A Peaceful Democratic Revolution, Nigeria’s Correct Option Now.

1. WHY REVOLUTION; WHY NOT?
   The world is leaving the black race behind and Nigeria is the arrow-head of this re-enslavement. Right now Western imperialism is plotting that Nigeria under the aegis of a divided ECOWAS should lead a factional intra-African war, for black Africans to start killing each other in protection of Western interests in the Niger Republic, a people attempting to solve their domestic problems their own way, starting with ending the French-led Western exploitation of their resources. The Nigeriens suffered centuries of French slavery, atomic tests in the Sahara, protracted imperialist oppression, domestic imperialism of minority Western stooges, extreme poverty and degrading conditions, ongoing unwarranted French-American military bases that possibly channel resources to terrorists in Nigeria while pretending to be helping Nigeria fight terrorism, and collateral “beneficiary” of the Western onslaught on Libya and murder of Muammar Gaddafi, one of Africa’s best and most illustrious leaders of all time. A serious Nigeria should long have questioned the purport of hybrid NATO military bases north of her borders, but corrupt Nigerian rulers, in cahoots with imperialism would not do this. With all due respects, the President of Nigeria, H.E. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, already mired in disputes occasioned by the pains inflicted from toeing the IMF/World Bank cruel line of “removing a subsidy” (instead of removing the scam called “subsidy”) that never existed, should not add to his baggage that of being used to extend the Western destruction of Libya unto the Niger Republic to restore a corrupt, murderous and cruel non-indigene of the Niger Republic imposed on the country to serve Western interests against the indigenous peoples. The President knows too well that in NADECO hardly anyone was fighting to entrench Western imperialism which both Babangida and Abiola were promoting; all that people were saying was that a free and fair election was held and Abiola the winner must be returned to power. Upholding that justice would be different from returning the country to Western slavery – and, the then radical Jagaban understood the logic. When Awo was alive he opposed the so-called Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact, and Mr. President should emulate him. NIGERIA SHOULD NOT FIGHT FOR WESTERN IMPERIALISM; we are not at war with any African country; and if there is a war Mr. President and our Army want to wage it is to ask France, the US, and other Western powers to leave the African continent, remove their military bases from Niger, Ghana, etc, and seek elsewhere to pursue their plans, strategies, and “democratic” wars. We don’t even know whether all this is a charade to enable Western troops occupy or surround Nigeria.

2. CAPITALISM IS FREE ENTERPRISE ECONOMY, IT IS NOT FREEDOM TO KILL, STEAL, OR RETURN NIGERIA TO FOREIGN RULE OR SLAVERY.
   A revolution in Nigeria is now called for because there is neither capitalism nor civilization going on, and the federal government can lead it:

• The system and its ruling class have irremediably failed; there is no capitalist economy, only a corruption economy; corruption is so deep that it is now casualized; and the perpetrators in office don’t even have an idea where to go and how to start. Corruption kills civilizations and is never solved by wishful thinking: something serious must happen if Nigeria is serious about corruption and poverty.
• There is palpable failure of most of the intelligentsia to rationally articulate national needs, futures and features, having been either intimidated or benumbed by the political class or absorbed into their cults, corruption or material ambitions. Nowadays, hardly does any average Nigerian see an intellectual as different from the corrupt political class, the way that Zik, Awo, Aminu Kano, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Gaddafi, Nyerere, etc were in their own days as both intellectuals (men of higher ideals) and politicians.
• Nigerians have waited for far too long to take their destinies into their own hands, hence the fumbling and wobbling in a chaotic situation benefitting only the external and domestic exploiters of the country. Let everyone raise his voice for radical change in Nigeria.Both the objective and subjective conditions are now complete for a radical progressive change: extremely collapsed infrastructure in education, health, transportation, simply everything; pain upon pain on the people since about Buhari’s 1984 till now, above all since Buhari’s second coming; unprecedented corruption, lack of serious concern, and confusion of the ruling class on what to do: imagine, not even understanding the difference between removing a scam and removing a subsidy that almost all the candidates were regurgitating! All countries on earth subsidize the basic arteries of human and national existence: food, health, education, and energy, otherwise there is no other purpose in government.
• Nigeria must restore her independence; we can’t go on being stooges of the West or anybody else. Brazil, Cuba, India, Iran, South Africa, Venezuela, now even Saudi Arabia, etc while mostly capitalist countries, but, “democratic” or not, poor or rich, because of their independent policies, are being respected, East, West, everywhere, certainly even if not admired by the West. That multipolarity, successor to nonalignment, is the status a democratic Nigeria must aspire to in international politics, and ultimately to be part of the BRICS system. Hence the need for radical change – kindly permit our using “radical” interchangeably with “revolution.”
  No manner of legislation by a corrupt legislature can at this point change Nigeria for better; only a radical shift can do so. The alternative to a revolution can only be the continuation of the downward spiral and consequent use of the security forces to kill the people on behalf of the disastrous system.

3. IMMEDIATE AND EASY STEPS TO NORMALCY IN NIGERIA.
   Nigerian rulers know what to do, but cannot do it because of their interests against others and for themselves. Securing Nigeria is not rocket science, nor is returning peace and development to her. Yet, in many Asian and other countries, principles of rocket science are now mastered even by elementary pupils. If we are serious these steps must be taken to immediately return peace and development to Nigeria; they will hurt evil but promote good and civilization:

• An immediate stop to all killings by the state on whatever grounds; same for all state-sponsored, organized, condoned, paid, connived terrorism and orchestrated insecurity. The more than 400 Unknown Gunmen arrested in Imo and found not to be Igbo should be exposed and brought to justice; the government should act on the evidence of escapees like the Methodist Archbishop from kidnappers who observed soldiers sharing ransom money, other individuals, and findings of the InterSociety, town unions and other organizations, over the atrocities happening in the East, Southern Kaduna, Plateau Highlands, Middle Belt, the entire South. Government cannot be keeping quiet and pretending ignorance even as one of the groups of Unknown Gunmen led by Asari Dokubo has publicly admitted to the world that his violence on Easterners is organized and paid for by the federal government. No group or organization in Southern Nigeria including the IPOB/ESN is known to have embarked on an armed struggle against the Nigerian government, or encouraged by people to do so, and only the Asari Dokubos know why they are killing people.
• The AK-47 Fulani and other terrorists lurking around the forests, bush paths, highways, and allegedly working in liaison with the military-security forces and the Unknown Gunmen, should be expelled from their “hideouts,” disarmed, subjected to the legal process and for non-Nigerians repatriated back to the sending states. The clown called Simon Ekpa allegedly sponsored to be creating opportunities for continued destruction of the East should be called to order. Nigeria has enormous leverage on Finnish authorities, especially through their allies who seek Nigeria’s friendship. The sit-at-home enforcers by whatever Unknown Gunmen are rightly expected to be known to the authorities, and should be brought to a close.
• Once the steps above are taken, or even credibly simultaneously, the Amotekun, so-called Ebubeagu, ESN, and other groups reportedly organized to defend their peoples against these terrorists and Unknown Gunmen, should be disbanded, except the community vigilantes protecting their villages and reporting to official organs or, alternatively, retrained for absorption into the Army or Police.
• A well-organized and federally funded return to their aboriginal homes of all the peoples of Southern Kaduna, Plateau Highlands, Middle Belt, Enugu, Rivers, Ondo, and other states, violently driven away by jihadists in full view of federal security forces that allegedly always arrive after the event to prevent any attempt by the victims to defend themselves.This is very important because Nigeria cannot in a 21st century be living with jihadist or other “conquerings” by any self-entitled groups.
• Those concerned should be encouraged to buy lands and erect dwellings, obey the states’ anti-open grazing laws, purchase spaces and establish modern ranches, pay taxes in their places of domicile, and be free to stay in peace with locals.
• No government, except for its own malign purposes permits parralel centres of power, and no such parallelism augurs well even for the citizenry. Citizens must look only up to the state and confident that it alone can humanely protect them, based on civilized equal laws and their equal applications nationwide. Nigeria therefore cannot continue tolerating such a routinely violent institution called caliphate system, whereby there is a Governor of a state, House of Assembly, commissioners, judges, local governments, their chairmen, councillors, etc – and, another man, a Sultan based in Sokoto appoints a Fulani Emir and village heads over and above the Governor or parallel to him/her, to suppress the indigenous non-Fulani populations and subject them to a Sokoto caliphate on the claim of a “conquest” that happened 200 or so years ago, and based on a vindictive primitive law called sharia applied mostly to downtrodden non-Fulani. In these caliphate states only the minority Fulani can become anything: Minister, Governor, oil block owner, anything useful. The indigenous tribes of the North, above all Hausa, are so conquered – and other Nigerians keep quiet until they too become equally conquered! Read Bamaiyi’s Vindication of a general to see what even generals that served Nigeria suffer when they go home in the hands of alien rulers of their communities – in the 21st century – and find out why Nigeria is in permanent turmoil.
• For peace to reign in Nigeria the caliphate system has to go, as it certainly will. It may have served its purpose to enable the Fulani come in but no more necessary for them to stay happily. The Sultans and Emirs are highly educated, rich, powerful and connected men, and we greatly respect all of them, but the system they run is cruel, violent, oppressive and primitive; suppresses others without tangible benefits for the Fulani themselves except the profilings and hatreds unfairly launched on those that are peaceful. Hence, the best help to the Fulani, many of whom are now highly educated, is to abolish the caliphate system and enable them relate with others unencumbered by transferred animosity, while the caliphate operatives join other elites to contribute to national development.
• A truly free Nigeria must extol its own worthy civilizations. Science and technology, yes – we had ours since ancient times; democracy and democratic institutions, yes – we also had even better ones. But, no killings, stonings, beheadings, “blasphemy” laws, polygamy, polyandry, child marriage, and the miscellany of other things that challenge our sense of humanity. Both Christianity and Islam are alien to Nigeria, but in moderate forms still respectable religions, and any extremist expressions must be outlawed. Both sexes must operate as equals; polygamy and child marriage are disrespectful of women and should go in a modern secular state. Of course, the other thing called LGBTQ is simply nonsensical; if they claim that it is freedom, okay, let’s wait till parents and children, humans and animals start marrying in the West, then we can believe they are indeed absolutely free there.
• Provisional end to external borrowing. Government should raise monies from those enjoying oil blocks, ports concessions, Gencos/Dencos, etc, each according to the value of the enterprises, and also from the proceeds of recovered loots, plus rationalizing the operations of government to save costs. When an audit is done it might be discovered that Nigeria’s so-called indebtedness might equally be a scam as other claims pushed out by the authorities.
• It’s symptomatic of state degeneration that even scholars have no appetite talking of free education. Free education should be revived in Nigeria; it will help equalize opportunities and make the free enterprise system operate on a level playing field for all. Moreover, there is nothing called palliative that can reach the poor as evenly as free educational opportunities nationwide.
• Release and rehabilitate all political prisoners, above all, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his colleagues. They killed nobody, no case has been established against them, the courts have set them free; so, why continue to detain, torture and humiliate them while murderers and criminals are walking free and propounding theses? To teach them a lesson on how to keep quiet while their peoples are oppressed? President Tinubu has an opportunity to make a difference by releasing this noble man, and have a clean break with the state-sponsored terrorism and ethno-religious revanchism of his infamous predecessor.

ORGANIC RESTRUCTURING.
In Nigeria the goals of restructuring include:

• To solve the national question of relations between the ethnic nationalities, and the class question of the equitable distribution of power among them and between the national elites.
• To restore the integrity of various indigenous civilizations in Nigeria, and modernize and promote local languages and cultures. In time all Nigerian languages shall be official usages in their localities.
• Eliminate wastage and reduce the costs of governance to the barest minimum, and plough the savings into projects development.
• To create relatively strong and viable constitutive units of organic political administration and poles of development that can engage in effective competitive mutual emulation for a rapid industrialization takeoff and scientific and technological revolution, to make the 21st an African century, especially in view of the prospective AfCFTA, the BRICS, and so on.
• With a sense of relative self-determination for the constitutive units, and accrescent rewards of hardwork and shared prosperity, to translate the agitations for secession into eagerness for greater unity and harmonious nation-building.
• And, to ease the pressures and grievances towards the centre with the consequent fissiparous tendencies nationwide. Restructuring, in effect, practically restores a potentially failed state to the path of viability, and a significant step towards harmonious nation-building. Organic restructuring translates natural characteristics of territory and language or groupings thereof into administrative units. Those who understand each other are encouraged to work together to develop, while also coordinating with other units in overall nation-building. Hence, the English, Northern Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, while maintaining their languages, territories and cultures are all British. The situation is similarly repeated in almost all multilingual societies (Canada, India, South Africa, etc) seeking to unite and develop in peace and harmony. There are occasional demands for separation, but except where violent cliques aim to subjugate others, hardly violent, and often resolved peacefully. People generally appreciate the values of unity, but on just and egalitarian grounds, which is the task of nation-building. Organic restructuring is about the multidimensional survival of the constituent elements of a political union while at the same time maintaining the union.

ELEMENTS OF RESTRUCTURING.
I. Constitutive Units: 5 Coastal States or Regions, and 5 Riparian States or Regions.
There are fewer and less complex ethnic outline in the South than in the North. In the South one can within seconds count the AkwaCross (of related Annang-Efik-Efut-Ibibio-Oron, and Ogojas), Andoni, Bini, Igbo, Ijaw, Ishan, Isoko, Itsekiri, Ogoji, Urhobo, Yoruba, with all manner of dialects and other divisions within everyone of them. They all have coastal ports and with contiguities in mind, easy to group them into 5 coastal regions or states:

• EAST/Igbo,
• WEST/Yoruba,
• SOUTHEAST/ AkwaCross,
• SOUTHWEST/Bini-Ijaw-Ishan-Isoko-Itsekiri-Urhobo,
• SOUTHERN/Andoni-Ogoni.

The North is far more complex ethnically and would benefit by groupings of ethnic nationalities, more than 300 of them, not to speak of dialects, which could be in thousands. Nevertheless, the regions or states in the North would equally be arranged taking language, contiguity, history, and access to the Benue and Niger Rivers into consideration. This would translate into 5 Riparian States or Regions, including for the:

• NORTH/Hausa and Fulani,
  -:NORTHEAST/Kanuri and associated groups,
• NORTHCENTRAL/Southern Kaduna, etc.,
• NORTHWEST/Nupe, Igbirra, etc.,
• MIDDLE BELT/Idoma, Igala, Tiv, etc.

THE NORTHERN LANDMASS AND SOUTHERN PORTS WILL COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER, AND WITH THE PROSPECTIVE DREDGING OF THE NIGER AND BENUE RIVERS, EVERY REGION WILL IMPORT-EXPORT BY ITS FRONT DOOR, making the industrial revolution nationwide.

II. Military-Security Reorganization. This is as vital as other components of restructuring. Nigeria must change from a neocolonial to a People’s Army, with compulsory military service at youth. In all aspects, the military-security services must reflect the ethnic configuration of the country.

III. Resource Control. Multiethnic federations practice fiscal federalism, and Nigeria cannot be an exception. Units own the resources within their domains and pay appropriate taxes to the centre as per the Constitution.

IV. National Ethos/Ideology. A modern democratic secular state of same equal laws and equal applications nationwide, based on civilized Common Law principles. We cannot be picking and choosing; either we run a civilized society or we decide to stay with primitive life.

METHODOLOGY OF RESTRUCTURING IN TODAY’S NIGERIA:
A. Devolution of Powers. We’ve discussed this severally, finding it an extremely imperfect means of restructuring, because the Chambers are not organically constituted or representative of Nigeria’s ethno-religious gridiron. Except by class suicide actors benefitting from injustice cannot right the wrongs. The most that the Houses might attempt, except if pushed by a determined Executive is to transfer some unessential or burdensome items in the exclusive to the concurrent, not even residual list, without corresponding financial provisions, which they would label “constitutional reforms” for public consumption. The only revolutionary, at least radical approach would be either:
B. A mass-instigated progressive reorientation by major elements of both Chambers to enable them pass the desired legislations OR
C. A Sovereign National Conference or SNC, which would temporarily deconstitute existing laws to reconstitute them on consensual basis. In other words, an entirely new People’s Constitution.
D. Constitutional Conferences are frequent exercises, but their weakness derives mostly from the fact of the ruling authorities being the conveners and always veto or disallow decisions contradicting their designs.
E. National Conferences are convened by the people, but usually with no sovereign powers, except in collaboration with third parties interested in ousting the existing order.
Nigeria cannot go on aimlessly, built on corruption and proceeding on corruption; political, economic, financial, cultural, religious, collective and individual corruption, impunity, official illegality. We must approach it with certainty that we need a properly restructred Nigeria to promote development, unity, peace, in the context of a modern democratic secular state of equal laws and equal applications nationwide, based on the civilized Common Law binding all citizens, and capable of uplifting the country to a higher pedestal of respectability within the comity of civilized peoples. Thanks again.

~ Prof. Obasi Igwe.
Director, Media and Publicity
United Igbo Elders Council (UNIEC) Worldwide.