Nigeria: Sovereign National Conference - Opening a Pandora's Box

14 February 2012
opinion

The patently mischievous idea of a Sovereign National Conference had never appealed to me, if only because its originators have never disguised the intent and anticipated outcome.

The dominant narrative that has been imposed by the media, and the mostly southern elite, has been that the north is Nigeria's problem and it is time that it is brought to its senses by southerners taking control of their resources (particularly oil) and, if the north resists "major political changes" then it would be preferable for all of us to go our separate ways. From MASSOB, to the Niger Delta "militants", to the NADECO/OPC and their intellectuals, that has been the threat and the promise. I had complained on several occasions in my column about the underlining threats and assumptions that only the north will suffer from the dismembering of this nation.

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