A lot of persons and groups have been clamoring for the disintegration of Nigeria. Giving reasons why we should dissolve Nigeria.
A lot of persons and groups have been clamoring for the end of Nigeria. Groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Odua People's Congress, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People; personalities in the North and South of the Country like Nnamdi Kanu, Ango Abdullahi, Femi Kayode, Aisha Yesufu and millions of people who I cannot exhaust their names have called for a dissolution of Nigeria. Let us look into Nigeria critically to know whether Nigeria should or should not continue.
Nigeria is a country in the western hemisphere of Afrika bordered by Niger in the North, Chad in the North East; the Benin Republic in the west; Cameroon in the East; and The Atlantic ocean in the South.
Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups most notably Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Fulani, Ijaw, etc, and is the most populous country in Afrika.
Nigeria came into existence on the 1st of Jan 1914 when British colonialist Frederick Lugard almagametd the Southern and Northern protectorates of Nigeria into one Nigeria. Nigeria got her independence on the 1st of October 1960 and became a republic on the 1st of October 1963.
The name Nigeria came from the River Niger which is the most important River in Nigeria and all of West Africa.
Nigeria has the largest population in Afrika with a population of about 209.5 million people according to Worldometer on March 2021 followed by Ethiopia at 116.8 million which makes Nigeria the single largest market in Afrika
Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa by GDP size of about US $448 billion followed by South Africa at about US$374 billion.
Nigeria is the 14th largest country in Africa by landmass with a landmass of about 923,768 km square.
As stated earlier, many people and groups have been calling for the disintegration of Nigeria, now let us look into some of the Arguments for and against the disintegration of Nigeria
For Disintegration
1. Colonial Country
One of the arguments against the country Nigeria is that Nigeria came into existence as a result of colonization. That Nigeria was British-created and not created by Nigerians unlike America created by Americans, Britain by the British, and China by the Chinese.
Nigeria factually was created by Britain through George Goldie and Frederick Lugard who colonized the areas that make up present-day Nigeria. Nigeria was never the idea of the leaders and people of the country called Nigeria. And there is no proof anywhere that God created Nigeria.
This is because George Goldie and Frederick Lugard who created Nigeria never mentioned that God sent them to create Nigeria. Rather, the British government sent them to create Nigeria. And we know that the colonizers created all that they created for the interest of themselves as the colonizers.
Those who support the disintegration of Nigeria insist that the history of the creation of Nigeria as a colonial concept is one of the reasons why Nigeria would never be great but continue to serve the interests of Britain. That if Nigeria was created by Nigerians they would have accepted Nigeria
The argument goes further that
Even the name Nigeria is not indigenous to any of the ethnic groups in Nigeria and no Nigerian named Nigeria but Flora Shaw girlfriend of Lugard gave Nigeria the name Nigeria.
2. Another argument against Nigeria is that Nigeria is a Failure, failed state sinking deep into retrogression instead of making progress. According to them, what is the essence of maintaining a country that keeps moving backward while other nations are moving forward?
Nigeria despite being the 6th largest producer of oil in the world and the largest in Afrika, having less population than China and India which have population sizes of 1.44 and 1.38 billion respectively, Nigeria with 209.5 million people have more people living in extreme poverty than China and India and since 2018, economists have designated Nigeria as being the poverty capital of the world.
Nigeria used to be the fastest-growing economy in Afrika, and the 3rd fastest in the world in 2014 and 2015, but since 2016 Nigerian economy has been on rapid retrogression, and by 2022 half of the country will be living in extreme poverty according to World Bank. So instead of moving forward, Nigeria has been running backward. This is a major reason many are ready to lay their lives to divide Nigeria.
The most terrorized country in Africa since 2015, and the third most terrorized country in the world according to the Global Terrorism Index, and Institutes of Economics and Peace.
In terms of corruption, Nigeria ranks badly with a score of 27/100 according to Transparency International Corruption Perception Index
It is estimated that about $400bn was stolen from the national coffers, mainly by the country's military rulers, in its first four decades. (Bbc)
Nigerian police rank among the worst in the world. According to the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) and up till now, Nigeria has the worst police in the whole world.
Nigeria ranks dismally at 152 out of 157 countries in the World Bank's Human Capital Index (HCI).
Nigerian leadership ranks poorly with a good governance index score of 44.5/100 the 34th in Afrika according to the Mo Ibrahim index of governance report in Afrika 2020.
In the 1980s one Naira was equal to a dollar, but in 2021, one dollar is equal to 470 nairas in the parallel market
60 years after independence Nigeria is still littered with bad roads, poor housing, suffering poor power supply, importing petrol, still full of poverty.
3. Ethnic crisis, Marginalization,
Promotion in the army and civil service based in a region with the Northern region given first-class treatment while the South is a second class citizen
Oil in the East belongs to Nigeria with Northerners controlling over 80% of the oil blocks in the South East of Nigeria while no single Southerners own gold mines in the North as gold is for the North alone.
How about the attempts by the Nigerian government through cattle grazing bill 2016, Cattle colony 2018, Ruga 2019 Marginalization in power as the Northern region has produced 10 turns out of the 13 main administrators in the history of Nigeria.
The civil war of 1966/67 and the continuous political-economic war against the Igbos and other Southerners
Domination of the country by Fulani herdsmen who enjoy the protection of the government
A different set of treatments to the south from that in the North
Another war imminent as insecurity troubles Nigeria with Boko Haram and Fulani bandits etc.
Are some of the many reasons why a substantial amount of people in Nigeria would end Nigeria in a second if they had the chance to.
ON THE OTHER HAND, THOSE WHO ARGUE THAT NIGERIA SHOULD CONTINUE
Argue that
The large population of Nigeria is an advantage we should not lose in the name of disintegration. That the population of Nigeria would shrink and we would lose the largest market in Afrika in the division of Nigeria, and that we would lose the Largest economy in Afrika and an Afrikan Giant if Nigeria ceases to exist
That the population diversity in Nigeria is not an issue, but we are united in diversity and that we need each other and cannot do without each other
Giant of Afrika earned the nickname Giant of Afrika by founding the EcOWAs in 1975 together with Togo, and the peacekeeping efforts of Nigerian-led ECOMOG in Liberia in 1990 and Sierra Leone in 1997.
Nigeria has over 50% of Ecowas population of about 405 million and over 65% of ECOWAS GDP of about $688 Billion.
Even Nelson Mandela once pleaded that we should never divide Nigeria for any reason that Nigeria was the pride of Afrika but was very dissatisfied with Nigerian leaders.
Answer
Nig would have been the best if there was true unity and the evidence of true unity are the presence of justice, equity, fairness, cooperation, and other principles and characteristics of unity which are all missing in Nigeria. What is found in Nigeria is territorial unity which is why Nigerian leaders who suppress freedom movements only emphasize maintaining the territorial integrity of Nigeria but there is no unity between the people and groups that make up Nigeria and that goes right to the foundation of Nigeria which is colonialism.
The British who created Nigeria never created a Nigeria that would be for Nigerians, but for the profitability of the British Empire which is why Nigeria is an offshoot of the Royal Niger Company which later metamorphosed into Southern Nigeria and then the amalgamation of North and Southern regions. The British never united the people and ethnic groups of Nigeria, instead they divided the people more but united the lands alone and created a system to preserve the disunity in Nigeria by taking away justice.
In Lugard's own words: “The north and south are like oil and water – they cannot mix.”
Bruce Harcourt who was secretary of states for the British colony wrote a memo. He argued that to save the situation and to retain the two places as our colony, we should merge the north and south as one country. In the merger we should make the north husband and make the south wife, I quote him. This is where injustice was rooted into the system of Nigeria that still troubles Nigeria today.
A lot of groups are advocating for Nigeria to return to the 1963 constitution instead o the current 1999 constitution which is believed to be a problem, but Nigeria's problem did not begin in 1999, and if the 1963 Constitution is the panacea to the many problems with Nigeria, then how come Nigeria experienced her first coup in 1966 which led to the second coup 1966 and civil war 1967?
Yet the 1963 constitution is working for Dubai, this is because UAE was formed by Arab leaders of the 6 out of the 7 emirates that make up UAE and later became made up of 7 emirates namely Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain in a willful agreement in the year 1971, unlike Nigeria which the British formed out of brutal force and a foundation of injustice and exploitation.
The problem of Nigeria is beyond a constitutional amendment it is a foundational issue that affects every facet of the Nigerian way of life. The British united the lands of Nigeria but divided the people. The creator of Nigeria claimed that the North and South of Nigeria are oil and water which could never mix. Yet he formed Nigeria. This is to show that Nigeria was created to fail and not to excel. The statement that oil and water cannot mix is a fallacy which Lugard states to cement the divide between the North and south of Nigeria. He wanted the lands united but the people were divided and at war so they can never achieve anything. Oil and water have been mixing since time immemorial which is why we have soup and stew which cannot exist without the mixture of oil and water. In the right condition, oil and water will mix, but Nigeria has not been the right environment for oil and water to mix.
The problem is not that the people of Nigeria cannot be united, the problem is the foundation of Nigeria.
And according to the nationalist Chief Awolowo for instance defined Nigeria as in his book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, published in 1947 that
Nigeria was a “mere geographical expression.” For context, he said “Nigeria is not a nation, it is a mere geographical expression. There are no “Nigerians” in the same sense as there are “English” or “Welsh” or “French”.
Sir Ahmadu Bello refer to Nigeria as “the mistake of 1914”,
Tafawa Balewa, who was the first Prime Minister had this to say, “Since the amalgamation of Southern and Northern provinces in 1914 Nigeria has existed as one country only on paper.”
These are statements that those who are called the founding fathers of Nigeria made after studying the Nigerian entity carefully, but here are the people in Nigeria forcing it to work while it only becomes worse.
The founding fathers of Nigeria are not Nigerians. The fathers of Nigeria are Sir George Goldie who in 1879 founded the United Afrikan Company which later became the Royal Niger Company in 1886 that the British government gave the right to create and colonize Nigeria and Frederick Lugard who militarily achieved the goal of the Royal Niger Company of the colony called Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe and co were nationalists that got the physical independence of Nigeria, they were never the founding fathers of Nigeria since they never conceived Nigeria but only fought for her physical independence.
Therefore Nigeria is lacking injustice, has a poor foundation that will keep creating more conflicts, there is retrogression rather than progression. What should we do?
Nigeria will only work if the ethnic groups and people that make up Nigeria come together and make an agreement that this based on the principles of unity which Is the presence of justice, equity, fairness
where the resources of the north will not be used to develop the south and that of the south will not be used to develop the north, but every region will develop itself, where the same law that applies to the North, to the Muslim, applies the South and the Christian and to every ethnic group, where every person is treated equally before the law, where the institutions hold the leaders accountable and every corruption case is punished accordingly, where the Nigerian leaders and people and not the British decides what happens in Nigeria that as a result corruption in Nigeria does down, nepotism and tribalism end, and progress takes the place of poverty and piece takes the place of conflicts then let Nigeria continue
But if the leaders, groups, and people of Nigeria cannot lay their selfish interests and shun injustice to build a just nation, cannot shun corruption to build a prosperous nation, cannot say no to neocolonialism to be free then let us all be courageous and dissolve Nigeria completely and form a true union by Afrikans and for Afrikans in the United States of Afrika because of the essence of Nations is the success of people and no nation is more important than her people.
