By Chinweizu
Sundoor999@gmail.com
The Federalism of the First Republic,
of the 1963 Constitution, is being demanded by some as the solution
to Nigeria’s problems. The proponents of this view seem to think
that once Nigeria returns to that constitution, with possibly some
slight modifications, they and their interests will be protected, and
their cherished “One Nigeria” can go on.
But they are mistaken, I think.
They haven’t considered why that
constitution failed them. If it failed them before, can’t it fail
them again?
Like the 1963 constitution, the 1960
Constitution limited the powers of the Federal Government to Defence,
Foreign Affairs, and a few other items.
But it failed woefully to protect the
federating units—the regions—from a federal government that was
in the hands of a hegemonist Northern region with an expansionist
Caliphate colonialist agenda. Within 5 years, the Caliphate had,
using the Federal might it exercised through the judiciary,
parliament, the police and the military, plunged the Western region
into a crisis that spread to engulf the other regions in a civil war
that ended in 1970 with the Caliphate’s conquest of all of Nigeria,
under the banner of preserving “One Nigeria.” That experience
suggests that for a viable association the constitution must put
defence, the judiciary, the military and other security services in
forms that can prevent their manipulation by the Caliphate’s
Federal Govt. That means an Aburi-type confederation, and failing
that, total separation/Araba.
WHY YOU CAN’T GET ABURI-TYPE
CONFEDERATION
To appreciate why confederation isn’t
at all in the cards, we must understand how and why Aburi was not
implemented. Aburi was unacceptable to the Caliphate, therefore its
agents in Federal power in Lagos refused to implement it. Why was it
unacceptable to the Caliphate? The Caliphate’s Nigeria project is
to dominate, conquer and forever exploit the rest of Nigeria. As the
Sardauna of Sokoto, the political leader of the Caliphate in the
1950s and1960s, told his people in October 1960, as the other
Nigerians were celebrating what they thought was independence:
“The new nation called Nigeria should
be an estate of our great-grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must
ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities of the
North as willing tools and the South as a conquered territory and
never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have
control over their future.”
–Sir Ahmadu Bello, Leader of the
Northern People’s Congress (NPC), and Premier of Northern Nigeria,
(Parrot Newspaper, 12th Oct. 1960; republished on November 13, 2002,
by the Tribune Newspaper, Ibadan.)
Confederation Aburi-type, or of any
type whatever, would have allowed the other regions to control their
future. And that was what the Caliphate was totally opposed to. And
because they were holding Federal power in Lagos, they prevented its
implementation. That’s how and why Aburi was not implemented. That
is also how and why any confederation is not possible today. The
Caliphate is in total charge of the Abuja government. And
confederation is still not in their permanent interest that was
announced long ago by the Sardauna.
This impossibility of
federation or confederation applies also to the restructuring that
some are hoping can keep Nigeria going. However, and for the above
reasons, any restructuring that would protect the autonomy and
interests of Non-Caliphate Nigerians will not be acceptable to, and
will be thwarted, by a Caliphate which is in power in Nigeria.
WHY RESTRUCTURING WON’T HAPPEN
Ohaneze at Awka has just pinned its
hopes on restructuring just because every zone, including the
Caliphate Arewa zone, is now singing restructuring.
Ohaneze don’t be fooled!
When Atiku and other Caliphate
politicians talk Restructuring, isn’t it just a ruse to buy time by
keeping everybody preoccupied and distracted while the Caliphate
finishes it new amendments to its plans for perpetual domination?
Didn’t they go to Aburi? Didn’t
they kill the Aburi Accord afterwards? Didn’t they go to Jonathan’s
Confab? Haven’t they pocket vetoed its report and refused to
implement it? The Chinese say: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me
twice, shame on me. Ohaneze, don’t be fooled! Afenifere, don’t be
fooled! South and Middle Belt Forum, don’t be fooled! Any
restructuring that can protect Non-Caliphate peoples and give them
control over their future will never happen as long as the Caliphate
has the power in Abuja to prevent it.
If federalism and con-federalism are
both impossible in a Nigeria that includes the Caliphate, then what?
I suggest that no form of political
linkage with a colonialist can protect his intended victims, just as
nothing will stop a cat from hunting any mice that cohabit a house
with it. Fences and cages will not be sufficient barriers. If the
claws of the cat are clipped, it will return to catching mice when
the clipped claws grow back. For the mice to be safe, the cat must be
removed from the house and left with no access to them. So,
Araba/partition is the only answer to the problem of Caliphate
hegemonism in Nigeria. Regional autonomy won’t do the job now, just
as it failed in the past. Confederalism won’t do it either. Only
partition with the erection of some version of an iron curtain will
do it.
Because of what the Federal
Government can do even when its powers are explicitly limited by
constitution and the federating units have reserve powers, Federalism
or confederalism may be capable of many things. But the one thing it
cannot do is solve the insecurity problem of Ndi-Igbo and the other
Non-Caliphate Nigerians, in the Middle Belt and the entire South, who
are being targeted for ethnic cleansing so the cattle of the Fulani
rulers can be grazed on their land, all the way down to Lagos,
Forcados, Bonny and Calabar. This insecurity is intrinsic in a
Nigeria POW camp in which their Caliphate Colonialist enemy is
included. To read more exposés on the Fulani Jihadist Caliphate
Colonialism that is plaguing Nigerians, please follow this link to
http://thenslm.com/home/
