Restructuring as panacea for nation building

Sir: Nigeria as a nation has failed. There is no need to pretend that anything is working. An insecure nation cannot be expected to progress in any area of development because the constant palpable fear of lack of safety renders the aspiration for endeavor impossible. Take a close review of developments in the past month. On the average there are a minimum of 11 daily deaths per population of 1000. 

Again, abductions for ransom have exacerbated. Emboldened bandits have gone berserk to the extent of waylaying and killing soldiers in Benue, raiding police headquarters in Owerri, and setting free a motley 1844 prisoners from a correctional center unchallenged not to mention the isolated killing of policemen at different locations. This is pure anarchy which is a confirmation of the absence of responsible governance.

Meanwhile, despite the strike action by the engine room of medical services —the resident doctors, during a devastating covid pandemic, our president was away in London for rest as he told the Jordanian leader or probably to consult his age long doctors on routine medical check according to his spokespersons.

Amid all these, a change of guard curiously takes place in the police department, a clear month ahead of the controversial three months service extension of the IGP and without an input from the Police Council. There is disenchantment in the land and clamour for restructuring or separation which the North is reluctant to embrace. It is however advisable to seriously consider these agitations.

Furthermore, pronouncements of Northern elders and most especially Miyetti Allah are not likely to engender national cohesion or unity. Cattle herding which has caused so many disruptions to peace and unity must not become the prerogative or sole responsibility of the federal government. It is a private enterprise but the Fulanis with their aggravated sense of entitlement think that it deserves priority attention and continues to make demands that offend the other ethnic and regional groups. Their AK 47/49 totting herdsmen have been terrorizing other farmers without a single arrest or prosecution but instead there is a demand for amnesty and rehabilitation for them and their counterparts referred to as repentant insurgents.

In conclusion, demand by any other dissatisfied group for separation should not be regarded as an act of war as being touted but a wish for emancipation in the face of obvious marginalization by those in authority. The plausible panacea is to take advantage of these agitations to restructure. It is no longer time for rhetoric or procrastination but honest dialogue and implementation of proffered solutions. Let this Buhari government stop listening to sycophants and beneficiaries of his skewed structure and take proactive action to return to the path of nation building. What we have now is not sustainable and bound to collapse sooner than later.
Patrick Onwochei, lives in Asaba, Delta State, wrote via [email protected].