Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that
At his June 10, 2021, Arise News TV interview, President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed to civilised democracies that the democrat is not minted from the jackboot.
He also stunned viewers with a fallacious “dot in a circle” theory–an extension of his 97 per cent voter patronage rhetoric with which he regaled the nation six years ago. This fallacy which falls flat on its face is at the heart of this week’s conversation. What does one expect? On anything Igbo, PMB charges like a bull faced with a red flag.
When President Umaru Yar’Adua (may God bless his soul), succeeded Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007, he had the festering Niger Delta resource control struggle to settle. Rather than use the federal might to pulverize their micronationalism or call them a speck in the creeks, he flew their leaders to Abuja and into the Aso Rock Villa and that was how amnesty came into our political lexicon. Peace reigned. A sense of belonging was all the magic that was needed.
The Obasanjo presidency was punctured by the sharia law introduced in Zamfara State by Governor Ahmad Sani. Everybody expected Obasanjo, a retired general as Buhari, to fly off the handle and respond with brute force. Hell, no. He chose the silent treatment and had peace reign in the OBJ years at Aso Rock.
Any day, President Buhari’s interview is sure to generate interest, more so with a president whose media appearances are few and far between. The news fallout from that outing is still trending.
For obvious reasons, the President’s evaluation of the militant Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, not much different from other militias before it, has dominated the discourse. The president’s vow to replicate violence in the South-East and the classification of the region as a dot in the circle come with varable interpretations.
By the President’s understanding, when you are landlocked you possibly cannot be granted self-determination. Also, his “dot in the circle” label to describe the South-East may mean it’s too small to exit Nigeria and be on its own or may be so small it can be overrun in a twinkle of an eye. This may be an admission that the armed forces might
Before joining issues with the President and his ilk on some issues from the interview, it’s necessary to underscore a fact that Ndigbo, including IPOB members, would not want to exit Nigeria if the accommodation was right. As a dot, Ndigbo ordinarily would not want to leave the big circle if they were enjoying the necessary protection. For instance, when an underdog fails to receive the needed protective benefits from big brothers as it were, it makes no sense to die of suffocation in the circle. Who says that being a dot in a circle disqualifies a people from self-determination?
After all, one of the most peaceful countries in the world today is Switzerland and it’s a dot in the big circle that is Europe. Switzerland is such a peaceful country that the world’s high and mighty, including treasury looters from Nigeria prefer to stash away their booties and other lucre in Swiss banks. The Vatican, the world’s most holy nation led by the catholic pontiff is secured by the Swiss security force. This country exports weapons but hardly do they use those lethal wares.
According to records, about one-fifth of the world’s countries are landlocked, meaning they exist without any direct access to the oceans.
Whether the dreamland Biafra is going to be landlocked is a bridge not yet reached, a decision for whenever the time comes.
The President gave two main reasons the Biafra dream will not work, at least from his perspective. One, it’s a dot in the circle and, two, the people are scattered all over the place.
In the second reason lies a unique advantage of Ndigbo he prefers to ignore or refuses to acknowledge.
It is noteworthy that if Biafra or any separatist group is not going to exit from Nigeria, it’s not going to be because of the variables being touted bad mouths. It can only be because justice, equity, and fair play are given accommodation in the government of Nigeria. If the government and its operatives continue to manure injustice and marginalization through nepotism and still dream of one Nigeria because the agitators are a dot in whatever circle, they might be in for a marathon struggle.
When the Israelites of old left Egypt, they were less than a dot and their smallness helped to harden the heart of Pharaoh as he directed that they be chased. The Pharaoh was looking at their smallness and forgot to reckon with the supernatural force behind their quest for freedom. The rest is history for the tingods of today to learn.
It’s an already tested case that what human beings desire most from their governments is peace derived from a secured environment. If a one-room apartment, for instance, guarantees you good sleep and peace of mind, that may be a more sensible place to rest your head than in a huge complex of all night and day commotion where sleep and rest are permanently elusive.
That is why the disquiet in the South-East today is condemnable and never to be tolerated. If the unknown gunmen killing and destroying lives and property are Igbo they must stop immediately and heed the wise counsel of the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka, the Rev. (Prof.) Godfrey Igwebuike Onah that no sensible person takes the fight to his house. The Bishop illustrated his view with the United States of America that has fought several wars since their independence but none on American soil.
In dissecting the President’s television interview, therefore, it would be naive to hold the view that the President does not know what he is doing or does not understand the implications of all his actions and inactions. Rather, what the interview established is that the President is the author of his government.
The two main things that border the President as exposed in the interview are the seeming unity of southern Nigeria and the several attempts by aggrieved youths of Nigeria to coordinate themselves into action.
The President believes the #EndSARS protest was targeted at removing him from office. So we can now understand why he was so brutal in quelling them.
Also of worry to him is IPOB which he has unapologetically continued to threaten with police and soldiers even after describing them as a dot in the circle. Both IPOB and Eastern Security Network, ESN, remain creations of this government. Buhari’s impatience for dissent led to the arrest Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and developed a monster in him, the double standards of this government over herdsmen menace in the South-East gave birth to ESN and the truth is that the herdsmen menace minimized since ESN came in.
But to ensure that they remain a dot in the circle, the interview revealed a huge attempt to remove any bridge between the South-East and the South-South when he said that some South-South leaders came to him to disown Biafra. It was probably after the disowning that the dot in the circle theory materialized. Strategically, the President refused to mention the South-South leaders who came to him leaving both the South-East and South-South guessing and divided. The most visible South-South leader, Chief EK Clark, who is at the forefront of having southern solidarity would not have gone on such a mission but the discord has already been sown as mutual suspicion now pervades the region.
The southern governors solidarity meeting otherwise known as Asaba Revolt may have also jolted the President and he gave it back to them by trying to blame governors for the insecurity in their states. He even wants the anachronistic colonial laws on open grazing reactivated just to protect the herders’ interests in the south.
Meanwhile, the burning issue of restructuring he shifts to the National Assembly.
In all this, the President’s logic is still faulty because no state governor is fully in charge of security in his state since all the security agencies in their states take directives from Abuja and only go to governors for the provision of funds and other logistics. It’s for thinking like this that the agitation for state police has lingered for years.
After a critical appraisal of the well-publicized presidential interview, the question remains whether it achieved its purpose? If you are assessing it from the point of improving the government/governed relationship, it failed. But for President Buhari and his team, a lot was achieved, Ndigbo have been profiled and told that South-South is not their territory, Fulani has been assured of a window in the South despite the Asaba Revolt.
The President’s satisfaction in the interview derives from his remarks that the majority of Nigerians understand and appreciate what he is doing. This understanding of his government is the bone of contention. If he thinks that the majority of Nigerians are well at home with him, what does it matter how a small dot in the circle, ‘five per cent’ of the region feel about his regime. But is this working now?
After that interview any South-East person in APC expecting that a miracle will happen and the presidency zoned to the region in 2023 should go for political deliverance. And anybody still thinking that herders’ interest will be under any threat notwithstanding the widespread hullabaloo over their menace, should endure and wait for the peaceful end of Muhammadu Buhari, the unapologetic Fulani protector in Nigeria or elsewhere.
God, help us.