“Clearly defined position of Southern Governors are of mammoth benefit to the people and struggles of Southern Nigeria. ―Ebuka Onyekwelu
Many people are conversant with the 1914 merger of the Northern and Southern protectorate of Nigeria by the British, to create what country is called Nigeria as it is known. Over the years, the Southern protectorate has almost completely withered, broken down into sub-regions, and then, states. With no significant source of unification, Southern Nigeria quickly disappeared. This happened while the North retains its own clear identity and to an appreciable degree, a singleness of purpose for the Nigerian project. But Southern Nigeria became increasingly balkanized and internally disharmonized, to extremes. In a sense, while Northern Nigeria has clear identity, Southern Nigeria has none.
For years, Northern Nigeria has exploited this advantage which was a creation of Northern elites; relying mainly on the popular religious identity of the region and the serfdom system, which has brought a lot of political clout and advantage to the North. But also the serfdom system has disempowered millions of Northerners, who live in abject poverty with attendant consequences. This very situation is at the heart of the current security crisis in the North; clearly, a situation where millions of unskilled, uneducated youths, live off begging alms is a recipe for disaster. What was needed to create a vast industry of crime was a trigger.
For over a decade now, Boko Haram which fight is still ongoing has energized the crime industry in the North. We must not forget that Boko Haram started off as a popular discontent against the government. Now, it seems the war on terrorism in the North has been leveraged on by disillusioned populace to commercialize crime, diversify and entrench criminality, because many of the very disempowered segment of the population is now armed. Yet, even as the Northern region has hundreds of different ethnic groups, still they are all identified as a single group and despite the insecurity and crisis which leaves a lot of chance for identity tension; the North remains the North and this has momentous group advantage, especially in their interaction with the other parts of the country. A good way to summarize is to say that the North destroys the North and still asks Nigeria to pay for it.
In the South, the problem feels different. The political leaders of the various components of Southern Nigeria are trying to create a separate and defining identity for their people. Matter of fact, geo-political zone and state creation, it appears, have more impact on Southern Nigeria than Northern Nigeria. Then again, in the South, people think more in terms of geopolitical zone when approaching political conversation on the distribution of resources, positions, and among others. Individual identity is key and prime. The far-reaching implication is that Southern Nigeria is often so easily outmaneuvered by the more skillful deployment of group interest by the Northern political bloc. I mean, it is matter of fact easy to overrun a balkanized group, no matter how sophisticated. For the most part in the South, many young people are disenchanted with Nigeria, but even so with their own state governments. Generally, they react against the Nigerian state within their own sub-regions. A case in point is the Niger Delta Avengers, the Indigenous People of Biafra, Yoruba Nation, among many others, all with substantial followership and varying capabilities that rattles the entire polity. While these groups focus on Federal Government’s lopsidedness, the dire and compounding consequences of their operations rests on the affected zones and states.
Keeping quiet is no longer an option for Southern leaders and this is one reason the governors came together.
Before now, the leaders of Southern Nigeria could afford to look elsewhere while their states and geo-political zones burn, but the times are different. The activities of non-state actors in the South have tremendously increased across the various zones in Southern Nigeria, threatening the establishment and power players in the South. Keeping quiet is no longer an option for Southern leaders and this is one reason the governors came together. But also the attitude of the Buhari-led Federal Government towards disquieting issues of national security –like the activities of killer Fulani herdsmen, political position sharing formula, among others, is at the front-burner in the latest agitations, but sadly completely ignored by the Federal Government. This situation understandably, created a more visible governance vacuum, putting more pressure on the state governments in the South and turning their people against them.
Yesterday, the Southern Governors Forum met in Lagos and made bold decisions again, to validate their last meeting in Asaba, Delta state. The governors emphatically agreed that in 2023, Nigeria’s President must come from Southern Nigeria. The import of this decision is that it came from state actors; governors, who are in charge of the states of Southern Nigeria. So it is not to be dismissed as baseless, or unfounded. The governors have legitimate stakes across different political parties in the process of who becomes the next president. To say that this is the hope of all southerners who are proponents of one Nigeria is to say the obvious. For long, this was what the people of Southern Nigeria really wanted; for their political leaders to stand up and actually express the expectations of the people without apologies.
…By September, all Southern states must have enacted a law to prohibit open grazing across all Southern states.
That the governors of Southern Nigeria now can speak the language of the ordinary southerner in terms of stake in the polity is of immense profundity. By the governors trying to assert their fast eroding relevance, these two weighty benefits will accrue to the people; one, the governors are now more disposed to govern with recourse to the feelings and concerns of the people. At least, what troubles the people will now be given a fair thought, by the leaders. Secondly, they will now put considerable pressure on the Federal Government to re-evaluate its standing on issues of concern to the South. In this instance, the Federal Government is left with no option except they would wish to have a divided Nigeria. In fact, the aftermath of the Asaba Accord was still unsettling to the regime which made frantic but failed efforts to dismiss the relevance of that meeting. During yesterday’s meeting, the Southern Governors also agreed that by September, all Southern states must have enacted a law to prohibit open grazing across all Southern states.
The main cause of the rising agitations in various zones of Southern Nigeria is the mindless activities of herdsmen, who not only destroy cultivated crops by leading their animals to graze on cultivated farmlands but also attack communities and farmers in villages. For years, especially under this administration, the pattern of this attack has remained constant; yet, the Federal Government has not made any important effort to contain the situation. Instead, the government is making a case for grazing routes or for reserves across the states of the federation, both of which is difficult to rationalize and generally fits into the suspicion of the people that the government wants to use political power to create Fulani settlements across the federation for their own skewed interests.
The Union of Southern Governors is a credible political bloc that is capable of wrestling the Northern elite’s stronghold on the polity, in the name of the North. The Forum will also rescue Southern governors from their own people who are generally distraught with the government. Distraught with the federal government for unequal opportunity and treatment, and with the state for not representing and protecting the interests of the governed. In assessing this, we must be clear about Nigeria’s unceremonious capture, under this regime, by Northern hardliners. Politically speaking, no amount of pressure from non-state actors and groups can deter them. Indeed, if the dissidents get really on their nerves, they will be extinguished in a flash. But state actors cutting across party lines in the mold of the Southern Governors Forum are a real deterrent and a formidable counter to the whims and machinations of hardliners manning the Nigerian polity under the regime.
However one may choose to look at it, the clearly defined position of Southern Governors on intense national issues affecting Southerners are of mammoth benefit to the people and struggles of Southern Nigeria.
♦ Ebuka Onyekwelu, strategic governance exponent, is a columnist with the WAP
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