Map of Southern Nigeria

“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
– Saul Bellow.”

By Yahaya Balogun

The way we democratize deliberate ignorance in the southern district of a failing Nigeria (i.e., the Southern part of what I call f-Nigeria) is beyond pale. The current agitation for the Oduduwa Republic is muted in the wrong footings. The agitators for the emancipation of the Oduduwa republic are Oduduwa patriots. But the method being used by them to liberate the intellectually resourceful geolocated region within a troubled Nigeria is wrong.

Some of the southern stakeholders are fully packaged in fool paradise. They are languishing in a faded country that can be a bright light compass for other African countries. But Nigeria is now a dark compass for a beleaguered Africa and a seeming pariah continent. A sad commentary and development in our moments of history. Southern Nigeria has always been a contextual entity within Nigerian geopolitics.

Realistically, if you are a clear-sighted Southerner and you want to face facts and not be in the cocoons of delusional people, please, go and read the exposé titled: SEVEN FATAL DELUSIONS AMONG SOUTHERNERS authored by Mr. Moses Oludele Idowu. The article, dated June 5, 2021, is a brilliant exposition for thoughtful minds in Yorubaland and beyond. The writer couldn’t have exposed our delusional state of being better in his masterpiece. I had similar intent to pen down the delusional and unseriousness of some Southerners but Mr. Moses Oludele Idowu did justice to the structure and substance of the article. The Southerners are now caught in the cobwebs of a failing state called Nigeria. Sadly, we are fighting a ‘crude’ and a “just war” to save ourselves from ourselves and the barbaric and heinous exploits of the Fulani herdsmen and the Nigerian state. We are fighting for a just course with once-upon-a-time (dis)honest warriors and traitors. From time immemorial, Our progenitors ignorantly sold a formidable race to invaders and brutish British with the bad taste of history. We got our independence without a thorough negotiation of severance or disunity from the constituency of fraudulent masters. Different people with different mores, cultures, religions, and ways of life were jam-packed for the administrative convenience of the colonial rulers. While their reigning periods were being dismantled at independence, the imperialists left us in false unity for future perils. The chicken of our forefathers who sold our generations to perfidy has come home to roost. Our current generation is reaping the sour milk of our forefathers’ quiescent thoughts and deliberate ignorance.

Today, the conglomeration of Nigeria is a bitter union or entrapped marriage. Southerners are the worst enemies of themselves. Some Southerners cannot be counted on. It seems a generational curse that needs to be broken. The Northerners are very united at perpetrating evils and destruction against their perceived enemies. They suffer from the born-to-rule syndrome. Born-to-rule syndrome is a generational curse that the north must break. The Easterners are good at being used as an administrative convenience by the Nigerian rulers. Easterners have never been fully united for a common purpose and achievable course. It is a generational curse that needs to be permanently halted. Who will be the first to break the collective curses and unending condemnations plaguing each geopolitical zone in “a mere geographical expression” called Nigeria is a daunting task.

Meanwhile, we all remember how the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s political efforts were thwarted by the six- unwise men in the Southwest(i.e., the Yorubas). Late Chief MKO Abiola and Late Chief Akintola were used against Awo’s ideals and ideas that would have transformed the Southern and entire Nigeria for good. Southerners were used to impede Awo’s laudable agendas for Nigeria. We remember how the man in Minna used some six unwise notable men in the Southwest to annul the June 12, 1993, presidential election. The debunk of history will reveal their names at the appropriate time. June 12 is the most peaceful and freest presidential election in the history of a contrived and troubled Nigeria. June 12, the late MKO Abiola’s victory was invalidated using southerners to hatch the eggs of southern conspiracy.

Awolowo and Akintola

MKO Abiola

Aiyekooto, but truth be told, some of us who supported Buhari’s political (in)competency suffered from political amnesia, thinking Buhari will assuage the southerners to bring the much-needed change. We were wrong. Buhari’s orientation is tailored towards Western self-containment and preservation. With all evidentiary facts, it’s obvious that Buhari loves Hausa-Fulanis first before Buhari loves other tribes in Nigeria.

What Mr. Moses Oludele Idowu, the author of the referential article, espoused are our delusional expectations that the Western world will come to African aid when African Africans roast or eat Africans. The Southerners’ delusional fixation can also be juxtaposed with the delusional expectation of us that Buhari will leverage Southerners’ interests for the interests of Southerner’s interests. Just like the western countries against Africa, Buhari’s tribalized persona and ethnicized administration will never leverage anything at the expense of the Hausa-Fulani’s interests and its oligarchy. Buhari is an unconcerned, stealthy, and unconventional tribalist. We hyped Buhari’s integrity at the expense of our patriotism and blurry political eyes. Buhari’s silence, ineffectual, and tired hands at handling and tackling the insecurity in Nigeria is one of the worst things to have happened to Nigeria. It is high time he woke up from his slumbering demeanor.

Nigeria is jinxed. Buhari, the perceived providential child, has morphed into a circumstantial child racing backward to align with the immediate past. The situation in Nigeria is imminently precarious pre and post-Buhari. After Buhari, what next? The delusional coexistence and utopian Nigeria now and after Buhari is obviously null and mirage. If I have siblings or family members living in Nigeria’s Northern and Eastern parts, I will unequivocally ask them to begin sauntering back to base. Nigeria is an illusion, and our delusional unity is a question of time. Nigeria is at the point of inflection to deflect into the chasm of time. Unfortunately, our state of disequilibrium in Nigeria is a slippery slope to the unknown.

With no equivocation, all the 7 bullet points highlighted by the brilliant author, Mr. Moses Oludele Idowu, cannot be overlooked or overemphasized. This is the auspicious period we must begin to unite in the Oduduwa enclaves to liberate ourselves from a forced marriage of convenience. Nigeria as we know it is delicately sitting on k-legged tripod stands that may not stand the test of time. Mr. Moses Oludele Idowu’s well-researched article, expectedly, may not be widely read by the Aiyékòótọ́ and apathetic Southerners who may not see themselves as the most delusional, confused and well-learned region in our false geopolitical conundrum called Nigeria. Until we appease the ghost of June 12 through the true national conversation, Southwestern Nigeria will continue to pour needless libations at the void entrance of a house of lamentations.

©Yahaya Balogun wrote from Arizona, USA