by Ahanonu Kingsley

The call for all the Igbos of South-eastern Nigeria to leave the North by an coalation of some northern youthful elements in what they called the Kaduna Declaration is something that ordinarily would have been dismissed away as a disgruntled assertion of people who at best could be described as been under hoax. But then it is a ventilation of the combined disillusion of some unreal elements, which albeit should not just be wished away.

We have heard of scores of elements who were regarded as inconsequential and incapable of pulling the strings, finally firing the shots and disorienting the organized order. The fact being that anybody, no matter how little or insignificant, can raise a dust that could push a giddiness.

This is the way I see the 1st October quit-the-north notice given by the conglomeration of the so-called Arewa youths. I see it as a a roaring stir of a mischievous child which if left unattended to can degenerate into one avoidable cataclysm of high proportion. More so, it is in such weird assertions, roundly taken as jokes and of no significance that the very cord that led to the first and only civil war in Nigeria was broken.

The call by the Arewa youths is not only mildly laughable but highly disturbing. It is one call that reflect the too many under-seated disaffection and dissatisfaction that have been boiling unchecked in the Nigerian political space. It is the spill out of an oversaturated guile that a section of this country has held against the other.

This call could without mistaking be said to be the unpalatable manifestation of the seething hatred this section has held against the other despite the fact of the other displaying every feature that suggest they are at home with their hosts.

The Igbos of the South-east have being the ones displaying the highest level of patriotism and nationalism that could be expected of a people; and this is despite the awful fact that they have suffered the most, having been vanquished in an earlier civil war.

While it is seen that the Igbos have forgotten the past hatred and the subjugation, it appeared that a section which forms a significant portion of the Nigerian state seem to yet nurse the intolerance, indifference and jealousy that led to the evil calamity of 1967-1970.

It just seem the hatred never ends. And with the recent voicing of the Arewa youths, who form the active folk and thus the very one that should matter in a future Nigeria, from northern perspective, it is frightening that the bubble has begun to burst. Even more curious is the claim that such threatening decision was reached after some consultations.

But then, before we start wondering on who they would have consulted, it is just handy to hold that the Carmel’s back might just seem to be broken.The other day, a serving police officer, paid by the joint taxes of Nigerians, was audacious enough without hiding shame to say that, before President Muhammadu Buhari who many northerners see as a president for them, would die of his ailment he (the officer) would have killed at least 200 people.

Also, not quite long ago, some northern elders among whom was Ango Abdullahi were making what’s seen to have given their youths preset guts, when they inferred that should anything happen to President Buhari, that the North will not allow a southerner to rule.

What uncourteous effrontery, which widely suggest how those from this hegemonous region view the country and the other components: as being their fiefdom and slaves respectively. It shows how deeply appreciative they are of this union foisted by Britain, where according to Lord Harcourt, the south is to be used for the service of the north.

So many things have been said and done, which should obviously give the view that Nigeria, albeit a country, is not a federation borne out of the mutual understanding of the component units to come together. The continuous rifes that have been chiefly fanned by the ethnic and religious differences shows
incompatible, in feeling, psychology, and ideology, we are to have have formed a nation.

The eviction notice given to the Igbos thus is just but the latest in the machinations of some elements that feel Nigeria belongs to them and only to them also belong the privilege to do as they want and even to incite violence.

But then one fact with every human is that we all the inclination to either peace or violence; we exert the one which we have by willful impulsion choose to do. It is to say that no singular person or group of persons has the monopoly to violence. But then, in whichever angle it is viewed, violence does not pay, which is why some people, though capable of it, refrain from such.

If Nigeria must exist, the same must be seen to belong to all. But there are many areas within the component units that need to be deliberated, agreed and concessions reached to define boundaries and reach a workable font. This is something that could be analyzed in a roundtable discussion that represents all interests.

At end, if it is restructuring that holds the workable wand, fine. If however it is to explode into cysts of republics, very well. But this delusion, as we have it, must not continue.

---

Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Ahanonu Kingsley writes from Owerri and tweets @kings_emz