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Fanaticism In A Fragile State By Anthony A. Akinola
Anyone electing to write the story of the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency should not allow misgivings over the ludicrous third term ambition or the embarrassing feud between President and Vice President to obscure the administration’s success or otherwise in conflict management. Hurricane, sharia and ethnic militia politics once presented our nation with such a dilemma that it would be unwise to quickly forget the dangers they posed.
This is a personal opinion, and who says one is not entitled to it, that President Obasanjo approached the sharia issue with great calm and got a justified result? The popular opinion in the south of Nigeria was that the spread of sharia in the manner it did was intended to undermine the legitimacy of the Obasanjo administration. Had Obasanjo not been tactful or patient he probably would have played into the hands of the sharia proponents. If sharia was not politically motivated, the practising states should by now be reaping the rewards of an environment that is free from corruption and other social ills.
As for Nigeria’s ethnic militias, their origin can be traced to the misrule of General Saniu Abacha and the confusion it brought. However, it was one nuisance the Obasanjo administration had to contend with. It was as if the Nigerian state was on its way to collapse, with every major component of the federation represented by a quasi-military outfit of some sort. Obasanjo decisively denied the ethnic militias the legitimacy they forcefully and violently sought but he may only have succeeded in driving them underground.
The point one is trying to make here is that the Nigerian state has not yet come to stay. Nigerian nationalists cannot go to their final sleep today convinced they would reincarnate the Nigeria of their dreams. Share population and economic resources make Nigeria a potential major player in global politics. Envious they may be, other Africans see Nigeria as a beacon of hope for the African continent and the black race and its citizens as privileged. Nollywood has become Hollywood for Africans who scramble in Europe and America for Nigerian films. But will the fanatics amongst us allow the Nigerian dream to be fulfilled?
This article responds to a recent report in the Nigerian Tribune that fanatics were planning attacks on churches and co-citizens of Nigeria in the aftermath of the execution of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. How has Nigeria come to the equation in an affair in which no Nigerian was remotely involved? How many Nigerians fought on the side of the American and British troops who succeeded in ending the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, albeit for their own selfish interests? Did the Nigerian government ever make a stand in the second Iraqi conflict, either before or after the execution of Saddam Hussein?
A report of this nature would have been dismissed out of hand had an event in far away Denmark not led to killings and wanton destruction of property in Nigeria. About a year ago some misguided and ignorant cartoonists depicted the Holy Prophet Mohammed rather derogatively. Muslims and right thinking Christians were equally infuriated. There were understandable protests in major cities of the world but in Nigeria we chose to go the extra mile of taking revenge on our own people. The reprisals which followed in another section of our society should be a warning to all of us that a free-for-all ethnic fighting is not an impossible scenario in Nigeria.
To keep Nigeria one may have once been a compulsory military task but it is a task that must now find its destination in our homes, educational institutions, and religious places of worship. Our soldiers have become fat and worldly so that no one is ready for the trenches! We must continue to educate ourselves about the ethics of good neighbourliness and what a peaceful and prosperous Nigerian nation means for all of us and our children’s children.
The diversity of the Nigerian nation should be a source of strength and not weakness. The major nations of the world are becoming increasingly diverse and multi-racial by the day, as the Nigerian population is also becoming noticeable outside the Nigerian borders. Nigerians in diaspora have a moral duty to continue to promote the unity and continued existence of Nigeria as one nation, not least because they themselves have become component units of other nations. The much discussed American intelligence report did not say categorically that Nigeria will become a failed state. What the report suggested was that the potentials for disintegration are quite evident. Even the most patriotic amongst us should not be blind to the fact that ours is a fragile nation. The brutal truth is that there are Nigerians who, for their own reasons, do not believe in the concept of “One Nigeria” and would scream with joy if the “unthinkable” were to happen. They are Nigerians who must be persuaded to the common cause by a new Nigerian nation that is fair to its citizens and the collective aspirations of the groups they represent.
Superpowers (Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA) were historic and unlikely allies in the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70. Nigeria might not be one nation today if these superpowers had not lent their support to the mission of the Yakubu Gowon-led Federal Government. Should we again put our nation in a situation whereby external intervention becomes inevitable, their position on the Nigerian question could be a u-turn. They have supervised the collapse and partitioning of many fragile nations in recent years and anyone who thinks America is not a lot more comfortable with the Gambias and Lesothos of this world than a Nigerian nation posturing as a superpower in the making, wanting to be a member of the exclusive security council, requires a few lessons in international politics to appreciate the message of this article.
I was in America in the early 1980s when Samuel Doe of Liberia visited Ronald Reagan. He had come to beg for money. Reagan was going to introduce him but it appeared he had forgotten his name. He chuckled and said, “meet our friend, Chairman Moe”. How the American Presidents love those humble leaders of tiny and harmless countries!
email : anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk |