The three Civil Wars of Nigeria

The three Civil Wars of Nigeria

There are some major no-go areas being tabled today that we should be grateful to President Obasanjo, Chief Bola Ige and those, too few real Nigerians, bold enough to allow questions to be asked of the traditional dictators of the past and their present masquerades. And if you think that NEPA is bad now just imagine what it would have been like if committed people had not stepped in to try to decentralise Nigeria and stop the rot and repair it. It takes time to undo the planned corruption and criminal neglect of 30 years. However, even slaves whose very lives depend on the benevolence or cruelty of their masters say ‘death in struggle is better than life under the millstone’. Talking for 30 years has not brought about a simple formula for the equitable distribution of accrued revenue. That is saying a lot about the value of dialogue in a master-servant relationship. Remember Isaac Boro?

Legitimate demands are always turned into terrorist activities by overzealous Ministers of Information. The furore about whether or not Nigeria is ripe for ‘true federalism’ or should continue with deceptive False Federalism immediately tells the tens of millions of disillusioned and disenfranchised that they have been merely tolerated, defrauded and cheated of their inheritance as a price of being in an unhappy, unequal and sometimes deadly relationship with Nigeria. Some fellow Nigerians think that the best way forward was to arrogate powers and privileges over everything movable and immovable in the country and live off the fat of CBN and parastatals set up solely for the purpose of being milked dry.

The release of the minorities, how I hate that word, from bondage, is to be blamed on Obasanjo. This is a great presidential achievement for Obasanjo. Hurray. Of course, it is a certain group of former super permanent secretaries from the minorities that led the way to riches from ‘skilful’ use of position and information so minorities are not without stain. However, it has been shown that one rich native does not infect the rest of the community with wealth. The so-called ‘minorities’ must reject the obnoxious nomenclature once and for all. There are, and should, never again be ‘minorities’ in Nigeria. That decision should be on our 2001 Constitution and on the agenda of our Sovereign National Conference.

‘Minorities’ have been so suppressed by those WAZOBIA others that they should be compensated for their losses. It is obvious that we have just finished another war… The Second Civil War. This was carefully and evilly choreographed, planned and executed by the very people vehemently against the acquisition of Federal rights and equality by all Nigerians regardless of their geographical origins within the entity Nigeria. This was a commercial war, an economic war, a political war, a psychological war, a monopolistic war, a war of secret messages entrusted to imposed military governors ruling with the mouth in one direction and the grand plan in another, destroying agriculture, education, NEPA and all else before them. Looking back, are they proud of having reported ‘Mission Accomplished’ to whoever was their C-in-C?

Even on the question of assets and resource control, is it not suspicious that those most against assets control have successfully controlled the assets of the nation with unbridled, unaccountable and criminal abandon, depriving the majority of Nigerians of their rights to social service dividends from national businesses, stupidly called parastatals and turned into personal banks like NPA, NITEL, NIPOST, NEPA, NICON, NAA, NAFCOB et cetera taken as personal fiefdoms and spoils of the First Civil War.

The First Civil War was to keep Nigeria one at all and any cost with a terrible cost in lives. The Second Civil War was the punishment of the East and the subjugation of the rest of the South and the Northern ‘minorities’, leaving them as living dead except in the Niger Delta where the First Civil War continued almost uninterrupted and with just a high economic, judicial and human casualties. During the Second Civil War, both civilian and especially under the military, there were no questions tolerated about the rape of the economy during the 30 odd years. Unity was a cloak for economic rape.

Whether we can see it or not, we are firmly in the middle of The Third Civil War. This War is a logical counter-offensive to recover losses in the First and Second Civil War and re-establish the status of true federalism, a relic of the pre First Civil War era. The Second and Third Wars are particularly nasty because all the casualties are walking dead, needing help, unlike conventional war when most are buried and forgotten. And the matter is difficult to discuss without paradoxically being labelled by the ethno-centrists and innocent, easily impressed foreign observers as a tribalist – the very name that fits those against true federalism and who have perpetuated the state in its current unstatesmanly form. The masquerade is completely disguised. The wolf is now completely cloaked in One-Nigeria, Unity and False Federalism covering. Who has the most to lose? We must overcome the quick fix, quick profits approach to our problems and look at restructuring for long term and mutual gain or else we shall have no country for anyone to plunder at all.

Of course, the minorities are not without stain or blame, as each Civil War has thrown up minority millions who are in turn made millionaires and ‘leaders’ whose single claim to fame is their lack of attempts to collectively develop or articulate the true needs of their communities. Perhaps they are sworn to abandon any community advancement projects such goals as part of initiation rights.

If the unity of this country is not negotiable then neither are true federalism and resource control. Those who controlled resources before have plundered and will do so again if returned too quickly to power. Nigeria needs a 30-year rest from them to recover. Let Obasanjo and whichever Southern or minority President will follow him prosecute the Third Civil War and reverse the 30-years of neglect during the Second Civil War and put telephones, electricity, roads and education in every corner of Nigeria as a sign of true federalism.