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Power Blocs: Nigeria's Achilles Heel By Of all the booby traps the British set to hamstrung the future Nigerian nation, none has proved as harmful, yet appearing deceptively innocuous, as the power blocs named "regions." The concept of regions or regional blocs is antithetic to "one nation, indivisible." Once a country is demarcated along regional interests, religious interests, ethnic interests, then wrangling, hustling, jostling, maneuvering for power, greed for lion's share, and ultimately, disenfranchisement of the underdog will reign perpetual. Guaranteed boondoggle of the concept of regions or regional blocs is the unnecessary adversary relationships that must develop and fester. Unsavory politicians exploit it in the guise of catering for their "people," which, in fact, is nothing but a clever ploy to feather their own nests. They say that when a politician says he loves his country (his people), he expects to be paid for it. This Nigerian geographical and political division that causes national division is very blatant, if you look a little closer. How does one rationalize or justify the creation of three regions and apportioning land space to one region two to three times in size the other two regions combined? Is that not contestable right there? Is that bone of contention not immediately manifest? And to further dwindle the size of the other two regions, parts of the East in Benue and parts of the West in Kwara are said to belong to the North! Recently I was taken aback when BBC and other news networks reported that there were ethnic killings going on in Benue in the Eastern parts of Nigeria. When I consulted my map of Nigeria, lo and behold! Benue is actually in Eastern Nigeria but has never been so recognized politically.
A house built on sand of deceit, subterfuge, lies, hatred, conspiracy, and injustice is sure to collapse one day, no matter how long it takes. These are agents of soil erosion or denudation that have done devastating work to structures anywhere they exist. I was looking at the map of the United States and comparing it with the map of Nigeria. I saw at once why Nigeria is racked by daily ground turbulence. The map of the United States looks like a neat arrangement of square building blocks which show the States boundaries. The map of Nigeria showing states boundaries looks like the wriggling of an ant foraging and avoiding a straight line. What it tells any discerning observer is, while the creation of states in the U.S. was done arbitrarily and without any ulterior motives, creation of states in Nigeria shows that there was a conscious effort to apportion natural resources to favor some states and deny same to the states they have clandestine motives for. A friend of mine described the phenomenon this way: "American map showing states looks like a set of squares like my arithmetic work sheet. Nigeria's map showing states is a picture of grotesque funny-shaped doodlings by a spirit from the other world." All in an effort to favor and disfavor their targets. If Nigeria were to be an aircraft, there is no way it can take off let alone fly. With all the structural faults, blind pilots, empty fuel tank, lack of maintenance, absence of navigational map, it is destined to remain on the ground. How can it even gain altitude with all these counter-flight burdens? And, to further jinx the nation, those who maneuver their way into leadership positions preside over their selfish interests and "pray" that some unknown spirit (certainly not God) will descend, and with a wave of the hand, fix Nigeria's problems. Talk of "waiting for Godot."
Regional interests remained a source of inter-regional confrontations. In fact, late sage Chief Awolowo captured the spirit of regionalism when he uttered his famous philosophy of "North for Northerners, West for Westerners, and East for Easterners." What the respected chief did not say was who would man the shop for "Nigeria." Let us borrow a leaf for one moment from America. There is no such demarcation in the country as East, West, South, or North as a political arrangement. Once the states were created, they were on their own and in cooperation with other states and the federal government. Since the end of the American Civil War, there has never been any time any group compass part of the country rose as a unit to confront the rest of the country or demand any thing on the basis of regional geography, no matter the population of the states within that geographic area.
There was clamor in the Nigeria's First Republic to abandon the regional structure of the country in favor of smaller states. Those who found themselves in leadership positions in the era of regional structure simply had the philosophy of "what we have, we hold," and held fast to what they regarded as their big catch, a more desirable sphere of political influence, and would not budge to any suggestion to whittle their territorial holdings. At one time in the history of Nigeria, there were provinces. But the provinces were constantly hampered and hamstrung by their regional allegiances. Political chicanery and gangster politics helped to create the Mid-west out of the West of Nigeria. It did not occur to these strange leaders of the North and East that it was only fair to create identical regions in their regions. For some strange and upside-down logic, they believed that they could sit forever on the agitation from the so-called minorities for at least one region each in the East and the North.
The idea of a unitary governance has always met with stiff opposition in Nigeria. And, with good reason. The appearance of the military in the political governance of Nigeria introduced its own twists and turns. Aguiyi Ironsi and his stumbling crew entered into a political boxing ring they had no clue or understanding about. Ironsi was neither on the side of those who needed change nor on the side of those who did not. So, he was like a reed blowing in the wind. And, no wonder, his murderers boast that "he did not know what hit him." He tried to interfere with regionalism, a sacred shrine especially guarded by those it favored most. He belonged to that group of a misguided lot, like most of his fellow tribesmen, who believed in "one Nigeria." The mere mention of the word "unitary" threatened the kingdom that must be preserved at all costs. It was to be learnt later that "unitary" was a good word afterall, provided it was managed by those who were ordained to do so. And Nigeria has been under a unitary government since the government of Gowon, till date.
The concept of a unitary administration as opposed to states autonomy, is that while a unitary government is antithetical to federalism, states structure pre-supposes a federal arrangement. Under Shagari and Obasanjo unitary governments, the old regions re-emerged in power blocs for purposes of negotiating power. That was when the word "zoning" crept into Nigeria's political lexicon. They know that single states cannot negotiate power, so they must gang up in order to undo each other. As we have seen, tension has been the order, and the hapless Nigerian nation has been caught in a cross fire. Gowon who had the singular history of being the one who created the first states in Nigeria has shown in recent times that he does not believe or have confidence in the integrity of states to function as independent units. He is the one waving the flag of regionalism in his Arewa and one-North acrobatism. So, why go backwards instead of forwards? Going backwards appears to be the movement of choice for Nigerian leaders.
The idea of zones is not a good one either. It seems to have created more problems than it solved. It has kindled the fire of power tussle on the basis of zones, thus pitching a group of states and zones against others, or encouraged cleavages that emphasize ethnicity or groups of ethnics who now use ethnicity rather than nation, productivity, equality, justice, fair-play, and live-and-let-live as the guiding principle for one united nation. States should be left alone to order their own affairs without the need for a gang-up. Some over-zealous neophytes even go to the extent of equating zones with ethnic unit. When I told one of them that South-east was only a political zone and not representative of the Igbo nation, he looked askance.
If Nigeria must shed the mountain of disabling deadweights it has had to live with since its creation, it must study the principles that make for gravity and levitation in nation building. It must choose either to continue to allow the principles of gravity which have kept it grounded, or quickly change to apply the principles of levitation that can allow it to rise aloft and soar high at the level of other liberated nations. How to do that is to simply abandon power blocs like regions and zones, and uphold states as true independent and non-aligned entities. The principle of federalism must kick in to actualize the states, and restructure the states on the basis of blind ruler-measurement and not on the principles of subterfuge and prejudice. When states are created blindly by the ruler-principle, wherever one finds him or herself, there he or she belongs and must work to develop it, instead of looking for alliances and alignments that negotiate power on that basis.
Nigeria needs to shed weight and endeavour to put in governance leaders who spare thoughts for Nigeria, not those who say they will die for Nigeria while they are actually supervisng the death of Nigeria. If Nigeria cannot find one good man who is willing to carry the cross of salvation for the country, then she should quickly assemble a consortium of political engineers who will work out on their drawing board how this nation has to exist. At the rate we are going, the train seems bogged down at QUAGMIRE STATION. Ogaranya Uju Nkwocha Afulezi,Ph.D. Duru Akwukwo III Ndi Umuohiagu December 2001
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