By Godwin Etakibuebu
In the Holy Bible book of Mathew 26:41, Jesus Christ advised his disciples to “watch and pray” so that they would “not enter into temptation”. What the word of God is saying in this quoted passage is the necessity for all God’s children to walk and tread in deliberate consciousness in all we do because one single mistake is more than enough to derail us, even in a well-planned journey.
Nigerians need to pay more attention to this advice of God because forces of “darkness” still hover around us as a people and a Nation. Some years ago, there was a major threat of this country [Nigeria] breaking up. That was the fact that confronted us when the Nigerian civil war broke out with the crack of the first bullet of that war coming from the federal government troop’s side in a small village of Garkem, near Ogoja, on the 6th of July 1967.
That war; that was fought for two years with about two millions of lives lost on both sides, was really avoidable. Yet, we could not prevent it because we took too many things for granted. Things that bordered on human arrogance, corruption, nepotism, promotion of tribal egotism, uncontrollable greed of some national leaders, total disrespect for rule of law and many other evils brought us to the point where the centre could not hold anymore. Sadly enough, forty seven years after the war ended [it ended on January 15th, 1970] all the national maladies that led us into the war are recklessly still at play, even at larger level, in present day Nigeria. If this is true, then the fact remains that our inability to learn anything from the calamity of our past while we seemed to have forgotten all the lessons of the failures of yester-years, is most likely to bring us face-to-face with the country breaking up still. There are other indicators that we may want to evaluate.
As of recent as the last days of President Olusegun Obasanjo second tenure, the so-called “Police man” of the world; America and some European countries predicted that if care was not taken, Nigeria might “break-up before the end of 2015”. However 2015 came and gone without Nigeria breaking up, many thanks to former President Goodluck Jonathan reverence way of up-holding democracy through his tenure – a feat which has become a very scarce commodity in present day democratic market place. This success must not blindfold us to believing that the so-called “doomsday conspiracy of the false prophets”, as some Nigerians would like to refer to the prediction, is over. No, as long as the indicators remain germane in our everyday national life, the nearer to the abyss of precipice the Nigerian Nation becomes. The truth that need to be told is that there is no way Nigeria will continue without falling apiece, given the way we are being presently governed by these fraudulent dealers parading themselves as leaders. I need to pull out some pointers and comments from a few notable God-fearing citizens.
Speaking at the 25th Anniversary of the Scriptures Union of Nigeria in Abuja on 31st of October 2015, General Yakubu Gowon, former Military Head of State, warned of a looming danger to the Nigerian State. “We face great consequences, if we don’t follow path of rectitude”, the most respected leader warned, adding that “if we do not arise to bring our youths into the path of rectitude, then their future will appear gloomy, and, therefore, we cannot build a virile nation of trust, integrity and good governance”. He mentioned many other calamities bedevilling the nation. What that man of peace, who fought and brought peace and unity back to Nigerian by declaring “no victor, no vanquish” at the end of the Nigerian civil war, said is that unless we “watch and pray” over most of our national behaviours as a people, we may soon come to that breaking point of total disintegration.
In addition, l read with adorable respect, the book of another major personae dramatis of the Nigerian civil war; Brigadier General Godwin Alabi-Isama, appropriately captured “THE TRAGEDY OF VICTORY”. He gave good historical back-ground of both the political prevailing circumstances in the country that led to the first-ever military coup of 1966 and the Nigerian civil war, plus proper account of the military operation throughout the war, as captured from the sector of the war where he fully participated in dangerous hostility – the 3rd Marine Commando – first commanded by late Brigadier General Benjamin Adekunle before General Olusegun Obasanjo took over. His conclusion at the end of such prolific narrative in the 671 page-book was sad enough. He said that all the maladies like “corruption, tribalism, nepotism and other evils which led to the first military coup of January 1966, and eventually to the civil war”, which ought to have been eliminated remain with us till today”, saying “This Is What I Called Tragedy Of Victory”
My summary in this work is to warn that the federal government of Nigeria has a responsibility, of showing good example in leadership to the remaining two tier of government – States and Local Authority. The incumbent federal government need to show its sincerity, respects and total commitment to democratic ethos and ethics, human rights and rule of law plus promotion of welfare of the Nigerian people. There must be paragon shift from “languages of body movement” which can never be a replacement for sound and enduring economic policy, from uncharted navigational course on fight against corruption to a defined path of wealth creation that shows in the lives of the citizenry. A one-man [surrounded by a selected few of brain-washed sycophant]’s myopic idiosyncrasy in running a country of 180 million people; with two-third of this population being internationally proven egg-heads, can only push Nigeria to a precipice.
There is too much poverty in the land today. The Nigerian people are daily being alienated from government’s machinery of provision and protection hence the metamorphoses of tribal militia and cultist, to “protect themselves” at least. This is the same way the ‘’Mafia and Mafioso” started in those hilly northern cities of Italy some decades ago. By the time these groups become well established, the “roads to Niger Delta Militancy, Movement for the Restoration of Biafra, Arewa Defensive Front, Cattle Rustlers, Fulani Herdsmen, Odua People Congress [OPC] and even Boko Haram would have been paved with gold”. These are the fastest groups that can quicken the break- up of any country. So we need to watch and pray for Nigeria not to break-up and remaining only in the place of history.
Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran journalist , wrote in from Lagos.