It is not safe to give up on Naija. As anyone who has ever lived anywhere else or applied for any other citizenship well knows, most nations, especially developed ones are busy erecting boulders to stop their own countries from being swarmed by us. We are conservatively estimated at 200 million people and daily increasing with genital recklessness. Our home government is haplessly hopeless, but they get by hoodwinking the silent majority to vote for them. Those votes, sometimes less than 50% of the number of voting adults, grant them access to our commonwealth and us in the stranglehold of our ruiners.
Arms of government that ought to checkmate dictatorship are mostly in cahoots with the Executhief, the legislathief and the judisharing to rob us blind and keep us bound. The ruining class are not altruistic. When Muhammadu Buhari declared June 12 Democracy Day, he not only lied to us, he hoodwinked us. It’s a divide and rule gimmick. Everyone with a pseudo-democratic credential to their title knows that a cabal robbed Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of what remains so far the most popular mandate in the annals of our pseudo-democratic experiment.
Was Muhammadu Buhari altruistic with his declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day? Absolutely not! It is a political statement, an attempt to rewrite two histories. Obasanjo chose May 29 out of a whim. There was nothing remarkable, historical or spectacular about May 29. Obasanjo, a selfish Egba man does not like to share his benign history with any man. That is why most of his allegorical interventions are subtitled in personal pronouns – remember My Command and My Watch? Obasanjo could not share his benign honour with MKO Abiola nor would he dignify a fellow Egba man a posthumous honour. He played into the hands of those who saw the most populous electoral victory in our nation as an ethnic one.
At the time that injustice was perpetuated, Muhammadu Buhari was a see nothing, do nothing elder statesman. He didn’t care a hoot but his conspiratorial silence would later pay off. He needed Obasanjo’s shadow for a return to power and Obasanjo grudgingly obliged him believing that he would mess up and he (Obj) would return to prominence on the crest of disillusion. The Wizard of Ota expected Buhari to be Buhari’s chief puppeteer. For a while, Buhari egged him on for political expediency. Once Buhari consolidated hold on power with Tinubu’s help it became apparent that Obasanjo had more bark than bite and that Tinubu was the real patron of southwest electoral power.
Now that Buhari has no use for either Obasanjo or, for that matter Tinubu, Buhari would tease both to no end. This is the reason for designating June 12 as Democracy Day. It was a flick decision to rewrite history with subterfuge. No Yoruba person worth his tribal cleavage would oppose that declaration.
Unfortunately, the designation of June 12 as Democracy Day has exhumed half buried political beef. If the idea was to grant the Yoruba nation that token significance in recognition of the supreme sacrifice their son paid for the enthronement of democracy, we have just plunged into another political bog.
Over four decades ago, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was forced to declare independence from Lugard’s contraption. Ojukwu might have had ambitions of his own, but he earned the support of his kinsmen arising from the wanton killing of his people in the northern part of the country. That pogrom has been repeated over and again without recognition or recompense and years after the war declared finished with a no victor no vanquished mantra. Reconciliation, if it started has not been successfully completed.
We have neither taught nor learnt history even when it was a subject on the school curriculum. Post war children have learnt nothing except the shameful jaundiced stories of alleged Igbo treachery. It is a half-baked story that has left us with suspicion for the Igbo nation and justified their denial in consideration for political equity. Buhari iniquitously bought into this narrative with his infamous rationalization of lopsided appointments in his first term.
If national reconciliation and cohesion is what Buhari and his government wants us to remember them for, they are on the threshold of history dialogue with the Igbo nation. Give the war national recognition and mark it historically. Just as June 12 tells us to say – never again, a Biafra Day would teach us to say – time to heal.
It is only fair that the Igbo get their own just recognition, after all Buhari has been forgiven for his crime of torpedoing democracy. Designating Biafra Day doesn’t mean rearming or resuscitating division – it would help us to heal. If Buhari wants a pride of place in history, he should make his next cabinet a truly national one. If Nigeria wants to enthrone equity, it should zone the next political presidency to the east. From Germany to Canada, London to Canberra old crimes against nations are being acknowledged and apologies given. It’s a small step for a nation, but a giant leap for human reintegration.
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