NIGERIA'S PROBLEM IS NEGOTIABLE: HEAR THE IGBO'S AND SAVE NIGERIA - STANLEY EDOKPOLO

NIGERIA'S PROBLEM IS NEGOTIABLE: HEAR THE IGBO'S AND SAVE NIGERIA - STANLEY EDOKPOLO

In this series I will touch on certain areas that must be addressed perhaps in a unity conference if this nation must progress as one. I have been an advocate of One Nigeria for most of my life, but I am at a juncture like Prof Wole Soyinka where am compelled to consider softening the word non negotiable to NEGOTIABLE.

This is my point: If we cannot achieve progress and development as one indivisible entity we can sincerely break into five confederations or nations  like the Great Britain or Outright separation (which I am sceptical about anyway because of the interconnection between us). The idea of five automous regions/nation coexisting together but maintaining their independence is my preference. In this way they control their resources but contribute to one another; it will however require careful study for this system to succeed.

Number one reason why I am changing my view is the inability of our people to integrate and accept each other fully. Another is that the way we are going in the next 20 years I doubt if things would have improved. But my doubt would have either been removed or confirmed by 2019. That's why I want to appeal to all a sundary to give peace a chance. Let's see what this administration can do for the next three years. If nothing positive happens I want to appeal to national and world leaders to ensure that Nigeria become a confederate state; there's no point to be stubborn about it.

To the Igbo's problem then. We still think that the reason why President Buhari appoints northern people is because he is fron the north. Whether or not that is the case . We still think the reason we don't have most Igbos in the present government is because the north hate Igbos, or at best don't trust them. The Igbos still feel a closer tie with the southern south than the western south as many intellectuals from the east attribute their problems to the west. Whether these stipulations are correct or not the fact remains that the feeling persist so that any Igbo that aligns with the north is seen as a traitor.

After the civil war almost 44 years ago one expects that when a northern man rules this country, the issue of Biafra would have been a forgone conclusion; that the Igbos would have been appeased and everything about those terrible days would've been dead and buried. Yet this is not the case, instead we have fuelled their resilience to move away by our constant miscalculations and unthoughtfulness. (It is necessary here to state that most people who write one Nigeria today are pretenders - if you put it to a secret ballot most people want things differently in the south, west, north and middle belt.)

I am not an Igbo man. I wasn't born when the civil war was fought. All I know were narrated to me. As a child, I held the notion that the Igbos were the problem of the country because of what I was taught. Anyone seeking to destroy the Nigeria I love must be an enemy. But then I grew up and travelled around in the course of my study and work and discovered for myself that the Igbo problem is a big problem in this country. Not the Igbo, but the problem we have created as a nation. We have successfully estranged some of the most gifted, talented, creative and industrious people from the scheme of things. Few Nigerians will vote for an Igbo person as President. Why? Whatever your answer, that is the problem. That you have a reason why a group of people can't lead is terrible. If they can't lead and they can't go, doesn't that remind you of something?  Slavery?

To stigmatise a group of people is a terrible thing. The irony of it all is that the Igbos have what it takes to transform this country for good. Whatever you were told as a child must be dropped. The Igbos are not the problem of this country. One reason this country is suffering is because the Igbos have been treated unfairly over the years and we refuse to admit it.

I put it to you today that there's nothing to be afraid of from the Igbo man especially the one that wants his own country. Give him reason to believe that this is his country and he will stay. Until we can fully accept the Igbos to the point they can produce a President and move past the civil war,  we are not going to progress as one nation.

Watch out for the next piece.

God bless Nigeria.

Written by Stanley Edokpolo
Author and publisher of Otello magazine