Mahmud Jega wants Nigeria restructured before 2027- we Anioma Peoples and Territories insist on Anioma Confederation, our own country, and reject futher RESTRUCTURING of un-workable Nigeria
By
Dr Orefo Nnamdi Onochie
Nigeria had not always been a cursed country, until a youthful Nigerian popular singer made a rendition of the song, NIGERIA JAGAJAGA: by that he meant that the country was being lost as a failed State. Olusegun Obasanjo, President at the time, immodest in personal character, but always zealous in patriotism, began the CURSE with his repost ” your P… jagajaga, your M… jagajaga”. Sixteen years after, they delivered and declared Jagaban on February 20, 2023 to lead Nigeria as President. It appeared un-serious initially, but the longer the days, the deeper the shock and bewilderment. The easy character of charlatans and praise-singers in Nigeria soon took over, especially those in the APC and the Southwest. That too was short-lived, because the horde of irregularities that marred the Presidential election of February 18, 2023, such as the rejection of electronic transmission of the nationally collated results, was brushed aside. Despite that several inconclusive results and issues were largely still outstanding, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, of the electoral commission, alleged to have received heavy bribes lodged into his Son’s Swiss Bank account, declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaban of Borgu, winner of the 2023 Presidential election. A constitutional crises was began, and the hydra-headed consequences have become the Jagabanisation of Nigeria. Those who felt cheated or aggrieved politically, were impiously asked to “go to Court”.
Buhari began the activities and orchestration to swear in the Jagaban, as President, creating a major problem of acceptance and legitimacy of any government that would arise from the new Presidential office that would be created. It further fueled the depth of political bad blood, ethnic division, generational hatred and dissension in Nigeria. The young people who had borne the brunt of years of political mis-rule, economic disintegration and downward spiral of the country, were openly expectant and insisting on a change to more sensitive and non corrupt leadership of the country.
NEW PARTNERSHIP OF THE SOUTHWEST AND THE NORTH
On the other hand, the political class, in the Southwest and the North, felt that their plan to permanently reserve the leadership of Nigeria, between the Muslims of the South West and the North of the country was being gradually cemented. Other events that followed after the Presidential election results were announced, pinpointed at the very rough seas Nigeria was being divisively pushed into.
As the last programmed elections of March 25, 2023 approached, the immediate consequences of calling an inconclusive declaration of a Presidential victory, manifested itself. It was clear that Bola Ahmed Tinubu had been forcefully declared winner, despite having lost in his own Lagos State political empire, and Abuja FCT, which the Supreme Court of Nigeria, SCN, had by a prior judgment elevated statutorally to the position of a decisive bloc that must be won, for any Presidential candidate to win the election.
Tinubu lost the FCT. The APC in Lagos State was clearly confronted with the ugly reality, that it would loose the Governorship election in the State, since Tinubu was ashamedly defeated in his own backyard. This was how they began the committing of the most heinous crimes against the Nigerian Federation, for which generations yet unborn would hold them liable, as being one of the major factors that would lead to the constitutional Dissolution of Nigeria. Igbos, or those who resembled Igbos, were publicly told not to go to polling booths to vote on the Governorship/State Assembly elections of March 25, 2023. It had never happened before, to publicly debar and stop eligible citizens in a federal entity from going to vote.
Worse still, despite that it was a policy backed by the Lagos State government, no law enforcement or prosecutorial agents in the entire country, denounced the aberration. Indeed, as the situation unfolded, hordes of Igbos had their shops looted, properties vandalized and individuals threatened, harassed and injured: not one person was apprehended, charged or prosecuted till date. Elections in the country, especially the Southwest would never be the same again.
This level of ethnic hostility and divisiveness would persist, anywhere calculations were ripe, to determine the results of any future elections in the country: it is the Jagabanization that will consume rather than cohere any efforts directed to create political and cultural ideals that are considered unacceptable to any major ethnic, religious or clannish group in Nigeria. It would work, anywhere else, since it worked in Lagos State, and the Southwest during the General elections of 2023. The same group are already, purportedly gearing up, set for fresh Presidential and General elections in 2027. Are they expected to jettison their winning formula of stopping the seemingly most eager, active and populous Igbos from voting, in the State, as they did in the last election, which enabled them the Tinubu minions to win by a landslide? No rational group will do that, Igbos will definitely be stopped, intimidated and threatened not to go out and vote again during the 2027 elections, if it will hold, or be compelled as a result of the renewed coercion and threats, to not go out and vote their conscience or will. Where does all this pit the country, in the annals of a truly united, federated and cohered country, or an unstoppable disintegrating political entity? The equality of political and social status of all citizens in a federal entity, a critical attribute of a federation would be totally erased, and the gale of a dissolving polity will be blowing so fiercely that it would uproot any structure lieing in its way. This would be Jagabanization at it’s worst, and it would be seen or represented when Nigeria gets to that bridge.
THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY HELD ON THE JUGULAR BY JAGABANIZATION
To prove a high point on his character as a go-getter, Bola Ahmed Tinubu started his economic policy-making by removing subsidy on petrol sold to the Nigerian public. Very highly unexpected, but so frequently mouthed in political campaign grounds, I had condemned the policy to remove petrol subsidy, as a Presidential Aspirant myself, throughout 2021, to 2022 when I stopped campaigning. Buhari had cleverly deferred removing petrol subsidy 90-days before the end of his tenure, and pushed it to whoever would be charged with running the economy after the Presidential election. Tinubu as he was sworn in announced the subsidy of removal policy and thus began the creeping Jagabanisation of the Nigerian economy, placed under his charge. The cost of petrol was doubled within 4-days, the prices of all commodities rose by the double, especially public transport cost. Public condemnation was quick in coming, and Tinubu had obversely proved to the Nigerian public that his judgment, and leadership capacities could not be trusted instinctively. It was also proof that more impulsive policies, without bureaucratic assessments, examinations and the benefit of shared collegial inputs would plague the country.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE POLICY OF TINUBU RUINS THE ECONOMY DEEPLY
In tow, Tinubu announced that the exchange rate regime and policy between the local Naira currency, and the US Dollar, would be bridged and the exchange disparity would effectively be eliminated or reduced. This policy combined with Tinubu’s policies of clamping down on the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, who was a nemesis and an albatross during and before the elections, because Tinubu (and other politicians), were starved of voters bribery and vote-buying money: included in the Tinubu clampdown was the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was alleged to have perpetrated massive corrupt actions involving stealing from stolen public funds, criminally taking over properties and assests seized from economic and financial crooks. Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, and Abdulrasheed Bawa, EFCC Chairman, were detained respectively, the former on very prolonged detention, only just released after the viral expose of his even more shocking humongeous theft of CBN and public funds; but the latter was detained for only 67-days, as alleged criminals in huge fleecing of the public treasury, as Tinubu aimed to bridge the exchange rate disparity between the Naira and the US Dollar. As it was cranky and devoid of prior public or bureaucratic assessment, so too was the forex policy an empty effort that has driven the foreign exchange rate from N420.00 per US Dollar, on June 6, 2023, to N1,245.00 per US Dollar on December 18, 2023, an increase of more than 220%, since Tinubu took over. It is apparent that Tinubu cannot cure the ills of the Nigerian economy, even after appointing new Ministers, CBN Governor and Board. That first error, and subsequent ones have stagnated the economic system, and inviting Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian Economy-Finance Minister and currently World Bank CEO, brought no immediate relief or foreseeable remedies. Tinubu as a sensitive empathor, offered the Nigerian public, State by State, reliefs or palliatives in billions of Naira, bags of rice which were shared corruptly, fought over publicly, proof that the hardship situation in the country was very dire. The question is: what is the plan put out by Tinubu’s government to restore the semblance of financial rationality on the value of the Naira against the US Dollar and other currencies? How long will all this take or continue? Can the spiral be stopped, if not where will it terminate? There are those who do not want these questions to be posed and addressed.
Meanwhile, Jagabanization got moved in another direction: loans for students of tertiary institutions, and new minimum wage for workers.
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LOANS AND MINIMUM WAGE FOR NIGERIAN WORKERS
Directed towards finding a solution against policies and threats of increased tertiary education fees, by the universities, the scramble offering loans to university students, showed a lack of proper articulation of policies directed at funding tertiary education, and further exposed Tinubu’s unpreparedness in social governance. The greatest forte of the political Progressives who are followers of Obafemi Awolowo, is FREE EDUCATION. All those currently in positions of government authority in aboriginal Yoruba Southwest and Yoruba nation, benefitted from Chief Awolowo’s FREE EDUCATION policy, including Bola Tinubu himself. The question again is, why would these persons who were educated free more than sixty years ago, be seeking to give re-payable loans to Nigerian university students, instead of re-setting government’s priorities and doing away with profligacies and enact education policy that will benefit the students and the society alike? Loans for students in universities that would be offered based on affordability, needs and the capacity to pay back, two years upon graduation from the university or jail time and imprisonment if there is failure to repay the loans, is a very poor legacy from persons who received freely. It is worse to mention jailing them should they fail to repay the education loans. Hundreds of corrupt and crooked Nigerian persons have failed to refund legitimate business loans, and have laundered the monies into their personal accounts, and neither the banks or government have prosecuted and jailed them. Others as senior federal and State government officials have stolen the country dry, of billions of Naira, and are given no jail sentences, mostly let off on easy terms of incarnation: the jagaban loan scheme will send the students to jail if the loan is not repayed by them within two years. Very sensitive and sensible education funding policy, indeed! But in this instant students’ loans scheme, the funds for the university students loans have neither been appropriated nor made available, but the dust raised by the insensitivity and inadequacy of the scheme has, four months since it was announced, confined the policy to government dusty shelves, and university tuition fees have in most cases been raised by 100%, UNICAL being the latest, despite Government pronouncements that tuition fees should not be increased.
The increase in workers Minimum Wage suffered worse presentation, negotiations and implementation. Tinubu offered the Labor Unions, the NLC and TUC, N70,000.00 monthly minimum wage, effectively doubling workers’ pay, while the Unions costed and factored in inflationary trends, and announced that agreements had been reached with government, which the National Assembly would announce at N200,000.00 minimum monthly wage; and upon Government refusal, to accept the Unions declared new minimum wage, the Unions called out workers strikes and work-to-rule; twice the sttikes were called out over petrol subsidy removal and the new minimum wage impasse,twice the strikes failed, leading to wide allegations that the Unions had been allegedly corrupted by Government. The accusations by the public and civil liberties organizations/human rights groups of Labor being bribed and bought-over by Government, having called off strikes twice despite unfulfilled promises, by Government; and still the cost of living has persistently risen, especially food inflation. The Jagabanization of the Nigerian economy has continued and there seems to be no end in sight. Till date, after three months of so-called agreements between the Unions and government, payment of the excessive minimum wage increase has not been commenced or implemented. The actual effects and consequences will only be felt upon implementation, when the traders, market-women and transporters will seek to recuperate their own benefits, from the workering class benefactors of the new minimum wage. This cyclical impact on the economy, having for decades long been part of Nigeria’s economic history, is the major reason government should never be involved in negotiating workers’ minimum wage, but should focus on reducing increases in prices of products, and reducing inflation.
BUREAUCRATIC LOGJAM, POLICY MIS-CUES, CORRUPTION AND POLITICAL UNCERTAINTIES
Jagabanization was quickly extended to foreign policy, as it was on the domestic and economic front. The ECOWAS Heads of State were long scheduled to meet early in June 2023, which coincided with the incipience of Tinubu’s government. Not to shy away from Government responsibility, and to corner external legitimacy and acceptance, Tinubu and his handlers sought for him to become the new Chairman of the ECOWAS Committee of Heads of State. Going by prior schedules based on spread and inclusion, Tinubu was ineligible to be ECOWAS Chairman, because Buhari his predecessor had been Chairman only in 2018. Other colleague Presidents had been lined up, who had to be shunted out and away, in order to now proclaim and put Tinubu in place. It didn’t go down well with them initially, but diplomatic concessions were made, which involved alleged deep pocket payments, trade-offs and promises, and Tinubu thus became ECOWAS Chairman less than two weeks after being sworn-in as Nigeria’s President.
DEBACLE AND COUP D’ETAT IN NIGER REPUBLIC: TINUBU’S FIRST FOREIGN POLICY FAUX PAS
Then Jagabanization struck again close to Nigeria, with a military coup d’etat in Niger Republic on July 26, 2023. Without due consultation with other ECOWAS Heads of States and governments. Tinubu condemned the coup, berated the new junta in Niamey, headed by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, and ordered them to restore the ousted, corruptly accused President Mohammed Bazoum, who Buhari had cultivated widely; and whom the French government had trapped in uranuim export and military cooperation sub-servitude, against the national interests of Niger, as well as the military cooperation judged by the new junta and populace as inimical to their development as a sovereign entity.
Tinubu confronted the new regime, and the new leader General Tchiani chastised Tinubu, and firmly requested him to perfect his legitimacy and acceptance in Nigeria, prior looking out into or against another sovereign entity and territory; and that he Tchaini would not take orders from him Tinubu. This episode was misjudged, unnecessary and a blight on the regional prestige and power of Nigeria. If you live in a glass house, do not throw stones. This short-sighted grab for regional power and hegemony, was uncalled for in the first instance, and was antithetical to the 1973 spirit on which the ECOWAS was founded, based on collegial considerations, and sensitivity and fairness in the Chairmanship and leadership of the community: not the “grab power and run away with it” style and modus of Tinubu epitomizing Jagabanization.
The regime in Niamey has teamed up with the newer military governments in Burkina Faso and Mali, supported too by the Guinea-Conakry government; they have expelled France, and increased the price of uranium by more than 300%, from the meager income offered Niger by France for more than 50-years now (former price paid by France, for uranium, €0.80, per kg, new price by junta €200.00 per kg).
In the Northern frontier of Nigeria with Niger, Hausa-Fulani close relatives of the Niger entity, warned Tinubu to pull away from his meddling and Jagabanization, or face dire consequences; inter ethnic tensions, between the Hausa-Fulani and Yorubas within Nigeria rose very quickly. There truly was no need for the Niger coup rumpus, and it was a diplomatic faux pas and inexcusable, but for the deep desire to obtain legitimacy for Tinubu, because the quick reward of the victory at the 2023 Presidential election to him was preposterous.
Till date, ECOWAS has had to continue to placate the regime in Niamey, and indeed appears to be loosing grounds and capacity, and Tinubu’s Chairmanship has not been translated into renewed economic strength in the region, political cohesion, clarity of direction and solidarity; or extended economic prosperity and security, within the ECOWAS region.
COP 28 CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE IN DUBAI AND THE NIGERIAN DELEGATION OF 1,411
Tinubu learned from the Niger coup diplomatic faux pas lesson the hard way, but it did not help the Tinubu government from November 30-December 12, 2023, evade another logjam at the COP 28 Conference in Dubai, UAE, where the performance of the Nigerian delegation was well below standards, with a bloated delegation of 1,411 persons; or the UK inspired London Islamic States Conference on November 25, 2023, on the Israeli-Gaza war, where Nigeria was openly classified as an Islamic State, no longer a secular State, based on Section 4.1. of the 1999 Constitution of the country. Several indices of assessing the policy standards and performance of a government have been remarkably low, with the Tinubu government, thus further bringing into question and disrepute the standing and position of the government, as well as the international reputation, prestige and power of the country.This Jagaban methodology and modus are not elevating the country in the international environment, and it is like the more the government is doing, the less the positive impact it is making. Where or when will the buck stop?
COHESION, UNITY AND FAIRNESS AS FOUNTAIN AND BASIS OF PATRIOTISM: OPPRESSION AND DOMINATION AS PRIMARY CAUSE OF SEPARATIST AGITATIONS AGAINST THE WELL-BEING OF NIGERIA AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL DISSOLUTION OF THE ENTITY
Even the much more older political entities around the world, still strive to promote and engender patriotism, through forthright ideological policies and the personal character of the leading elite. Without encouraging the populace to love the country, social cohesion and unity, become scarce political commodities that point to failures in the political system. Indeed, once fairness and justice gains the same scarcity trait, patriotism evaporates, and internal dissension envelopes the political space, and unity, and prosperity will elude that entity until and unless there is a re-writing of the modus operandi of the country. This situation has persisted in Nigeria for close to 30-years now, and from several stages and situations, has consistently gotten worse, and the re-writing of the constitutional framework of Nigeria has been cleverly avoided, by a specific segment and strands within the polity, especially in the North, that the weight overhanging the entire political system has threatened to collapse on the weaker foundation. The General and Presidential elections of 2023 seemed to provide that opportunity for the re-writing of the foundation on which the edifice will survive or decapitate.
But the level of inequality shown in the choice of the 2023 Presidential candidates of the two major political parties in Nigeria, tended to accentuate the forces of separatism and agitations to divide the country, based on the prior performances of Buhari from 2015-2022. The process of Fulanization, Arabization and Islamization became very noticeable during the period under consideration. It was prior President Olusegun Obasanjo who coined and commonized the concept and terminology Fulanization. The very major policies, appointments and directions of the Buhari government were too nepotistic, parochial and in favor of Fulanis, Northerners and Muslims. Favors bestowed on the cronies of the President were too many, and obvious that protecting and providing for the Fulani herdsmen, to envelope and gain more grazing grounds in Nigeria, frightened and engendered Yoruba irredentism and separatism. The rage of Boko Haram from 2009, which Buhari as someone running to be President of Nigeria in that period, began to notify and pinpoint at a false objective in the private and political motives of Buhari. The policy of RUGA, rural land and animal grazing law which Buhari firmly implanted and funded, caused new political and social tensions and aggravated ethnic divisions, especially between the Southern and Northern ethnic nationalities. In the Yoruba areas, an activist Yoruba or Oduduwa Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho, ordered Fulani herdsmen to leave parts of Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ogun States, that the much prior separatism of the Biafra-IPOB-MASSOB genre appeared to be overtaken by the Oduduwa Nation agitators. Buhari’s government was alarmed, and began the process of clamping down on the violent separatists. The hope of the 2023 General elections, especially the Presidential election, offered some certain glimmer of hope that remedies could assist in re-directing the political trajectory of Nigeria. After June 2022, and the conclusion of the Delegates Conventions of the PDP and APC, the two leading political parties, it became clear that the forces of Domination and the oppression of the other ethnic nationalities, and religions, were under grave and imminent danger. It was even more so for the Igbo ethnic nationality. The long call and pleas, by very senior Politicians such as Anthony Enahoro, Abraham Adesonya, Prof. Ben Nwabeze and others, to RESTRUCTURE Nigeria, for more than 20-years had fallen on deaf ears. The major critical imbalances in the 1999 Constitution, which had rendered the document unworkable, remained unattended to. For example, the Igbos had been adamant that the Igbo-speaking States were only five, while all others were either six or seven. That the preponderance of local governments around the country favored the North, as is the total number of States, thus in all facets of sharing national resources, the North was indisputably favored. These petitions meant little to the elite of the North. Agitations had been rife that the method of gathering revenue should be returned to the formula used in the Constitution of 1963, so that the federating units, would gather and retain 50% of the collected resources, and remit the balance 50% to the federal centre. The balance of favor and benefit fell on the North, both the total number of constituent units required to amend the unworkable Constitution, or in the event of voting at Constitutional Review Conferences, unless the North was agreeable to an idea, that or such ideas were dead as they were raised. The political impunity and arrogance has compelled other ethnic nationalities to the extreme position of rejecting RESTRUCTURING, and insisting on Constitutional Dissolution of the entity. This posture appeared untenable at some point, but with more and more of the major ethnic nationalities leaders and spokespersons pronouncing readiness to negotiate the Independence and separation of units prepared to concede that neither violence or war would serve the growth interests of their populations. Outstanding issues to be resolved, would involve setting up Commissions and Agencies that will collate assets, liabilities and visible and invisible interests of constituents, and work out modalities for sharing them amongst them amicably and set out timetables for the incorporation and departure of the emerging new entities.
Allegations and accusations of ethnic and religious Domination of sections of the nationalities, or creeping and gradual plans to grab aboriginal lands, grazing fields, water-holes, and to overwhelm and kill off these nationalities are real. Only the proper formulation of legal inter-boundary laws, protocols and regulations will settle and resolve these problems and issues. They are ramified in contexts of Boko Haram, ISWAP, Unknown Gunmen, ESN, Kidnappers etc and other religious and ethnic insurgecies, of more than 14-years now, since 2009 till date. But the consolation of the cooperation in the ECOWAS Treaty and Protocols, would aid the resolution of these matters. But the complaints of ethnic Fulani and Muslim religious Domination of the rest of the aboriginal nationalities must be recognized, to avoid errors and conflicts known the Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Eritrea and Dafur. The window of avoiding steep conflicts, violence and the descent into ethnic conflagration is getting slimmer and less. Corruption and impunity by the political and business elite cannot be controlled because the Judiciary has been badly roped in. The violent unexpected consequences of the #END SARS protests of October 20-22, 2020, were massively borne by the Judiciary and the Police. The oldest Court Complex at Igbosere, Lagos was burnt down and erased, so were judicial heritages in Asaba and Calabar. The Police in the South East and South South have been more assaulted, except in the Northeast and North West. Huge swaths of territories, and revenue collection capacities in the North have already been lost. There is not much opportunities left, and the leaders of the ethnic nationalities must advance and engage the federal authorities in the nearest time frame to gain constitutional dissolution opportunities. Now is the time.
IGBOS THE THIRD TRIPOD OF NIGERIA NOW SUBDUED BY THE YORUBA AND HAUSA-FULANI
Having concluded that only fairness, justice and unity can engender patriotism in any political entity, ip so facto (it goes without saying) that where any of the three is lacking, that society will find it’s citizens unresponsive and unpatriotic. They will work less, refuse the payment of taxes, or pay taxes to other outfits competing with governments, such as reportedly obtains in several parts of the country, in the Northwest, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, South East and South South such as Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Rivers; where the peoples reject public works, or are forced by bandits and herdsmen to stay away, and not to join in domestic daily productivity, or the defense of the motherland.
The crux of the Igbo grouse is the lack of fairness of Nigeria to the Igbos. Accusations of Igbos wishing to dominate the rest of Nigeria is held by them as groundless in that the political crises of 1962 began in Yoruba land and amongst Yoruba politicians, led by Obafemi Awolowo and Samuel Akintola. It was the intractable violence in the old wild West, called WETIE-WETIE, meaning douse the traducers with petrol and set them on fire, to roast. Tafawa Balewa the ally of Akintola siding him, declared a State of Emergency in the Western Region, spiraling into more violence, and ultimately the pressing of charges of treason and insurrection against Awolowo, leading to his imprisonment. Continuation of that political violence and confusion was the primary reason for the first military intervention and coup d’etat, engineered and master-minded by Adeboye Adegboyega a Yoruba, but led by Chukwuma Nzeogwu an Igbo from the west side of the River Niger, and Emmanuel Ifeajuna , an Igbo from the east side of the same river. The Hausa-Fulani political and military leaders, murdered in that coup, has been the source of bitterness that led to pogroms of the Igbos, ultimately causing the war of 1967-1970. A new dimension, open allegations, and accusations of Fulanization and Islamization, and the announcement that the UK has classified and officially notes Nigeria, as an Islamic State. These issues are serious and the better way to deal with them is not to pretend that they are minor. Even amongst the same competing Muslim ethnic nationalities, in the Islamic Republic of Sudan have been strafing and killing themselves for the past 8-months. It is best to save the people by working early for their peace, growth and prosperity.
2. MAHMUD JEGA WANTS NIGERIA RESTRUCTURED BEFORE 2027 – WE ANIOMA PEOPLES AND TERRITORIES INSIST ON ANIOMA CONFEDERATION, OUR OWN COUNTRY, AND REJECT FUTHER RESTRUCTURING OF UN-WORKABLE NIGERIA
Mahmud Jega, teacher and professor of Political Science, and the last but one Chairman of INEC, the independent electoral commission, has reportedly called for the RESTRUCTURING of Nigeria before 2027. The pronouncement is a disservice to the Nigerian populace, and the Nigerian Political Science Association, which I joined upon graduating from that field of study 45-years ago. Indeed, Jega cannot be denied his right of free speech, just as he cannot deny me of mine, especially in condemning his RESTRUCTURING pronouncement, knowing fully well that it cannot be achieved. Jega understands very well the concept of the dialectical, which exponented means that for every season there is a time, and once the time is passed, that seasonal dialectic becomes irretrievable. Nigeria went passed RESTRUCTURING more than 15-years ago. What juncture does Jega want the restructuring to begin now? Corruption, crude oil theft, Naira-US Dollar value, Igbos-cannot-vote-in-Lagos State, 28.4% inflation, N53 Trillion Naira 2023 Ways and Means newly printed-minted Naira notes, N680.00 per liter of Petrol, N200,000.00 Minimum Wage, Boko Haram, Unknown Gunmen, Fulani herdsmen, Nigeria-an-Islamic-State, etc. Bola Tinubu, sworn in 7-months ago, with new Ministers has not as much as scratched the critical problems of the country on the surface, but has been jetting out of Nigeria every averaged 26-days. Lateef Jakande was Governor of Lagos State for 4-years and nearly 60-days, he did not leave these shores for one day. The Lagos Marina Metro Rail Jakande planned to complete during his 2nd tenure took 40-years to get completed in 2023. If Nigeria had permitted Jakande to remain and work for Lagos State, perhaps Jakande’s slow Metro Rail would be an Electric Speed Train in 2023, running from Mile 2 to the Marina in 4-minutes, Agege to the Marina in 5-minutes.
Under Buhari who promised to restructure Nigeria and failed in 8-years, thoughts of Electric Speed Rail is impossible, because in that 8-years daily electricity generation-supply in Nigeria was never above 2,424 Megawatts, and the national electricity grid collapsed averagely once every 45-days. Compare: Liz Truss was UK Prime Minister for 49-days, and rate of inflation rose from 9% to 14%, and her Parliamentary Caucus replaced her with Rishi Sunak, of Asian Indian descent, and in 20-days, the rate of inflation descended to 5%. Food inflation in Nigeria rose 200% 60-days after Tinubu was sworn in, same with petrol cost per liter, the Naira against the US Dollar in 7-months, rose from N461.00 to N1,245.00 per $1.00 USD. At the current rate of depreciation by Jega’s 2027, the Naira against the US Dollar would be exchanging at N6,800.00 per $1.00. The APC will still win all the elections in Nigeria, Boko Haram and Unknown Gunmen will ensure that traveling time on certain roads will further be reduced to 4-hours daily. In February 2021, as an early Presidential Aspirant for the 2023 race, I was counseled by a highly placed Nigerian Aboriginal Leader to ensure my trip from Sokoto to Katsina should between 9am to 4pm. Two years after the advice, the time on the same road is not to go beyond 3pm, because the Bandits have become more menacing and phantom, evading being challenged. How will all these dysfunctionalities be solved in the current paradigms of the country? These myriad of problems of Boko Haram and Insecurity have been around now for 14-years, and the end is nowhere in sight. It will all continue as business as usual, so long as there is oil and government money for a few people to continue to steal: but at new smaller ethnically originated political structures, home-grown solutions will be originated and suffice. Compare the bohemian Soviet Union, of 1917 up to1987, with the currunt rate of growth and development of the 15-smaller republics that were created from her, Uzbekistan and Croatia are the fastest that come to mind, see how far they have gone, from 1991-2023. Nigeria’s interminable and current problems have surpassed those of the Soviet Union, despite our lesser natural resources and endowments, including military resources, territoriality and population. Nigeria is very un-workable, and has been so for more than 50-years now. It has consistently been going from bad to worse. As a Doctoral student in ABU Zaria, 42-years ago, I hardly recall electricity outages. Can humble students in tertiary institutions of today have the same joyful recollections, in the Campus or at home?
DRAFT CHARTER AND CONSTITUTION OF ANIOMA PEOPLES AND TERRITORIES
We in Anioma, Igbos and Olukumi peoples, with our various dialects, who are west of the River Niger, are insistent that we have had enough of Nigeria, and seek to exit the entity, legally and through Constitutional Dissolution, without acrimony or violence. Peacefully we have the capacity to unite our aboriginal Peoples and Territories, in a new Charter and Constitution that will offer our Peoples FREE EDUCATION at all levels and FREE MEDICAL SERVICES, diversify and increase electricity generation-supply, peg and reduce the price of petrol, rein in inflation and reduce the cost of living, prioritize our resources to cater for the people, not the political, bureaucratic , military or Constabulary class, encourage domestic economic growth, and development, total local resource control, 50% revenue only for the Confederation, and social development from the local Communes, to our Provinces, to the Confederation levels, in a 30-members only unicameral Parliamentary system that will combine leadership between our highly trusted Anioma Aboriginal Hereditary Leaders, and rotate political class leadership amongst our aboriginal ethnic dialects/groups , in 2-year short non-renewable political tenures to allow, the females 50% election representation opportunities and the youths-the young to fully participate in collegial politics, based on turn-by-turn collegial politics, eschew bitterness and election Court litigation, and insist on ZERO corruption, ZERO foreign loans, and adopt the ECOWAS Treaty and Protocols, to enable reciprocity, neutrality, amity between our Peoples and regional neighbors, any non-aboriginals who transit, or sojourn lawfully and peaceably with us.
We the Anioma Peoples and Territories reject any new calls for RESTRUCTURING Nigeria, because the time is long past. We will use less time and resources to develop, prosper and grow our Peoples and Land. Better than in the current entity in which the motives, intentions of the leaders are corrupt, suspect, dishonest and shrouded in the wrong economic goals and objectives, including forcing other people to become Muslims. We encourage other ethnic nationalities to rewrite how to govern themselves and gain the future. Those who wish to remain in the current entity, have their wishes and rights respected by us, and we insist on our own rights and wishes to be respected by all.
MISERABLE UN-HAPPY YEAR 2023
It has been a miserable 2023, for the majority of the population. Buhari before leaving office, asked Nigerians to forgive him for their suffering: Mrs. Buhari also pleaded on his behalf. Then they sent Nigerians, from the fry pan straight into the flaming fire, the same day Jagaban was sworn in. An Assistant said before traveling for the Christmas holidays, that half his trip fare with Chisco, subsidized transporter of Tinubu’s holiday gift for home-returning citizens, would get him to Benin City but he would not be able to afford a big loaf of cake-bread for his relatives to share in acknowledgment of his Christmas home-coming. The loaf of bread had tripled in cost, from N600.00 last December, to N1,600.00 today December 24, 2023.
Nonetheless, Happy Christmas 2023, and a better Environment in 2024, to all our People!
Written by Dr Orefo Nnamdi Onochie
Convener Onochie Political Action Conference(ONOPAC)
