he was gunned down through the door! She wept till dawn. [caption id="attachment_51921" align="alignright" width="400"] The war ended and we started a long romance with soldiers[/caption] And so the war ended and we started a long romance with soldiers. The ‘coat of many colours’ could bestow leadership on Nigeria and indeed the world. During the war Britain is reported to have supplied arms to both parties in the conflict. Some other scoundrel nations and individuals did same. Nigeria began to be strong and spearheaded the anti-apartheid struggle as a ‘frontline state.’ Some people in the power corridors of international politics did not like this. So the Nigerian state had to be manipulated, confused and then destroyed. Why did those five American military officers predict a doomed Nigeria after the 2015 election? Unwittingly some forces within the country started the journey into self-destruction! Within the country a perception emerged: real political power had been grabbed by the Northern elite. Another perception also emerged: the north contributed ‘little or nothing’ to the national economy yet controlled the levers of political power. Whether by design or default all the coups and counter-coups from July 1967 to 1985 were led and dominated by soldiers of Northern extraction. The attempted coup against President Babangida was essentially an anti-north coup. Indeed one of their demands and which was also crucial to the failure of the coup was the order that excised certain parts of the north from Nigeria. Believers in the coat of many colours approach were aghast. Some of the soldiers from the Middle Belt and other minorities in the country opined that they were fed up with being dominated in the Army by northern officers. And I remember General Alli’s book ‘The Federal Republic of Nigerian Army: The Siege of a Nation.’ The dominant narrative even in the Nigerian Army was that no non-Northerner could aspire to rule the country without the full support of the North establishment. It did not matter that the northern officers and officials who held power in the centre did nothing to radically transform the infrastructure in that region. The same poor infrastructure which the south suffered could be found everywhere in the North. Maiduguri? Sokoto? Kaura Namoda? How was Bauchi better than Benin in infrastructure or education? So what did they do with the so-called northern control of the establishment? Not much, I’m afraid. So rather than unite the entire country in prosperity the common denominator became poverty. That is the reason I wonder why the poor people across the country – Christian or Muslim, North or South- never see the unifying factor in this coat of many colours. The elite on both sides have effectively buried the hatchet in the head of a common enemy. Hunger does not know religion. It does not know ethnic group. Poverty does not visit one religion or one ethnic group because of the religion. This coat of many colours has been mutilated by the men and women charged with the responsibility of harnessing the beauty of the coat. Primordial emotions and sentiments have been whipped up to undermine the beauty of the coat. Each time I took my wife to Mile 12 in Ketu, I see the coat of many colours in action. On the football field during international matches I see the coat of many colours in action. When abroad and I ran into a Mosun or a Musa or an Emeka in faraway Houston or Vienna or in Uppsala I see the coat of many colours in action. When Murtala Mohammed was assassinated in 1976 the coat of many colours swung into action. Hatred as a result of ethnicity or religion is a surface thing. It is the result of myopia and ignorance. Hunger does not know religion. It does not know ethnic group. Poverty does not visit one religion or one ethnic group because of the religion. This coat of many colours has been mutilated by the men and women charged with the responsibility of harnessing the beauty of the coat. Primordial emotions and sentiments have been whipped up to undermine the beauty of the coat. Each time I took my wife to Mile 12 in Ketu, I see the coat of many colours in action. On the football field during international matches I see the coat of many colours in action. When abroad and I ran into a Mosun or a Musa or an Emeka in faraway Houston or Vienna or in Uppsala I see the coat of many colours in action. When Murtala Mohammed was assassinated in 1976 the coat of many colours swung into action. Hatred as a result of ethnicity or religion is a surface thing. It is the result of myopia and ignorance. [caption id="attachment_80605" align="alignright" width="640"] Mile 12 market in Ketu, there is coat of many colours in action[/caption] It follows that with a proper harnessing of the coat of many colours Nigeria is possible. What is lacking is justice. Equity is in abeyance in producing and dispensing the national cake. Highly-placed mischievous persons manipulate the coat and turn it into a reason for betrayal, for selling the nation to slavery. The patches in the coat serve different purposes. Diversity can be beauty. Diversity can be harnessed. Our geographical combination is NOT the problem. It is what we have done with the geographical proximity that is the problem. Be sure that within homogenous ethnic units, sub-groups still emerge and remain enemies. As we write, some families, siblings of same parentage are in court fighting over the inheritance from their father. As we speak, there is anger raging within families, within clans, within churches, within mosques over trivial issues. Homogeneity is not enough armour against intra-group squabbles and divisions. What is happening to the coat of many colours therefore is that we are not managing the tapestry very well. As Wole Soyinka once opined: Justice is the first condition of humanity. Nowhere was national injustice so blatant as how the South-south has been treated in this now-shaky tapestry. It follows that with a proper harnessing of the coat of many colours Nigeria is possible. What is lacking is justice. Equity is in abeyance in producing and dispensing the national cake. Highly-placed mischievous persons manipulate the coat and turn it into a reason for betrayal, for selling the nation to slavery. The patches in the coat serve different purposes. Diversity can be beauty. Diversity can be harnessed. Our geographical combination is NOT the problem. It is what we have done with the geographical proximity that is the problem. We can as regions in a Federal State or even in a confederation or as separate nations live and make progress. But the truth is that there is something to be said for collective strength, for a group activity and numerical strength. It was Chinua Achebe who wrote in Things Fall Apart: “A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to redeem them from starving. They all have food in their own houses. When we gather together in the moonlight village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together physically and enjoy the power of togetherness. Let’s smile not because we don’t have problems but because we are stronger than the problems! Nigeria as a coat of many colours – Part 3 [caption id="attachment_63691" align="alignright" width="400"] Hope Eghagha[/caption] In concluding the ‘Coat of many Colours’ reflections, I should say that the experience of driving through memory lane clears the mind and prepares it for the future; in other words, it has been therapeutic. To be sure it may be offensive to some, those who want the atrocities of the past buried forever, not to be recalled, not to be mentioned in contemporary narratives. But we should know that just as a man is a sum of his memories, so too is a nation too. An incursion into the past is a marker of sorts, a reminder of milestones created and surpassed or never attained. While some of us are conscious of history, of what could have been, and what should be, quite a number do not see the total picture. Sadly, at this time of our history persons who fall into this latter category seem to control the narrative because they have seized the national space. There are some too who are fixated in some imaginary ideas of superiority of religion or ethnic group, the ‘born to rule’ figment of imagination. This wild view has no place in a democracy; it is atavistic and insulting. A ‘pastiche’ is a beautiful design for those who appreciate art, those with an elevated mind. For the non-initiate or the plain-minded it would just be an image of jagajaga, meant to be discarded, even annoying in the first place. Why should anybody think of placing contrary images side by side, the question would be.The modern State, governed by democratic ideals sometimes poses a danger to itself, particularly when the tyranny of the majority sees things from a narrow prism, as the current American experiment with President Trump has demonstrated. On the lighter side, I have attended burial ceremonies of some confirmed polygamists in Delta State and was amazed how the wives and children from different ethnic backgrounds were able to give colour to a funeral. Perhaps we should reflect on this; how diversity can be a beauty if properly harnessed. The moral burden of ensuring ethnic cohesion and harmony is on the leadership class. Justice and fair play are crucial. Either by design or default no ethnic group, big or small, should be left out of the political equation. The Niger Delta conflict remains unresolved. Their demand that the oil majors should relocate to their base of operations has been ignored. They sit in the comfort of their offices in Abuja and Lagos while sucking the earth dry in the beleaguered region. One of the greatest sore points therefore in the coat of many colours is the injustice in the Niger Delta. Billions of dollars have been extracted from the soil of that oppressed region yet there is no infrastructure on the ground to show for it. Oil wells from my backyard have made billionaires of some persons who live thousands of miles away, who have never seen the well, who have never visited the region. They have become billionaires because they come from a particular ethnic group! [caption id="attachment_29174" align="alignright" width="600"] Boko Haram fighters[/caption] Another sore point in the pastiche is the crisis in the North East. Boko Haram has waged a war against the Nigerian government from Maiduguri. The ground for this was prepared by the Maitasine Sect in the 1980s, a foreshadowing of what was to come. Around 1999 Sharia was introduced in certain parts of the North ostensibly to destabilize the Obasanjo administration. It would seem to me that the people of the area want sharia laws. Nothing stops us therefore from drafting a regional constitution for the North that would recognize Sharia as the operational law for Muslims. Christians will be exempted and their matters will go to regular secular courts. The key to this is a well thought-out Federal system that works for us, and not the imported model. My only worry is that persons of the Awolowo/Ahmadu Bello/Azikiwe model who are ready to deep-think about the country are NOT in the corridors of power currently. If I recall that the Sardauna Sir Ahmadu Bello in his own words wanted ‘each region to have a complete Legislative and Executive Autonomy with respect to all matters except External Affairs, Defence, Customs;, if he wanted ‘no Central Executive or policy making body for the whole of Nigeria’, then he understood the ‘coat of many colours’ better than most of his successors in office. The resurrected spirit of Biafra in IPOB after the 1970 ‘No Victor No Vanquished’ proclamation by General Yakubu Gowon has made it clear that there is a crack somewhere, even if we argue that there are subterranean hands behind the agitation. Indeed some retired Generals have argued that it was wrong to treat the vanquished as equals. The post-World War 2 Nuremberg trials show that the defeated must know that there is punishment for rising up against the State. In a sense this is correct. However Gowon sincerely saw the end of the war as a coming back together of brothers. In my view after the genocide that was the federal policy against their Igbo brothers further punishment could have backfired. It is also true that the Igbo suffered for fighting the war; they have been effectively prevented from producing the President of the Federal Republic! A ‘pastiche’ is a beautiful design for those who appreciate art, those with an elevated mind. For the non-initiate or the plain-minded it would just be an image of jagajaga, meant to be discarded, even annoying in the first place. Why should anybody think of placing contrary images side by side, the question would be.The modern State, governed by democratic ideals sometimes poses a danger to itself, particularly when the tyranny of the majority sees things from a narrow prism, as the current American experiment with President Trump has demonstrated. On the lighter side, I have attended burial ceremonies of some confirmed polygamists in Delta State and was amazed how the wives and children from different ethnic backgrounds were able to give colour to a funeral. Perhaps we should reflect on this; how diversity can be a beauty if properly harnessed. Finally, President Buhari who has vowed that the ‘Coat of many Colours’ should be a permanent source of pride needs to go beyond the declaration. He has to perform acts capable of strengthening the loose corners of the tapestry. Too many people and groups including Arewa are questioning the basis of the Nigerian Federation. The Fulani herdsmen matter which has not drawn enough action from him is a sore point. His silence promotes the narrative that he is sectional as a President, a man who is determined to protect his ethnic group as they perpetrate atrocities across the country. If he has not become President to preside over the liquidation of the Nigerian Federation he should calmly and prudently provide stitches through dialogue so that the ‘Coat of many Colours’ may endure. Concluded. -The Guardian