1. On this joyful day, 20th January 2009, "HARK” The Angels are watching. And the rejoicing world is praying for peace as they are anticipating. The occasion is the Coronation of Barack Obama, as the 44* president of the United States of America, by the grace of God. The theme is “Change” - REAL CHANGE that will earn the greatest respect, for the greatest nation on earth May God bless America. On the high table are former dignitaries of America. They include the likeable Bill Clinton, the leader who supervised the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the most heterogeneous nation in Europe. Now, we, the oppressed people of the Niger Delta, earlier called the slave coast, fervently pray that, he will use his Godly approach on the new administration of America, and help to do the same thing for Nigeria, a country forty times more heterogeneous than Yugoslavia.. Yugoslavia comprised six disparate communities plus the incompatible religions of Christianity and Islam. Nigeria comprises more than 200 disparate communities plus the incompatible religions of Christianity and Islam;, both in large numbers. There is no nation of such composition in Europe, America, Middle East and Asia. And its Moslem group gained ascendancy after the civil war in 1970. In 1986 they arbitrarily proclaimed the country an Islamic nation. They kill and jail our people in Jihad cells. And they control our land and our resources. .
2. Unlike Nigeria that was created by Great Britain for colonial purposes by forcibly merging together hundreds of conquered African communities, Yugoslavia was created by its own people, led by Joseph Tito after the Second World War. They created it by merging together six disparate European communities. It became the only heterogeneous nation in Europe. It comprised the mixture of a large Christian community and a large Moslem community. With difficulties, Joseph Tito ruled the country until he died in 1980. Thereafter the heterogeneous nature of the country hastened it into a never ending bloody conflicts aggravated by ethnic and religious differences. Thereupon, European leaders intervened and separated the disparate communities. Consequently, each of the disparate communities of Yugoslavia has now become an independent nation. Now, each of them follow the pattern of the rest of the civilised countries in Europe, America, the Middle East and Asia, by comprising communities of like minded peoples that enjoys one basic religion that influences their cultures and their politics. This is something that is missing in most of the African nations south of the Arabs of the Mediterranean Coast. Bill Clinton, the then President of the United States of America, lent his full and unflinching support for the process of separation in Yugoslavia. Nigerian is not in Europe. ; but " What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander "; May God help the leaders of the civilised nations to understand that African countries like Nigeria, also requires the attributes that make the civilised nations peaceful and able to develop. Even among wild animals, birds of the same feather fly together. And the beasts of the jungle do not prey on one another of the same species. Although many of the Ex- colonial Africa countries are ridden in bloody conflicts ; but there is no country in Africa where people of the same tribe, engage themselves in never ending conflicts.
3. Worse than Yugoslavia, Nigeria was not created by its own people. It was created by British adventurers during the notorious scramble for Africa at the end of the slave trade. Lady Margery Perham, an Oxford University don usually urged European politicians that, in dealing with African nations, their origin should never be overlooked. And she wrote on the origin of Nigeria the following. " The tribal divisions in Africa are so great that they cannot be overlooked . The new unity (merging tribes to become nations ) is something built above them from outside by foreigners. These drew lines on a map and called the areas with the great collection of independent tribes which happen to be inside those lines by a convenient new name like Nigeria and Kenya. They then set up a single twentieth century foreign government over all these tribes " ~ Oxford University Press 1941. It is true that " Very often, good comes out of evil " The scramble for Africa ended in the colonial system that created the nations of Africa south of the Arabs. That turns out to be good. Albeit, the heterogeneous nature of most of these nations of Africa, have kept Africans in never ending bloody conflicts., and so in continuous backwardness. Even among the wild beasts, birds of the same feather fly together; and animals in the jungle, do not prey on the same species. In Nigeria for example, the Moslem Northerners don't hurt their own people , but they kill the people in the Niger Delta ; the mildest group in the forcibly merged communities called Nigeria.
4. Europeans generally hold on only to democracy when it concerns Africa. But democracy cannot help a heterogeneous nation like Nigeria. In fact, in Nigeria and such other heterogeneous nations, democracy is anathema. It enables large, but backward communities to gang up and lord it over smaller ones. This is quite clear in Islamic Nigeria. The Greeks who introduced democracy to the world are the same peoples like the rest of Europe. It is not surprising that at Independence in 1947, India followed suit, it separated on religious line by creating Islamic Pakistan, from Hindus. Yet the country was not created by the colonial system. See how religion is impeding the development of Cyprus. In that beautiful island, democracy works only tor each of the two religious divisions, Christian and Moslem. It is not language or ethnicity that holds back that ancient nation called Lebanon; it is religion. It comprises very large Moslem communities and a smaller group of Christians. In Africa, the leaders reuse to address themselves to these issues in countries where large but backward tribes dominate. Millions in Nigeria, Sudan, Rwanda and other African countries will continue to die needlessly while the large tribes forcibly resist the separation. It seems quite sensible that a number of disparate communities may or spell out the conditions for real federation.
5. Considering that Great Britain was deeply involved in the creation of Pakistan in 1947, many people ask the question "Why did Great Britain not do the same in Nigeria before granting the country independence " The reason as many in the Niger Delta usually discuss is the following. " Soon after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Colonial Struggle for Independence began by Africans on the West Coast. It was led by Kwameh Nkrumah of Ghana; and supported in Nigeria by organisations led by Azikiwe, Michael Imodue, Anthony Enahoro, Mrs M.R.S. Ramsom-Kuti, Magaret Ekpo and all Southerners. The Islamic North vehemently condemned the Independence Movements; and they openly opposed Independence. All the political parties and trade union bodies were formed exclusively by Southerners. Northerners were dead scared to join them. Like Nkrumah, despite the Cold War at the time, many of the freedom fighters flirted with Soviet Communism. Wherefore the Colonial power developed the assumption that, in Africa, Communism attracted educated Christians, while Moslem as backward as they were, presented a bulwark against communism. " No other reason has been suggested. Many in Nigeria do believe that there is an institutional dislike for Southern Nigerians by successive Labour Party in Government. They always supported the North .
6. When they decided to grant Independence to Nigeria, it was to the Moslem North, the most backward part of the country, that they handed over power to, after they hastily formed an exclusive political party for them. They called it Northern Peoples Congress. Throughout its existence, it did not meet more than once. The huge Moslem North was 225,650 square miles. To this was added Northern Cameroon in 1959. All become the Moslem North. The South with a greater population was 76,700 square miles. In a system which they called " Federation of three units " the colonial power , made the huge North one unit. The small South they made into two units. The Niger Delta was split and formed part of the two unit of the South. The Prime Minister was Alhaji Tafawa Balawa, a Teacher who could be a village teacher in the South. Independence came in 1960.
7. Throughout the colonial period, Southerners assisted British colonial officers in the administration of the north under the special system of Indirect Rule. The North rejected secular education as being too bearing on Christianity. It is they, and they alone and their agent that have ruled Nigeria since Independence under civilian regime as under Military regime. They easily and arbitrarily proclaimed the country an Islamic nation in 1986. Earlier in January 1966, following a mutiny between Southern troops and Northern troops, Southern troops staged a coup and formed a government. But the North bounced back in July that year after bloody fighting between the two military sides. During this time Major Olusegun Obasanjo was the only Southern military known to have supported the Northern Military. And they have rewarded him immensely. As the agent of the North in 1999,even during the Millennium celebration his troops bombed the Niger Delta killing thousands of humans. And they still continue killing our people in order to subdue us while they exploit our lands and our resources.
8. Lady Thatcher, a former Conservative British Prime Minister whose predecessors in office created Nigeria visited the country in 1987. She took one look at it and later wrote "It is never easy to govern a country like Nigeria. It is somewhat artificially created, divided between Moslem North and Christian and pagan South " Downing St Years H Collins 1993. The fact that African communities are backward make people think that Africans are inferior. No African community has ever created something which Adam and Eve did not create. But outside our environment as in Europe and Americas, we Africans do enjoy the degree of peace and excitements to an extent that we move along with the great crowd of advanced people. And we become a homo that is sapient.
May the world understand our domestic curses and problems and help us. We pray that Mr. Barack Obama's America will try and understand Africa and apply effective remedies to our curses. His reign in America may begin the CHANGE that Africa requires. May The Almighty God Bless America.
By Aliyi Ekineh and Godfrey Arumoh for N.D.R.M. 20.01.09
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