What Nigeria Is Pregnant With

Pregnancy is one of the activities in the well-known and established processes of procreation. Pregnancy is the outcome of the relationship between man and a woman. It starts from non-spectacular to spectacular and it is globally known to be time sensitive. To this end, since it is a process whose visibility is sure and its timing indisputable, it therefore amounts to a case of negligence, both on the path of the expectant couples to prepare late for the coming of their baby. Excuses are therefore not tenable, for things that are measurable in time and size. For Nigerians, the situation which over a period of time has grown to be habitual, is the idea of moving on after an event has occurred, and it does not matter whether for good or for bad. This is why Nigerians have always been seen to be reactive and not proactive. This pattern of behavior alludes to the saying that what you don’t confront has the right to remain, just as the flood will do everything possible to bring down a building, if it is allowed to do so by the owner of the building.

The experience that has been so prevalent in Nigeria is that which suggests that governance is not more than just filling the vacuum of leadership positions and an action that serves to support the saying that nature abhors vacuum. Nigerians will continue to experience bad governance for as long as the leaders that are allowed to highjack power are those nursing their inordinate ambitions and lacking in vision. In trying to relay to Nigerians what the country is pregnant with, references cannot but be made to areas of great importance to the survival of Nigerians, and this includes the security of the lives of Nigerians as well as their welfare. Going forward, the country between now and a six-months period, will experience heightened insecurity. The insecurity situation in the country, rather than abate has increased and the operations of the non-state actors are seen as well coordinated and organized. What generally is in the minds of Nigerians about insecurity and the security agencies, is that it is only when the cat is away that the mice should play, but to the dismay of all, what the mice is doing is more than playing, not only in the presence of the cat, but also going extra mile to romance with the cat.

It has been said often and often and acknowledged by the government that the center of gravity of insurgency and banditry in Nigeria, are the sponsors of the enterprise. It is heart-wrenching as one imagines why a former governor, who was alleged to be a sponsor of terrorism, ends up in the Villa as the Vice President of Nigeria. The same case applies when one tries to wrap his head around how possible it was for another former governor of Zamfara State, whom the incumbent Governor accused of allegedly being a terrorist sponsor, ending up as the Minister of State for Defence.

Just as the Elder Statesman, General Theophilus Danjuma (Rtd) charged the Nigerian Military to end terrorism, banditry and the incessant killings in Nigeria immediately, saying that excuses are not tenable, the same call, I believe, is directed to the Federal Government, under the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The military personnel can be deployed into overseeing a mechanized farming or other activities that are capable of keeping them busy, instead of making them to die the deaths that are man-made and avoidable. Until a political will is mustered on the part of the government of the day to end insecurity, what the pregnancy of Nigeria will give birth to, is heightened insecurity with the avoidable loss of lives of innocent Nigerians. The state of the nation in relation to corruption within all the three tiers of government, namely the executive, the legislator, and the judiciary, has become an eyesore which if allowed to continue, will eventually lead to the breakdown of law and order, a situation that fits in for description as anarchy.

It is very unfortunate that the anti-graft agencies such as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) are not living up to their expectations. The reason for their inefficiency can be adduced to the influences exerted on them by the Executive. It is no longer news that the majority of the members of the legislature, especially those who are former Governors have their files with the anti-graft agencies, being investigated for one crime or the other, and where they are, being senators and lawmakers, has conferred on them, automatic immunity. The anti-graft agencies can better function when made to be independent, just like INEC. However, the question still remains and this is around how truly independent is INEC. Corruption has become endemic and systemic in Nigeria and it will take a total overhaul of the system beginning with the country’s constitution, before Nigeria can make a headway and cease from being called the poverty capital of the world.Furthermore, since the unity achieved by the amalgamation of the country in 1914 has remained fragile, the continuation of which is a pointer to the break-up or the disintegration of the country, all hands need to be brought on the deck to choose the lesser of the two evils, which is restructuring of the country instead of its break-up. Popular agitations have been going on for some time now in Nigeria, including those from the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the most recent, which is that of the Yoruba nation agitators. The developments that are unfolding these days include reactions from the leaders of thought in the Northern part of Nigeria, prominent among which came from Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum and Bashir Muhammad Dalhatu, the Chairman Board, Board of Trustees (BoT), Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), both making comments that are revealing about the readiness of the North to partake in a national conference that is poised to address the issue of the restructuring of Nigeria.

This position taken by the Northern Elders Forum and the Arewa Consultative Forum, can also be a precipitant to the establishment of the League of Northern Democrats by the former Governor of Kano State, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau. The most recent call to the Northerners to brace up for a possible secession of the South-West and South-East from the entity called Nigeria, is from Prof. Sani Abubakar Lugga, who is the 5^th Wazirin Katsina. Professor Lugga has called on the northern region to unite and prepare for self-determination, much like their southern counterparts and to brace themselves for the possibility of separation from Nigeria. These calls have been consistent and sustained, hoping also that they are not falling into the deaf ears of the stakeholders of the northern project for unity and progress.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Just as the case is with humans, this also applies to nations where people underestimate their potentials until they are confronted with a tragedy. The Northerners are hardworking and resilient, and the reason why the North has remained as the most disadvantaged in terms of economic and social infrastructures, remains a mystery to be unraveled.

Another area of concern about the North is why the terrorists and bandits that are wreaking havoc in the Northeast and Northwest, majority of whom themselves are of the Hausa and Fulani extractions, seem to be hateful of their kinsmen on whom they are waging wars, leaves much to be desired. One of the sayings of the Hausas is that water does not turn sour for nothing and this calls for introspection and retrospection on the path of all the stakeholders in the North, for there is no smoke without fire. Who the sponsors and the masterminds of the insecurity in the North are, fishing them out and making them to face the music, is a task that must be done.

On a final note, the pregnancy that Nigeria as a country is carrying can either be nurtured to the delivery date or aborted. There is power in diversity but not as we have it in Nigeria, where diversity is the void of unity, and any house that is divided against itself, will not stand. It is time for all well-meaning Nigerians, not only to say something when they see something, but more importantly, to do the needful that the country Nigeria may not disintegrate or go into extinction. God bless Nigeria.

By Samuel Tunji Adeyanju