Secessionist drumbeats: Less clampdowns, more economic interventions as panacea
The secessionist drumbeats echoing in recent time have formed one of the rising phenomena of disturbances, brewing winds of confusion in Nigeria. The advocacy is by and large a threat to the Federal character of the Nigerian Republic. The resistance to the campaign by the Government could be traceable to the character of a Federal system where secession is difficult to effect, contrary to a confederation where secession could easily be effected without much ado. Hence, the demand is placed particularly on the Central Government to frown at secessionist moves by any or some parts of the Federation. Under this arrangement, treason may be charged by legal provisions against an individual or set of individuals seen to be driving such move.
However, the collision of several manifestations of socio-political dysfunctions in the Country appear to be premising situation where resistance against the prevailing order to challenge same is increasingly becoming potent and attractive. Recent situations have come to bring into resounding reverberation, echoes of rising voices of advocacy for self determination. Facts have shown the rising voices of the campaign are attracting more sympathies and support, extending across regions in the Federation. The study of the causative and spurring factors of the drumbeats are not so nebulous not to have left observable footprints. It could be observed that as socio-economic and insecurity challenges continue to wax gross, the echoes of such move recently continue to rise correspondingly. As situations wax gross, the sympathies to hitherto silent voices of secessions have begun to attract resounding coordination as many aggrieved persons continue to find reason to join the campaign. It could therefore, not be wrong to say that the dissatisfaction with the present performance of the prevailing order failing to meet expectations are conforming forces spurring supports around the call for secessions.
It would be recalled that the rise of the Yoruba Activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, to the forefront of activism, with the clamour for the Yoruba Nation was borne out of reactions to the rising spate of gruesome attacks from Fulani herdsmen which was taking a troubling turn in the South-west without prompt response from the Government. Hence, since the Government is perceived docile to emerging threats, natives began taking the responsibility of securing themselves into their hands.
Although, the Federal Government has declared Igboho wanted, he has given a justification for himself. In a statement over the weekend by his media aide, Olayomi Koiki, titled: “My Persecution By Buhari Regime: Setting The Record Straight,” he justified his actions saying: “Nigerians and the world at large are aware of my resistance to the incessant killings, raping and kidnapping of my people in South-West by armed Fulani herdsmen. The failure of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to curb the criminal activities of the murderous herdsmen necessitated my intervention.
“I ordinarily would not have intervened if government had lived up to its responsibility of securing the South-West and Nigeria at large from the criminal activities of the President’s ethnic men. Of public knowledge, my intervention has not led to any loss of life or bloodshed. My means of curbing criminality is to chase the criminal Fulani herdsmen out of their hideouts in the company of the people of the affected communities. It is because of the foreseen government persecution that videos of such interventions were transmitted live on social media.
“Nigerians, the security operatives, and the presidency are aware that I have never moved against the peaceful Fulani and other tribes living peacefully in the South-West. My unjust persecution for defending my people and community is therefore surprising and unwarranted. After several unsuccessful attempts to link me to any crime, the Buhari regime desperately opted to forcefully silence me so that the criminal herdsmen, who enjoy government sympathy, protection and immunity, can easily outrun the South-West.The desperation to acquire people’s ancestral lands across Nigeria for foreign Fulani herdsmen because they share ethnicity and occupation with the President is well known to Nigerians and the international community. I am being seen as a threat to the fulanization agenda in the South-West, hence the desperation to soil my name.”
It is glaring that drumbeats of secession is becoming emphatically resounding with time. While the echoes are known to have been more potent in the Southeast in time past, particularly with the incessant campaign by the Independent People of Baifra (IPOB), the echoes have recently been taking a turn of resonance in the Southwest, particularly at the heightening of attacks by Fulani herdsmen and the rising of the acclaimed ‘Fulanisation’ perception coined around the operation of herdsmen who are believed to be walking with untamed claws of unleashing terror. The perceived silence of the Presidency to responsively issue firm statements against the menace had led to the conforming thoughts of the ‘Fulanisation’ concept, believing that the President as a Fulani man is biased in support to the group, thus brewing the sensation of ethnicity.
Although, the Federal Government has resorted to force in recent time with the arrest of IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu, the invasion of Igboho’s House and the declaration of him wanted, it appears there would certainly be more to the use of force to address the brewing storms. It is observable that despite last Friday’s show of force by the Nigeria Police Force presumably to deter the Yoruba Nation rally in Lagos, the campaigners still convened for same on Saturday. Despising the Government’s proscription order to steer clear from such rally, supporters of the campaign defied the order and the heavy security presence to match for the rally. The mere thought that the protest was convened despite the absence of the major arrow heads of the campaign – Sunday Igboho and Prof Banji Akintoye – speaks volume of the sympathy the campaign is attracting.
In a show of solidarity, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO) had in a reactionary statement by its Media Communications Secretary, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, said: “That the rally took place with thousands of participants despite police harrasment symbolises that Yoruba people are not cowards. We have held our rally, notwithstanding the attempts to ensure we did not come to Lagos. That the people came out in their thousands is an indication that the Yoruba people are not cowards. We thank our women who led the rally from the front. May history be kind to them. We thank the gentlemen of the press for their support and solidarity. This is the beginning. It is no retreat, no surrender. The struggle continues. We are marching forward in the struggle to liberate our land from the shackles of oppression and intimidation.”
Another Yoruba socio-cultural group, Kiriji Heritage Defenders, had also said it remained committed to realising an independent Yoruba Nation. The group had given its resolute stance during the investiture ceremony of Alebiosu Kalaowo as its Aare Ogun Kiriji at the Kiriji War Forest, Imesi-Ile, Osun State, over the weekend. In his address following his investiture, Kalaowo, an indigene of Idanre in Ondo State, had said no amount of intimidation can stop the people from demanding their right to secession. He had also gave a one-month ultimatum to anyone involved in free-range animal breeding to comply with the ban on open grazing in the region. Firmly stating that the group would no longer condone the killing of its people under the guise of grazing, he was quoted: “I am using this medium to tell the world that despite the attack on Sunday Igboho, we will not rest on our oars to ensure that Yoruba nation is free from slavery from whoever and in whatever form.”
It is apparent that the worsening of socio-economic and security conditions recently, with the attendant offshoots of disturbances have collided to raise unbecoming situations which apparently have the potential to spur grievances from various quarters. The unbearable conditions which majority are passing through this time are factors strong enough as impetus to engineer and drive such secessionist campaigns. Hence, it may not be disputable that the rising campaigns are just means through which aggrieved populace are seeking channels to express their grievances. Since such drumbeats where observably minimal when situations were much mild and bearable, it is apparent that the degeneration of conditions moving beyond bearable limit is reactively pushing more people to the end of finding organs through which they can express their opposition to the existing order, which they believed has failed to meet their expectations.
It is hence, paramount for the Government rather than resorting to the use of force to quell the drumbeats of grievances, to become more rational in its approach. The prevailing situations is apparently bending towards a state where more citizens are bent on daring and defying order to push their campaigns forward. The necessity for the Government to awake to addressing security challenges and the worsening profile of the economy is sacrosanct. Most importantly, the need for the Government to pay special attention to giving priority to the crisis in the agriculture sector, which has led to scarcity of food, by way of pragmatic intervention is paramount. Where hunger persists beyond unbearable limit, it would nurture aggrieved populace who are strongly liable to turn to any perceivable entity to express their grievances and opposition to the Government.
