Why I’m Afraid of the Break-up of Nigeria

By Gimba Kakanda… Last night, a friend asked me to explain my aversion to the idea of secession, thinking it was the fear, as amplified in certain propagandas, of the North’s foreseen inability to sustain itself economically.

Since it was a private conversation, I elected to present my actual reason bit by bit, some of them I can’t express in public, and offering him a mirror which, when we were done, reflected a possibility that scared him too.

I’m afraid of secession for the very reason a part of Nigeria seeks to leave. Cultural hegemony. A domination of diverse society by the elite using ethnicity, religion and all the binary identities and sentiments available to hold on to power, and to forestall criticism of them and revolt of the manipulated masses.

How has cultural hegemony held Nigeria together? The reason Nigeria hasn’t degenerated into full-blown autocratic regime is because of conflicting cultural hegemonies that exist like a tripartite coalition government – an ethnic arrangement that restricts the tyranny of the three parts, the “Hausa-Fulani,” the Igbo and Yoruba.

There’s a mechanism of checks and balances of cultural hegemony as Nigeria stands today, along the ethnic lines of these three dominating ethnic groups, as there is along religious lines between Islam and Christianity of the political North and the South, respectively.

What happens after the breakup? I’ll address the question of struggle for power in the North instead. The region’s cultural hegemony, which the federating South has tackled, albeit not successfully, levers around Islam and the so-called “Hausa-Fulani” supergroup.

A secession means unrestricted evolution of this cultural hegemony through manipulation of the gullible masses in the name of Islam and by stoking ethnic sentiments as conduits to political power and relevance.

Read also: Nigeria and “The Butterfly Effect”

This arrangement favours characters like Senator Ahmed Yerima of Zamfara state, who as Governor introduced a gimmick he called Sharia simply to protect his political capitals. His friends, realizing the success of such arrangement and financial aid pouring in from oil-rich Arab nations, joined him in that smokescreen to enrich themselves corruptly. Some of them are parties to pending cases of corruption at the Court or still under the radar of our anti-corruption agencies.

The good news, however, was that we had a member of another cultural hegemony, a Christian from the political south, as head of the national government, and even opposing the northern political chessboard that seemed to alienate him.

The Yerimas of Northern Nigeria may be local champions now, but the moment their allies from other cultural hegemonies withdraw, a new order of tyrannical rule, in connivance with religious clerics and socio-cultural “ambassadors,” will manifest.

The implication is an outright manipulation of Islamic jurisprudence, an Islamo-fascism, to institutionalize oppression and enable corruption. And I can only imagine the extent of its devastations with personality cults forming around some ascetic criminals.

I think this fear explains the convergence of another self-elected representatives of northern “minorities” who, calling themselves “Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum,” met yesterday in Abuja to debate their place and prospects in Nigeria, now and later. It’s not a coincidence that the Jerry Gana-led gathering was dominated by Christians (and “other minorities”) out of political offices, and ambitious.

As a Muslim, there’s nothing that scares me like an attempt to police my private moralities in a secular political arrangement that does not evaluate and redeem the pseudo-religious Police. It’s fascism manifesting, and I’ll rather die fighting this than flee.

So, my friends from the South, it’s not untrue that I do not want you to leave. But it’s not for your resources. Assessing the welfare of my people, it’s sad to say they are of no essence to us. We, and I include you too, have neither access to good hospitals nor schools, neither good network of roads nor security. I only want you to stay to sustain the checks and balances of this hegemonic order.

 

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