Muhammadu Buhari
By Ebi Asain
Everyday, Buhari is sounding more and more like the recalcitrant slave master who is coming to terms the survival of his fiefdom is at stake. Consequently, like every dictator, he has taken to intimidate those who think it is high time they fought for their self-emancipation. From Buhari’s rethoric it has become evidently clear the Nigeria of his dreams must end with the realisation of Othman Danfodio’s grandiose walk to the shores of the Atlantic, waving the Qu’oran in his right hand.
In all of Buhari’s recent comments, nowhere did he talk of the unity of Nigeria by dialogue, through mutual respect of the peoples, tribes, traditions and cultures that make up a faulty Nigeria. As far as Buhari is concerned, the north expended so much during the civil war to keep the rich south as an appendage of the Islamic north. Therefore, the talk of any unit in this diverse amalgam fighting to free herself is just bunkum, an unconscionable idiocy! The indivisibility of Nigeria by her founding fathers was written in stone. That should be the end of Nigeria’s story.
It is so unfortunate for the country to have as their president a leader who is not versed in world history and whose medieval mindset is steeped in the soothing pictures of warriors, galloping on horsebacks waving bows and poisoned arrows towards the south. It is troubling that president Buhari doesn’t believe the world has since moved on after Biafra. It is heart breaking to say the least that Buhari fails to inculcate the understanding that you cannot kill an idea whose time has come. The full emancipation of the south is more than an idea, it is grounded in a will stronger than a million squadrons of jet fighters and main battle tanks. It is a will stronger than a million Fulani herdsmen supported by the powers that be.
However, Buhari’s arrogance notwithstanding, the world understands his desperation to keep the status quo as it is. The world understands where he is coming from. After more than half a century of generations living off a paternalistic philosophy that says a parasite should not work, Buhari is worried sick how his region can survive without the south, without the Bonny Sweet crude oil. With a largely illiterate society living on dire poverty and extreme deprivation, it makes sense Buhari is putting every stop to a divided Nigeria. We understand his feeling.
That been said, Buhari and his tough-talking northern governors must go back and read the history of Yugoslavia and how one general Rodovan Karadzic too spewed infantile drivels like him. Yugoslavia’s walk to disintegration is a long story. In a nutshell, Rodovan Karazdic, the butcher of Bosnia now sits in jail as a war criminal and Yugoslavia reconstituted into different peaceful countries. The lesson in this little synopsis is this: no country’s peoples politial destiny is written on a slab of stone.
Given president Buhari’s medieval mindset, the chances of Nigeria ever been restructured on the lines of the recent national confab resolutions is nil, zilc and zero. Buhari and the northern establishment have no appetite to restructure Nigeria. For them, it is either their way or the high road. If the south doesn’t want to be ruled by the fiefdom, then Nigeria should be looking at another civil war.
Of course, the drums of war from the north have been beating for a long time. The intense saber rattling has been on for quite a while. When northern governors rose from a meeting only to threaten to deal decisively with Ndigbo like there is no tommorrow, that they will breakup Nigeria if so and so doesn’t happen, only someone naive will miss Buhari’s political inclinations. Only a political neophyte will not understand that Buhari is ready to repeat the history of Yugoslavia.
Like someone rightly said, Nigeria is like a troubled marriage. In this instance, the irreconcilable differences has made the union completely broken down. Unfortunately, one partner is pleading with the judge not to approve a divorce on the grounds that the marriage vows were selomnized in a piece of stone. But judge Doe Singleton, looking at the marriage certificate called amalgamation noticed that the terms of their unholy matrimony had since expired!
The reinvention of Nigeria, and Buhari’s dreams are all in the balance.
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