Consensus Building in the North
By
Wada Nas
Nigeria is today an uncertain country with an equally an uncertain future. Only the Almighty Allah holds the key to what may become of her tomorrow. Where yesterday is better than today and tomorrow appears gloomy on the horizon, the future remains predictably uncertain and very worrisome. Worse is that many have never had hope in the country. Where some insist that their tribal identity comes first before their national identity, and this is being preached by the well informed, you do not need to be told that Nigeria has no patriots but tribalists. When those who influence public opinion are the choir masters of such ethnic doctorine, as a political philosophical belief then we don’t need to be told who have been systematically working against our national interest.
In a pluralistic society such as ours, such preachments have been making it impossible to accept the concept of consensus. On account of the foundation of this wrong philosophical belief, today in Nigeria, virtually every tribe, if not clan, is a ‘nation,’ so we have the Igbo nation, the Yoruba nation, the Ijaw nation, the Gwari nation and several others. The attachment to these “nations” is greater than the attachment to the true Nigerian nation. Indeed, with the high tech propaganda attached to the birth of these ethnic nations, we have been killing ourselves more on their behalf than on behalf of Nigeria. Such therefore has the rising tide of ethnic and clanish nationalism been killing Nigeria and her people. And this is the greater danger we face now and in the years ahead.
The masters of this ethnic gospel are perhaps in position to withstand the vigours of ethnic nationalism. Not so others particularly here in the North. According to a study, there are about 240 ethnic groups in Nigeria, with as many as 400 clans of various colours. Of the 240, the North has a share of 200. However, in a statement to the Western leaders of thought in August 1966 Chief Awolowo identified what he called to major component parts of Nigeria and 10 minor components of which thirty two were in the North and nine in the East. Whatever the number, or what he meant by component, the point is that the greater number of Nigerian tribes and components are in the North.
So what does the preachment of ethnic nationalism mean for us here? In recent time, we have witnessed what happened in Southern Kaduna, not to talk of previous two events in the capital itself. There were similar episodes in Plateau quite different from what happened in Jos. We are also aware of the clashes between the Bassange and others in Nasarawa, and the sporadic clashes with the Tivs in the state. Between the Jukuns and their Tiv brothers, on the Traba-Benue axis, continuos war since perhaps 1952 has been the formal relationship. Most of these crises are based on the theory of ethnic nationalism and this is why they have been numerous in the Niger Delta, especially among the Ijaws Ohrobos and Itsekiris arising from this preachment to the concept of indegineship where each tribal entity believes that because its own are the majority in a given areas, all others are settlers and must therefore not be entitled to certain rights. Again this is part of the problem between the Tivs and Jukuns in Wukari area of Taraba State. It is also the case between the Tivs and other groups in Nasarawa and Plateau respectively and between the Biroms and the Jarawa in Jos. This is also the major root of the crisis in Warri Delta States, and the cause of the Ilaje-Ijale war in Ondo. It has a clanish dimension in the crisis between Modakeke and Ife and Aguleri and Umuleri in the East.
What this mean is that not even the major tribes, but especially those who been preaching this ethnic vice could be free from the trauma of rising ethnic nationalism. But even if they would, for us in the North, the danger would be greater than what we have been witnessing no far.
When this dragon of ethnic nationalism catches fancy among all the ethnic groups in the North, there would be no place to hide, for anybody, as the whole region may be engulfed in an endless war of destruction. In the region, the North West appears to be the only monolithic zone except for the Southern portion of Kaduna. In what was Gongola State then, there were 104 different ethnic identities. This is to tell you the ethnic composition of the North East zone. All the other states in the zone including Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba are comprised of various ethnic groups. The same with North Central or the so called Middle Belt, where the two religions exist almost in the same proportion except for Plateau and Benue. but as we all know, religion is not playing any role in what is happening between the Jukuns/Tiv and also what happened in Nasarawa and the other pockets of crisis in Plateau state between the Tivs and other groupings and among such groupings themselves.
With this background, no danger could be no serious to the North than the one that could be caused by the propagation of ethnic nationalism. If others can afford it, must certainly not the North. This is why we have to caution those people preaching separation among the people. Whose riding on the back of this hungry lion, would soon realise that they would be consumed by the dragon they have been associating with.
In the struggle for relevance among the major groups, it has been the philosophy of some, to preach and instigate such down graded philosophy as a way of capturing the minds of the so called minority groups in the defunct regions. This has indeed been the philosophy of the Action Group, A.G to which initially the UMBC, led by late Joseph Tarka was attracted. He was soon to discover however that it was a deceitful philosophical concept meant to settle political scores with its competitors, hence his joining the NPN during the second republic. Some have now emerged on the scene to revive the outdated political dogma for personal gains in order to become relevant without appreciating the serious dangers involved in their actions. I make bold to say that when ethnic nationalism finally assumes the centre stage, in the manner its proponents have been preaching of the South-South, North Central and the North East would becomes the Middle East of Nigeria with pockets of ethnic wars spread every where. It would become the anthrax disease of the people. The very minority groups, who are being recruited to embrace this philosophy, would be the worse victims. And when the lion shows its fangs not even its master preachers could be spared, as the rivalries of old may rear their ugly heads.
Let us understand very clearly that prior to 1890, there was no tribe going by the name Yoruba. The word is a later coinage. What we had then were Ekitis, Ondos, Oyos etc. Besides, the Tappas, (i.e Yorubas of Nupe origin) and Baribas still remain a group within the current Yoruba formation and may therefore seek to assert themselves when the ugly fancy catches fire. In a multi ethnic setting, resort to extremist ethnic nationalism, as a political philosophy, is a recipe for calamitous disaster and ill will that in the long wrong may consume its master champions.
In the North, this is one very important area upon which consensus has to be built. Along with the faulty theory of indigeneship, it is one very dangerous time bomb we must have to defuse to save the region and indeed Nigeria, from going up in flame.
By now, we must be aware that the region is being used to instigate tension in the North. Whenever there is any crisis in the region, it is blamed on religion. Down South, they call it communal clash. Up North it is religious crisis. And whenever such occurs in the North, it is blown out of proportion to satisfy certain political sentiments. Even as there have been more crises in the South than in the North in the last three years, the ones in the North are more highlighted. In between the events in Taraba-Benue, a serious crisis broke out between the Igbos and OPC Yorubas in Lagos on 25/10/2001 and between the Itsekiris and Orhobos in which five lives each were lost. Hardly were these reported. Indeed to the best of my knowledge, only This Day took up the Igbo-Yoruba clash in an inside small corner page, perhaps as a filler. Had these occurred in the North the story would have been different. They would not have been tucked in inside pages but on front pages painted with the colours of exaggeration and mind set. Indeed, it is because of the lack of religious colourisation of the Julun-Tiv episodes that we have not been hearing of them or don’t even appreciate that they have been occurring since 1957. Even then, they have to attach religious meaning to it that 16 of the soldiers killed were Muslims and that this was why Obasanjo sent in troops. One report has it that the commander of the troops who ransacked Zaki Bian speaks Hausa, meaning he is a Muslim, as if Christians in the North, no longer speak that language. It does not even occur to them that 99% of Christians in the region preach in Hausa and that the language of communication among the various ethnic groups, that make up the region is Hausa. These are all attempts to splash what is happening between Taraba and Benue with religious mud even as everybody in Benue State agrees that the involvement of cattle Fulanis in the fracas in marginal or instigated by the Jukuns in their own view. Indeed Senator Waku says that Jukuns wear Fulani dress in order to make it appear like between the Fulanis and Tivs
The point to note here is that several attempts are being made to cause serious division in the North along religious lines. Sharia was the needed weapon in their hands to cause more of it. If as president Obasanjo says there is political sharia, it is the one being used by others to cause severe division in the North, in order to weaken its known unity. What they do not know, however, is that except in the North-West, the various other groups, in the other zones, are more or less proportionally attached to one or the other in the region in varying degrees. This is one reality some commentators do not appreciate about the so called Middle Belt. They see it as the former Eastern Region in terms of religious composition, which it is not. The two religious are fairly evenly spread in the area. And this could be attested to by the religious background of the governors. In some families, we have brothers and sisters of the same parents who belong to either of the two religions. Dan Suleiman, inspite of himself is a typical example, being the only Christian in his family. A former Governor of Katsina State Col. Yahaya Madaki, is yet another as both parents and all brothers are Muslims. He not only sponsored his parents to Mecca, but built a Mosque in his village. Such is the religious composition of the people in the region.
Still, the religionists have never relented in their efforts to cause religions strife in the region. We all know those in the vanguard in this deadly game. Whoever they are however, Northern leaders, at various levels, must have to reach some form of understanding on the issue. It is not enough to make some valid accusations without taking appropriate measures in the common interest of all. In the same way the North can not survive an ethnic war so can’t it also survive a religious war. There should therefore be mutuality of interest in handling religious nationalism. And this could be achieved through dialogue and consensus.
The other reality we have to face in the North today is that money may no longer be available to us in future. Indeed resource control is more about to ensure this than anything else. Painfully, when oil was discovered we neglected our traditional economic resources such as agriculture and soled minerals. As some one once remarked, revenue control is the success story of the destruction of other sources of revere by oil. And if you examine carefully, this has its own adverse effects. The neglect of the other sectors has brought unemployment which in itself, cultivated various forms of social vices ranging from armed robbery to prostitution and violence all of which have been reoccurring. Northern leaders must come to term with the fact that the future of the region lies in agriculture and solid minerals. I have it on good authority that about 70% of known solid mineral deposits is in the North but yet to be developed. This therefore calls for a concerted effort to focus attention on these areas, using the NNDC as the core investor. Individually states in the region may not be in position to adequately handle this matter. The states should therefore pull their resources together for this purpose.
The sum total of my submission here is that we really need consensus bridges of understanding and cooperation in the North if we are to play any significant role in future Nigeria. This is why I subscribe to the concept of the Middle Belt as an economic zone and for the purpose of sharing the proverbial national cake. If you look closely at what is happening today, this administration at another level is working or sharing positions on the basis of the defunct three regions as equal partners. So, where there are for instance, six positions to share, the North with over 50% of the population, gets only 2 and the South 4. How democratic is this? I insist that in the face of such a formula where the South has two blocks, the North should not have less. This is where the Middle Belt has a value and should be supported. Unfortunately its proponents see it as a zone to cause division, among the people along certain grounds. This is the dagger it causes both to the region and indeed to itself as events have clearly demonstrated.
In as much as the idea of a Sovereign National conference is out rightly illegal and unconstitutional, I do not see any legal harm in the idea of Nigerians discussing their common problems. Before then however, it is very important for the North to properly articulate its position on the economy, politics etc. For this reason, I want to suggest the formation of a Northern political Buena, or such other body, by Northern Governors, in consultation with ACF to properly articulate Northern position on the future of Nigeria. Its report be made available to all states for discussion before finally arriving at a conclusion. The North has a lot of bargaining positions which it could carry to the conference. I must however stress that whatever the outcome of the proposed conference, the due process of the constitution must be followed in giving it a final constitutional touch. As a start, the report of the presidential committee on the draft constitution along with the one being prepared by the National Assembly should form the basis for discussion. It in the course of events the issue of confederation comes up, the North must have to take a firm position on its land resources, in terns of use, allocation and distribution.
Consensus by nature is part of human history. Indeed it defines to some extent, inter-personal and so should therefore be sued as a weapon to evolve an acceptable polity. As the vanguard of Nigerian unity the North should see it as a vehicle for achieving common understanding across the board.
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