News-flash!

�Africa�s largest nation, Nigeria, imploded this morning. The actual number of casualties is still being calculated. And the weapons of the implosion are yet to be determined. However, it is being suspected that a native Islamic fundamentalist group fire-bombed this country early today with a special atomic weapon called the Sharia law.�

Relax! There is yet no such news-flash! And there may not be any after all, thanks in part to the grace of God and the enduring patience and resilience of our Nigerian peoples. However, adding a little drama and frenzy to what Dr. Akinola Aguda, a national icon, and a legal luminary, said recently on the eruption of Sharia in some parts of Nigeria, and its consequences on the future of our nation, one would get exactly the same results of thousands of charred bodies gruesomely littered all over the Nigerian terrain as a result of a Sharia-engendered social explosion that could compare in magnitude with the detonation of a nuclear bomb.

In a speech entitled �Cracks in the Walls� which Justice Aguda delivered recently at the second memorial lecture in honor of the late Justice Emmanuel Adewuyi, organized by the Ilorin branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, he compared the current explosion of sharia implementation in the Northern states of Nigeria with the detonations of nuclear bombs in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. According to him, �when the Sharia atomic bomb started to be detonated everywhere in the states situated in the Northern parts of this country, it occurred to me at once that the walls of the Nigerian edifice had been shattered, almost, if not totally, beyond patching � [cf. Cometnews, September 26].

However, comparing Sharia eruption in Nigeria with the explosion of a nuclear bomb may sound a little exaggerated mainly because of the immediacy of a nuclear destruction and its attendant instantaneous trauma. But the number of victims of a one or two-city nuclear fire-bombing may in fact pale in comparison to the potentially cumulative number of victims of a sustained fundamentalist religious explosion in a complex and diversified country like Nigeria. It is in view of this dangerous potential that I consider Aguda right in his comparisons. Moreover, Aguda is right because as the incidents of the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed the whole history of Japan and the world, so will the current implementation of Sharia in some parts of Nigeria ultimately change the whole history of Nigeria and Africa. Realistically and symbolically, we could say that the North has detonated a nuclear bomb in Nigeria and nothing will be the same again.

But Aguda�s title, �Cracks in the Walls� greatly understates the atomic wrecking potential of Sharia in Nigeria. An atom bomb does not just crack walls, it razes a city or a nation to ashes. In the same manner, Sharia will not just inflict cracks in the walls of the Nigerian edifice, it must eventually uproot the foundation on which the Nigerian nation was conceived and built. With Sharia in Nigeria, the concept of Nigerian nationhood ceases immediately to make meaning, the edifice of the Nigerian nation crumbles and the dreams and hopes of a united Nigeria evaporate. The current post-Sharia Nigeria is living on a borrowed time. The fact is, the time of its burial has been announced. It will sooner than later shrivel and crumble in decomposition as all dead corpses do. Sharia is North�s unilateral proclamation of the obituary of our nation. It is the way our former Muslim compatriots have chosen to announce their withdrawal from the Nigerian alliance. Nigeria of today, as another legal luminary, Richard Akinjide said recently, �exists only on paper� [Cometnews, September 27]. Nigeria is truly a shattered edifice that is being fruitlessly patched up by a visionless leader called Obasanjo. Akinjide could not have been more accurate in describing Obasanjo as a very sentimental leader who refuses to face the reality of the Nigerian situation. It is only a grossly emotional leader who will not observe that the paper in which Nigeria was constructed has been torn by the Sharia North. As a man emotionally attached to his dance steps, he will continue to dance even when the music has long ended. As a physician blinded by his emotion, Obasanjo will continue to administer his ineffectual medicine to a body that is long dead and gone. Nigeria of today is what a medieval author would rather describe as a �walking corpse.� And nothing seems to make this reality clearer than the Sharia adoption by the northern Nigerian states. Sharia not only inflicted the last mortal wound on Nigeria, it ripped out its soul. With Sharia alive and well, Nigerians have nothing again to live for and nothing again to hope for in the mirage of a united country.

Until the emergence of Sharia, Nigeria had tethered on a fragile alliance formed with the three main geographic expressions that the British colonial masters had welded into an artificial single nation. Since the alliance was the brain-child of a tricky colonial administration, Nigeria had been surviving on a common acceptance of a body of laws that is considered as equally applicable to all her citizens. Although lacking the American-styled declaration of independence that proclaimed all citizens to be free and equal before their creator, Nigerians have been living since 1914 with the belief that they equally enjoy the same amount of freedom and equality before their constitution.

The successive Nigerian constitutions over the past forty years have served to provide legitimacy and raison d��tre for the artificial alliance that gave birth to the Nigerian nation. The implication of all these is, if there had been no constitution, there would be no Nigeria. Akinjide�s claim that �Nigeria is only on paper� is right on target here. The reality of the Nigerian situation which even the present leadership of Nigeria must come to terms with is that Nigeria is as good as the paper on which it is based. And that paper is arguably the Nigerian constitution. There is little or no other common historical and cultural experience shared among the major geographical areas of Nigeria as to warrant them to form a single nation on their own. The sole basis of their nationhood is the constitution originally foisted on them by the profiteering colonial administration. Without an inviolable constitution, there is absolutely nothing left for the major geographic areas of Nigeria to share in common. And should this constitution fail to guarantee freedom and equality to the different segments of Nigeria, or should it fail to apply to the Nigerian citizens equally, then the alliance that forms the basis of the Nigerian nation ceases to exist and the artificial nation falls apart. Also implicit in the philosophy of the 1914 alliance nourished and sustained by our successive constitutions over the years is the fact that no component member of the alliance should be allowed to adopt or embrace a body of Laws that contradicts or undermines the full operations of the national constitution. In other words, should any component member venture to adopt opposing laws, the rest of the members of the alliance do have a right either to fight for the supremacy of the constitution or to declare the alliance dead.

To her credit, the North was not the first since Nigeria�s independence to seek to adopt laws that contradict the basis of the Nigerian nationhood. That singular accolade or dishonor, depending on where you come from, goes to the Easterners. As a result of the tragic injustices meted to them by the Northerners in 1966 and the unimaginable loss of their kits and kin�s lives and property in many parts of Nigeria, the Easterners were in fact the first to threaten the sanctity of Nigeria�s corporate existence by adopting a different constitution and a different country over and against the provisions of the national constitution. But acting as the custodians and vanguards of the Nigerian alliance, the North banded together with the West in seeing to the humiliating defeat of the Biafran revolt. In those gory days of war of murder and starvation against the Biafrans, Nigerians relished repeating their slogan around the world that �to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.� To their eternal honor and glory, the North and the West succeeded in crushing Biafra and acquiring for themselves a moral, economic and political high-ground as the defenders of the Nigerian nationhood.

But perhaps unknown to them is that by their ferocity in crushing the Biafran resistance, they did set a precedence on how to keep Nigeria one and crush all sorts of revolt against her no matter whatever shape it may take. But it smacks of a tragic irony that in this day and age another segment of Nigeria has set itself towards retracing the path of Biafra and no one is hearing the famous holy slogan extolling the task of keeping Nigeria one. The tragedy of it all is that the North that prosecuted a holy war to keep Nigeria one is the one initiating a pseudo-religious if not a profane war to tear Nigeria apart. Her adoption of a subterfuge of a law over and against the constitution that forms the basis and reason for Nigeria�s existence as a nation is the last straw that must break the back of the Nigerian nation. But unlike the Biafrans who were genuinely aggrieved because of the atrocities committed against them in almost all non-Eastern cities of Nigeria, the North�s adoption of Sharia legal code is totally unjustifiable, unconscionable, a provocation of the rest of the country, a clear act of aggression and a secession from the Nigerian nation. It must not be left unanswered!

With the explosion of Sharia and the consequent paralysis of the Nigerian nation, the billion Naira question is, what is next for the nation lying in coma? What is the best way forward. Some people are suggesting the convocation of a national conference to renegotiate Nigeria�s corporate existence. Others are suggesting a complete restructuring of the nation into semi-independent regions. All these are reasonable and measured response to the terrible situation we have been plunged into by a bunch of short-sighted fundamentalists that is using religion to mask its desire to continue to loot and plunder the nation. But a national conference will only serve as an occasion to parley and bicker unendingly, waste words and at the end issue two contradictory documents no one will agree to. So the route of a national conference will ultimately lead to nowhere. The fanatical North may eventually prefer a national conference for it will buy them time to complete the implementation of their primitive Sharia in all states of the nation. Also destined to lead to unmanageable confusion is any arbitrary restructuring of the nation. There cannot be any credible restructuring of Nigeria without a primary agreement on the boundaries of the structures that will be set up. And such an agreement can only be arrived at through a national conference that is bound to be dead-locked in Nigeria. So how do we get around this conundrum? I have my own ideas. First President Obasanjo has to brace up for action. He must immediately launch a massive effort to defeat Sharia in Nigeria. It is very imperative that Nigeria acts according to the precedence it set for itself some 33 years ago when it decided on a no-hole-barred war against the rebelling Easterners. And the person to initiate and see this anti-Sharia effort to a successful end is no other person than Obasanjo. According to Akinjide, Obasanjo is emotionally attached to one Nigeria because he was the one that oversaw the end of the Biafran rebellion. In other words, he wants to preserve his place in history as the person who brought Nigeria back from the precipice several years ago. I think he deserves that credit. But fate has called on him again to act to preserve the unity of Nigeria as he did in the past. He now has an opportunity and a challenge to carve his name on marble as the defender of the nation. But he cannot achieve this legendary status without overcoming the nuclear explosion of Sharia in Nigeria. So Obasanjo has his work cut out for him. He must defeat Sharia and extirpate every shoot of its weeds from the Nigerian constitution. No Nigerian, either now or in the future, should be forced to live in a fundamentalist Islamic nation. The constitution of Nigeria must retain its original purity as serving a diverse nation of equal citizens. It must regain its shape and form before the upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria. There will never be any compromise in this area. If Sharia must thrive in Nigeria, it must be a Nigeria that excludes most of the South. The onus on Obasanjo is to lead the fight to conquer Sharia in Nigeria. That is the only way he will legitimate his presidency and ensure a respectable place for himself in the history of Nigeria. This is his challenge. It all belongs to him and no other person in Nigeria.

But there is a growing indication that Obasanjo is not going to be able to live up to this challenge. He has been hedging and spending his time either running away from home in order not to confront Sharia or hair-splitting on the difference between a political and religious Sharia. Obasanjo, the Iman of Abeokuta and the Sheikh of Abuja is now telling us not to worry because political Sharia will soon die so as to make way for religious Sharia. My fellow interim Nigerians! Is this not a pedestrian way of proclaiming the obvious fact that Obasanjo does not have any idea on how to handle the explosion of Sharia in Nigeria? Will our great citizens of Nigeria not be brave enough to tell our confused president that we neither want a political nor a religious Sharia in Nigeria. What we want is a secular Nigeria where citizens are free to practise whatever religion they choose. Every form of Sharia, whether political or religious, should be limited to the mosque and to the homes of their adherents and no other place. Since Obasanjo appears clearly impotent to deal with the issue of Sharia wild fire in Nigeria, what other options are left for those of us who would rather die than live in a fundamentalist Islamic nation? The option that appears quite clear to me as a former citizen of the defunct State of Biafra is that the implementation of Sharia in the North in a way indirectly legitimizes secessionist efforts like those of the defunct Biafra. Rather than wait forever for the impotent Obasanjo and disorganized national assembly to do something about Sharia, the Easterners under the auspices of such apex cultural organization like Ohaneze should promptly convoke and start working on a constitution that should govern the lives of her citizens. Another alternative could revolve along the line of the East and West working together to evolve new constitutions for their areas in which there will be mutual understanding on so many issues concerning the two areas. These should be seen as following through with the spirit of the introduction of Sharia in Nigeria. Even if the minority areas in the East or West are not willing to go along, Igbos and the Yorubas can go ahead in the spirit of the Sharia to evolve their own constitutions. Every sensible Nigerian must know that with the unilateral adoption of Sharia by some states of the North, all birds are off, to use a popular American saying. The covenant is violated and every geographical area must head to its own tent. Since Obasanjo has proven himself incapable of dealing decisively with the Sharia question, the only legitimate response for this terrible nonsense going on in the North will be for such areas like the West and the East to start preparing grounds to incorporate their own religious and customary laws into constitutions of their own making. Even if this entails the co-existence of so many constitutions in Nigeria, it will certainly be a short-handed way to achieve restructuring of this unworkable complexity. The fact is, no sensible country will dare to compromise in this situation. It will amount to a monumental tragedy for an Igbo or a Yoruba man or woman with his/her radical experience of independence to compromise to live in a fundamentalist Islamic country modeled after Iraq or Iran. This is a situation where it will be better dead than red, it will be better cremated than be crescented. So I call on Ohaneze ndi Igbo to realize that Sharia has legitimized the Eastern struggle. Biafra may not rise again but her ideals and vision must be resurrected as a legitimate response to the explosion of Sharia in the North. Ohaneze leaders and their counterparts from Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, and the whole Western States must take up the challenge and start developing a constitution that will demarcate them from the fundamentalist Islamic North. They will be foolish to wait for Obasanjo�s political Sharia to die. The truth is, violent fundamentalism hardly ever dies a natural death. It is always killed. For many years the Turkish military, responding to the prompting of their European neighbors, have been trying to kill Islamic fundamentalism in their country. But it is difficult to determine how much progress they have made over the years. The truth is Islamic fundamentalism is about the worst thing that could happen to any civilized nation. Look at what has happened to a one time beautiful country like Iran in the last twenty five years. Look at the wretched state of Afghanistan today. Who wants to be like Somalia and Sudan? Yet all these are bound to be the fate of Nigeria unless we act fast to kill Sharia in Nigeria, or at least divide the country so that those who want to live by and with Sharia can choose their own countries.

The ball is now in the court of the people and leadership of the East. Easterners are the ones with the most to lose in a fundamentalist Islamic Nigerian nation. They have never had the experience of dealing with Muslims in close proximity. But what is coming is not just your traditional Islam. What is coming is violence and disaster. What is coming is early morning nuisance in the name of prayer. What is coming is public assault of our females in the name of implementing a primitive law. What is coming is a massive rejection of western education and history on which modern civilization is anchored. What is coming is the violent destruction of our cherished Christianity. What is coming is a total replacement of reason with violent emotionalism. What is coming is a terrible yoke on our whole society, a primitive rein on human freedom and total destruction of our history and heritage. All these must be killed in the bud for Nigeria to have peace.

This is the time for the true Igbo leaders to emerge. The East is in dire need of a true Moses. Let the true liberator of the East from religious oppression and domination please come forward. This is not the time to talk from both sides of our mouths. This is not a time to foolishly support an incompetent central administration that does not know how to fight the wild fire that is consuming our nation. The East must wall herself off from the infiltration of the dangerous Islamic fundamentalism. Let the battle cry be sounded. We must defend our faith and freedom. There must be a clear signal sent to the fundamentalist North that we would die as a people rather than compromise to live in a fundamentalist Islamic nation.

David Asonye Ihenacho, Ph.D.
New York