Beasts of no nation

The people of Abakaliki, the Ezzas, the people of Ohaozara, in what was known as Ebonyi State in the now dead Nigeria, are complaining bitterly of marginalisation from their fellow Igbo brothers with whom they had hoped to forge a great alliance, in the now rejuvenated Biafra Republic.  But many problems beset the Union. The leaders from Owerri seem not to believe that Ebonyi people were proper Igbo people.  Their ancestors used to be the ones who served other people of Igbo extraction.  That was before the country of incompatibles – Nigeria – decided to carve out a separate state called Ebonyi.  Yet the people of this region of Biafra Republic now have to grapple with other problems.  Clashes and killings are now a daily occurrence, between the Ezzas and Ezillos, between the Edas and neighbouring Ohafia, and many more.  These clashes have engulfed almost the whole of what was then called Nigeria, as communities stake claim to land in a bid to expand their territories.  How come no one bothered to map out any harmonious ways of sharing territories and redrawing the maps?

The Niger Deltans had great ambitions for themselves.  They had most of the crude oil deposits, but insurgency has resurfaced.  No one knows who is sponsoring the arms and ammunitions, but certainly, there is another massive build-up.  The issue of order and borders is especially problematic here, because there are no landmarks on water that could be used to demarcate one territory from another.  The Ijaws are facing stiff opposition from the Ogonis, who believe that the real struggle for emancipation was at their huge expense.   Every community down in the creeks is thinking ‘why can we not be a country of our own standing?’ The Itsekiris are in renewed rivalry with the Ijaws.  The Urhobos are also staking a claim, the Isokos will not be left out in the struggle for self-assertion.  Attention is now solidly focused on each other’s shortcomings, since Abuja disappeared, and with it, a good excuse for everybody’s local looting.

The Ooduas thought they had it all figured out. But now, the Ijebus see the new dispensation as a great opportunity to finally unshackle themselves from the Egbas of Abeokuta.  The Awujale reminded all present at a recent pan-Oodua conference, that the term ‘Yoruba’ was a colonial creation as everyone had their own sovereignty before the white man came.  The Oyos are also making it very clear, that they are not under the sovereignty of Ile-Ife; that Oyo was even a greater Kingdom and stood alone back in the day.  This was time for redress.

The Binis, Igbankes, Oras and other such medium sized tribes are in a quandary.  Often landlocked, some of the larger tribes of defunct Nigeria are trying to lay claim by force.  The Oba of Benin, has made it clear that the region can stand alone.  Everyone knows that the Benin Empire was one of the few formidable empires that the British met when they came here.  The heritage of the Benin Kingdom is so rich and well-documented, just like the Oyos, the Ifes, the Fulanis and the Hausas among others.  The Yorubas have been rebuffed by the great King, of spreading a ‘preposterous’ story; that the Benins were ‘junior brothers’ to the Yorubas.  He suggested that perhaps the Benin tribe the Yorubas refer to in the folklore, are the ones found in present-day Benin Republic, for those ones actually speak Yoruba.

The entire region of defunct Nigeria is in an intractable war. What many thought was going to be a rancour-free split into 3 different regions, have thrown up more trouble than expected.  As at last count, 6 countries had emerged from the defunct Nigeria, but as many as 50 regions are fighting to split up and become independent from among the major countries formed already.

The leaders and intellectuals of the former entity called Nigeria let their people down.  They showed a total lack of imagination.  They acted just as their colonial masters had said they would.  Lord Lugard, the man who created the country, had marvelled at their inability to imagine the future!  The leaders and intellectuals of defunct Nigeria, had not thought about all the problems that their people now face today.  Otherwise they would not have proceeded with a national balkanisation, based on ethnicity and religion.  The ethnic aspect of the issue is the reason why even among people of the same religion, serious strife exists, and hardly has the region seen any two major communities who have agreed to live in harmony.  The balkanisation of Nigeria has been interpreted by most of the communities as an opportunity to redraw borders (for economic reasons), and of course, an opportunity to settle scores.

But the religious divide is even more dangerous.  Christian communities – whole towns and villages with a preponderance of people who attend churches – in the Northern part of defunct Nigeria, are in a quandary as to what to do.  The relationships between these communities and their Muslim neighbours, broke down totally in the run-up to the balkanisation.  Some Christians in the south have asked them to come down south, to Christian country, but these communities have sworn never to leave the land of their fathers.  They know for a fact that their fates will be worse as ‘asylum seekers’, even in a ‘Christian country’.  Tension is high with their neighbours, and the occasional pogrom continues – with enough killings on both sides.  Everybody is armed to the teeth.  The entire north of the defunct Nigeria is in shambles.

In particular quandary are the Christian communities/towns/cities in what was known as Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Gombe, Nasarawa, Plateau, Sokoto, Kaduna, and other States.  The mismanagement of Nigeria’s balkanisation, and the politics of hate and division played by the politicians who saw to the breakup of Nigeria, makes it impossible for them to reconcile with their Muslim neighbours.  In many communities, people are unable to even venture out to the next village on market day for fear of being caught up in the unending civil war

The Americans have been on ground since it became clear that the people of defunct Nigeria could not save themselves.  But now, many people are complaining that the Americans are out to serve themselves and protect their people.  The US Marine is on a mission in Arewa Republic, fishing out terrorists of the Al Qaeda sect, but intelligence networks say the southern regions may also have been infiltrated by Al Qaeda.  Meanwhile, a couple of American and British warships are permanently stationed in the Gulf of Guinea, protecting the VLCCs – Very Large Crude-oil Carriers, while the Deltans engage in a civil war amongst themselves farther afield.  The USA has pledged to withdraw its troops in five years, and pave way for the UN peace keeping missions.  And the most popular song on Radio Freedom… is Fela’s Beasts of No Nation…