Currently, there is a growing of voices promoting the partitioning of Nigeria. It is no doubt that our polity is heated up as a result of many challenges that confront us and this has heightened the calls for separatism recently. But even given all the perceived wrongs inherent in Nigeria’s imperfect federalism, the vicious eruption echoed in advocacy for disintegration by ethnic warlords and their cheerleaders can never be the solution to our contemporary political contraptions.
To be fair to the cheerleaders of separatism, their agitation for Nigeria’s liquidation might be theoretically valid when examined from the perspective of perceived hegemonic domination and marginalisation of other ethnic groups but even at that, the balkanization of the country is not the best option and not one to be approximated to political reality. Being united in our diversity is what makes us special and great.
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There is abundance of valid and time-tested reasons that are more logical to substantiate that we would be better as one undivided entity than our partitioning.
I think confronting the myriad of our challenges and redesigning the foundation of our federalism, in a way that addresses the perceived injustice, marginalisation and political hegemony in a restructured way will guarantee fairness and political inclusiveness of all the tribal entities that make up Nigeria.
The bitter truth is, Nigeria’s federal system is garbed in unitary system of government and the manifestation of this is crystal clear in the modus operandi at the centre. There is an urgent need to decentralise, so as to promote creative governance at regional level and allow the component units to be truly autonomous.
If we can restructure the political system in Nigeria, I have no doubt that this will go a long way to solve the issues of injustice, unhealthy rivalry, marginalisation, unequal distribution of resources and quench the voices of disintegration.
The constitutional contraption calls for restructuring but not partition of Nigeria along tribal lines. Let’s build, consolidate, address the foundational political structure but not disintegrate!
Femi Ojo sent this from Lagos, Nigeria
