Nigeria: When War Becomes Business

opinion

It appears that the echo of the giggle of the Nigerian Civil war is still resounding with a subtle thunder clap: "To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done." This giggle looks like a vow to sustain the result of the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by the British. Given that millions of people have been killed in the past in the effort "to keep Nigeria one" and that some people today still question the true and authentic unity of Nigeria call for a further enquiry if war is not perhaps a mere business. This is important because the Nigerian/Biafra civil war does not seem to have achieved the aim of keeping Nigeria one. Could it be that this concept of unity has a different meaning from the dictionary meaning of unity? Can we say that the North West, North East and North Central are united irrespective of religious differences? What is the bond of unity in the South West, South East and South-South of Nigeria? What was the common factor or bond of unity in the Northern and Southern protectorates that was obvious to the British?

"To keep Nigeria one" with war is a mockery of unity because the regions that now make up the modern Nigeria had fought wars before the amalgamation of 1914. The first Ife-Modakeke war took place in 1835. This war had been repeated seven times until the most brutal one of 2000. The establishment of Arochukwu Kingdom was a result of the Aro-Ibibio wars. The Fulani/Hausa warled to the establishment of SokotoCaliphate and Kano Emirate by Uthman Dan Fodio (1804-1808). The Kiriji war by the Yoruba (1870-1886) lasted for 16years, the longest war by any ethnic group(http://damouche.blogspot.com.ng).There are values that keep people together and war is excluded from these values. Whatever binds people together along ethnic divides must have led to the formation of the pre-independence political parties along tribal interest such as "Northern People's Congress (NPC)", formed by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Sir Ahmadu Bello in 1949; "National Council of Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC)", formed by Nnamdi Azikwe and Herbert Marcaulay in 1944 and "Action Group (AG)" formed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1951. Even today, some political parties are still agitating for rotational presidency among the zones whereas Nigerians had engaged in a civil war "to keep Nigeria one". Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) calls for a total healing of this syndrome in his book: "Zoning to Unzone, the Politics of Power and the power of Politics in Nigeria" (2015).

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