By Adisa Adeleye

Since the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Provinces in 1914 of a ‘geographical expression‘ called Nigeria, various ways have been devised by imperialist Britain and later, by Nigerians to forge unity out of diversity.  The desired political unity has become elusive and far, as Kaura Namoda (North) is to Arindiziogu (East) of Nigeria.  It is, however interesting to note that the search for natural unity continues unabated.

In the consideration of the old and the new, there is no relevance to the nPDP and the old PDP- the sorry state of a party well-endowed but has chosen the path of self- immolation.  The ‘old‘ in this article would refer to past efforts of patriotic thinkers to reshape the fortunes of the country while the ‘new‘ would represent the candid views of true Nigerians on the condition of the “National Question”. The three political leaders of the old order, Sir Ahmadu Bello (North), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (East) and Chief Obafemi Awolowo (West) lived their political lives in a strictly regional political settings.

Of all the three political regional giants, Chief Awolowo was the most consistent in advocating regionalism or federalism as a basic necessity for unity in a plural and secular society.  For that clarification, he was daubed a ‘tribalist‘.  In his political life, he fought for the rights of the minorities to control their resources and their destiny.  His reward was hatred among the leaders of the majority tribes who saw him (Awolowo) as a peculiar “trouble maker”. At present, the country is divided into 36 states (unequal in size and economic inability) and 774 local councils (enough to cater for more than 300 tribal groupings).

It should be recognized without any sentiments that the first assault on the 1914 Amalgamation saga came from the North under Sir Ahmadu Bello.  It is not in the lamentation of the leaders that “the mistake of 1914 has come to light”, but actually in a concrete suggestion embedded in the “North`s Eight Point Programmers of 1953”.

It may be necessary here to reproduce this Programme for some Nigerians with shallow memories and many Nigerians whose reading habit seems a bit impaired.  (1)  That each region shall have complete Legislative and Executive Autonomy with respect to all matters except the following: External Affairs, Defence, Customs and West African Research Institutions (2) That there should be no Central Legislative body and no Central Executive or Policy making body for the whole of Nigeria (3) That there shall be Central Agency for all regions which will be responsible for matters mentioned in Paragraph (1) and other matters delegated to it by a Region.  (4) That the Central Agency shall be a neutral place preferably Lagos (5) That the Composition and responsibility of the Central Agency shall be defined by the Order-in-Council establishing the Constitutional arrangements.  The agency shall be a non-political body. (6)  That the services Railway, Air, Posts and Telegraphs, Electricity and coal mining, shall be organized on an inter-regional basis and shall be administered by public corporations.  These corporations shall be independent covered by the statutes under which they are created by the board of experts with a minority representation of the regional Governments.  (7) All the revenues shall be levied and collected by the Regional Government except customs revenue at the port of discharge by the Central Agency and paid to its treasury.  (8) The administration of the customs shall be so organized so as to assure that goods consigned to the Region are separately cleared and charged to duty.  Each region shall have a separate public service.

Many analysts believed that if consideration had been given to this programme, there would not have been any need for the civil war. It will be unfair to note that since Independence in 1960 and especially before the Civil War (1967-70), other ideas on national unity had not been made.  Apart from ‘ON ABURI WE STAND‘ (a loose confederation) from the East, other voices became loud and clear.  The ‘YORUBA PARAPO‘ of Bishop Gbonigi has the sole aim of restoring the lost glory of the Yoruba – in the field of culture, education, agriculture, politics, administration and economic development.  The Yoruba agenda is ‘to work, encourage and canvass for a constitutional arrangement in which the Yoruba, after consultation with other groups in Nigeria has an unfettered autonomy that will quicken the development of Yoruba civilization‘.

It could be seen from the above quotations the difference on emphasis but unity in purpose.  The North‘s Eight Points Programme of 1953 referred to the North before state creation exercise.  Also, the Aburi Declaration of 1967 referred to the old Eastern Region with the existing south-south states.  Bishop Gbonigi‘s Yoruba Agenda is the Yoruba modern thinking, having found themselves in the South-West zone of the country.  It is that of a Yoruba nation in a comity of nations (United States of Nigeria).

As noted above, fast thinking Nigerians have not given up on the desirability of national unity.  Before the civil war, the leader of the 1966 military coup, Major Nzeogwu was reported to have said, ‘And it is obvious we shall get a confederation or something near it.  Nothing will stop it‘.  Gen Gowon, the Nigerian war leader was reported in 1967 to have asked the people to ‘consider an entirely new arrangement which will be peculiar to Nigeria and which has not yet found its way into any political dictionary‘.

To me and other progress loving Nigerians, the views expressed recently by that great administrator (Chief Emeka Anyaoku) should serve as the new thinking on national unity. He said, “In my view, the most appropriate structure of government for Nigeria should be a return to a true Federation of six federating units with each developing at its own pace and the proceeds from `God-given` natural resources i.e. minerals both liquid and solid, shared equally among the federating units after the deductions to be agreed for the mineral producing communities and the Federal Government whose exclusive powers will be limited to such national institutions as Defense, Foreign Affairs, Monetary Policy, Immigration, National Security, Customs etc.

In the current debate on the quest for national unity and economic prosperity, great credit must be given to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for his political astuteness in trying to set up the machinery for Nigerians to meet and discuss on how they will live together in peace and prosperity.  This is far greater than the preparation for 2015 elections in spite of its forebodings.