Yet I wonder how those southern
leaders who have sold their glory and heritage for a mess of pottage and who
have opted to collaborate with our collective enemies and betray their own
people feel about the words of men like Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Gwarzo?
I wonder whether the small handful
of pitiful yet identifiable key leaders from the south that joined forces with
Buhari, supported him during last years election and drank deep from his ‘mai
chanji magic potion’ poisoned chalice have read what these two evil men wrote
and what those that share their views and disposition have to say?
And if they did I wonder how they
can possibly justify or rationalise their positions or their decision to
support a Buhari presidency?
I refer to men like Rotimi Amaechi,
Rochas Okorocha, Tunde Fashola and so many others. As the south is short-changed,
humiliated, marginalised and brought to her knees in this dispensation and as
she continues to suffer violence and death and bleeds, their names will be
entrenched and engraved in infamy and shame for future generations to see.
Whether they wish to accept it or
not history will record and posterity will testify to the fact that these men
handed us all over to a small cabal of ultra-conservative Fulani hegemonists
and irredentists who not only have a clear intention to subjugate our people
and Islamise our nation but who also secretly have as much contempt for them as
they do for us.
I wonder whether they got Adamu
Mohammed’s message and whether they understood what he said? I wonder whether
they can comprehend the import of Aliyu Gwarzo’s words?
I wonder how they sleep at night
knowing all this, seeing what is unfolding in our country and knowing that they
have effectively contributed to the enslavement of their own people.
Worst of all is the fact that not
one of them can cultivate the courage or dare to publicly condemn the likes of
Adamu Mohammed or Aliyu Gwarzo and all that they have said, believe in and
stand for.
As a matter of fact they would
rather condemn and insult those of us that are prepared to stand up against
them and reject and resist their evil intent. What a shame!
If blame were to he apportioned for
all the rubbish that is going on in our country today it should start with
people like them who have not only sold their souls to the devil but who have
also led their people into slavery.
They have lost the privilage to be
regarded as or called leaders because these are fellow southerners who simply
do not care about the plight of the people of the south.
The Apostle Paul said “Alexander the
Coppersmith did me much evil, may the Lord repay him according to his works”.
May it be the same for those
southern leaders who have betrayed their own people, who have mortgaged the
future of their own children, who have blighted the stars of their own wards
and dependents and who have destroyed the destiny of millions of their own
southern compatriots.
Given the words and disposition of
men like Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Gwarzo there is only one fact that bears any
relevance when it comes to the history of our nation and that fact is that the
people of the south and the Middle Belt made a monumental mistake by supporting
the north and fighting to keep Nigeria one during our civil war.
That is the long and short of it. We
owe the late Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the erstwhile Head of State of
Biafra and his entire Igbo race an apology for leaving them in the lurch and
not supporting their cause and quest for self-determination when they needed us
the most and when they called on us to do so.
Given the fact that so many from the
core Muslim north hate us with passion and see us as nothing more than slaves
and animals to be ruled over and butchered at will, I believe that we need to
go back to the drawing board and divide this country peacefully before we all
end up killing ourselves.
I do not believe in restructuring
because it is too late for that: I believe in division. I believe that the two
zones in the core north should leave Nigeria and go their separate ways whilst
the rest of us that constitute the four remaining zones either stay together as
one country or break into even smaller units along zonal or ethnic lines.
Self-determination must be the
guiding and overiding principle and referendums must be conducted in the
various zones to detetmine precisely what the will of the people really is.
That is democracy. That is justice. That is equity. And only that can bring
lasting peace to our sad, divided and beleagured land.
Those that seek to crucify me for
suggesting that we should chart this new course should bear in mind the fact
that I am not the first to suggest it and neither will I be the last. Those
that doubt the veracity of this assertion should consider the following:
In 1953 the north declared their
interest to break off from the rest of Nigeria after they rejected Chief
Anthony Enahoro’s motion for Nigeria’s independence from Great Britain and
walked out of Parliament.
They insisted on secession and it
took the intervention of the British authorities to get them to sheath their
swords and agree to remain in the same country as those they openly described
as “southern devils and infidels”.
Once again in 1966 the north did the
same thing and openly demanded for secession from the south after they effected
their northern officers revenge coup on July 29th.
On the night of that “revenge coup”
they massacred over 300 Igbo officers in one night together with the Igbo Head
of State and the Yoruba Military Governor who refused to leave his side and who
insisted on protecting him.
After what was undoubtedly one of
the most bloody nights in our entire history and after all the butchery was
done, the northern officers that carried out the coup loudly declared “araba”,
which means “let us share it”, “let us tear it apart” or “let us break it up”
in hausa.
It took three days of frantic
appeals by the British High Commissioner and a handful of American diplomats
and southern civil servants to stop them from leaving.
They eventually agreed to stay but
they gave one condition: that one of their own, a northern officer by the name
of Lt. Col. Yakubu Jack Gowon, should be the Head of State of a united Nigeria
even though there were at least three southern officers that were senior to him
in rank that were still left on the army.
The conditions were accepted, Gowon
became Head of State, the north agreed to stay and Nigeria remained one. Yet
the sadly the story did not end there and neither was its end a happy one.
Evidently the cold-blooded murder of
three hundred Igbo soldiers was not enough to satisfy their blood lust.
The north still insisted on having
its revenge and its pound of flesh for the Igbo coup that took place on January
15th 1966 in which many northern political and military leaders together with a
handful of their political and military allies from the west were killed.
Consequently three months after
Gowon took power mass murder and genocide was unleashed against the Igbo
population that resided in the core north and over 100,000 innocent Igbo
civilians, including women and children, were slaughtered in the sanctity of
their homes in just a matter of weeks.
Nothing had ever been seen like that
before on the African continent. It was brutal, barbaric and horrendous.
Innocent civilians, including pregnant women and little babies, were hacked to
pieces in shops, hospitals, buses, cars and in their own homes whilst the
authorities, and indeed the entire world, stood by silently and did nothing to
help them.
This led to a massive exodus of
Igbos from the north back to the east and to the declaration of the sovereign
State of Biafra (which means “come and join us”).
The result of that declaration was
the commencement of the most brutal, savage and bloody civil war that the
African continent has ever experienced in which no less than three million
Igbos, including at least one million young children, were killed all in the
name of “keeping Nigeria one”. That war lasted for three gruelling years: from
1967 until 1970.
Yet since 1967 when oil was
discovered in commercial quantities in a place called Oloibiri in what is now
known as the Niger Delta area of southern Nigeria, the north have NEVER called
for “araba” or the breaking up of Nigeria again.
Instead they have bullied,
intimidated, cheated, killed, maimed and slaughtered others just to keep
Nigeria one simply because they are addicted to southern oil. Without the
revenues that come from that oil the core north would be probably the poorest,
most barren and most desolate region in the whole of Africa. In view of this it
is understandable that we have not heard “araba” from.any core northerner
again.
They now view anyone that calls for
the break up of Nigeria with murderous intent and extreme hatred and they label
them as dangerous subversives and uninformed miscreants.
They have labelled them as
irresponsible criminals, they have denied them the right to detetmine their own
destiny and future and they have resolved to compel them to remain in Nigeria
by the force of arms.
The north appear to have forgotten
that they themselves called for secession in 1953 and 1966 and at that time
no-one threatened, killed or insulted them for doing so. And neither did anyone
try to enslave them or keep them in by the force of arms.
The bottom line is as follows: as
long as people like Mr. Adamu Mohammed and Mr. Aliyu Gwarzo exist and as long
as they say and do the sort of things that they say and do the people of the
south will not rule out the possibility of secession.
We will not sit back idly and
silently watch our people being marginalised, islamised, conquered, butchered
and enslaved.
We cannot be expected to continue to
take the tyranny, violence, subjugation and gratuitous insults that are meted
out to us on a daily basis by core Muslim northerners who believe that they
were born to rule. We will resist it and we will oppose it in every lawful
manner and with evetything that we have got.
In the final analysis if we are
attacked and butchered for saying “enough is enough” and for attempting to
exercise our right of self-determination, and if the state refuses to protect
us, we will have no hesitation in defending ourselves and protecting our
people.
The days of keeping Nigeria one by
threats, violence and the force of arms and of sealing and cementing our
so-called unity by the shedding of southern and Middle Belt blood are long
over. We will not take it anymore.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the great
patriots, founding fathers and gallant heroes of America during their war of
independence and struggle against their English colonial masters, said the
following: “when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes a duty”.
Patrick Henry, another of the great
founding fathers and a noble and righteous man, proclaimed the following words
before England’s King George 111:
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give
me death!”
Another by the name of George
Washington, who was a deeply courageous man, the Supreme Commander of the rebel
forces and the man who was later elected as the first President of the proud,
newly born and independent American nation proclaimed “in God we trust” as he
entered the field of battle.
He also shouted “victory or death”
as he led the cavalry charge and “you cannot rule without God and the Holy
Bible” after he became President.
These were were men who refused to
compromise with evil wnd were prepared to offer their lives in their struggle
to break the yoke of servitude.
Again Thomas Jefferson said “the
tree of liberty is watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants”. There are
lessons to be learnt here for us all and particularly by the leaders of the
south.
And thankfully it appears that a few
southern stars like Ayo Fayose, Ike Ekweremadu, Nyesom Wike, Segun Mimiko,
Seriake Dickson, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Willie Obiano, Yinka Odumakin, Femi
Aribisala and a handful of othes are beginning to learn those lessons, rise up
to the occasion and stand up like men.
Yet whatever happens and whether the
core Muslim north likes it or not our very own southern “tree of liberty” shall
be watered as well and in the end we shall be free.
That same Living God whose name
George Washington always invoked before going into battle is with us today and
He shall see us through. He shall grant us the strength and power to endure.
He will not forsake us and, at the
appointed time, He will grant us victory over our tormentors.
I say this because His name is
Faithful and faithful He is. As old as He is, He never changes and He never
forsakes His own: that is why they call Him Ancient of Days.
He never loses in battle: that is
why they call Him the Man of War and the Lord God of Hosts. He is our strength
and our shield, our glory and the lifter of our heads. He is our everything and
without Him we are nothing.
In He alone we trust and He will
NEVER allow the counsel of ungodly, wicked and bloodthirsty men from the
deserts of a distant and barren land called Futa Jallon in modern-day Guinea,
like Adamu Mohammed and Aliyu Gwarzo, to stand.
We harbour no fears because in the
end we know that shall prevail and our freedom and liberation has been
guaranteed.
Their end, and the end of all those
that they represent, has already been determined by He that sits above the
circles of the earth and that answers by fire and that end will be pitiful: It
is just a matter of time. (CONCLUDED)
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