To me, this cacophony of June 12 democracy day is just some political hullaballoo. The declaration of June by President Buhari was just an act to politically impress the West (Yoruba). Otherwise, other heroes of June 12 would have as well been recognized in the declaration, especially Prof. Humphrey Nwosu.
If the government of the day really wants to recognize the real significance of June 12 1993, then it has to declare Abiola (posthumously) an ex president of Nigeria, and as well celebrate the unbiased service of Prof. Humphrey Nwosu who stood to do the right thing even in the face of dire consequences.
Again, if the Buhari administration really wants to give any meaning to democracy in Nigeria, then the administration should convoke a sovereign national conference where the different ethnic nationalities of this geographical expression called Nigeria would come together to negotiate co-existence terms and initiate a genuine social contract. A genuine social contract is the very foundation of democracy. I don’t know why it seems the ‘owners’ of Nigeria are afraid of sovereign national conference. I, for one, am not part of any clamour for secession from the Nigerian State. I believe that a united, well-structured and well-governed Nigeria is a better option. What a sovereign national conference will do is to birth a new, well-structured and well-governed Nigeria. The current Nigerian State is a fraud. There is nothing of consent in the constitution or composition of the Nigerian State. If I understand the meaning of democracy, democracy denotes the idea of government by the consent of the governed. Then, what democracy are we talking about in Nigeria. If the Buhari Administration is truly interested in promoting democracy in Nigeria, then it should go beyond noise making, and do its best to entrench real democracy in Nigeria. The administration should convoke a sovereign national conference let’s have a change of status quo so that the existence of Nigeria will genuinely be based on the consent of Nigerians, and government will genuinely be based on the consent of the governed.
That’s by the way.
Let me note with sadness that the South East has just been sidelined in the political scheme of things of the present day government. Although we have always been sidelined all along, but this one has really hit us hard (the President, the Vice President, the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, the speaker of the house of reps, the deputy speaker of the house of reps, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, all the service chiefs – none is of Igbo extraction). While I am tempted to think that there is a symbiotic relationship conspiracy between the North and the West (Yoruba) over the distribution of value and resources in the Nigerian State, I want to say that we (the Igbos) are the cause of our problem. We allow ourselves to be manipulated to sing in discordant tunes in the political arena of Nigeria. The average Igbo man tends to be ready to sell himself too cheap to other ethnic groups especially the Hausa-Fulani. It is true that the colonial masters bequeathed another form of colonialism to the northerners when they were leaving Nigeria, which has made the rest of us to look like conquered people, I still maintain that we (the Igbos) are the cause of our problem.
Now, let us go into our shell in introspection, with a view to bouncing back stronger. In Igbo land, we need very strong leadership and platform that will galvanize us cohesively and strongly so that we can take our rightful place in the Nigerian state, the Nigerian State belongs to all of us. Now that we’ve been this sidelined by the current dispensation, the way forward is: LET US GO INTO OUR SHELL AND RE-EXAMINE OURSELVES, WITH A VIEW TO BOUNCING BACK STRONGER.
Thanks for reading this write-up
Kingsley Onwuka