On the 23rd of June, the United Kingdom held a historic referendum, where before a global audience; the people exercised their sacred right to self determination on exiting the European Union after 44 years of membership. Perhaps the most progressive and successful union in the world with record security, economic, environmental and human rights standards, it has nonetheless been subject to opposition by Euro sceptics who feel the European union has eroded their national autonomy, facilitated immigration and impeded their rights to take decisions for themselves. In the UK; the issue of European membership had long been a contentious issue prompting the PM David Cameron to finally promise to hold a referendum on EU membership in the course of the last elections. Soon after he was re-elected, the framework for a referendum was established and eventually scheduled for the 23rd of June.
The UK had joined the European Union in 1972—but overtime the union had increasingly been integrated; resembling more a federal super-state with decisions on many key issues that are binding on all member states taken in Brussels. UK Euro sceptics had premised their opposition to EU membership on the erosion of powers and increasing loss of autonomy the UK had suffered subject to their membership of the EU. The sceptics also argued that membership of the EU opened the UK to unprecedented levels of immigration. There was of course also the economic argument with the claim the UK spends money on EU subventions that should have been used to fund social services such as the NHS. Mindful of these arguments, Cameron opened negotiations with the European Union in the hope that winning concessions in areas the sceptics had harped on would make it possible to win the vote on remaining in the EU. Negotiations with the EU yielded results as Cameron won concessions that gave back powers in many critical areas to the UK, but alas it was too late.
Riding on a wave of nationalism, a sense of alienation and self determination, the leave campaign spear headed most notably by Boris Johnson the conservative former mayor of London and Nigel Farage the far right leader of the UK independence party (UKIP), succeeded in making the case for the UK to exit the EU. Thus on Thursday the 23rd of June, a global audience stayed glued to their television sets and other media platforms to witness the historic referendum to stay or leave the EU. Until midnight, a trickle of results seemed to suggest the remain camp might edge out a slim victory. It wasn’t until early morning hours on Friday that a definite result confirmed that 51.8 percent of the Uk had voted to leave the EU as against 48.2 percent that had voted to remain. It was a groundbreaking result—something of an earthquake with Britain effectively becoming the first country to leave the EU.
Cameron who had actively campaigned for Britain to remain with the EU promptly announced his intention to resign in the true spirit of democracy and principled politics. It was the ultimate triumph of people power and the inalienable right to self determination. In 2014, Scotland similarly held a referendum on exiting the United Kingdom. Pursued by the Scottish national party (SNP) whose main ideological goal is exiting the UK, the Scottish referendum was likewise driven by nationalism and a desire for total autonomy. Prior to the referendum, there were also negotiations and wide ranging concessions that offered more autonomy to Scotland in a bid to stave off independence. Finally on the 18th of September 2014 the referendum was held and the option of remaining with the UK won by 55 percent.
Fundamentally, three lessons are deducible from the Brexit and Scottish referendums: firstly, the referendums have established that no union no matter how intricate should be by force. Secondly, the right to self determination exercised through democratic means has been reinforced as the only legal and civilised approach to resolve contentious issues of nationhood. Thirdly, nationalism has again been proven to be the major causative factor in the push for self determination. In organising both referendums, the British government like all civilised, lawful and successful societies abided not only by the ultimate dictates of democracy which vests all power on the people themselves, it also respected article 1 of the United Nations founding Charter which states that “all peoples have the right to self determination, and by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
The lesson Buhari and Nigeria must learn from the Brexit and Scottish referendums in regards to IPOB/Biafra, the Niger Delta Avengers and other self determination groups is that violence is neither legal, nor is it an option in dealing with issues of self determination. If force or violence were to be a legitimate option in dealing with issues of self determination, very few nations would have as much capacity to deploy force as the British. While many Nigerians continue to misunderstand the right to self determination, it is important to underline that it’s a sacred right which must be respected. It should also be noted that exercising the right to self determination does not necessarily lead to break up. What it does do is open up the space for negotiations, appropriate restructuring and measures to accommodate varied interests within the nation. Indeed, one of the reasons Nigeria has remained locked in injustice, inequality and general misrule is the violent suppression of the fundamental right to self determination. When leaders erroneously believe they can hold Nigeria by force, why would they bother about the environment in the Niger-delta or the overwhelming need to end all forms of discrimination and be inclusive in governance?
Consequently, violence and intimidation as can be seen with the massive criminal extra-judicial murders of IPOB/MASSOB adherents in Onitsha, Aba and elsewhere rather than dialogue, justice, equality and overall nation building has been the predominant strategy for keeping the nation together. The Nigerian state has thus functioned with utmost impunity and insensitivity to its constituent units because there exists no incentive to do otherwise. The right to self determination is therefore a fundamental right which all Nigerians should strive to activate. Only with such rights will the state surrender power to the people and realise the utmost necessity of governing with justice and equality on behalf of all. Buhari has often talked about corruption being Nigeria’s greatest existential ill, yet the lessons from Brexit, the Scottish referendum and other previous balkanised entities demonstrate that nationalism, a sense of alienation, injustice and loss of autonomy are the greatest drivers of self determination/balkanisation.
In the case of Nigeria, the fundamental drivers have been the same even though Buhari has chosen to ignore it or pretend otherwise while in many instances worsening the problem with his repression and blatantly sectional government. Ultimately, except the inalienable right to self determination is recognised and with it a process of negotiations to address the underlying causative factors, Nigeria can only postpone the evil day; as someday sooner or later we will end up with our own “Biafrexit” “Oduduwaexit” amongst others!
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Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu
Email: lawrencenwobu@gmail.com
