Obasanjo, the Apostle of one Nigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

[Ayo Olukotun]

Obasanjo, the Apostle of one Nigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

Ayo Olukotun

“I am a strong believer in one Nigeria but not one Nigeria at any cost but one Nigeria where every Nigerian can feel proud that he or she has a stake in this country”. Former Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (retd), Channels T.V June 9, 2021.

The reportorial and editorial crafts are obviously agenda setting ones. Consider, for a moment, how vast the powers of reporters and their editors are. Between them, they decide what is newsworthy, what and what is to be ‘buried’ deep inside the news train. No less importantly, and as theorists of news framing tell us, they select or even pre-select the degree of prominence to give particular news items, they ask and answer questions such as, should this be positioned on the front page or even ignored altogether?

Why are these ruminations necessary, the readers may ask? Precisely because in the story under consideration which narrates Obasanjo’s chiding of agitators for secession there was an important caveat quoted in the opening paragraph which ought perhaps to have provided the headline for an account published on Thursday by virtually all newspapers. Let me explain. Obasanjo’s position and posture as an apostle of national unitys is familiar. In one of his books he revealed that even as military president and as a southerner, he rooted for visibility and importance to the then number 2 man, General Shehu Yar’Adua in order to achieve ethnic and religious balance in a divided nation. As civilian president, using the same tactic Obasanjo devolved a lot of power to Abubakar Atiku as Vice-President until the parting of ways when Atiku nearly ruined his chances for election for a second term. In other words, both in precept and action, Obasanjo has carved a niche for himself as perhaps the leading exponent of Nigerian unity through balancing and harmony among the country's combustible ethno-religious mix. What is novel, therefore, in the wake of renewed calls by some ethnic groups for secession is that Obasanjo gave minimum conditions for achieving Nigerian unity, while amplifying that his advocacy for national unity is not one of stupidity or docility which accepts meekly what it calls unity at any cost. For this writer, this is the central thrust or should have been made the central thrust of Obasanjo’s most recent intervention.

Regrettably, however, reporters and editors settled for what is already well known about Obasanjo’s views and admonitions on unity and secession. This leads us to question whether the campaigners for national unity realize why the agitation for secession has come up so truculently in this season. Far from being morons, idle minds or mischief makers, those advocating secession (not to be equated with war mongers) are doing so as the Ekiti state governor Kayode Fayemi recently posited ‘out of frustration’. Frustration with what? There is widespread belief that several of the underpinnings which kept our federation in relative harmony and balance have been in the last few years dismantled. A few examples will make the point. In contrast to the Obasanjo doctrine of mainstreaming a Yar’Adua, a northerner and a Muslim to counterbalance a Christian and Southern President even under a military regime the circumstance today is, sad to say, extremely different. Do a quick headcount of the major holders of executive and legislative power and you will come up with a preponderance of one religion over another. Not just that alone, everyone knows about the marginalization, deliberate or not, of the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. There also is the much talked about imbalance almost deliberately carried out in federal appointments, the most conspicuous of which is in the area of national security where a particular ethnic group and religious identity predominate. That is another way of saying that in semi-authoritarian style, the logic of Nigerian federalism, federal character, and consociational imperatives as well as the inclusive mandate of the 1999 constitution; flawed as it is have been more or less brushed aside.  

True, these sins of commission and omission are mitigated a little by party politics in which the ruling party to stay afloat and in deference to its founding obligations has allowed a measure of balancing. But no one is left in doubt who pays the piper and dictates the tune. So, it is not just that we have an over centralized constitution but politicians have become steadily more loyal to their ethnic and religious affiliations.

Furthermore, in a season of raging insecurity, almost every part of the country suffers. But some suffer more than others. Earlier this week to cite an instance, The Punch in an editorial entitled, Banditry: Benue State under siege lamented as follows: “a horrible time, killings that mimic ethnic cleansing are escalated. The bloodletting is traced mainly to daring killer Fulani herdsmen and local militias fighting for communal control”.

The editorial, not the first of its type, went on to document instances where officialdom has looked the other way while Benue state became and still remains a killing field. Benue is of course not the only tormented area in the current dispensation. Fresh in our minds are the murder and mayhem at Igangan, Oyo State in which prominent Fulani leaders were fingered with some justifying the killings as reprisals. For me, this is the second important reason why the agitation for secession outcry is escalating. Citizens have the feelings that they have lost control of a state which is not only increasingly capricious but whose preferences more and more coincide with that of a particular ethnic extraction. To be remembered in this connection is the famous thesis by General T.Y Danjuma (retd) that ‘the military is not neutral’.

The Yorubas have a wisecrack that roughly translates ‘orisa if you cannot favour me, kindly just leave me the way you met me and do not destroy me.’ In the current delicate situation of Nigeria, what some calling for secession are saying is that if they will not be advantaged by the federal might, that power should at least not be deployed to destroy them or put them miserably perpetually on edge. Obviously too there is the logic of weak governance performance which makes everyone except the most privileged extremely unhappy and unable to actualize their dreams. It is not enough for the apostles of unity to shout mantra-like ‘the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable’ or ‘to hell with secessionists’. They must seek to understand why the groundswell is fast becoming a deafening clamor and with that understanding, they should then begin to adjust their behavior, policies and attitudes to incorporate the disaffected instead of further alienating them.

There is merit in the view point once espoused by comparative politics scholar, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae that if the 1999 constitution is faithfully implemented Nigeria would have concluded a round of restructuring. We may debate the point of view but it at least shows us how much we have meandered from that which the constitution stipulates. Above all, the current custodians of state power should do more listening than talking or labeling. That will be more in conformity with democratic ethos than what will appear to be ‘in your face’ disposition and attitude. 

 

Prof. Ayo Olukotun is a Director at Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona Institute of Governance Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

May God bless Olukotun for his faith.

Beautifully insightful analysis, as usual. 

It's clear that with such a restrained analyst as Olukotun making such conclusions, the reality of the Fulani supremacist national colonisation scheme aided by the Buhari govt is approaching full clarity to Southerners after it's 2015 emergence on Buhari's ascendancy as President.

But is it not taking Olukotun too long to openly acknowledge that Nigeria is under siege by Fulani supremacists with the help of the Fulani led fed govt?

He spends so much effort on politically correct styles of expression, refusing to give names to the ethnocentric culprits, preferring to speak like a ruminating philosopher observing an event removed in time from his own existence and upon which he speculatively ruminates, while he, like all of us, can be described as being in the midst of an encroaching fire set and sustained by people we can all see.

Is it not time for our intelligentsia to collectively cry out that the Buhari govt is enabling a national colonisation effort by Fulani supremacists using Fulani herdsmen militia, these intelligentsia thereby helping to mobilise everyone into action, even if  it's through civil disobedience against the ongoing colonisation?

Professor.... professor....of fine reflections or philosopher working for the survival of his people...?

Thanks

Toyin

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

In the name of unity: Hum Allah !

Unlike you, Professor Ayo Olukotun our Prince of Commentators on Nigerian Affairs is a sociologist and a political analyst and not merely an agitator, doomsday prophet, agent provocateur, speak less of an Islamophobe or ethnic chauvinist forever hallucinating nightmares about “Northern Hegemony”, the nomadic Fulani Herdsmen everywhere and you forever on the barricades clamouring for divorce, separation, “autonomy”

If you are only responding to Professor Olukotun’s latest analysis then it would appear that you are reading him slightly out of context – since the context is really the on-going history of Nigeria and all his previous analyses of the current/ contemporary situation is still a very fluid situation in which this latest analysis is a culmination and not a conclusion or end -stop or your proverbial cul-de-sac – or the fire and brimstone which you believe is the alternative route, the mega-catastrophe just around the corner, waiting to happen.

Believing that the problems are not insurmountable - can be solved - (just look at what is now the European Union) a well-founded cautious optimism is preferable to the abject pessimism that now prevails over you, that Nigeria can’t get its act together, is incapable of doing so after The partition of Africa and Lord Lugard’s role in determining and defining Nigeria’s borders - a far cry from “self-determination”) as was made clear by the Nigeria – Cameroon conflict in 1981 and the on-going Bakassi Conflict – still solvable.

Worst case scenario – not a repeat of the Biafra tragedy or the 29 year war for Eritrea to break away from Ethiopia, or the partition of the Indian sub-continent into India and Pakistan, and in our lifetime we have witnessed the dissolution of the USSR, the IRA doing their thing, Israel and the Pals, the partition of Sudan into Sudan and South Sudan, and the UK Brexiting out of the EU which I followed mostly through these lenses

What Chidi said the other day about the peaceful, constitutional option of a referendum (of the type they had for Scotland) is interesting - Chidi says that given the ongoing anarchy, such a referendum would not be accurate, “illegitimate”, etc. etc., which got me wondering, come 2023 and the security situation is not as it should be could a free and fair election then be held in Nigeria, as already scheduled? The example that springs to mind is the 1996 election in Sierra Leone during which exercise, vast swathes of the country, the diamond rich East was still in the hands of the RUF, just as today's North East id Nigeria (Borno) is still largely in the hands of your Boko Harami friends and countrymen., the argument being, how can free and fair elections be held when citizens are in the vice-like grip of fear, vast swathes of the country are victims of widespread insecurity, voter intimidation and the Federal agencies do not exert territorial sovereignty (and security) over the whole of Nigeria?

Since charity begins at home, and home is not only Edo State, home is also Nigeria, we are expecting that even as you continue “Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”, you dedicate some of that passion to establishing justice, peace, free access to booty (not war booty) and tranquillity in the motherland...

King Sunny Ade: Sweet Banana (Listened to this two days when my Edo Bro Emmanuel dove us to get some groceries) 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

: N.B: In Morocco it is impolite to ask someone whether he is Arab or Berber...

[Harrow, Kenneth]

i think it is impolite to ask anyone anywhere "who" they are. i agree about morrocco, but not only there.

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2021 7:52 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo, the Apostle of one Nigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

 

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[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

I have asked a Moroccan if they were Arab or Berber before  as I once shared on the list and the reply was defensive, aggressive:  'I'm not an Arab; I am not a Berber.!' ' Im African'

This may be because of the many ethnic subnationalities that people the country and are resistant to these two dominant and entrenched ruling class nationalities.  My interlocutor then explained how the Moroccan King influenced the naming of children nationals in the name of Islam and that they belong to another minority ethnicity.

Despite their light coloration, these ethnic sub nationalities prefer to be identified as Africans.  

I think this is  a consequence of still ongoing resistance to the Arab conquest of North Africa in the early days of Islam and the imposition of an Arabised ruling class that extended to Spain before the reconquesta in Spain a similar situation to what happened in Northern Nigeria with the Fulani.

Its a complex situation out there!

The key points in Ayo Olukotun's piece is that the Constitution is over centralised . It needs to be modified n the ongoing exercise.  The second corollary is that an over centralised constitution can not be an effective tool for a federal republic.

I repeat what I have specified before: vague sections of the Constitution regarding sense of belonging and geographical spread of appointments should be explicitly spelt out so that mischievous presidents do not exploit loopholes identified by ethnic jingoists and claim to have specifically broken no law.

The presidential Constitutional as it stands  allows a president to sideline his Vice- President if he so desires. This is not the handiwork of any particular president.  It is a structural weakness in the document.  This weakness should be amended.

Better still the structure of the presidency as I have been advocating should be altered to pave way for a presidential council from several political zones at the same time with yearly rotational chairmanship to counteract zonal political hegemony or suspicion of same perennially heating up the polity such as the nation is witnessing and ending the zero- sum nature of politicking

OAA

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------

From: "Harrow, Kenneth" <har...@msu.edu>

Date: 17/06/2021 07:14 (GMT+00:00)

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo, the Apostle of oneNigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

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i think it is impolite to ask anyone anywhere "who" they are. i agree about morrocco, but not only there.

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2021 7:52 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo, the Apostle of one Nigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/262e0d6a-7f68-40fc-8e7f-b7aac3fc2ce8n%40googlegroups.com.

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

often moroccans with dark skin color are gnaoui, and regarded as "african" due to their slave origins. they produce some of the most amazing music, and movies have been made about them.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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[Gloria Emeagwali]

“ Regarded as african due to their slave origins”

I have doubts about this simplistic equation of “Dark skin =slavery= African“ in Morocco. Many Moroccans of dark skin were among the original  indigenous inhabitants 

of the region, and some Moroccans are aware of that. The same can be said of Libyans -from the Fezzan region, for example.

On Jun 21, 2021, at 23:12, Harrow,Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:



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[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

They are called the Moors.  They are of mixed Arab/ Berber descent

They conquered Spain and were driven out in the 15th century reconquista.

One of them is the eponymous hero of Shakespeare's Othello.

I first got introduced to them in my high school first year literature book The Moor's Legacy taught by my South African mixed race vice principal.  It was the year I got introduced to the first  glimpse of northern Nigerian life in Cyprian Ekwensi's classic The Passport of Mallam Illia.  Ekwensi was thus my first non Yoruba Nigerian writer.

OAA

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------

From: "Harrow, Kenneth" <har...@msu.edu>

Date: 22/06/2021 04:18 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo, the Apostle of oneNigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

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often moroccans with dark skin color are gnaoui, and regarded as "african" due to their slave origins. they produce some of the most amazing music, and movies have been made about them.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2021 2:46 AM
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Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo, the Apostle of oneNigeria, Repudiates Unity at any Cost

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB298266ED3339A990284B6183A60B9%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

no,  it is true. i was talking about the gnaoui. been to morocco often; and they are distinguished from arabs or berbers.

it is true that there, like most places on earth, we all have varying shades of lightness or darkness. in berber families that can be especially true.

but the gnaoui are subsaharan in origins, and everyone knows and celebrates their music.

as far as slave origins for people of dark skin, that is virtually everywhere in north africa, and indeed in the arab world. after all, there was slave trading for millenia.

and that opened a topic we discussed often on this list: racism in north africa, and the arab world

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

gnaoui are former slaves from subsaharan africa. not moors. moors was a general term used in shakespeare's time for north africans, especially from morocco, which was (and still is, in arabic, the maghreb).

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2021 1:50 AM

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