LIVE, OR LET'S DIE.

By D.A.N Osa-Ogbegie

Nigeria is a Country peopled by tribes and Nations that have existed independently from themselves for centuries but were forcibly brought together as one Country by the British to further their imperial interests.

Nigeria has since this forced union been on a roller coaster ride to perdition as it presents a tower of Babel with the people tugging in different directions, having varying opinions of where to go and who to drive, thereby missing opportunities to truly be great and prosperous. Of course no tower of Babel can truly be great. Forcibly bring together France, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Spain and say, Holland and force a unitary system on them, you will have the same result.

The issues have been adumbrated in my other treatise and in many texts by others. Some people get emotional about Nigeria because it affords us a large country and I often ask what this largeness has done to make Nigeria great. Singapore is very small Country, but it is a first world country. Nigeria is very big but it is a third world country!

I have mentioned some of the inequalities and injustice hindering Nigeria and the pro-Nigeria, pro-status quo people have never had any answer, now let me mention another one: Kano and Jigawa were one State few years ago. At the time they were one State, Lagos had more population than Kano. Now that Jigawa has been carved out of Kano State, Kano has more population than Lagos. Lagos has 20 local government areas, Kano has 44, Jigawa has 27. So the old Kano has 71 local government areas. Revenue from the federal government that is made up of about 97 percent contributions from the oil producing States and Lagos is mostly shared on the basis of the number of Local governments. Dange Suni is a local government in Sokoto State that is made up of two hamlets- Dange and Suni. These two hamlets have a real population that shouldn't be up to three thousand. Akoko Edo LGA in Edo State is the only local government in Nigeria that has never been sub divided since its creation and should have a real population of not less than five hundred thousand people, yet Dange Suni LGA would receive more from the federal allocation than Akoko Edo because Dange Suni has a bigger land mass as a desert community and most poignantly, it is in Sokoto State, the seat of power in Nigeria.

According to Steven Covey, character is much more important than personality.

The current Nigeria does not have the character to be great. I recall four years ago, Steven Keshi took the super eagles team that were made up of mostly Igbos to the Nations cup and they were derisively called the Biafran team by our Yoruba, Fulani and Hausa brethren. That team won that tournament. After that, there was a deliberate policy to introduce federal character to the National team and the team has not qualified for the Nations cup that we used to take for granted, since then.

A country that institutionalises a pass mark of two, four and ten for some States like Zamfara, Sokoto and Taraba and a pass mark of One thirty nine, one thirty and one twenty seven for some States like Imo, Anambra, Lagos, Delta and Edo for same exam and for same school, is not ready for greatness and can never be great. It would forever be enmeshed in mediocrity. Honestly, we cannot continue with such a Country if we are a serious people.

Countries that are great are homogeneous. Those that are even a bit heterogeneous, practice fiscal federalism to be great. Nigeria has been run on full blown unitary system since 67 and every call to revert to fiscal federalism have been rebuffed with a wave of the hand and puerile, unintelligible arguments, showing that the hegemonists would rather die than heed calls of reason. So the only option is to work towards exiting this forced and false union, then maybe the colonial masters would heed these calls to restructure.

Some have tried to use the civil war experience to persuade people to stop the "Biafran advocacy" but my response to them all the time is this: so because of the civil war experience, we should allow this culture of inequality, injustice and mediocrity to continue? The pass marks for federal Unity schools of the various States speaks eloquently to us. While States like Imo, Anambra, Delta, Lagos, Edo have One thirty nine, one thirty, one twenty seven as pass marks, States like Sokoto, Zamfara and Taraba have two and four. What entity can make solid progress like this? Yet we wonder why Nigeria is the way it is?

The truth is that if we remain in this contraption, better put entrapment, called Nigeria, we will die without knowing what it feels to be great. If we seek to create another Country, even though we may not be too sure of the outcome, but we will never know until we do it.

The options before us is to one, remain in Nigeria, two demand a return to fiscal federalism ( which we have been doing ever before I was born) or demand to form another Country. The choice is ours. It's a choice between life and death. What would you prefer?

Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie
Benin City, Nigeria.
11th June, 2017.