|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has raised the alarm that Nigeria was today more divided along ethnic and religious lines than at any other period in its chequered history.
Obi, who made the observation in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay, lamented that the biggest challenge facing Nigeria today was lack of unity, saying that everyone in the country was looking at what to get out of Nigeria, how the country has favoured his/her area and not about what has happened to other people.
According to him, many people from the Northern part of the country today are just concerned about how it is their turn to rule, fuelling the mindset that Nigeria would cease to exist if the presidency goes to another part of the country in 2019.
The attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari since he came to power in 2015, Obi said, also seems to have further torn the country apart as his appointments were skewed in favour of the North, creating the impression that good leaders could only be found in the North.
Those in the Middle Belt, the former governor said, see themselves as “bush meat” for herdsmen. The wanton killing of indigenes of Benue State and the seeming unwillingness on the part of the Federal Government to stem the ugly tide may have provoked the Middle Beltans to begin to review their sense of belonging, thus questioning their commitment to the unity of the entire country.
The former governor also noted that the South-South people, though they have had a shot at the presidency through Goodluck Jonathan, appear to be worried that they are increasingly being shortchanged by the powers that be. This is manifested in the renewed agitation for resource control.
Many people of the South-South extraction are not happy that the Buhari administration which, shortly after its inauguration flagged off the Ogoni cleanup, appears to have abandoned the project. The militants of the Niger Delta, who surrendered their guns during the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, at one time or the other threatened to pick their arsenals once again over allegations of neglect and breach of contracts with the militants.
The South West, although President Buhari received huge support from the geo-political zone, seem not to be so happy with the administration.
The South East is obviously not happy with the present government over the alleged marginalisation of the zone. The anger is manifested in the agitation for Biafra. The renewed agitation by the members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was a result of the pronouncement by President Buhari that he was not going to give those who gave him 5 percent votes the same attention with those that gave him 97 percent.
True to his threat, President Buhari has through his appointments marginalised the Igbo nation, hence the anger.
Recall also that there had been religious killings of some Igbo people in the North since 2015, the perpetrators of which were not prosecuted. The quit notice that was served the Igbo living in any part of the North by the Arewa Youths sometime last year also worsened the age-long enmity existing between the North and South-East.
The former governor, who is touted to be nursing a vice presidential ambition, said government needed to be more decisive by halting forthwith all its actions and inactions that may have dragged the country to its sordid current state.
Chuks Oluigbo
