A Rejoinder to Dr

A Rejoinder to Dr. Mbahi's piece on Northern Nigeria Leadership

Burtonsville, MD, USA

I read with interest the piece on www.nigerdeltacongress.com/ titled "Northern Nigerian Leadership: A wasted Opportunity, A Betrayed Trust" by Musa Adamu Mbahi, M.D. of Laurel, Maryland.

At the level of analysing the North and Southern perceptions of the North, it is difficult to fault Dr. Mbahi's rather candid observations. Therefore I do not wish to subtract anything from it except to point out some PRESCRIPTIONS, that:

(1) the North and its leadership should FOCUS more on education of our people in the North, because the formal education gap vis-a-vis the South appears to be widening rather than constricting, a fact which constitutes the greatest threat to Nigeria's stability and unity. A clear DECLARATION OF AN EDUCATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY should be done in the North, and pursued with a zeal that will be clear to all to behold. The years of emphasis on political control of Nigeria are indeed "wasted" years.

(2) the increasing Sharia-rization of several Northern states will only widen the social, political, educational and political gulf between the North and other parts of the country. In a truly Federal Republic of Nigeria, not a confederation, not separate republics, eventually these Sharia states will pay a heavy economic price over which their people may eventually revolt. Without a strong economic base or an educational workforce, a fanatical call to Islam (or even to my own Christianity) by these states is "an obvious recipe for disaster." Events such as the cutting off of Mr. Jangebe's hand or the flogging of Ms. Bariya Magazu do little to recommend Islam, Zamfara State, or even Nigeria to that person who could care less the distinction between Zamfara and Nigeria.

I was surprised that Dr. Mbahi ignored these two important points, or touched on them only in passing, even if he does not agree with my concerns.

This brings me to the quite pointed mention of my name in connection with my "championing" of the Sovereign National Conference, and his statements about suspicions of "secession."

QUOTE

Take for instance the persistent call for a Sovereign National Conference which, I think, is a bad idea and an obvious recipe for disaster.

Persons like Professor Mobolaji Aluko will not miss a beat without asking or pontificating for a sovereign conference without giving a thought to how it will be interpreted in other parts of the Nation, especially in the North.......

We do not need a Sovereign conference. At best we can have a national conference to iron out the grievances we have against one another; but please, no sovereign powers. To insist on sovereign power as advocated by, and persistently led by its chief apostle, Professor Mobolaji E. Aluko, is very suggestive of a subterranean secessionist plot. And all Nigerians will agree that this was a path we have traveled before and it bore us all no good. And quite frankly, Nigeria at this period of its greatest need, expects more from a person of Dr. Mobolaji Aluko's stature than to be champion to regional or tribal cause as a lot of even some of his best articles on contemporary Nigeria issues subtly do. I think it is beneath the professor's academic eminence and exposure. Some of us will want to look up to him. Please ejo don't fail us.

UNQUOTE

From the way Dr. Mbahi wrote, it appears that we have met before, but I am not certain, because the name must have escaped me. On the other hand, he may just be making remarks from my "reputation!"

First, I would like to point Dr. Mbahi and readers to the website:

http://www.ngex.com/snc/default.htm

where the pros and cons (mainly pros) of the SNC are very well documented. It will be seen that his characterization of me as its "champion" is quite overstated, and may be a function of his limited knowledge about the dynamics of the notion of the SNC. Hopefully, after visiting that site, he will be able to modify his view of me. I am certainly a strong advocate of the SNC maybe in Cyberspace, maybe in the Diaspora, but certainly not without those Cyberspace-Diaspora qualifications.

Let me move to a more important point: the notion that the SNC is a subtle attempt to secession by its advocates, including myself.

First a historical note. When Biafra attempted a secession from Nigeria in 1967, it was NOT the outcome of a Sovereign National Conference. When the Balkan States broke away from the Soviet Union, it was not the result of an SNC. When the Czech Republic and Slovakia broke away, I might have missed the announcement of an SNC.

In short, one does not need an SNC to secede, if that is the concern.

In fact, a call for dialogue in the midst of controversy indicates a willingness to accomodate each other, as the President's own Constitutional Review Panel found when it went around the country: a strong demand for a (Sovereign) National Conference. When you refuse to talk, then it actually portends that things have broken down so badly that all hope is lost. I hope that Dr. Mbahi and others who think about the slippery slope to secession do not think that all hope is not lost. For Nigeria, I do not believe that all hope is lost.

Secondly, Dr. Mbahi is not opposed to a "National Conference", only that he does not wish it to be "sovereign." The history of Nigeria's past constitutional conferences suggests that tinkering with documents agreed by non-government people is the order of the day, hence the demand to make the agreements "inviolable". For example, in the 1979 Constitutional Conference, the Land Use Decree which was not agreed by the Conference was inserted by the Obasanjo military regime, with disastrous consequences today.

But who knows - we might yet have a National Conference before making it Sovereign.

Thirdly, after Biafra, I do not believe that VIOLENT SECESSION will be an option in Nigeria, rather a NEGOTIATED one, a DEMOCRATIC option. I strongly believe that as of now, the overwhelming majority of Nigerians of all political zones wish to remain as one country, but I am aware that some portions of Nigeria, certainly the Southern portion, have ARTICULATED that they wish to live in a more truly and fiscally federal republic.

Fourthly, may I ask a question about secession: if a portion or portions of Nigeria were to successfully secede today, would ECOWAS, OAU and the UN recognize them? I believe so. Consequently, these world bodies do not see this happening as anathema, and I am not sure why we should quake about it. Maybe if they banned secession, we might stop considering it as a democratic option?

Finally, I end with a Yoruba idiom that I have repeated several times: a woman is told by a caring wise man that her child is acting stupid. The woman says that she does not mind her son's stupidity, only that she fears for his life. The wise man retorts that nothing kills quicker than stupidity.

The same with Nigeria. It is not the SNC that might cause secession to occur in Nigeria. It is flagrant opposition to it.

We pray that that does not occur.

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