Naija-poem: Nigeria's Poem is Not Yet Finished

By

UO

First posted to: Multiple recipients of list (naijanet@mit.edu)
Friday, 29 July 1994.

"When you have finished
And done up my stitches
Wake me up near the altar
And this poem will be finished"

The poet, Christopher Okigbo wrote the above lines 27 years ago. In fact, those lines were among the last set of poems he wrote before he laid down his his young life in the battle field of Nsukka, trying to defend his fatherland - Biafra - during the Nigerian Civil War. The events leading up to that war are now well documented, including the systematic, calculated and cold-blooded murder of over 30,000 easterners - mostly Igbos in the northern part of the country during the pogrom of 1966. The subsequent deaths of nearly one million Biafrans - due mainly to the Awolowo-inspired policy of "starvation as an instrument of warfare" - are also well documented. The death of numerous thousands of those that fought on the federal side are also well documented. After such an enormous sacrifice, and 27 years after the poet penned the above lines, the the central issue of Nigeria as a country is yet to be resolved. What does the country have to show for all these sacrifices on the part of its inhabitants? Greed, corruption, impoverishment of the masses, disease, sub-standard educational system, coups and counter coups, ecological devastation of the oil producing areas (Rivers, Delta, Imo, Akwa Ibom and Cross River States), enthronement of mediocrity at the highest level of government, a whopping 33 billion dollars (I am not talking of worthless naira) foreign debt, etc. The list goes on and on.

By virtue of hindsight and in all honesty, I doubt that those people who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives to preserve the quasi boundaries of this entity called Nigeria would have been willing to make that sacrifice if they had known that the sum total of all their efforts and sacrifices would lead to the Nigeria of Gowon/Murutala/Obasanjo/Buhari/Babangida/ Abacha - a cabal of gun-toting, petrol-dollar embezzling, country-ruining 'buffoons', whose only claim to legitimacy hinged and still hinges on the triggers of their guns. Gowon used to say, "To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done". I wonder what he is saying privately now. Awolowo once said, "If the east secedes west will follow". I wonder what he would say if he were alive today, especially in light of Abiola's present predicaments. As a Biafran, I know what our people fought and died for: to transform the lots of our people in ways yet unheard of in modern Africa, unencumbered by the problems and politics of Nigeria. It was too bad we did not succeed, but we take consolation in the fact that our cause was just and fair. If the federal government could not protect the lives and property of our people while they were being massacred in cold blood in many areas of the country, why should we not opt out of that artificial entity called Nigeria? The present political turmoils in Nigeria should serve as a harbinger of things to come; and these the Biafrans saw 28 years ago!

At the Aburi Conference in Ghana, just before the start of the civil war, the Biafrans proposed confederalism as the most pragmatic way of solving the fundamental political problem of Nigeria. Gowon even accepted the guidelines of the resolutions passed at that conference, but when he returned to Nigeria he was forced to repudiate it on accounts of pressures from the bureaucrats from the North. While all these were going on, the whole of western Nigeria was occupied by federal troops. Eventually, the war was fought, and even the Yorubas sided with the federal forces against the Biafrans. So, it is quite ironic that Yoruba leaders are now proposing confederalism (just like the Biafrans) as a viable means of solving the central issue of Nigeria as a country. The same fundamental factors that led to "On Aburi We Stand" (1967) led to "On June 12th We Stand" (1993). Just like the Igbos have always received the short end of the stick, the other peoples of southern Nigeria have also not escaped from the inequity and injustice which attributes the 'jus divinum' (divine right) to rule the country to the hegemonic Northern oligarchy. This, my friend, was the true reason why Babangida annulled the results of June 12, 1993 Presidential elections, and why Abacha is determined to make sure that Abiola is localized within a dingy, stinky, mosquito infested, windowless room, where he is as far away as possible from the center of government. Poor Abiola! Perhaps he too fought against those "restless" Biafrans. May be he even sang the tunes of Gowon's "To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done". I wonder what he is thinking now!

One cannot help but ask: why did we have to make these enormous sacrifices just to realize a very simple fact that was and still is as clear as night and day? Confederation of the country is the only pragmatic way to solve the most important problem facing Nigeria. Our various peoples are hardworking and resourceful, and will definitely improve their lots if given the chance. Why not free them from the chains which the events of 1914, the amalgamation of northern and southern sections of the country by the British, have imposed on them?

Let the people be allowed to determine their own destinies. Let them be able to use their natural and human resources in any way they deem fit -- devoid of any federal government control. You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul. That is exactly what has been happening to the people in many oil producing areas, like the Ogonis in Rivers State.

Along the same lines, the litany of the injustices committed against the Igbos since the end of the civil war is endless. Where does one start? Is it with the "abandoned property" issue in which immovable property of Igbos which were left behind during their exodus to the east, just before the outbreak of the civil war - are yet to be completely given back to them in numerous states of the federation - from Rivers State to Lagos State to Kano State, etc, etc.? Or is it with the carving away of important oil-producing areas, which were indisputably Igbo from the then East Central State (under Gowon's 12-state structure), followed by the Murutala/Obasanjo's "boundary adjustment" exercise that further carved away the oil rich basin of Obigbo (which means heart of the Igbos in the Igbo language) from Imo State into Rivers State? Or is it with the state creation exercise orchestrated by Obasanjo and his clique, in which the Igbos were given only two states, and the Yorubas (a group with about the same number of people as the Igbos) four states, with a significant interest in a fifth? As if that was not enough, they carved away the abundant limestone deposits of Arochukwu-Ewe from Imo State into Cross River State at a time when it was fully known that the Imo State government was negotiating contracts for the construction of a cement factory which would have employed limestone as a basic ingredient in its manufacturing processes. Or is it with the siting of five steel mills worth over 4.5 billion Naira (in the days when Naira was real money) only in the northern and western parts of the country, and none whatsoever in the east, and certainly none in Igboland? Mind you, the Igbos have been refining metal ores and working metals like iron, copper, zinc, etc. for thousands of years (remember Igbo-Ukwu!). All these acts were carried out with one overriding purpose: to stifle the development of the Igbos.

To avoid a violent (I prefer peaceful) break up of the country - a scenario that looks increasingly imminent as present events in the country unfold -- a loose confederation of six regions (just like the Igbos are now advocating) should be created. It should comprise:

Each region should be governed by a governor-general. There should be six vice-presidents, one from each region, and one president for the whole country. Power should be decentralized as much as possible. Each region should adopt its own constitution, have its own police, and should they desire carry out their own foreign policy.

Given that a great majority of Nigerians are either Christians or Moslems, and often times, foreign policy intersects religious issues, the federal government should steer clear of a substantial part of foreign policy, except those dealing with national defense and national security. There is no earthly reason why we should not have provided material, moral and financial support to our brothers and sisters in southern Sudan who are fighting the most repressive regime on earth that is bent on not only enslaving them but ensuring that they are converted to Islam. That's why countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran have been pouring billions of dollars into the coffers of those Islamic fanatics in Khartoum. For nearly fifteen years since that war has been raging on, there is yet to be any meaningful effort proffered by the Nigerian government in trying to bring that war to a close. All we can point to is the effort of those who would want to make Nigeria a member of Organization of Islamic States (OIC) - the "beloved" Abiola included.

While Nigeria writhes in serious self-inflicted pain that could have been averted had Gowon and his cliques stuck to the guidelines of the agreement they reached with the leaders of Biafra at the Aburi Conference in 1967, Okigbo - the poet is still searching for that very last line with which to complete his poem. In the meantime, he along with countless others have paid the ultimate price, perhaps hoping that the ideals for which they fought and died for will not be in vain. For the last 34 years that we have lived as an "independent" country, political stability has eluded us. The various sections of the country are now clearly feeling the stifling chains that the central government has imposed on the people. Our various peoples deserve better than what they are currently getting from this entity called Nigeria. A loose confederacy is clearly the best way to ensure political stability and true economic development of the country. Should confederacy fail, we have one more option: "To your tents, oh Nigeria!". Perhaps then, we can wake Okigbo up so that "this poem will be finished"!