FEATURE ARTICLE



By David Asonye Ihenacho, Ph.D.  (EMAIL)
New York, USA
Wednesday, October 17, 2001


As Nigeria’s clock continues to tick …


hat the recent cycle of violence spinning out of control across the world would stake its claims of some cities in Nigeria was perhaps not a surprise to many habitual watchers of the Nigerian scene. In fact, I am one of those with eyes constantly focused on Nigeria like a leaser beam. I am always trying to decipher how global issues resound in Nigeria and vice versa. Immediately the terrorists of Osama Bin Laden unleashed unspeakable mayhem on the cities of America condemning thousands of innocent traders, public servants and common folks to an untimely death via cremation, I instinctively told one of my friends that the ripple effects subsequent to those tragedies would settle in Nigeria. I didn't mean to be taken seriously by my friend. I was just trying to air my frustrations with the situation of things in Nigeria. Behold time has unfortunately proved me right. But I am not proud of it. Rather I am humiliated by the fact that the Nigeria of today is my country. The frequency and predictability of wanton violence in Nigeria in the recent times tend to show how much of a false nation we have as our homeland. Nigeria is hardly a homeland to anything but violence these days. And if such level of violence is not indicative of a potential future demise of the Nigerian nation, I do not know what else is or can be.

I had not predicted Nigeria’s recent mayhem because I had a divinely induced premonition on the level of violence that would engulf the cities of Nigeria in the wake of Pentagon-World Trade Center tragedies. No, I was reflecting on what had become the culture of my country in the recent times. The Nigeria that is constantly in the news at home and overseas these days is a homeland to radical Islamic fanaticism, OPC, MASSOB, Niger Delta, Jukun and Tiv Militia organizations, etc. When she seems to enjoy a relative timeout from those professional violent organizations, armed robbers claim the period as their own turn to wreak havoc on the populace. Nigerians hardly ever enjoy any respite from violence. She is a country perpetually under siege. A lot of blood is being unnecessarily spilled in Nigeria everyday. And this is hardly a good sign for an entity that is hoping for a long future ahead of it.

However, what seems most surprising to me is the abject lack of wisdom and honesty among our leaders. They seem a classic example of the fabled man who preferred to chase after wild rats even as his house was being razed by fire. Our so-called leaders would rather whitewash a mighty edifice with a sandy foundation instead of mustering the needed courage to knock it down so as to build on a stronger foundation. That is the only way to explain their adamant inability to venture into the root cause of this random violence that continues to engulf our nation. They continue to invest in symbols and ad hoc measures that seem only to paper over permanent cracks in the very structure of the nation. And that is the problem. We are living a lie onto ourselves. We know the source of our heartache. But we must continue to deceive ourselves because it is in our very nature to continue treading on a false path since we are citizens of a false nation. So long as we continue to paper over cracks of seismic proportion in our political landscape, so long as our leaders remain their cowardly dishonest selves, we will continue to thrive in both internally generated and imported bouts of costly violence.

But isn’t it very sad that of late Nigeria had been rivaling the mid-eastern territories of the Israelis and the Palestinians as the tender box of violent religious fanaticism and reckless loss of life in the world? My beloved country has gradually become a territory in which blood is spilled almost everyday in the name of the all-merciful God. So, once innocent blood began to flow on the streets of New York and Washington DC, I knew almost immediately that it would be hard for the fanatical blood-suckers of Nigeria to resist having their own share of the tragic fun. They would never be able to visualize themselves sitting on the sidelines while the rest of the world embarked on a bloody binge. Islamic fanatics in the North are always looking for action. The World Trade Center terrorism and the subsequent war in Afghanistan presented them one. It would have been unthinkable for them to allow the moment to pass them by without seeking out their enemies to kill and maim. That would have been uncharacteristic of them in every way. But that is Nigeria for you. It has become a country where Islamic fanatics are always looking out for an opportunity to kill and maim their Christian rivals. And the cycle continues even as innocent victims mount. That is the Nigeria that is headed into a future of I-don’t-know-what - a future of victimization of the innocent, a future of chaos and retrogression!

But isn’t absolutely sad that when the object of the fanatical anger is America, which is nearly ten thousand miles away, the actual victims of the anger are the so-called compatriots of the fanatics whose only crimes are that they have a different faith from that claimed by the fanatics? What does this kind of gruesome “scapegoatism” say of the very nature and structure of a country like Nigeria? What greater slavery is there than to force those who would kill others at the least provocation and those who would be victimized in such situations into a pseudo-nation? Why would a leadership so incompetent to provide security for the victimized insist on their continued sharing of the same nationhood with the blood-sucking fanatics? The administration of President Obasanjo and the congregational leadership of Pius Anyim have a lot of questions to answer in this random cycle of violence in Nigeria.

But nothing seems more distressing to some of us than to notice that the evil-wretch called Osama Bin Laden and his bloodthirsty organization, the al Qaeda, had that level of support and sympathy in Nigeria as demonstrated in the jubilant marches in Plateau and Zamfara States to support the heinous crimes against America and all humanity on September 11. That the Islamic fundamentalists of Kano could file out to kill and maim their so-called compatriots in support of their despicable anti-hero, Bin Laden, portends a terrible omen for the future of Nigeria. Something in me continues to tell me that I cannot be one with those jubilant supporters of the heinous evil in America. Those fanatics whose hero is the world’s most heartless terrorist, Bin Laden, can never be truly my compatriots. They belong to a different country, in fact a different world altogether. I feel one with those who mourn and are deprived of their loved ones in America than I feel for those fanatics that call themselves Nigerians. They are terrorists in germ. I have nothing to do with those horrendous people who would spray the deadly anthrax bacteria on innocent people in the name of God. That such satanic people have supporters even in some parts of my so-called country tells me that either I do not in fact belong to the same country with them or their own part of the country does not belong to my own country. They do not share my vision of life and I do not share theirs. We are coming from two different worlds and two different eras in time. The earlier we recognized this age-long reality of Nigeria, the better it would be for everybody in Nigeria. We are different and have different worldviews and activities that bring fun and meaning to our lives. It is unfortunate that it took the evil terrorism in far away America to bring us to this full realization of who we are in Nigeria. But better late than never!

But far from being overly angry with the fanatics of Kano and Zamfara who are of course behaving true to type, I am rather disappointed in our government. The Obasanjo administration and the national assembly led by the youthful Pius Anyim are showing terrible insensitivity to the aspirations of the majority of Nigerians. Why would a government worth its salt not place as topmost in its priorities the resolution of the structural imbalance of an amorphous country like Nigeria? How many lives would have to be brutally destroyed before they realized that the present Nigeria was made up of many mutually exclusive nations? How many cities would have to be destroyed, how many young people would have to have their future completely mortgaged and destroyed before our leaders realized that government was meant to reflect the wishes and aspirations of its people? Our education system, our civil service, every fabric of the nation has ground to a halt because of a seismic fault in the political landscape of Nigeria. Our youths are being wasted. Our people continue to die in droves. Our cities are dead. Our infrastructures belong to five centuries past. Yet our leaders feign ignorance of the sufferings of the masses. They are happy living in their cozy homes in the magic kingdom of Abuja. But they refuse to listen to the groans of our poor people living in the dilapidated lifeless villages. It is very sad in deed! We need action now!

What would it take to get Obasanjo and Anyim to start talking about the restructuring of the Nigerian polity? What are they waiting for? Are they waiting for the explosion of a nuclear bomb on the streets of Nigeria before they would realize that our country as it is currently structured is doomed to a perpetual vicious circle of violence? Are they waiting for the time when the Taliban would relocate Osama Bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization to Nigeria? What type of Nigeria are they building, a country of Islamic terrorists or what? Is their vision for Nigeria that of Afghanistan, Iraq or Sudan? Are these two leaders truly as insensitive to the future of Nigerians as they appear to be, or, are they just ignorant of how to move the nation forward? What are they papering over, cracks that would never mend? What is wrong with the both of them? Can anybody who is close to them give them the message that the clock is ticking fast for the Nigeria of the present? They either restructure that country now or bear the blame when the necessary anarchy erupts. There is no need continuing to try to create a nation out of many irreconcilable parts. We have been trying for the past forty-plus years, and we have gotten nowhere. Shall we continue to try forever? Is it not the time to cast away the stupid burden of colonialism? There is not going to be a time when the world of an Islamic fanatic from Kano or Zamfara is going to meet with that of an average Christian from Aba. It is never going to happen. Unfortunately such is the pipe dream embarked upon by the current administration of Obasanjo and his counterpart in the upper house, Anyim.

It is very distressing that after countless incidents to the contrary the Obasanjo administration is stubbornly bent on forcing an unwilling horse to drink. British colonialism led the unwilling horse of the North to the stream, but neither Obasanjo nor any other leader in the present or future Nigeria will be able to force it to drink the water of a common destiny with the rest of Nigeria. The whole problem is both cultural and religious and there is no known cure for it. Nigeria is therefore structurally disabled. It is a nation completely handicapped by colonialism. It cannot work and it will never walk. By now we should be wise enough to accept this obvious fact about our so-called nation. The only thing that could work for our country is a total restructuring. Obasanjo must know that there is no getting around the fact that Nigeria after the year 5050 will still be what it is today if it is not restructured.

Most Muslims in the North are headed back to the medieval period while the rest of the world is moving on with the 21st century and beyond. Why are the leaders of Nigeria not listening to the rhetoric of the newfound Northern hero, Bin Laden? For him and by extension for the fanatical Muslim North, western civilization is a disaster. It is a failure. Western modernity is a corruption and a colonization of the Muslim eldorado-like civilization of the medieval period. Their solution is a return to that period they so much value and long for. Bin Laden and the fanatics of Northern Nigeria are fighting for a return to the ancient world. And they will not be satisfied until they have seen all of us back to AD 1515. Why is nobody taking them by their word? And why should we impose our so-called civilized values on them? Why do we deceive ourselves thinking that we could ever satisfy the Muslim North? To satisfy the fanatical Muslims and ensure a prolonged peace for the whole of Nigeria is to return the country to the medieval period in which mischievous terrorists like Bin Laden will be heroes. How many Nigerians outside perhaps those of Zamfara and Kano will be willing to make such a tortuous return to the unknown medieval times? And the fact that we do not want to make the journey ourselves is not a reasonable excuse to deny those of our so-called compatriots who are insistent on taking a detour to the ancient world. Democracy, as it was conceived in the ancient Igbo culture, was based on the principle of live and let live. Let the Muslims of Nigeria live, and if they so choose, let them go far beyond the medieval period to the time of the prophet Mohammad. And let the Christians live, and if possible go forward to the time of the second coming of Jesus Christ - the parousia. That is democracy. There should be freedom of movement and association, freedom to move backwards in time and freedom to go forward far into the future. A true government is one that provides channels for her citizens to try to realiz

How can those of us who belong to the 21st century world cohabit in a fictitious one Nigeria with a people who are more than five hundred years behind us? It is too much to ask of the Christian south to accomplish. The fundamentalists of Kano, Zamfara, Katsina, Plateau, etc., have more kinship with their medieval counterparts in Afghanistan than they do with the 21st century Christians in the southern part of Nigeria. That is the only explanation to the killing of their so-called compatriots in Kano and Jos in support of their kin in Afghanistan. We should recognize their wishes and act accordingly.

Why should the South be made to bear the burden of a people who have refused to embrace the challenges and glories of modernity? Is it not the cardinal principle of democracy that people should be allowed to fashion out their own destinies according to their chosen values and customs? Muslims have an inalienable right to practice their faith anyhow they choose. But they do not have the right to force others to embrace their faith or to inconvenience others with the practice of their religion. Should they insist that their faith practice essentially alters the fabrics of coexistence with those who do not share their faith, they either must surrender some of those rights in a clearly worked-out social contract or go ahead and form their own nation. Any other thing besides this is colonialism if not outright slavery. This is politics 101, which the Obasanjo administration must learn and learn quickly to avoid making Nigeria into a rogue country of terrorists. Obasanjo has chosen the fruitless part of placating the implacable. There is a chasm between the Muslim North and the Christian south and the Middle Belt. If he sees himself as the messiah sent by God to bridge this monstrous chasm, goodluck to him. At the end of the day, he might discover that he had labored in vain.

However, the million dollar question is; why should the Obasanjo administration continue to force modernity on a people who have consistently rejected it? The Muslim North, by their introduction of Sharia as their legal code and their hailing of Bin Laden as their hero, have said it loud and clear that the society they envision for themselves is that modeled after the Afghanistan cities of Jalalabad, Kandahar and Kabul. Why should they be denied of their candid wishes in a democracy? Is it any coincidence that the Taliban have Radio Sharia as their only organ for the dissemination of their religious propaganda masquerading as news? Is it any wonder that some Northern Nigeria fanatics might be training in Afghanistan as members of the al Qaeda terrorist organization? Our worlds are totally different. Obasanjo must know this. He is building on sands if he thinks that he will cure the ills of Nigeria by papering over differences between the Muslim fanatics of the North and the Christians of the South and Middle Belt. The only answer is total restructuring of the country that would allow some of the states like Zamfara and Kano to align themselves completely with their heroes in Afghanistan and Sudan.

In my view, the recent acclamation of Osama bin Laden as a hero in the Muslim North has finally decided the fate of Nigeria. We are not one people at all. We are different nations with different destinies. There has to evolve a structure in Nigeria that allows all Nigerians to pursue their destinies in a way that accords with their religious and cultural choices. The only logical solution to Nigeria’s problems is structuring the country in such a way that each nation within the polity can maintain her religio-cultural vision with minimum interference. It is tragically unfair for the Obasanjo administration to allow the rest of the civilized world to lump all Nigerians together with the fanatics in the North whose hero is Osama bin Laden. We are not one with those who regard Osama as a hero. This must be made clear to the world. We are a people who value life, especially innocent lives. We have nothing to do with suicide bombing. We do not target innocent people for liquidation. We have pilots who fly passengers thru and fro safely. We do not go to war with anthrax poison. We fight with and for a cause. And when we do, we do so fairly according to international conventions on warfare. The people who are protesting in the North are Nigerians of a different nation. They do not belong to us and we do not belong to them. Obasanjo must make these facts clear to the world. Now is the time to take sides. This is just the beginning of a long war against the mischievous scourge of terrorism. Nigeria cannot sit on the fence. We must completely and unambiguous identify with all efforts to eradicate the scourge of terrorism in the civilized world. You are either with the terrorists or you are against them. Nigeria cannot afford to give any impression that it is in any way condoning or trivializing the wanton targeting and destruction of innocent lives in the name of whatever. Let those who are celebrating and killing innocent people in the North in support of the manifestation of evil on the streets of America to embrace their medieval worldview but only within a restructured Nigeria. I have no problem with a new Nigeria whose one part is in the medieval period and the other part deeply thrust into the 21st century. But to achieve that, we must restructure. And to restructure, people of good will must prevail on Obasanjo and Anyim to respect the will and wishes of the overwhelming majority of our nation who seek restructuring after a long history of trial and error.