BY MIKE IGINI

AS stated in my previous statement after the mass killing at St.Theresa on Christmas day and now the bloodiest attack in Kano with almost 200 deaths recorded so far  by the Boko Haram group, we all must at this point move beyond mere condemnation to taking collective decisive steps as a people and collaborate with security agencies to bring this national shame and threat to our existence to a halt.

More than ever before, it should be realised that security is a collective responsibility beyond those who are  statutorily engaged to do so. Since those who currently make life a bleak episode are members of families in our villages and communities, we must smoke them out.

We must report to security agencies  the presence of and activities of suspious persons. Of note is the manner and circumstance under which Kebiru Sokoto escaped; an important prime suspect responsible for the Xmas day bombing has left  sour taste in the mouth of all Nigerians with its attendant national shame and a dent on the police.This is without prejudice to  the diligent and hard working officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force.

It is in our best collective interest as a people to arrest all such actions now, for the same reasons that Somalians and Afghans, now scattered all over the world should have done early enough to stem the drift in their countries. We must all examine ourselves as a people and as a country, ask the deeper questions regarding how we got to the  positions where terror has taken centre stage in our national discourse and the dystopia which this may lead us to as a people.

It is necessary to ask the same questions regarding how the MEND and other militant South-South groups, as well as the MASSOB came to take centre stage as stakeholder representatives of the South-South and South East.

The same phenomenon spurred five army majors and their cohorts to embark on the extreme course of violence to stem the divisive activities of politicians who are unable to see beyond their narrow interests, and to view Nigeria from a progressive symbol of strength for the prosperity of all.

That action lies in the persistent penchant to shy away from national dialogue on strengthening Nigeria to reflect the true aspirations of Nigerians as against the primordial superstructure constructed for colonial administrative convenience.

Time  changes with new demands; the aspirations and demands of generation of  Nigerians in the 1950s are not the same of Nigerians today. This is a reality that we must accept in order  to meet the demands of our time.  By avoiding collective negotiations and aspirations through a national dialogue, we drive the true stakeholders of the federating units of Nigeria to the margins and allow the polarising elements from the fringes to take centre stage.

But for the consistency of the Yorubas, unarguably the most sophisticated nationality, it has become a recurrent proclivity for  people in Nigeria from different parts of the country, who by different acts  found themselves within the corridors of power to fall into a delusion, where they see themselves as replacement landlords, and quasi-inheritors of the British empire, rather than care-takers on behalf of Nigerians. Such quasi-inheritors develop an indescribable phobia for conversations of change about the Nigerian status.

This latter phobia and delusion inebriated the politicians until the five majors struck on January 15 1966, the same emotions intoxicated the Abacha government into killing the Ogoni five.

In the same vein,  marginalisation of the leading voices of the Igbos led to groups like MASSOB who now speak on behalf of members of the intelligentsia like Chinua Achebe, Prof. Nwabueze and other great men of the lgbo nation some of whom are  now members of  parliament in the United Kingdom.

For the same reason since 1993 the genuine and committed spokespersons of different nationalities, like the Nupe, the Gwaris, Urhobos, Idoma’s, Efiks, Itsekiris, Kanuris, etc have been driven to the margins by trench combatants, installed by the quasi-inheritors who have taken over the political space bent only on self enrichment and self protection rather than the development of our communities.

It is therefore not surprising that such marginalised groups will easily find voice and give loyalty to the seductive jingoism of polarising groups seeking exit from the existing administrative superstructure.

In other words, the Nigerian entity has burgeoned and sustained a vacuum of discussion of its national differences due to unecessary fear and needless anxiety, and thus failed to address and articulate a collective vision for the future. In response, fringe groups have occupied that vacuum with multiple distortions of social, ethnic and religious claims.

MASSOB,  MEND, BOKO HARAM and others are symptomatic manifestations of this vacuum of collective vision. While this vacuum remains, all nation building efforts will remain disparate and every new leader will only become another figure within the pantheon of our national temple of discord.

At this point of apparent dislocation, it is imperative for us to be brave, to confront our realities and to seek a collective accord through a national  dialogue or conference where  all, including sponsors of Boko Haram could come out openly and put all  demands on the table and in the spirit of give and take come to a consensus for a just, fair and equitable united federation that would ursher a new charter that we shall collectively defend whenever threaten by any group.

This is the only part way and roadmap for a rebirth of Nigeria, a new Nigeria where there would be opportunty for all and responsibility from all. Part of the need to face up to reality includes our acceptance that sovereignty which ultimately lies with the people,   even though has been delegated to elected officials, elected or appointed officials like us  are not the only voices of the Nigerian  people.

Thus, within the institutional structures  of elected representation, the collective will must be strengthened  to rise above the mistakes and fears of the past, by seizing this hour of national pains to generate the initiative for national reconciliation through urgent national dialogue with  ourselves. Let us itemise our different needs, understand  and tolerate our differences, and even though we may occasionally have reasons to compete, we can find better ways to collaborate and coexist.

Unless and until will are able to rise above our differences, see these differences as source of strength and allows the panoply of the representatives of the collective interest of the people to come to the centre stage, the vacuum created by shying away from national dialogue  will remain a playground for the voices from the fringes.

Like BOKO HARAM that have occupied the center stage of our national discourse, voices that will  continue to polarize us, because we have not found the will to meet ourselves in the middle. If we refuse to meet, they will help to tear us apart to dystopia. May we all not regret a collective failure to act to save Nigeria now.

Mike Igini Esq is a resident  electoral commission, REC, Cross River State