By Brigadier General Abba Kyari (Rtd) Forwarded by Ibrahim Waziri
BEING
A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE WORKSHOP ON STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES IN In
his 1994 Inaugural Sardauna Memorial Lecture, the late Ciroman Fika made
a powerful case for the unity and indivisibility of this country.
While many shared his thoughts by mere instinct, his advocacy was
backed by a knowledge that is extensive, varied and profound. In a
nutshell, the thrust of his argument is based on the trends of
globalization. But
if we examine historical trends since 1945 and all the ingredients of
globalization as demonstrated by the Italian Diplomat Boris Biancheri,
it is worth our while to reflect on the unthinkable and not be prisoners
to the superstitious pair of words: - Unity
and indivisibility of Nigeria. This
is not a case for the division of the country, but just to demonstrate
that history will not have special rules for Within
the ambits of globalization are two distinct trends – integration and
fragmentation. While at the
economic, technological and information spheres the trend is towards
integration, the social and political trends tend towards fragmentation
and yet we seem to have gone into a self cocoon that Let
us take a brief review of the state of nation states in the last six
decades, since the signing of the UN Charter in (a)
Austro-Hungarian (b)
Trsarist
and the (c)
Ottoman;
empires. The
collapse of the The
examples stated above are admittedly at the international level, but
ingredients of fragmentation are also to be found within countries,
particularly in (i)
accentuation
of differences to the detriment of whatever creates common causes (ii)
the
decline of the centre in favour of the periphery These
trends are compounded by the following tendencies: (a)
Separatism (b)
Provincialism (c)
Parochialism Some
of the trends and tendencies will inevitably exist in any polity and
need not ring alarm bells, but to exist in one polity at the same time
with such vehemence, should make us think
of the unthinkable, that this place may just fragment not out of our
desire but as the logical consequences of the drift we have found
ourselves in. Even
at the integrative trends of globalization, the economic agenda which is
basically to create not just a capitalist-world order but market
societies, has the potentials of replicating the injustices of the
global economy within national economies with devastating consequences
for social stability. The
state and its agencies will not be neutral in this. These
notes are just to remind us that while we fight for the federal cause,
we should not be one-dimensional in reviewing the state of the nation. The
message is simple, fight for a just |