speech given by a former Minister, and
co-founder of Transparency
International, Ms Obiageli (Oby)
Ezekwesili a.k.a. "Madam due process,"
at the All Progressives Congress summit
which held in Abuja, March 6th, 2014. I
will put my full support behind her or
any candidate like her for the
Presidency of Nigeria in 2015. A
particular line reverberates in my mind.
In "The Uncomfortable Truth…," she
quoted George Orwell who said, "In a
time of deceit, telling the truth is a
revolutionary act". Indeed, the truth
sets you free. I hope we can all be
revolutionists in this sense. I hope we
can all be brave enough to speak the
truth though we may fear that we stand
to be negatively impacted by so doing.
To summarily explain the perhaps
controversial heading of this piece, I
categorically assert that as long as
Nigeria is a single nation, and as long as
life, the most valuable resource, of one
part belongs to all, all other resources
belong to all. This is part of what nation
means. Bayelsa oil belongs to Jigawa
(too) because Jigawa's blood is spilled
in Bayelsa. Saying, "It is my oil" is
treasonable until and unless Nigeria
splits up.
If a Nigerian youth from Jigawa can be a
part of the nation's army and be drafted
to fight and die in the creeks of the
Niger Delta. If Nigerians from Bayelsa
can be a part of the nation's army and
be drafted to go and die in the deserts
of Borno, then all that is in and from the
soil of each of these parts belong
equally to all these youths. The gold of
Zamfara belongs to all; so also the oil of
Rivers belongs to all.
The most valuable resource of any
nation is its human capital. As long as
Nigeria remains a nation, and its
government and security services are
constituted of peoples of all parts called
to make the ultimate sacrifice of fighting
for and dying for the nation and regions
within the nation, all other less valuable
resources should belong to all the
people. It is treacherous and evil to
propose that the national army can die
to protect your region, but that its
members do not have rights to the life -
supporting resources in the same
regions; treasonably wrong and evil.
A truth encountered is that many of
those who profess extreme ethnicity or
tribalism and fight the loudest for
"regionalism" and resource ownership
are the first to throw away their "tribe"
when they travel abroad. These are the
ones you see in America who tell their
kids not to speak "language," because
they want them Americanised and not
to have "accent." The same with some
who go to Arabia and suddenly become
more "Arab" than Arabians themselves.
We know much of this is due to poverty,
desperation and is sheer hypocrisy.
However unless an opening for true
conciliation is made, things will only
keep getting worse. There is a
fundamental problem that must be
addressed.
More Nigerian troops and security
officers have died in the north and the
creeks in the last five years under the
current administration than any similar
period since the civil war. We read of
troops ambushed and slaughtered in the
creeks and these are young men from
all over Nigeria. Likewise we have read
of police men ambushed and killed by
Ombatse and soldiers and police
slaughtered by Boko Haram. Do we in
our individual regions deny these men
of our resource while we employ them
to die for us in our or 'foreign' regions?
Those who read my thoughts know full
well that I as an individual am
interested and a staunch proponent of
regionalism with the possibility of more
elaborate disintegration if the people so
desire. Whatever will rid the nation of
its monstrous corruption, lack of
opportunity, the cabal grip on all
sustenance and the worsening
insecurity and terrorism, is a go for me.
The missing billions today finances global
terrorism. We urgently must get out of
this state of anarchy where no region is
safe, not even the President's own
village. Some of us don't have millions
of dollars to offer kidnappers.
Today the north of Nigeria is one of the
poorest places in the entire world.
Poverty indices are as high as 87% in
some regions. The candid truth is that
the average northerner benefits naught
from the oil resource abundant in the
South. Compared to its neighbours
outside the nation's borders, the north
of Nigeria is so much poorer. Nearby
Mali and Chad have poverty levels in
the fifties compared to north Nigeria
where poverty is in the eighties. In
contrast, Southern states have poverty
levels as low as 20%. It has been only
the cabal, north and south who have
benefited from the oil wealth of the
nation. Regionalism will give local
leaders a responsibility to ensure the
well-being of their people or risk quick
and swift rebellion and expulsion. Today,
they hide under and blame others and
the 'nation' for their greed and failure
to lift-up their communities.
If Nigeria is to remain as one nation, it
should in my view have regions—
erroneously dissolved by Aguiyi Ironsi
with Decree No. 34 of 1966—
reinstituted. I also believe the
Parliamentary system of governance,
also erroneously replaced with the
presidential, during the Obasanjo first
regime, should be brought back. The
parliamentary system works better for
multi-ethnic nations, as can be seen in
India; and with this system, the entire
168 million citizens do not war over who
is to become President, and only focus
on people they know and elect as their
local representatives who then select
the President from among them in the
Parliament. This will not only save cost,
but reduce ethnic tension and financed
violence.
But as long as we are one single nation,
our lives are risked and sacrificed for
each other and so also must our
resources be the property of one and
all. Boko Haram terror is sponsored with
oil money. Why should the people of
Bama suffer at the mercy of terrorists
being fed fat by the nation's oil money,
but not be re-built from same oil
money? Already the average northerner
on the streets benefits practically
nothing from the oil wealth of the
nation, other than what they pay to buy
of it at the pump at a price above the
global mean.
If regionalism is restored, the people of
each region will constitute their own
armies who will die for them and the
people of each region will be forced to
support their own economies, with the
centre not taking more than a few per
cent from each region, and then to each
will belong his resource.
•Brimah wrote via drbrimah@ends.ng
Twitter: @EveryNigerian
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