IBB’s reflections @ 73

NIGERIA’S former military dictator, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida recently attained the age of 73, and he chose to celebrate it by dwelling on national issues such as states creation, insecurity, politics and of course general state of the nation. While I relished IBB’S interview in two newspapers, Thisday and Daily Trust, I however took exception to his view about state creation, mostly as it concerns the South East.
In his opinion, states ought not to be created out of sentiment, rather on their viability. Simply put, he prefers that the status quo remain, and that the deliberate injustice of leaving South East with five states, as against North West’s seven should be glossed over.
But let me remind our retired general that the viability of states like Niger, Benue, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Ekiti, Taraba, Kwara, Ekiti, Osun and others cannot be proven. Secondly in his view, he forgot that the “One Nigeria” which they “built” distributes resources based on states, and it’s only on  states platform that local governments, another stratum of wealth distribution are created.
Furthermore, the number of Senators, House of Representatives members, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, infrastructural allocations, scholarships, federal institutions and other entitlements are shared. Let me remind our former Head of State that it was under his watch in 1987, that such important national institution like NBTE was located in a place other than the Federal Capital that is Kaduna.
The same fate befell other important national institutions like NDA, Bank of Agriculture, National Teachers Institute and several others. Yet, as a people Nigerians have continued to gloss over these obvious injustices for the sake of peace. If there was no gain in siting these important institutions in the North, why did our former ruler not site them in the South East?
I have made the above observations in order to remind ourselves that Nigeria has always being ruled based on ethnic, religious and parochial considerations.
If not so, how come that no Igbo man has ever been FCT Minister (not Minister of State), Chief Justice of Nigeria, President (either civilian or military) NNPC MD, Minister of Petroleum and numerous other positions since after the civil war?
Therefore, when our former ruler General Babangida continues to  insist that the issues of Nigeria’s oneness is settled, it flies in the face of logic, otherwise there would have been no constitutional conference in year 2014 by all the ethnic nationalities still questioning the basis for our coexistence. Perhaps, it is only in IBB’S mind that nations are built based on forced relationships.
The truth is that as it stands today Nigeria is mutually exclusive than inclusive, hence the lack of love and incessant killings of people based on ethnic origin. Before we can hurriedly say that these are problems associated with a developing country, let me quickly add that in the case of Nigeria, there is no sign of abatement, more so when one realise the high level of arrogance and impunity with which one group tries to superintend over others.
Yet, if all the nationalities were to react in commensurate measure to the various misdeeds, definitely sooner or later we shall say goodbye to IBB’s “One Nigeria” .
Of course, I concede that IBB is entitled to his opinion, and been so distance from present day reality, he rosy may not appreciate the level of discontentment in the land. It will require a deeper introspection and soul searching to really come to terms with the deep divisions in Nigeria. If one may ask, how does IBB hope to weld together a people forever in a union inherent with disaffection, discontentment and injustice?
Obviously such a system cannot and shall not endure and no amount of brute force can sustain it. The only panacea is to do things right and redress perceived or real injustices that confront us as a nation. To do otherwise will amount to mere wishful thinking, and postponing the evil day.
Moreover, no society remains static as societies continue to evolve and adapt to the changing dynamics of the world around it. Nigeria is not a private estate, where the owner can dictate how it will be, rather as a country the peoples living therein will over time come to terms with the benefits or otherwise of remaining one indivisible entity.
The challenges as they are today, if not addressed will obviously spiral into total eclipse of Nigeria as a country, and no force can withstand such hurricane.  The just concluded National Conference therefore offers a vista of opportunity for us as a people to tackle head on such obvious challenges that tend to impede national development, progress and cohesion.
As a senior citizen, IBB should think out of the box and appreciate the feelings of other people outside of his immediate environment. In situations where past leaders ought to show remorse, they should go ahead and do so, especially as no human being is perfect. We cannot continue to live in denial as a people. Lest we forgot, a war of attrition was waged by Nigeria and the world powers against Ndigbo between 1967 and 1970 and in IBB’s eight years in office, he never contemplated paying reparation or apologising for the war.
Today, Nigeria is yet to descend from the high ground on which it stands as far as the Igbo Question is concerned, yet we are the first to applaud statesmen like late Nelson Mandela who inspite of the injustices meted out to him and blacks generally came out from prison after 27 years and reunited the country.
To Nigeria and her past leaders I ask – Where is thy Conscience?