Restructure, common sense solution to injustice and unequal Union, but will the north see reason? 

‘The will of the people shall be the basis of authority of government’
Universal declaration of Human rights.

I have often been asked, why I do not support the break up of Nigeria, in spite of evidence that it is not working. 

My answer is simple, why pull down a house if you can renovate it by knocking down a few walls and changing certain fittings? 

I have a fundamental belief that people are first of all human beings who need the same thing, irrespective of ethnicity or religion, to fell happy, listened to and respected. 

Therefore when the problem stem from crisis of  human behaviour and attitude, it is dishonest to look for the solution only in primitive identities like ethnicity and religion.

It would seem to me  that breaking up of Nigeria along ethnic or religious fault lines, without concerted  effort to address the corruption and injustices that are responsible for her woes, would be a mistake.

It would even a be a greater mistake, if the government continue to use force to maintain its rule, as it seem bent on by establishing several army brigades in south east region in peace time. 

Nigerian government should know that no government can expect the oppressed not to react violently, if it is ignoring  their cries  and  responding to  their demand for justice by indifference and use of force. 

Nigeria is not working,  not because it is not made up of people of one religion or ethnicity. Nigeria is not working because without exception, leaders of Nigeria from all ethnic groups and religions are inhumanly corrupt, profoundly  ignorant, even when they claim to be educated, exceptionally prejudiced, pathologically narrow minded and  unimaginatively unenlightened and,  has a constitution which looks as if it was modelled after the apartheid constitution. Nigeria is not working because the north is single minded pursuing its Islamic agenda. 

Recently, One of Ibrahim  Babangida’s daughters got married and many Nigerians of different ethnicity and region turned up in Minna.  

A friend wrote ‘There were  34 private jets. None of the owners  is a captain of industry,  has any intellectual property, none came into wealth through inheritance. They all have one thing in common, they held various  positions in government in Nigeria and plundered the country’. 

We have a country, where leaders are often not qualified for the position they occupy and  hide behind their  primitive identities to loot and plunder and where citizens are often discriminated against in the basis of ethnicity or religion. 

Nigeria has a northern  region which is obsessed with Islam and has dragged the region into extreme Islam, turning it  into a cesspit of ethnic prejudice and religious intolerance, and a south,   fanning the flame of Christian fundamentalism and session. This particular development makes unity as we have known it impossible. 

No people can build a peaceful country, when the most important thing to them are identities, which do not add real  value to human existence.

It is this obsession with religious and ethnic identities , instead of values that build peaceful and developed nations that is at the root of Nigeria’s decay  and the reason for her woes.

Therefore, in my view,  the greatest danger that threaten Nigeria is not those agitating for independence or demanding for restructure. Rather, those who believe that the   unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable and fail  to address the glaring injustices in the way the country is governed. 

The enemies of Nigeria are those who fail to take honest steps to address corruption, end abuse of power, review the unfair constitution that justify discriminations and exploitation of some people and allow institutions the freedom to discharge their statutory functions without interference. 

We need to deal with Nigeria the way it is today by doing all we can to remedy the injustices, which some ethnic groups are complaining and reach agreement on mistakes like declaration of sharia laws in the north. 

There is need to negotiate how a de facto Islamic state can be part of a liberal democracy, without it trying to destabilise it with its intolerance and primitive attitude and medieval morality. 

This settlement would involve devolution  of power through restructure, to enable the different regions to gain the degree of autonomy they need to develop at their pace and in line with their culture. Without this, attitude will harden and violent disintegration will become inevitable. 

The north should stop trying  to hold the country back and together by force because it controls the army, judiciary, customs  police etc., and accept that  its actions like, selfish exploitation of the natural resources, attempt to dominate all, declaration of sharia, turning a blind eye to Fulani herds men terrorism, born to rule mentality and her complicity in the formation of BOKO Haram have made restructure of Nigeria inevitable. 

We cannot continue to have a country, where a section is excluded from development, marginalised in appointments, discriminated against in admissions, held back and killed at will without consequences and  insist that the victims should not fight for justice. 

We need a new Nigeria based on the rule of law, where the values of justice, tolerance and equality reigns supreme and where no ethnic group or region will be allowed to dominate. 

We can ether build a fair and accountable democracy, where every citizen is free to live anywhere in Nigeria, without being discriminated against on the basis of religion or ethnicity or disintegrate into ethic enclaves, which would be headed by the same corrupt politicians, who destroyed Nigeria.  The choice is ours’ and time is running out.