by Uchechukwu Okoroafor, Abuja
To most Nigerians, this country has never been as divided as it is today. Some even believed that not even since the Nigerian Civil War has the country been this divided. While others still say the country is now more divided than during the Civil War.
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Among those who believe that the country has been divided along primordial lines is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has expressed concern about the current state of the country, stating that it is more divided and more corroded than before.
Obasanjo made the observation when he spoke during a public lecture series with the theme: ‘From Elections to Governance and Performance’ in Abuja, recently.
“Given what we saw during the election, Nigeria is now even more divided and more corroded than we thought. This places a deep onus on any administration following the current one, to urgently facilitate the process of national moral rearmament and national reconciliation,” Obasanjo said.
“This must be done in sync with the imperative of national value orientation that Nigeria requires to build a collective sense of enduring and local values and national belonging.”
Speaking further, Obasanjo said, “Let me conclude by stating clearly that I am now too old to keep quiet and watch Nigeria seemingly clueless launch into dystopia. All efforts are now required from all well meaning and committed patriots to rescue the nation from the precipice. And when I look at the audience I have a feeling that among the people who can do it and who must do it are some of you here.
“It has become my own personal obligation, continuing in my relentless service as letterman, dedicated in my twilight years to say the truth, as I see it, so as to push Nigeria, in the direction of our collective aspirations. What is our collective aspiration? A better society where all Nigerian can become what the Almighty God destined to be.
“At times like this, some of us have to adopt the attitude of being known to be blind and not being afraid of the dark. But we must continually work for the light of all.”
The ex-President said with the current situation on ground, it would not be out of place for a national reconciliation, which will assuage the feelings of aggrieved Nigerians, particularly the youth population.
Also, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, has heavily criticised the President Muhammadu Buhari over insecurity, corruption and division in Nigeria. Kukah made his complaints known in his Easter Message titled, “To mend a broken nation: The Easter metaphor.”
According to the bishop, every aspect of life in Nigeria has been destroyed while corruption is enthroned. He said, “Our dear country, Nigeria, still totters and wobbles as we screech towards a dangerous and avoidable canyon of dry bones.
“One would be tempted to ask, what is there to say about our tragic situation today that has not been said? Who is there to speak that has not spoken? Like the friends of Job, we stare at an imponderable tragedy as the nation unravels from all sides. The government has slid into hibernation mode.
“It is hard to know whether the problem is that those in power do not hear, see, feel, know, or just don’t care. Either way, from this crossroad, we must make a choice, to go forward, turn left or right or return home. None of these choices is easy, yet, guided by the light of the risen Christ, we can reclaim our country from its impending slide to anarchy.
“The challenge of fixing this broken nation is enormous and, as I have said, requires joint efforts. With everything literally broken down, our country has become one big emergency national hospital with full occupancy. Our individual hearts are broken. Our family dreams are broken. Homes are broken. Churches, Mosques, and infrastructure are broken. Our educational system is broken. Our children’s lives and future are broken. Our politics is broken. Our economy is broken. Our energy system is broken. Our security system is broken. Our Roads and Rails are broken. Only corruption is alive and well.
“The greatest challenge for Nigeria is not even the 2023 elections. It is the prospect for the reconciliation of our people. Here, the Buhari administration sadly has divided our people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region, in a way that we have never witnessed in our history. This carefully choreographed agenda has made Nigerians vulnerable and ignited the most divisive form of identity consciousness among our people. Years of friendships, cultural exchange, and collaboration built over time have now come under serious pressure from stereotyping.”
There are more proofs that the 2023 general election has also divided Nigerians more than ever before. The 2023 general election, observers say, may go down in Nigeria’s history as the most divisive poll since the return of the country to civil rule in 1999. They speak in tandem that the election negatively impacted interpersonal relationships, even in religious circles.
Besides trust deficit in most national institutions which has deepened, ethnic division has widened, deep-seated phobia of one tribe against another has worsened while many relationships have soured almost irredeemably.
Checks showed that friendships that were nurtured over the years took a serious hit as a result of arguments and bad blood that arose from the elections and their outcome.
Many Nigerians said that unless there is a conscious effort by government to initiate a programme for national rebirth and true reconciliation, the fault lines would widen to a point of disintegration.
This immediately calls to mind events of the 30-month civil war of 1967 to 1970 which John Pepper Clarke, one of Nigeria’s finest poets captured in his poem—‘The Casualties’ where he observed that the casualties of the war were not just those who died fighting in the war.
“The casualties are not only those who are dead; they are well out of it. The casualties are not only those who are dead; though they await burial by installment; The casualties are not only those who have lost persons or property,” Pepper-Clarke said.
“The casualties are not only those who started a fire and now cannot put out; thousands are burning that have no say in the matter,” he added.
Unarguably, the national elections left a lot of casualties—those who suffered monumental losses.
Besides these, there are numerous other casualties—those who paid supreme price, those who lost their limbs, those who were disenfranchised and molested; those who had their national pride brutally bruised and left unprotected by the laws of the land. These too, were casualties of the elections that have been condemned across the globe as largely flawed.
How then do we unite a broken and disunited nation like Nigeria? The next administration must do everything to unite the country and do away with the policies and programmes of the Muhammadu Buhari administration that is largely blamed for the unprecedented division in the country. We have a situation under the Buhari administration where almost all the service chiefs are northerners and Muslims. This dominance extends to National Security Adviser (NSA); Director General, Department of State Services (DSS), Director General, Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); Nigeria Customs Service; Nigeria Immigration Service and Nigeria Prison Service etc. These institutions must be democratized and reflect federal character in their leadership and composition. We must have all-inclusive security services that reflect our ethnic and religious diversities and security architecture.
We agree with former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the next President must urgently facilitate the process of national moral rearmament and national reconciliation. Such reconciliation is important to stop the impending doom which the present divisions have created.