Previously, Nigeria was a country that citizens were proud to call their own, it was a country that many Africans were happy to accept as theirs when asked ‘are you a Nigeria? “. But things fell apart the day part of the country began to see itself as “first class citizens” while referring to and treating others as slaves. Things fell apart when part of the country felt that Islam should be the only religion acceptable in the secular state, thus pushing the agenda for it. Unity shattered when a newborn Igboman was still treated as the enemy of the country due to the disagreement of the 1960s.
One is not wrong if he says that President Muhammadu Buhari’s repeated insistence that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable is self-deception. Or probably, Mr. President does not really understand the meaning of the word “non-negotiable”.
Theodore Meir Bikel, Austro-American actor and legendary political activist, after seeing it all in his countries and around the world, said: “No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.” Fellow compatriots, it is unfortunate that Mr. President is still sleeping in the face of reality. If he is awake, it is unfortunate that his scriptwriters and advisers have fed him mental worms to believe what is far from the reality of this century.
There is a certain special advisor to Mr. President, he is a journalist who had a small stomach but now gradually having a potbelly where he dishes out many press releases on behalf of Mr. President.
This adviser through his statement issued on behalf of the president has done more harm than good to the little unity that remains in Nigeria. This man initiated his dark and short friend who also advises the President, to the University of unnecessary propaganda and illusion.
There is another cowboy, whose name some of my countrymen say describes him. He is a minister whose hatred for an Igboman in Nigeria is immeasurable. It has sown more seeds of disunity among the citizens of this country, more than the benefits this government has achieved for the citizens. Don’t let me go too far before the DSS breaks my door.
Let me comment on the quest for Biafra in the east and the federal government’s response to it by first quoting Jay Weatherill: “You don’t get unity by ignoring the questions that have to be faced.”
It is an understatement to describe this current government’s response to the peaceful agitation in the east as hostile. To me, this is a savage demonstration of what my father calls “sincerely wickedness”.
It is good to note that instead of listening to the agitators, Mr. President murders the peaceful agitators while incarcerating hundreds of them. If I give a handshake to someone who calls Mr. President a tyrant and national terrorist, God will not condemn me to hell when the trumpet sounds.
In Nigeria today, as Mr. President and his gang sit in Abuja and share the national cake among themselves, the masses on the streets share the national suffering and pain.
While the south-east is marginalized, the northerners occupy key positions in the country.
While the citizens of the south seek to improve the country, the Fulani who believe they were “born to rule” destabilize the country with terrorism and seek to Islamize the country.
In this same country; Mr. President, who said that no one was considering Islamizing the country, hastily declared IPOB a terrorist group. This is a peaceful and unarmed group exercising its human rights. But same Mr. President categorically refused to ban and declare his his kinsmen— the Miyetti Allah and armed Fulani herdsmen who kill Christian civilians on a daily basis, as a terrorist group.
In the biblical story of Jonah and the shark; the shark didn’t just swallow Jonah, something made him swallow Jonah. The point is, there is no unity in Nigeria, if there is some left over, someone has to inform Mr. President that it is negotiable.
Written by: Francis Ashamole U.