IPOB, Move Over: The ABCs of Saving Nigeria

– by Dr. Gwon G Wolo

By now, it should be crystal clear that the core North has irreconcilable conflicts with the concept of secularism.

There is no point trying to make secularists out of Muslims. It is anathematic to them. We Christians are the stupid ones here. We can’t make them what they are hardwired not to be.

Divide the country roughly into two is assuredly the way to go.

It is stupid for Southerners to continue to hope that the core North will agree to repeal the 99 Constitution in its entirety and simply bring back the 1963 Constitution.

Here is the question: if you are the exponent of Unitarianism and have accumulated and consolidated so much power and wealth advantage, how likely are you to relinquish all that without a struggle?

Not likely.

Today, the willing elements in the MB, SS, SE, SW can rise with one accord and simply reject the 1999 Constitution and form a separate country based on the 1963 Constitution and let Arewa keep the 1999 Constitution.

Will the Fulani invade and try to suppress four zones at once? No.

One zone; yes. Four zones, no.

Can the international community stop four zones of Nigeria from breaking away? No.

Why are we hoping against every indication of commonsense that the core North will ever willingly sit at the table and agree to change the Unitarist 1999 Constitution peacefully? This abject lack of commonsense is the reason why we Christians are the problem with Nigeria.

It will never happen without a struggle.

Let’s rise and establish, by virtue of the sovereign authority of “We the People…”, a separate country comprising the four extant zones of SS SE SW and MB.

The way to go is to first sign a common defense pact by establishing the Republic of Southern Nigeria Armed forces. The idea is not to invade our Northern brothers but to retain the capacity to defend the sovereign authority of the new Republic if challenged. That capacity to defend itself is the best strategy to avoid war and bloodshed in Nigeria.

Will they try to thwart these things by charging people with treason and arresting and executing Southern Nigerians who wish to exercise their sovereign rights to reject the 1999 Constitution and establish a new country based on the 1963 Constitution? Yes.

That is why it is suicidal for any zone to go it alone.

Separatist elements like IPOB will be Python Danced, as often as it is necessary, to crush them.

Mobilizing divisions of the Nigerian Army just for the sake of raiding unarmed and undefended Nnamdi Kanu’s residence is said to have been motivated by the psychosis of power!

But the moment they are confronted with Republic of Southern Nigeria Armed Forces, there will be no attack.

Who will constitute the Republic of Southern Nigeria Armed Forces? All the people of the four zones in the Nigerian Military should transfer over with their ranks intact as well as new recruits.

Same with police elements in the Nigerian Police. We should immediately form Southern Nigeria Police.

Now, to the highly contentious question: Who will lead the newly minted Republic?

My suggestion is an elderly person selected from a forum of elders such as Nigerian Christian Elders Forum (NCEF). Such a person can function as the Interim Prime Minister and constitute an independent electoral body to organize elections within three years of Interim Government.

There should also be an Interim Southern Nigeria House of Parliament.

Once we have these institutions in place as at the day the new Republic is established, there will be few arrests, few gunshots and no charges of treason because no one wants a civil war. Should there be one, the Southern Nigeria Armed Forces will be adequately resourced.

Instead, what you will hear will be noise and threats of violence by people who lost their oil blocs.

Western nations will seek to infiltrate and undermine the new Republic if their economic interests are not taking care of. They will foment all sorts of intrigues. We know their modus operandi.

Conglomerates like the Dangote brand will feel threatened but should be treated equitably by the emergent nations by forming a free market and enterprise zone between the two nations.

Ruga will die a natural death. Ranch or be ranched.

How about real properties owned by former Nigerians who all of a sudden find that they now own properties in a different country? Again, no one should lose their properties.

I say all these things mindful of the love we have for Nigeria our beloved country. It is time to face the grim reality that the one nation, two systems we currently have is untenable and has brought untold hardships and sufferings to Nigerians both North and South.

Let’s end the life wasting incongruity called Nigeria as presently constituted.

Let’s have two systems, two countries.

It makes commonsense.

Details of equitable distribution of the public assets of the legacy nation between the two progeny countries can be worked out.

The poverty capital of the world is Northern Nigeria, particularly the sharia North. It is also one of the most educationally backward places on earth. Unitarianism has not worked for our core Northern brothers. Unfortunately, their rigid caste system and uneducated masses are programmed to believe that anyone who proposes a different arrangement is anti-North. That is the master rhetoric that the Northern elite have used to keep the North perpetually backward.

Mass poverty in Arewa North starts from early childhood. High birth rate and high infant mortality in Muslim polygamous households end up with millions of children abandoned in early childhood to fend for themselves through begging and association with a plethora of Madrassa schools that abound in large urban centers. Lack of formal education and skills make the amajiri youths unemployable.

The impoverished elements in the North should learn to think for themselves and by now should simply ask themselves: what have they to lose by rejecting a system rigged to keep them perpetually backward.

Indeed, what have we got to lose by changing one country, two systems to two countries, two systems?

How about the dreaded Igbo domination? Let the Prime Minister rotating between the four zones.

Presidential or Parliamentary government? Forget Presidential. Too expensive.