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Friday, March 29, 2024

Which Way Nigeria? – By Chukwudum “Chuck” Emenike

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I have been observing the developments in the jamboree known as the national conference in Abuja. It seems to me that nobody is addressing the giant elephant in the room. These are serious issues that need to be dealt with before any serious discussions going on at the national conference can continue.

Let me start by saying I do not know the answers to the questions I pose in this writing. But they are questions that must be addressed if we are to move forward as one nation. The answers to these questions will help determine what kind of a nation we want and how to restructure it to meet our objectives. Then once we set out those objectives and determine what we do if we do not meet our goals at the time we set for ourselves. You cannot wish away the elephant in the room by ignoring it.

The first thing (which incidentally the delegates were banned from discussing) is whether we want to remain as one nation. This is the most critical issue. We have a gap developing between the South and the North of the country. For instance, the number of students who took JAMB in 2007 from Imo and Anambra States (157,764) are almost equal to the number of students that took the same examination from the 19 northern states combined (190,551). This statistics is even more alarming when you compare the population of Anambra and Imo states (7,116,931) vs. the 19 Northern states (80,619,965) based on 2006 census. What is the reason for this? What role does religion and culture have to do with it?

It can’t be as a result of lack of political power in the North, because out of 54 years of Nigeria’s independence, the North held power for 37years while the South held power for 17 years, with the South East holding it for six months out of the 17 years that the South held power.

The Northerner is not less intelligent than his Southern counterpart, neither is he weaker or less creative. All you have to do is to look at the numerous successful business men from the region or the brilliant academicians and politicians from the area.

It can’t be the result of lack of resources from the government. So we must determine what is going to happen to a country where there is an existentialist and radical difference in human and physical development.

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With millions of uneducated and unskilled citizens, causing persistent unrest as we are seeing with Boko Haram? The danger in having the North lag behind is that Nigeria has to always move at the pace of the North or put appropriately, lag behind with it. As a nation, Nigeria is a unit and cannot move and leave some parts behind. Again, the more the South moves ahead of the North, the more conflicts will arise between the North and the South. While the North will feel that the South is cornering the joint resources of the nation, the South will feel the North is pulling it backwards.

The second issue is whether we agree on the role of religion in government and society. Do we want our laws based on religion? How do we deal with times when the law of the land seems to be in conflict with our religious belief? How does our religious belief affect others? Should it affect others who do not share our faith? Should our personal religion be exercised in a manner and way that it appears to be superior to our constitution?  As citizens, should our loyalty be first to Nigeria or, first to the North and vice versa the South?  We should ask ourselves if our loyalty to our religion is primary and loyalty to Nigeria secondary. Is our loyalty to our Region secondary and loyalty to Nigeria third? If the answers to the foregoing questions are in the affirmative, then where do we go from here?

The vexing question we need to resolve is if our commitment to our religion as Muslims and Christians is primary, then Nigeria as a united political entity is doomed.  Since the conference refused to acknowledge the obvious “schism”  that exist and that  is an “undying” and continued threat to a united Nigeria, any solutions that the conference will proffer will not serve any meaningful purpose as it would be akin to building a house on a faulty foundation.

The third issue is what we believe the value of women is in our society. Do both the North and South believe in the same thing? If we do not, how do you grow as one country?

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Resource Control

A compromise on resource control is to have the same resource control we had before oil was discovered in Nigeria. If it is true that it was 50%, then 50% will at least be fair now that we have oil. There is no basis to make it 13%, especially considering the environmental degradation in the delta areas and what will happen to these oil producing areas when the oil dries up.

Chief-Ayo-Adebanjo
Chief-Ayo-Adebanjo

I therefore agree with Chief Ayo Adebanjo, on the platform of Elder Statesmen, who said: “during the era of groundnut pyramid, the North was getting up to 50 percent as derivation and remitting a paltry percentage to the centre….If we really want to keep this country together, we must address the inequalities among some sections of the country.  It was the military that gave us the present 13 percent derivation formula. How did they arrive at that? If we want peace, we should discuss that and if we are serious to be together. This is the last chance for Nigeria to remain together. Those who hold the property of this country should be in control of their resources.”

His position was corroborated by a delegate on the platform of the Federal Government, Chief Asara Asara.

Mr-Asara-Asara

To those who say the resources are needed to develop other parts of the country, as I stated earlier, the reason any part of Nigeria is not keeping up is not due to lack of resources. The North is lagging due to reasons other than resources.

The other issue is why VAT does not remain a local income revenue. There is VAT on alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Why should states that officially ban these products benefit from VAT from the sale of these products? The federal government should leave VAT collected inside the country to the states and only keep VAT from import duty and airport, basically VAT collected at the entrance to the country. For instance, Lagos State should keep VAT collected from any activity in the state whereas the Federal government should keep the VAT collected from federal territories, such as sea ports, airports, federal universities, oil company’s residential and office subdivisions etc.

 

Chukwudum “Chuck” Emenike is an attorney and real estate developer based in Los Angeles, California, USA

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