Restructuring – first, jettison those analogue ideas (I)

2023 is approaching. Frustration is setting in in many places. The president’s nephew and only remaining of his three initial confidants, Mamman Daura, among many others especially from the north of Nigeria, are saying there is nothing like rotational presidency, that the best man should be voted for the job (that is assuming votes count in this country). This is in response to those who talk about north-south rotation. Even among these there are two groups; the ones who push for an Igbo presidency, and those who push for Yoruba presidency. Totally shoved to oblivion are the minorities of Nigeria, whom some reckon should have no say, even in the symbolism of producing the nation’s president. Should it even matter where a president is from? If people’s lives were well-improved who will care about who comes from where? Yet, there is a collateral damage from the thought that a people are debarred forever from producing the occupant of the highest office in a country.

Another issue that is gaining increasingly higher decibel in the political space is the almighty restructuring. We are seeing more and more people asserting the need for Nigeria to break up. In the hearts of millions of Nigerians, that is restructuring, pure and simple, stripped of its garments.  I am not concerned about liberal elements who have also towed the line of restructuring. Many such liberals don’t really know what they seek but some (like me) believe that if we could restructure the economy to reduce inequality and corruption; if we could reduce the number of loafers and freeloaders in government or at least reduce the amount of money available for whims to the state governors etc, then we may have achieved something akin to economic restructuring and we would be on our way to somewhere. I say that we only stopped restructuring effectively from 1999. Before then we often tweaked the sharing formula, looked into the exclusive and recurrent list, created states (even on the basis of the pressure from the girlfriends of military rulers). All movement stopped since 1999. The politicians have had free reign and have constituted a suffocating weight on the very existence of the country.  Even they must now be wary lest they get consumed in the sickening contraption they have created.

Below is my comment on the Youtube recording of a meeting of some of Nigeria’s best political brains, at which restructuring took centre stage. It is important to post this here because it encompasses my thoughts on the subject:

“I think most people on here are still thinking in () binary fashion (black or white). But our world, and our problems, are now presented in kaleidoscopic colours and contours. We are still thinking in terms of oil and stuff, still bellyaching about colonialism, bemoaning our union and doing nothing about it. I call on us to a higher level of intelligence and thought process.  If only we were fair-minded, we will know that running a country is no walk in the park and no country in the world is having it as easy as we want/wish/hope to have it. We have to stop living in a fantasy world. I doubt if we are ready for the terrible sacrifices that some of the countries we admire today had had to put up with in the past. The problem is with us. We cannot hold our breaths and achieve something tangible. like our ancestors it is still difficult for us to put our minds to complex tasks (such as manufacturing, such as hardware tech) and achieve something of them.  So we wait for easy things – like oil, entertainment and even software development (which shows we can think, but we must address the hard issues). I must dispute some of the fantastic stories too. No, Nigeria as an entity was NOT in the process of nation-formation before the British came. In fact the Yorubas were at war for 16 years in the 1870s through to the 1890s. Sokoto was still a slave trade centre and many parts of Nigeria warred intermittently, for territory, for slave, for mutual suspicion and whatnot.  We were many nations and there existed much distrust (just as it still does), even though there was much interaction in terms of trade and culture. Before we call this colonial mentality, we should note that even in Europe same thigs happened.  My Akure people were conquered by the Binis, which had influence in the region up to Lagos. To be honest, the concept of nationhood in these parts was not as sophisticated as what obtained in Europe. More importantly, no one was going to wait for us to get our acts right. Also I agree with the man who stated that EVERY NATION IS A PRODUCT OF MILITARY CONQUEST WHETHER INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY. That is a fact. We should study the story of even Britain. We will learn a lot.  It is still the unfairness, the selfishness, the short attention span, the quest for quick results and gratification, the little contests and unnecessary competition amongst us that makes us want to show off our achievements in comparison to others, the inability to form and sustain big ideas, the mutual revenge we are machinating against each other for past mutual infractions, the interference of extremist proselytising religions, amongst others…. is why we are here rooted on a spot today; making little progress, worshipping the god of small achievements”

I have done some editing and paraphrasing but the above captures my thinking on restructuring. I wish those who are talking of splitting Nigeria the best of luck. It’s going to be an incredibly impossible task. A friend suggested we split Nigeria north and south of the River Nigeria. I whipped out the map of Nigeria from Google. We found out on the spot, that south of River Niger and Benue, we had parts of Kebbi and Niger State, all of Kwara – including Baruten and other Nupe speaking areas, 95% of Kogi, Benue and Taraba, and 50% of Adamawa. Already that project has failed, as the separation we seek on the basis of tribe or religion has been defeated by the Rivers Niger and Benue. This is why I say, that we must be scientific in our quest. We must be logical. I personally do not complain for long about anything. I act on my complaints. That is why I ran for president in 2019. If we want to truly split Nigeria, we must first embark on a huge sociological study and map the languages and cultures of Nigeria. If I was a consultant to the advocates of a split, this is what I will do. The topography called Nigeria is so diverse, so kaleidoscopic in outlook, so complex, so random at times, but the minds of those who call for a split is set, in black and white; binary at best. So binary, that such minds are not absorbing new information. Such minds think of a monolithic Yorubaland, Hausaland or Igboland. In reality and in truth, languages actually flow from one settlement to another. And every society picks its cultures – including mores, norms, languages, religions, farming implements and customs etc, from north, east, west or south of its territory. I am yet to see any society anywhere in the world that looks like it dropped to one spot from wherever.