BIAFRA:
Nigerians have right to debate the terms of our existence -Osinbajo
In
a what is seen as a pivotal speech and significant demonstration of the Buhari
administration commitment to purposeful nation-building, Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo, SAN, has underscored the need for Nigerian leaders to give the
younger generation the vision on a pathway to unity in diversity.
Prof.
Osinbajo made the statement today in Abuja at the colloquim on “Biafra: 50
years after’’ organized by the Yar’ Adua Foundation at the Shehu Musa Yar’ adua
Centre, Abuja, where he spoke to a cross section of political leaders which
include former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr. John Nwodo, leader of Ohaneze,
the Pan-Igbo socio-cultural organization and Alhaji Ahmed Joda amongst other
dignitaries that graced the occasion.
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| Biafran-Children during the War |
That
ability to learn from history is perhaps the greatest defense from the
avoidable pain of learning from experience, when history is a much gentler and
kinder teacher. Indeed, the saying experience is the best teacher, is
incomplete, the full statement of that Welsh adage is that experience is the
best teacher for a fool. History is a kinder and gentler teacher. I was ten
years old when my friend in primary school then, Emeka, left school one
afternoon.
He
said his parents said they had to go back to East, war was about to start. I
never saw Emeka again. My aunty Bunmi was married to a gentleman from Enugu, I
cannot recall his name. But I recall the evening when my parents tried to
persuade her and her husband not to leave for the East. She did, we never saw
her again. I recall distinctly how in 1967, passing in front of my home on
Ikorodu road almost every hour were trucks carrying passengers and furniture in
an endless stream heading east. Many Ibos who left various parts of Nigeria,
left friends, families and businesses, schools and jobs.
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| Biafrans protesting |
Like
my friend and aunty some never returned! But many died. The reasons for this
tragic separation of brothers and sisters were deep and profound. So much has
been said and written already about the “why’s and wherefores’’ and that
analyses will probably never end. This is why I would rather not spend this few
minutes on whether there was or was not sufficient justification for secession and
the war that followed. The issue is whether the terrible suffering, massive
loss of lives, of hopes and fortunes of so many can ever be justified.
As
we reflect on this event today, we must ask ourselves the same question that
many who have fought or been victims in civil wars, wars between brothers and
sisters ask in moments of reflection….“what if we had spent all the resources,
time and sacrifice we put into the war, into trying to forge unity?
What
if we had decided not to seek to avenge a wrong done to us? What if we had
chosen to overcome evil with good?’’ The truth is that the spilling of blood in
dispute is hardly ever worth the losses. Of the fallouts of bitter wars is the
anger that can so easily be rekindled by those who for good or ill want to
resuscitate the fire. Today some are suggesting that we must go back to the
ethnic nationalities from which Nigeria was formed.
They
say that secession is the answer to the charges of marginalization. They argue
that separation from the Nigerian State will ultimately result in successful
smaller States.
They
argue eloquently, I might add that Nigeria is a colonial contraption that
cannot endure. This is also the sum and substance of the agitation for Biafra.
The campaign is often bitter and vitriolic, and has sometimes degenerated to
fatal violence. Brothers and sisters permit me to differ and to suggest that
we’re greater together than apart. No country is perfect; around the world we
have seen and continue to see expressions of intra-national discontent.
Indeed,
not many Nigerians seem to know that the oft-quoted line about Nigeria being a
“mere geographical expression” originally applied to Italy. It was the German
statesman Klemens von Metternich who dismissively summed up Italy as a mere
geographical expression exactly a century before Nigeria came into being as a
country. From Spain to Belgium to the United Kingdom and even the United States
of America, you will find many today who will venture to make similar arguments
about their countries. But they have remained together.
The
truth is that many, if not most nations of the world are made up of different
peoples and cultures and beliefs and religions, who find themselves thrown
together by circumstance. Nations are indeed made up of many nations. The most
successful of the nations of the world are those who do not fall into the lure
of secession. But who through thick and thin forge unity in diversity.
Nigeria
is no different; we are, not three, but more like three hundred or so ethnic
groups within the same geographical space, presented with a great opportunity
to combine all our strengths into a nation that is truly, to borrow an
expression, more than the sum of its parts. Let me say that there is a solid
body of research that shows that groups that score high on diversity turn out
to be more innovative than less diverse ones.
There’s
also research showing that companies that place a premium on creating diverse
workplaces do better financially than those who do not. This applies to
countries just as much as it does to companies. The United States is a great
example, bringing together an impressively diverse cast of people together to
consistently accomplish world-conquering economic, military and scientific
feats.
It
is possible in Nigeria as well. Instead of trying to flee into the lazy comfort
of homogeneity every time we’re faced with the frustrations of living together
as countrymen and women, the more beneficial way for us individually and
collectively is actually to apply the effort and the patience to understand one
another and to progressively aspire to create one nation bound in freedom, in
peace and in unity.
That,
in a sense, should be the Nigerian Dream – the enthusiasm to create a country
that provides reasons for its citizens to believe in it, a country that does
not discriminate, or marginalize in any way. We are not there yet, but I
believe we have a strong chance to advance in that direction.
But
that will not happen if we allow our frustrations and grievances to transmute
into hatred. It will not happen if we see the media – television and radio and
print and especially social media – as platforms for the propagation of hateful
and divisive rhetoric. No one stands to benefit from a stance like that; we
will all emerge as losers.
Clearly
our strength is in our diversity, that we are greater together than apart.
Imagine for a moment that an enterprising young man from Aba had to apply for a
visa to travel to Kano to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, or that a young
woman from Abeokuta had to fill immigration forms and await a verdict in order
to attend her best friend’s wedding in Umuahia.
Nigeria
would be a much less colourful, much less interesting space, were that the
case. Our frustrations with some who speak a different dialect or belong to a
different religion must not drive us to forget many of the same tribe and faith
of our adversaries who have shown true affection for us.
My
God-son is Somkele Awakalu, his father Awa Kalu, SAN, and I taught at the
University of Lagos. My first book was dedicated to Somkele and my two other
God-children. Chief Emmanuel Dimike is almost 80, he was my father’s friend and
business associate in his sawmills in Lagos.
Chief
has been like a father. I see him most Sundays, he worships with me at the
chapel. The individual affections and friendships we forge some even deeper
than family ties, must remind us that unity is possible, that brotherhood
across tribes and faiths is possible. Let me make it clear that I fully believe
that Nigerians should exercise to the fullest extent the right to discuss or
debate the terms of our existence.
Debate
and disagreement are fundamental aspects of democracy. We recognize and
acknowledge that necessity. And today’s event is along those lines – an
opportunity not merely to commemorate the past, but also to dissect and debate
it. Let’s ask ourselves tough questions about the path that has led us here,
and how we might transform yesterday’s actions into tomorrow’s wisdom.
Indeed
our argument is not and will never be that we should ‘forget the past’, or ‘let
bygones be bygones’, as some have suggested. Chinua Achebe repeatedly reminded
us of the Igbo saying that a man who cannot tell where the rain began to beat
him cannot know where he dried his body.
If
we lose the past, we will inevitably lose the opportunity to make the best of
the present and the future. In an interview years ago, the late Dim Chukwuemeka
Ojukwu, explaining why he didn’t think a second Biafran War should happen,
said: “We should have learnt from that first one, otherwise the deaths would
have been to no avail; it would all have been in vain.” We should also be
careful that we do not focus exclusively on the narratives of division, at the
expense of the uplifting and inspiring ones.
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| Vice President Osinbanjo |
The
same social media that has come under much censure for its propensity to
propagate division, has also allowed multitudes of young Nigerians to see more
of the sights and sounds of their country than ever before. And for every young
Nigerian who sees the Internet as an avenue for spewing ethnic hatred, there is
another young Nigerian who is falling in love or doing business across ethnic
and cultural lines; a young Nigerian who looks back on his or her NYSC year in
unfamiliar territory as one of the valued highlights of their lifetime. These
stories need to be told as well.
They
are the stories that remind us that the journey to nationhood is not an event
but a process, filled as with life itself with experiences some bitter, some
sweet. The most remarkable attribute of that process is that a succeeding
generation does not need to bear the prejudices and failures of the past. Every
new generation can take a different and more ennobling route than its
predecessors. But the greatest responsibility today lies on the leadership of
our country.
Especially
but not only political leadership. The promise of our constitution which we
have sworn to uphold is that we would ensure a secure, and safe environment for
our people to live, and work in peace, that we would provide just and fair
institutions of justice. That we would not permit or encourage discrimination
on the grounds of race, gender, beliefs or other parochial considerations. That
we would build a nation where no one is oppressed and none is left behind.
These
are the standards to which we must hold our leadership. We must not permit our
leaders the easy but dangerous rhetoric of blaming our social and economic
conditions on our coming together. It is their duty to give us a vision a
pathway to make our unity in diversity even more perfect. Laolu Akande Senior
Special Assistant to the President, Media & Publicity In the Office of the
Vice President 25th May, 2017
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