RAJAB 11, 1429 A.H.
TUESDAY JULY 15 2008
Print This Page 
The irredentists are winning
By Amaze Obi [amaobi@yahoo.co.uk]
The news the other day was that the government at the centre has charged 78 members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) with treason. They are to be tried for allegedly undermining the sovereignty of Nigeria by promoting what looks like a splinter republic within the existing Republic of Nigeria.
Recently, MASSOB marked the 41st anniversary of the Biafran War whose outcome has continued to define the tone and timbre of events in Nigeria. The ethnic irredentists within MASSOB had reasoned that Biafra was still a historical necessity if the conditions that led to its proclamation 41 years ago still persist in today’s Nigeria. They had lined up a number of activities to commemorate the anniversary.
But the responses they got so far from the Federal forces have been most brutal. Many of them have been massacred in cold blood through police raids. Lately, military forces joined hands with the police to keep MASSOB members in check. The result is the continuing rise in the number of the activists that have been killed. There have been no casualty on the side of the federal forces since the movement is a non-violent one. It has been pushing across its viewpoint through symbolic representations and persuasions.
Certainly, going by its modus operandi, MASSOB is not a threat to the Nigerian Federation. But government seems to believe otherwise. That is why it has continued to respond very wrongly and rashly to anything that has to do with the Movement. In fact, the government does not know what to do with or about MASSOB. That is why it has chosen the path of brute force, mass arrests and massacre as a way of oppressing the movement. Unfortunately, this approach is not working.
MASSOB, strictly speaking, does not exist in fact. It is, to a very large extent, a thing of the mind. The movement seeks to promote the consciousness that gave rise to Biafra and by so doing draw attention to the inequities and injustices that gave rise to the cataclysms of the 1960s that eventuated in the 30-month fratricidal war. As we have already noted, those conditions still exist today, and there does not appear to be any end in sight to them.
Rather than repudiate injustice, imbalances and deprivations, official polices have, instead, affirmed and reaffirmed them. The inequities have become so deep-rooted that Nigeria now looks like a forced union where those who protest and resent their imprisonment are told that they can do nothing about it. This being the case, those that have been disadvantaged by circumstances have no right to seek redress or opt out of the union. They are, willingly or unwillingly, shepherded into the dungeon that is suffocating them.
For MASSOB therefore, the objective is not to dismember Nigeria. It does not even have the capacity to do so. The point it is making is that attention must be drawn to a situation of injustice so that those that perpetrate the unjust situation would have a rethink and do things right.
Sadly, this objective is not being achieved because injustice seems to be an aphrodisiac. It intoxicates those who possess the instrument for its perpetuation. Thus, rather than reason like rational human beings who should recognise the need to return the country to the path of equity and justice, the intoxicated oppressor would seek to perpetuate the evil he is inflicting on the people and the system. This is the situation in Nigeria today and that is why there is restiveness in the oppressed regions of this country.
The real problem here is that government is living in a fool’s paradise in all of this. It has ignored the compelling issues that MASSOB has been drawing attention to and has, instead, chosen to chase shadows. Consumed by its own mental flights, the government of Nigeria thinks that the growing incidence of ethnic nationalism in Nigeria is a passing fancy. It thinks that it is a momentary indulgence.
But it is not. The fact of the matter is that the cleavages created by the agitations have come to stay. They have become a consciousness with a life of their own. They can neither be repudiated nor wished away. The only way they can be made ineffective and ineffectual is to confront the questions that the aggrieved nationalities of Nigeria are asking. Intimidation or brutal killings is not the answer to the questions. MASSOB will not cease to exist for the simple reason that scores of its members are being tried in court for treason.
The organization will not die because several of its members have been killed by the Nigerian state. The best way to sentence MASSOB to the gallows is to institute policies and programmes that will enthrone equity and justice in the land. But the movement is winning in its battle of nerves with government because the Nigerian state does not appear prepared to do the right thing.
In fact, the Nigerian government is glossing over a number of serious issues. It has not yet put on its thinking cap even in the face of dire emergencies. For instance, the militancy in the Niger Delta region is a national emergency. To solve it, a radical approach must be adopted. Yet, government, as in the case of MASSOB, sees it as a passing phase in the life of Nigeria. It sees the phenomenon as something that would, one day, fizzle out. But a proper reading of the situation would readily suggest that the cankerworm in the Niger Delta has come to stay. It is a jinx which Nigeria must live with. Rather than abate, the situation is likely to degenerate into something much more monstrous, that is, in so far as government continues to treat the phenomenon as another instance of ethnic radicalism.
Niger Delta militancy is much more than an act of radicalism or gangsterism. It is the sudden explosion of many years of bottled feelings. The situation today has been given birth to by realization. Suddenly, a people who were not reckoned with in national affairs by the Nigerian state have realized that they can, in fact, make Nigeria to squirm in discomfort.
They have suddenly realized that they can hold Nigeria hostage while the fabled giant struggles with its over-sized stature to no end. The people of the region did not know before that they were capable of doing what they are doing now. If they knew, they would have started it long ago. If they did, Nigeria would long have been forgotten.
But now that a window of opportunity has opened itself for them to free themselves from decades of bondage, what should the Nigerian state do? This is the challenge of the moment. For eight years, the government of Olusegun Obasanjo did not quite have an answer. And now, the Umar Musa Yar’Adua government has taken over and does not, as well, appear to know what to do. The problem has continued to take roots. In fact, it is becoming more intractable by the day.
In fact, a realistic dissection of the situation will readily reveal that the problem has just begun. Nigeria has been caught in a paroxysm of disorder. The militants have found solace through their acts of criminality and there appears to be nothing that government can do to disarm them. The use of force has not worked. Pacifism has become the latest approach. Government is gradually ceding part of its powers and functions to the militants.
Now, they are being programmed to take care of oil pipelines, meaning that the illegal bunkering that they engage in has now been legalized. Those who watch over a prized possession can conveniently help themselves with it. In fact, their importance has been so recognised that some Nigerians are asking government to invite the militants over for negotiation. But then who are these militants? How does a legitimate government begin to negotiate with shadowy organizations? How does government hold talks with those that have taken the laws into their hands? Will that not amount to giving legitimacy to an aberration or glamourising evil by giving it a pet name?
But no matter what we say or seek to do, one thing is certain. The Nigerian state is losing the battle with these ethnic irredentists because it does not have the temperament for justice. It is not capable of telling itself the truth. That is why it cannot confront the challenges posed by the activities of MASSOB and Niger Delta militants. Because the country is driven by greed, it will not see any need to confront boldly the problems that have crept into its domain with a view to solving them. Nigeria may be thinking that this is just another manifestation of the evolution or maturation of a multi-ethnic State.
But realistic analysts know it is not. They know that Nigeria is at the crossroads. They know that the country has been fooling itself over its indivisibility or indissolubility. They recognize the fact that Nigeria is treading a quicksand by glossing over national emergencies that are capable of consuming it. For Nigeria therefore, judgment day is approaching. The country should therefore guard its loins so that it does not sentence itself to premature perdition.
To deal with this emergency, Nigeria needs to have a large heart. It has to cultivate the attitude of accommodation. The policy of deliberate and wilful exclusion which has been its trademark over the years has become clearly unpopular and reprehensible. Those who have been at the receiving end of it are now up in arms against it. The situation calls for national dialogue. Nigeria is not too big to call a meeting of stakeholders with a view to knowing why things are what they are. Having done that, it could then evolve an agenda for peaceful and progressive co-existence. Many years of oppression and imposition have run their full course. The country must now confront the new reality.
Obi wrote in from Lagos and can be reached through his e-mail:amaobi@yahoo.com
