By Palladium
After many months of inscrutable silence as Defence minister, Mohammed Abubakar Badaru has stirred the hornets’ nest by his peremptory decree against secessionist movements. “The Federal Government will not entertain (such) demand capable of causing division and disaffection among Nigerians,” he bellowed. “Therefore, living together is not an option but an obligation. This is evident in Mr President’s firm resolve to fight any secessionist agenda in any part of the country.” It is understandable why every president seems dead set against balkanisation, for none of them wants to be seen, in the mould of Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union, as the last president or ruler of a united Nigeria. But to denounce self-determination as giddily as Mr Badaru has done and offhandedly characterise every call for secession as evil is to sweep the problem under the carpet.
It is good that the minister has just woken up and is now stirring himself to his duties, but he needs to bridle his tongue and put his best foot forward. On the surface, there is nothing wrong advocating unity, but it is unclear whether this can be done by fiat or by suffusing it with propaganda. Without a workable political structure anchored on federalism agreed to by the people, and without a sound economic structure that enables the federating units to develop at their own pace, it is hard to convince them that staying together is an obligation. No, for now, whether the government likes to hear it or not, and irrespective of the instruments of coercion at its disposal, staying together is in fact optional. Until the government can inspire a solution to the national question and make unity attractive, it is insulting and uninformed to describe living together as an obligation.
Credit: The Nation
