The on-going military operation
in the South East must be a source of concern to every right thinking Nigerian
irrespective political, religious and ethnic leaning. That a government would
resort to maximum force against an unarmed civilian population shows both a
shocking lack of understanding of the issues at stake and an alarming lack of
disposition towards national peace and cohesion as vital ingredients for
development. For the avoidance of doubt, there is a zero-cost alternative to
the show of cowardice the military is displaying in the South East. That is
simply equity and fairness.
Sadly, the level of hatred being
spewed out in the social media is very benumbing. There is also a clear
misrepresentation of the issues at stake as an Igbo versus Nigeria problem.
This twisted narrative, unfortunately, has not been helped by the utterances of
some misguided Igbos youths as well as their ilk from across the diverse ethnic
nationalities in Nigeria. But I like how one public commentator framed the issue:
one way or the other, we are all Biafrans whether Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Kanuri,
Nupe, Ijaw or what have you. We are all marginalised, deprived, oppressed,
cheated, robbed and exposed to international ridicules. And if you look at it
closely, you would find that it is the bizarre, crippling political system we
practice that has been exploited by the political elites to enslave the
gullible masses and ensure that nation building perpetually gets the short end
of the stick.
The sad fact is that a country
has foisted on itself a political and economic structure that is
anti-creativity and consequently anti-development. Yet, even when it obvious
that we have been wrestled down and clamped down irredeemably by this untenable
arrangement, we have refused to do something about it. The real problem is that
we have succeeded in elevating mediocrity, clannishness and injustice to
statecraft. It is unfortunate that we have managed to successfully cage the
creative energy of Nigerians by deliberatively making sure that the country is
in perpetual reverse gear. Equity, justice and fairness which are vital
ingredients for peace and harmony, and prerequisite for development have been
given the boot.
But even as I write, I already
know the attack line from the internet warriors who think that being able to
buy 1.5GB of data amounts to progress or class. “When Jonathan was at helm, you
never knew there was a lack of justice and fairness.” Spare me that, please!
Granted that Jonathan government was profligate, do we have to move from one
bad government to a worse one perpetually? Did we replace a bad government only
to get a worse one? No! Jonathan was not performing and we sacked him. We
expect something better, not even at par, and definitely not worse. We have to
start thinking straight as a people so we can free ourselves from the mental,
political and economic slavery that we have foisted on ourselves.
On the sabotage going on in the
South East, we all know that in every conflict there must be winners and
losers. Who are the winners? Who are the losers here? When you look all over
the social media, you find a whole lot of people cheering. That is foolishness.
They have not sat down to think about it and count the costs. They think it
doesn’t concern them; it is only the ‘Biafrauds’ that are being killed. How
naïve! While the Igbos are paying with their blood, the bigger picture is that
the entire Nigeria is the loser in this unwarranted conflict and I will explain
shortly.
While the conflict persists, the
economy of the South East would be severely affected in an already depressed
national economy. Aba, a commercial nerve centre, recovering from the
devastation of the late 1990s and early 2000s occasioned by men of the
underworld is again at the epicentre of this conflict. There was a massive
exodus of industrialists and businessmen from Aba during that inglorious era
that was just passing. Sadly, that is going to be re-enacted just when the
state is trying to have a breath of life. The whole of South East will
definitely lose massively as a result of this conflict. If a fight breaks out
near your home, it is in your best interest to try to manoeuvre it as far away
from your house as possible. Else, aside personal injuries accruable to you,
the collateral damage may also be monumental. The Americans understood this
theory perfectly. Therefore, when Al Qaeda brought war into the United States
of America in the famous 9/11 terrorist attack, they made sure they pushed the
war as far away from home as possible. How else could they have used the
Tomahawks, the drones, the tanks and Black Hawks in America without scoring own
goals? But now, take a look at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria etc., a massive
laboratory for testing out the military ingenuity of the west and Russia. It is
wisdom to steer conflicts away from your home zone. While not discounting the
genuineness of his agitation, Nnamdi Kanu has to craft a better strategy to
prosecute his goal. He needs to find a more inclusive approach and work within
the ambits of international norms. The results must match or surpass the
inputs. Far too much loss of lives and the results may not have been
commensurate. I remember the story of the competition between the tortoise and
the hare. You’ve got to know your strengths and weaknesses in a war and
strategize according to your strength.
However, whereas the South East
may be the biggest losers, no Nigerian should gloat. We are all losers in the
end. The resources being committed to this needless conflict could buy a few
more drugs for our ill-equipped hospitals and reduce our legendary maternal and
infant mortality. It could settle the grievances of the resident doctors and
send them back to work. If we channel it to our schools, it could build a few
more schools and increase access to education for all. It could satisfy some of
the demands of the lecturers and take some of our children out of crime and
back to school. It could buy a couple of laboratory equipment to give life to
our ghost laboratories in the secondary schools and make learning more meaningful.
If the amount being committed to this senseless operation were to be channelled
to incentivising our farmers, fewer of our people will go to bed hungry each night
and more people will be taken out of unemployment. In the end, we are all
losers, Nigerians we are all losers.
Nevertheless, there are some
winners in this conflict. But Nigeria is definitely not one of them. And the
winners are the Americans, the Russians, the Iranians, the Turks and many
others who sell their military hardware to us. We are funding their economies
and creating jobs for them while our ailing economy is further asphyxiated. As
we burn, they boom; our pains are their gains. Theirs is a no loss situation.
And it has just begun. As we dance towards the precipice, they are right now strategizing
to sell more weapons to us, officially and through the black market while they
sit down and watch over the cables as our country go up in flames. Why should
we allow the Americans and Russians to test their newest weapons technology in
Nigeria? Too sad!
The buck stops with Mr.
President. He should demonstrate leadership and be a father to all without
favouritism. You don’t bomb your children because of a disagreement, no good
father does that. He should immediately drop this belligerent approach,
de-escalate tension, pull back his soldiers to the barracks and put on his
thinking cap. Happily, he doesn’t have to think through this alone. He should
sit down with reasoning men and women and find solutions to the myriads of
problems plaguing this country. Those that have access to Mr. President should
tell him that Igbos are not the problem, South East is not the problem. If it
were, South West, South South, North Central, North East, North West would have
been havens of sort and prosperous examples. But all over the country, there is
palpable hopelessness, escalating hunger, mounting tensions, deteriorating
quality of life and increasing ‘everything negative’. No, the Igbos are not the
problem, Kanu is not the problems; these are mere metaphors and symptoms of the
problem. The problem is inability of government at all levels to govern for all
and deliver services to all.
We should never deceive ourselves
that silencing Kanu or putting fear in the Igbos today is a solution. No! We
fought a civil war in the late 60s with the attendant devastations but since
then, agitations have continued. The only sustainable solution is service
delivery at all levels of government. Equity and fairness will have to be
enshrined in our national culture if we are to make progress as a people. Look
at all the stable nations of the world. Their governments deliver services and
uphold the equality of their citizens. In return, the citizens invest their
loyalty in the country. We can command fear by the barrel of the gun, but we
definitely cannot command loyalty that way.
Fellow Nigerians, we are all Biafrans and we are all losers in
this senseless conflict. We can do better as a people, we deserve better as a
people. Time to think and be free!
Chinedu Asogwa writes from Lagos. All reactions to
teamupafrica@gmail.com
