[size=14pt]Revisiting Orkar’s map of Nigeria[/size]
On May 2, 2011 · · In People & Politics
By Ochereome Nnanna

ON Sunday, April 22, 1990, martial music floated into the Nigerian airwaves. A group of middle-level military officers had commenced a military rebellion against the regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

Prominent among them were Major Saliba Mukoro, Major Tony Nyiam and a civilian financier, Chief Great Ogboru. Yes, the same Ogboru, who on three consecutive occasions, flew the flag of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) in attempts to upstage Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but lost narrowly.

The most notable figure among the lot was Major Gideon Gwaza Orkar, who led the operations at the Dodan Barracks in Ikoyi, the then seat of power, and made a broadcast that, some said, helped the rebellion to fail. He announced the excision of the people of Nigeria’s Muslim North from the country until they purged themselves of what he termed “their dominative tendencies”.

The coup failed for a number of reasons. Number one was that the people he referred to were still very much in power. This they proved by overcoming the rebellion and successfully annulling a presidential election three years later.

Secondly, it would have precipitated another civil war. Thirdly, among the section of the country he wanted excised were decent Nigerians who were committed to a true nationhood and did not share the narrow-minded ethnic conquest mentality of some of their people. Rather than trying to solve the problem of domination through bloody means, the political mechanisms of democracy were seen as a better way of addressing it. This informed the unbending resolve of activists for the end of military rule.

The North tried to assuage the feelings of Nigerians, especially the South West by ceding the presidency to them in 1999, when it became clear that the country could be lost altogether if they insisted on producing the president. The zoning formula was adopted by the ruling PDP as a means of addressing regional domination. After the South West had it for eight years it was returned to the North.

However, the beneficiary, Alhaji Umaru Yar’ Adua, died two and half years into office. It became imperative that the constitution of the country be followed in transferring power to then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who later cashed in on his constitutional right to contest for president.

His ambition was tackled every inch of the way by some hawkish elements of the Northern political class, who insisted that the President should step down for one of them to “complete” the turn left halfway by Yar’Adua.

However, the generality of Nigerian people, including a large portion of Northern Nigerians, believed that this was the right time for undue regional extremism to give way to a truly Nigerian president. Igbo political leaders made the boldest sacrifice in this direction.

They opted out of the presidential and vice presidential race and later on gave President Jonathan the level of electoral support unprecedented in the history of their voting behaviour.

Also, the entire people of the South-South sank their ethnic differences and threw their total weight behind Jonathan. To a much lesser extent, the South West followed suit, though they provided two presidential running mates for the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. The North Central (with the exception of pro-Caliphate Niger State) also threw in their weight.

The whole North West voted for Muhammadu Buhari but the vote was split in the North East where Adamawa and Taraba States joined the nationalist train. In Kaduna State, the Christian South voted for the Jonathan/Sambo ticket, while the North opted for Buhari.

Many newspapers drew maps depicting these voting patterns in the presidential race, and what they came up with was the Gideon Orkar map of Nigeria!

This, in itself would not have troubled many people if not for the fact that having failed to assert what some of them have claimed is their “majority” clout and their “right” to the presidency, murderous gangs, which had apparently been put on the standby, were unleashed on those who were believed to have voted against Buhari in the Muslim North, especially Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and other areas.

Churches and businesses belonging to Christians and Southerners were torched. In particular, Youth Corps members posted to serve their nation in the North were targeted and many were murdered. There were reprisals in Southern Kaduna against Muslims and their interests.

In the South, Northern Muslims fled to military facilities to avoid being attacked in reprisal. The nation was placed on the brink once again after a presidential election praised by both local and international observers for its free, fair and credible outcome.

Ethnic vanguards, such as the Odua People’s Congress, the ex-militants of the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and groups from the Middle Belt issued “enough-is-enough” warnings in the newspapers through advertorials.

Northern leaders need to come to terms with the fact that the country has changed. The evil contraption the British colonialists left behind has expired.

Political realignments have taken place. Regional domination is a thing of the past. In today’s Nigeria you have to work hard across the divides for your votes. Gone are the days when the North decided and the rest of the country followed. This was the mentality that helped to see to the defeat of Atiku and Buhari by Jonathan.

The resort to violence and killing of non-Muslim Nigerians and destruction of the property of Northerners who align with the nationalist aspirations of the rest of the country will only gradually isolate the North and solidify “Orkar’s Map” in the minds of Nigerians.

If this happens, the cry of “marginalisation” will shift base. We don’t want that. We want to eliminate marginalisation from the body politic and march as one body to achieve the Nigeria of our collective dreams.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/05/revisiting-orkar%E2%80%99s-map-of-nigeria/

It was a coup carried out by middle ranking officers from the SS and Middle Belt, launched from Great Ogboru's company, fiogret in Ikorodu; but they gained little after its failure.

IBB upped and left Dodan Barracks Lagos for Abuja, even though it was little more than a huge wasteland, it was closer "home."
The army was purged of middle ranking officers a SS and Middle Belters, those that were left were slaughtered in the Ejigbo air crash that saw the deaths of 250 youthfull souls.
The core-North played an ugly ethnically bigoted trick, they propped up MKO Abiola from the SW, leading to euphoria that deflected some of the stresses in the SS and Middle Belt, only to kill him and replace IBB with Abacha.

Its the long road to where we are today.

Hmmm . .lol. Oh, how the mighty has fallen. I just hope the new Nigeria will not use ethnic greed and selfishness to throw away the South chances. I seriously pray so!!!

I can now see that once the SS SE, SW and NC make up their mind in Nigeria, it becomes law. They have been demystified. I just seriously hope that GEJ stops at 2015 so technocrats can take over. Chime and Fashola. Amen!!!

rubbish

beaf where are u now because u are a lair

^
Yes, because the past never happened. You grass eating mongoose.

alj harem:

rubbish

beaf where are u now because u are a lair

What if , just what if . . .

. . . we split?

now i see what gadogado is saying

you southerners are more than greedy for power

you want to take everything both political, economical nd military

well for it would not happen

Beaf:

It was a coup carried out by middle ranking officers from the SS and Middle Belt, launched from Great Ogboru's company, fiogret in Ikorodu; but they gained little after its failure.

^
This is only just part of the story. If you will recall: General Babangida at that time was trying to establish the National Guard. This was to be modeled along the lines of the Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard; an army that would be personally loyal to him and further consolidate his scheme to turn himself into a president for life. The people named in your article were the fronts through which he imported weapons for his National Guard. Ogboru's Fiogret company warehouses were used to store the weapons. Ironically; those same weapons and the men being recruited to form the nucleus of the National Guard were subsequently used against him on April 22, 1990. We can only speculate as to the reasons why Col. Nyiam and co turned against IBB; for none of the surviving coup plotters has owned up to the real reasons why they fell out with the man they were working for.

While Orkar's coup did not succeed; it severely weakened IBB's hold on power and paved the way for the rise of Abacha, who subsequently became the de-facto number 2 man in government. During the initial hours of the Orkar coup, when the outcome was in doubt and IBB's whereabouts unknown; Abacha toyed with the idea of seizing power himself, but he decided to stand down and instead rallied troops from Ikeja cantonment to crush the coup. Undoubtedly, the Orkar coup was the bloodiest in Nigerian history. For hours, an intense firefight raged around Dodan Barracks and Obalende in Lagos between Orkar's troops and Abacha's soldiers.

GIDEON OKAR AND 2011 ELECTIONS

By Remi Oyeyemi

“Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable instances of callous and insensitive dominatory repressive intrigues by those who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the Middle Belt and the south. They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south.”

-Major Gideon Orkar

In the wake of the riots that are greeting the declaration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as the elected President of the geographical expression called Nigeria, it has become necessary for us to once again reassess our “nationhood” and the illusion it represents as we all continue to make fruitless efforts to patch things up, act like ostrich and pretend that we are making what Kennedy Emetulu called “Mirage of Progress” in his article of April 17, 2011.

It is very easy to come out here and begin to condemn the acts of our Hausa/Fulani brothers for protesting what they deem as “unfairness,” “cheating,” “rigging,” “electoral fraud” and what have you. It is also very easy to begin to condemn them for the way and manner that they have protested as they have been burning down houses of their perceived “internal enemies” among them which did not leave out some of their traditional rulers. It is also easy for many of us, with our prejudices and biases, to begin to judge and condemn them for wearing their emotions on their hands.

The unacceptability of what is happening in the enclave of our Hausa/Fulani brothers is not in doubt. But one recognizes their rights to complain and protest despite the fact that their leaders are, in many ways than one, and with the help of their installed satellites in every ethnic Nation that comprises Nigerian tragedy, the creators of the present perilous condition for the Nigerian State. We can condemn their mode of reaction, but we can not be upset about them expressing their rights to complain about their situation, no matter what that situation is and or how it came about.

This writer would not gloat that our Hausa/Fulani brothers are now at the receiving end of what they have done to the rest of the country since 1960 when they have rigged everything in their own favor to the disadvantage of the Southerners and the Minorities in the Middlebelt of Nigeria. It would not serve any purpose to gloat, deride and blindly condemn their actions, no matter how unacceptable such actions are.

To adopt the modality of condemnation without the concomitant understanding of their right to be what they seek to be would be an unfair approach in assessing the present conflagration. It would equal intellectual dishonesty. This is because it is like complaining about the unsavory taste of the fruits of a despicable tree rather than seek ways to uproot the tree that has continued to produce these unwanted fruits. It is important that we all tell ourselves some home truth about ourselves and stop, at least for once, to think about our situation.

On April 22, 1990, when Major Gideon Orkar (may God bless his perfect soul) attempted to cleanse Nigeria and put it on the right path, it was the agents of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy through its Caliphate section of the “Nigerian Army” that aborted that effort. Several events before this coup, dating back to 1960 and events since then have shown that Nigeria has never been one, it could never be one and it would never be one. That our Hausa/Fulani brothers are fighting these days in reaction to the election of GEJ, engaging in acts of arson, killing and maiming is evidence that Nigerians do not see things the same way. No matter how this dice is rolled, it boils to the same conclusion.

An examination of the chants by our Hausa/Fulani brothers would attest to the fact that some of the undercurrent reasons for their anger could be traced to religio-cultural differences, among many others. This issue of culture is very pertinent because as argued severally before, it is the basis for the formation of philosophical understanding of the world around us. This is what determines our understanding of politics, economy, religion and social context. The fact that the ethnic Nations in Nigeria are very different in this way(s) is the first fundamental impediment, among many others, to building a nation out of the geographical expression called Nigeria.

The culture of our Hausa/Fulani brothers is an example of what domination is all about. Dominating their environment by all means is part of their characteristics. This is why they do not question their own rulers and do not hold them accountable. This is why poverty has been the lot of the masses of the north and they do not seem to be bothered by it. They think that the ruler could not be questioned and that whatever he does is all well and good. It is this characteristic that they have brought to bear on their relationship with the rest of us in Nigeria. [/b]Listen to Major Orkar:

“Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable instances of callous and insensitive[b] dominatory repressive intrigues by those who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the Middle Belt and the south.

They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south.”

Major Orkar then added the following:



“Another major reason for the change is the need to stop intrigues, domination and internal colonisation of the Nigerian state by the so-called chosen few. This, in our view, has been and is still responsible for 90 percent of the problems of Nigerians. This indeed has been the major clog in our wheel of progress.

This clique has an unabated penchant[b] for domination and unrivalled fostering of mediocrity and outright detest for accountability[/b], all put together have been our undoing as a nation.”

In as much as many of us in other parts of Nigeria understandably detest this our Hausa/Fulani brothers’ perspective to life, it is this writers view that[b] we have no right to determine for our Hausa/Fulani brothers the way and manner to organize and manage their lives[/b]. While the rest of us have inalienable rights to resist them and not allow them to impose their own world view or culture on the rest of us, we have no right to deny them what they want, regardless of how despicable it sounds or looks to the rest of us. I believe this is the reason that Major Orkar made the following pronouncements in his broadcast:

“In the light of all the above and in recognition of the negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian state a temporary decision to excise the following states namely, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of Nigeria comes into effect immediately ………………”

It was my brilliant younger brother, Barrister Ayo Turton, who called the attention of this writer to the fact that these states that were excised from Nigeria by Major Orkar and those that were created out of them subsequently, are actually where General Mohamadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) had his victories in the election. These areas are also where acts of arson, maiming and killing are now going on. These are also the Sharia States of Nigeria.

To rectify identified problems, Major Gideon Orkar suggested the following:

“In the light of all the above and in recognition of the negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian state[b] a temporary decision to excise the following states namely, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of Nigeria[/b] comes into effect immediately until the following conditions are met.

The conditions to be met to necessitate the re-absorption of the aforementioned states are as following:

(i) To install the rightful heir to the Sultanate, Alhaji Maccido, who is the people’s choice.

(ii) To send a delegation led by the real and recognised Sultan Alhaji Maccido to the federal government to vouch that the feudalistic and aristocratic quest for domination and operation will be a thing of the past and will never be practised in any part of the Nigeria state.

By the same token, all citizens of the five states already mentioned are temporarily suspended from all public and private offices in Middle Belt and southern parts of this country until the mentioned conditions above are met.

They are also required to move back to their various states within one week from today. They will, however, be allowed to return and joint the Federal Republic of Nigeria when the stipulated conditions are met.

In the same vein, all citizens of the Middle Belt and the south are required to come back to their various states pending when the so-called all-in-all Nigerians meet the conditions that will ensure a united Nigeria. A word is enough for the wise.”

The Gideon Orkar wisdom eloquently expressed in the above quotes is very pertinent and very instructive. The message in the above quote is very clear – that we all need to start afresh, at least with every man being in charge of his territory and his destiny.

Evidently, we all do not agree on what kind of country we want Nigeria to be. Nigeria means a lot of different things to different Nigerians and their ethnic nationalities. All of the ethnic nationalities seem to want different things out of Nigeria. They all have different understanding of the world and are all entitled to it. For this and other reasons that have been discussed elsewhere, a viable country would not emerge from Nigeria despite the fact that some of us delusively hunger for this illusion.

This is why one is calling on all and sundry to listen to our hearts and use our heads. We should accept the incontrovertible, unassailable inalienable right of all to SELF DETERMINATION. As Bob Marley sang while quoting Marcus Garvey:

“Everyman’s got the right to decide his own destiny. And in this judgment there is no partiality.”

In essence, there should not be any need for continued bloodletting. There is no need to continue to incubate incessant social atrophy, political anarchy, religious mayhem and economic chaos. There is no need to continue to waste, by our acts of inaction, cowardice and selfishness, innocent lives of our young men, women and children. There is no need to allow ourselves to be pushed to the point where we begin to shoot at ourselves just to liberate our respective nationalities from the Nigerian quagmire.

There is no doubt that there are some who believe in the entity called NIGERIA. This group of latter day nationalists see themselves as “patriotic” and is always quick to call those who call for the BREAK UP of Nigeria as “ethnic bigots” or “tribalists.” It is one’s belief that the calling of names is functionally related to weak and untenable arguments in making the case for the desirability of Nigeria. Given the abundance of evidence of the last fifty years, given the realities of today in our lives and given the hopelessness of Nigeria’s future, insisting on ONE NIGERIA at all costs is an act of wickedness, enslavement and unadulterated sadism.

It is time the latter day nationalists and the protagonists of NIGERIAN UNITY at all costs cease acting as slave drivers. It is time they cease constituting themselves as stumbling blocks to the self determination of the peoples of Nigeria. It is time they cease being anti-democratic and allow the peoples of Nigeria to have a say in determining their destinies. We can not continue to be afraid of the people. We can not continue to shove down their throats a country which it seems, they do not really want. But to be clear about this, let us organize internally conducted plebiscite (by which it is meant within the confines of each ethnic nationality) on the Nigerian question. It has to be whether we all want Nigeria or not. If yes, how? If not, thou shall let my people go. And who knows, Nigerians may as well opt to have Nigeria. But at this point it would be the decision of the people whom I guess would also address the recurrent issue of its structural problem that is considered as enslaving by some ethnic nationalities.

We should all see beyond the riots going on in the enclave of our Hausa/Fulani brothers. They have the right to want to leave Nigeria and form a SHARIA country, if the greed about OIL MONEY would not make them vacillate. Those of us from other ethnic nationalities who desire different futures are also entitled to our rights to be in charge of our destinies. It is time to address all this because we can only suffocate the desire of the peoples for so long. If we, the various peoples of the ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria do not want it, Nigeria will not survive regardless of how much we want it or patch it up. It is better that we do the right thing on time and endeavor to have it done peacefully – RESTRUCTURE or BREAK UP NIGERIA.

Pharoh:

GIDEON OKAR AND 2011 ELECTIONS

By Remi Oyeyemi

“Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable instances of callous and insensitive dominatory repressive intrigues by those who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the Middle Belt and the south. They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south.”

-Major Gideon Orkar

In the wake of the riots that are greeting the declaration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as the elected President of the geographical expression called Nigeria, it has become necessary for us to once again reassess our “nationhood” and the illusion it represents as we all continue to make fruitless efforts to patch things up, act like ostrich and pretend that we are making what Kennedy Emetulu called “Mirage of Progress” in his article of April 17, 2011.

It is very easy to come out here and begin to condemn the acts of our Hausa/Fulani brothers for protesting what they deem as “unfairness,” “cheating,” “rigging,” “electoral fraud” and what have you. It is also very easy to begin to condemn them for the way and manner that they have protested as they have been burning down houses of their perceived “internal enemies” among them which did not leave out some of their traditional rulers. It is also easy for many of us, with our prejudices and biases, to begin to judge and condemn them for wearing their emotions on their hands.

The unacceptability of what is happening in the enclave of our Hausa/Fulani brothers is not in doubt. But one recognizes their rights to complain and protest despite the fact that their leaders are, in many ways than one, and with the help of their installed satellites in every ethnic Nation that comprises Nigerian tragedy, the creators of the present perilous condition for the Nigerian State. We can condemn their mode of reaction, but we can not be upset about them expressing their rights to complain about their situation, no matter what that situation is and or how it came about.

This writer would not gloat that our Hausa/Fulani brothers are now at the receiving end of what they have done to the rest of the country since 1960 when they have rigged everything in their own favor to the disadvantage of the Southerners and the Minorities in the Middlebelt of Nigeria. It would not serve any purpose to gloat, deride and blindly condemn their actions, no matter how unacceptable such actions are.

To adopt the modality of condemnation without the concomitant understanding of their right to be what they seek to be would be an unfair approach in assessing the present conflagration. It would equal intellectual dishonesty. This is because it is like complaining about the unsavory taste of the fruits of a despicable tree rather than seek ways to uproot the tree that has continued to produce these unwanted fruits. It is important that we all tell ourselves some home truth about ourselves and stop, at least for once, to think about our situation.

On April 22, 1990, when Major Gideon Orkar (may God bless his perfect soul) attempted to cleanse Nigeria and put it on the right path, it was the agents of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy through its Caliphate section of the “Nigerian Army” that aborted that effort. Several events before this coup, dating back to 1960 and events since then have shown that Nigeria has never been one, it could never be one and it would never be one. That our Hausa/Fulani brothers are fighting these days in reaction to the election of GEJ, engaging in acts of arson, killing and maiming is evidence that Nigerians do not see things the same way. No matter how this dice is rolled, it boils to the same conclusion.

An examination of the chants by our Hausa/Fulani brothers would attest to the fact that some of the undercurrent reasons for their anger could be traced to religio-cultural differences, among many others. This issue of culture is very pertinent because as argued severally before, it is the basis for the formation of philosophical understanding of the world around us. This is what determines our understanding of politics, economy, religion and social context. The fact that the ethnic Nations in Nigeria are very different in this way(s) is the first fundamental impediment, among many others, to building a nation out of the geographical expression called Nigeria.

The culture of our Hausa/Fulani brothers is an example of what domination is all about. Dominating their environment by all means is part of their characteristics. This is why they do not question their own rulers and do not hold them accountable. This is why poverty has been the lot of the masses of the north and they do not seem to be bothered by it. They think that the ruler could not be questioned and that whatever he does is all well and good. It is this characteristic that they have brought to bear on their relationship with the rest of us in Nigeria. [/b]Listen to Major Orkar:

“Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable instances of callous and insensitive[b] dominatory repressive intrigues by those who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the Middle Belt and the south.

They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south.”

Major Orkar then added the following:



“Another major reason for the change is the need to stop intrigues, domination and internal colonisation of the Nigerian state by the so-called chosen few. This, in our view, has been and is still responsible for 90 percent of the problems of Nigerians. This indeed has been the major clog in our wheel of progress.

This clique has an unabated penchant[b] for domination and unrivalled fostering of mediocrity and outright detest for accountability[/b], all put together have been our undoing as a nation.”

In as much as many of us in other parts of Nigeria understandably detest this our Hausa/Fulani brothers’ perspective to life, it is this writers view that[b] we have no right to determine for our Hausa/Fulani brothers the way and manner to organize and manage their lives[/b]. While the rest of us have inalienable rights to resist them and not allow them to impose their own world view or culture on the rest of us, we have no right to deny them what they want, regardless of how despicable it sounds or looks to the rest of us. I believe this is the reason that Major Orkar made the following pronouncements in his broadcast:

“In the light of all the above and in recognition of the negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian state a temporary decision to excise the following states namely, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of Nigeria comes into effect immediately ………………”

It was my brilliant younger brother, Barrister Ayo Turton, who called the attention of this writer to the fact that these states that were excised from Nigeria by Major Orkar and those that were created out of them subsequently, are actually where General Mohamadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) had his victories in the election. These areas are also where acts of arson, maiming and killing are now going on. These are also the Sharia States of Nigeria.

To rectify identified problems, Major Gideon Orkar suggested the following:

“In the light of all the above and in recognition of the negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian state[b] a temporary decision to excise the following states namely, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of Nigeria[/b] comes into effect immediately until the following conditions are met.

The conditions to be met to necessitate the re-absorption of the aforementioned states are as following:

(i) To install the rightful heir to the Sultanate, Alhaji Maccido, who is the people’s choice.

(ii) To send a delegation led by the real and recognised Sultan Alhaji Maccido to the federal government to vouch that the feudalistic and aristocratic quest for domination and operation will be a thing of the past and will never be practised in any part of the Nigeria state.

By the same token, all citizens of the five states already mentioned are temporarily suspended from all public and private offices in Middle Belt and southern parts of this country until the mentioned conditions above are met.

They are also required to move back to their various states within one week from today. They will, however, be allowed to return and joint the Federal Republic of Nigeria when the stipulated conditions are met.

In the same vein, all citizens of the Middle Belt and the south are required to come back to their various states pending when the so-called all-in-all Nigerians meet the conditions that will ensure a united Nigeria. A word is enough for the wise.”

The Gideon Orkar wisdom eloquently expressed in the above quotes is very pertinent and very instructive. The message in the above quote is very clear – that we all need to start afresh, at least with every man being in charge of his territory and his destiny.

Evidently, we all do not agree on what kind of country we want Nigeria to be. Nigeria means a lot of different things to different Nigerians and their ethnic nationalities. All of the ethnic nationalities seem to want different things out of Nigeria. They all have different understanding of the world and are all entitled to it. For this and other reasons that have been discussed elsewhere, a viable country would not emerge from Nigeria despite the fact that some of us delusively hunger for this illusion.

This is why one is calling on all and sundry to listen to our hearts and use our heads. We should accept the incontrovertible, unassailable inalienable right of all to SELF DETERMINATION. As Bob Marley sang while quoting Marcus Garvey:

“Everyman’s got the right to decide his own destiny. And in this judgment there is no partiality.”

In essence, there should not be any need for continued bloodletting. There is no need to continue to incubate incessant social atrophy, political anarchy, religious mayhem and economic chaos. There is no need to continue to waste, by our acts of inaction, cowardice and selfishness, innocent lives of our young men, women and children. There is no need to allow ourselves to be pushed to the point where we begin to shoot at ourselves just to liberate our respective nationalities from the Nigerian quagmire.

There is no doubt that there are some who believe in the entity called NIGERIA. This group of latter day nationalists see themselves as “patriotic” and is always quick to call those who call for the BREAK UP of Nigeria as “ethnic bigots” or “tribalists.” It is one’s belief that the calling of names is functionally related to weak and untenable arguments in making the case for the desirability of Nigeria. Given the abundance of evidence of the last fifty years, given the realities of today in our lives and given the hopelessness of Nigeria’s future, insisting on ONE NIGERIA at all costs is an act of wickedness, enslavement and unadulterated sadism.

It is time the latter day nationalists and the protagonists of NIGERIAN UNITY at all costs cease acting as slave drivers. It is time they cease constituting themselves as stumbling blocks to the self determination of the peoples of Nigeria. It is time they cease being anti-democratic and allow the peoples of Nigeria to have a say in determining their destinies. We can not continue to be afraid of the people. We can not continue to shove down their throats a country which it seems, they do not really want. But to be clear about this, let us organize internally conducted plebiscite (by which it is meant within the confines of each ethnic nationality) on the Nigerian question. It has to be whether we all want Nigeria or not. If yes, how? If not, thou shall let my people go. And who knows, Nigerians may as well opt to have Nigeria. But at this point it would be the decision of the people whom I guess would also address the recurrent issue of its structural problem that is considered as enslaving by some ethnic nationalities.

We should all see beyond the riots going on in the enclave of our Hausa/Fulani brothers. They have the right to want to leave Nigeria and form a SHARIA country, if the greed about OIL MONEY would not make them vacillate. Those of us from other ethnic nationalities who desire different futures are also entitled to our rights to be in charge of our destinies. It is time to address all this because we can only suffocate the desire of the peoples for so long. If we, the various peoples of the ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria do not want it, Nigeria will not survive regardless of how much we want it or patch it up. It is better that we do the right thing on time and endeavor to have it done peacefully – RESTRUCTURE or BREAK UP NIGERIA.

this is true talk you are a real son of the land KUDOS

ak47mann:

this is true talk you are a real son of the land KUDOS

jason123:

^^^^^^^ Hmmmm. . . . . . . . GBAM AND GBOSA!!!

Thanks guys but am not the one who wrote it and here is the link.

http://www.saharareporters.com/article/gideon-okar-and-2011-elections