By JOHN NWOKOCHA

Listening to Professor Banji Akintoye, President-General of Ilana Omo Oodua, the umbrella body of a self-determination group comprising about 200 ethnic nationalities, on television last week vehemently canvassing for actualisation of their agitation for a Yoruba nation leaves an impression that Nigeria is only existing in fragments.

Akintoye talks tough. He insists on separating Yoruba of the southwest from Nigeria. And he has been dogged in advancing strong reasons for their collective demand for a separate Yoruba nation.

He faulted the 1999 Nigeria Constitution (as amended), declaring that no progress can be made under the current arrangement in the country. He said the fundamentals of the 1999 Constitution are equally fraudulent.

Akintoye has consistently said the claims by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria are false.

In fact, in one of his statements, Akintoye declared: “As the distressed federation of Nigeria continues to wobble through what seems its terminal throes, it will be recalled that the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS), aggregating the indigenous nations and peoples of Southern and Middle-Belt of Nigeria, who have found themselves at the receiving end of a most vicious ethnic cleansing onslaught by heavily-armed invading Fulani militia masquerading as herdsmen, formally declared a union dispute with the Federation of Nigeria as represented by the Federal Government of Nigeria via the Constitutional Force Majeure Proclamation of December 16, 2020, in which it made a five-point demand upon the Federal Government of Nigeria, to formally commence the remediation of the Grave Constitutional Grievances enumerated in the said proclamation within a period of 90 days beginning from the midnight of December 16, 2020.”

He spoke at the expiration of what he described as the 90- Day Notice of Grave Constitutional Grievances issued by NINAS to the federal government.

The 90 days period of notice expired March 16, 2021.

And quite recently Akintoye reiterates his resolute stance on the secession issue saying: “Let me also say that the struggle of Yoruba people for self-determination is beyond what anyone can threaten.”

Joining forces with him is a regional warlord popularly called Sunday Igboho, a political activist whose real name is Chief Sunday Adeyemo. He emerged on the political scene with intriguing and fearsome mobilising influence, and started also calling for a separate Yoruba nation.

Adeyemo, aka Igboho, a strong voice in the South-west was quoted as saying: “We don’t want one Nigeria again.”

At another occasion not too long ago, he reportedly said: “We are fighting for our rights. All Yoruba youths in this land (South-west) must support Baba Akintoye. I, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, will support our father. This is the real father who we know will fight for our rights. There is no peace, there is no security.”

He continued: “Starting from now, we don’t want Fulani herdsmen in our land to disturb our farms again. If we meet any Fulani herdsmen, we are going to face and destroy them.

“If any police attack us for that, we are ready for them. We don’t want Nigeria again, but Yoruba nation. There is no essence for one Nigeria when major resources in the country are in the hands of the northerners.”

On Sunday, April 11, 2021, about 1,000 Yoruba women in the Diaspora stormed the palace of the Ooni of Ife, in Osun State, and insisted on a separate Yoruba nation. The women who came together under a group called Obirin Oodua Agbaye were dressed in traditional ritual attires made up of white body-wrappers and beads. They told the Ooni, Oba Enitan Adeyeye-Ogunwusi, that it is either Yoruba nation through self-determination or nothing else.

Disclosing their mission, their leaders, Princess Yeye Simisade Kuku-Onayemi and secretary-general, Dr Owowunmi Babalola-Okocha, said the gods in Yoruba land have mandated the women to commence spiritual measures that will lead to actualisation of Yoruba nation without bloodshed. The women who came from 37 countries, including UK, USA, Spain, France and Canada said they were mandated to replicate the visit to the palaces ofAlaafin of Oyo, Osemawe of Ondo, Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Obaro of Kabba, Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oloffa of Offa and Awujale of Ijebu land.

They averred: “When we are done with our consultations and prayers, the people of Yoruba nation shall be surprised at the rate by which the Yoruba nation shall come into reality without any bloodshed. It shall be amazing and the world shall be shocked.”

Akintoye who led the women to the palace said “our freedom day is near.”

Welcoming them to his palace, the Ooni said, “women are key to our struggle for self-determination and we must carry them along, going forward.”

From South-east, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has remained resolute in its decades of struggle for a nation of theirs carved out of Nigeria. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) also strongly advocates a sovereign nation of Biafra for a long time.

IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has on different fronts explained why Biafra deserves to exist separately from Nigeria.

Kanu, the dogged IPOB fighter has taken the struggle for Biafra secession before the international community. Even though the Federal Government had to proscribe the activities of IPOB and declared it a terrorist group, IPOB is not deterred. Just the other day, some men claiming to be members of IPOB hoisted the Biafran flag right in front of a first generation bank in Abagana, Anambra State, after firing several gun-shots in the air.

The resilient self-determination campaigners of the South-east, about two weeks ago, set up a customary government structure headed by Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo who, in a statement through the Head of Information and Communication of Biafra Customary Government, Uche Mefor, said: “We are not at war with the Nigerian state. We are doing everything within the confines of the law, both domestic and international. Nigerian state agents are entitled to their opinions, but our claim and assertion to our rights to self-determination is firmly entrenched and rooted in international law. The Biafra nation has come to stay.”

Like Akintoye, Dokubo lamented what he called “the atrocities of the Fulani killer herdsmen.” Dokubo is worried by the spate of killings and destruction of properties in the land, coupled with incessant prosecution of the youths by state security agencies. He noted that it is unwise and unjustified for anybody to continuously endanger the lives of vulnerable people who have fallen victims in the recent violence in the land, adding: “The right to self-defence is not an exhibition and public show.”

It is regrettable that many lives have been lost to the struggles.

He reasoned: “We can’t willfully turn our land into a theatre of war, lawlessness, anarchy and chaos. We should apply defensive rather than offensive approach, unless we are already in war. We must apply tact and flexibility where situation demands, it just like now.”

Meanwhile, the Middle-belt region is threatening to severe link with Arewa in the northern part of Nigeria.

Aggrieved by the seeming endless violence in Benue State, which the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) calls “declaration of war,” the people warned that they would pull out of Arewa.

The Forum expressed shock at the silence of the Federal Government over the assassination attempts on Governor of Benue State Samuel Ortom and the siege to their region.

The leadership of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr Pogu Bitrus, national president and Chairman of the Elders’ Council, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (retd), in a communique decried the frequent brazen killings and violence in their region.

They said the serial attacks in their region were disturbing because security agents have failed to bring to justice the masterminds of the attacks.

They said they were particularly dismayed at the inability of security agents to apprehend the leader of Miyetti Allah who has been linked to the attacks on Ortom, saying: “Indigenous peoples of the Niger Area and Benue Valley hereby give notice that it is no longer comfortable in the unhappy marriage for the convenience of the Arewa and is ready and prepared to forge ahead as an entity of its own or in alliance with other groups/regions who are prepared to cast off the chains of Fulani hegemony.”

Still, the Forum accused the administration: “On account of incompetence or collusion, the Federal Government has failed in its primary constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property of Nigerians, leading to the takeover of the Nigerian space by merchants of death, kidnappers, rapists and other brigands.

“The Middle Belt Region stand solidly behind His Excellency, Governor Samuel Ortom in his brave and courageous defence of the people of Benue State from the persistent and unending attack by Fulani marauders whose open agenda is the Fulanisation of Nigeria, in general, and the occupation of the Benue Valley, in particular, and warns these marauders and their sponsors that if any harm were to befall Ortom that incident will be a declaration of war on the indigenous peoples of the Middle Belt, which will be repelled with all the fury and force at their disposal.”

The communiqué continued: “The conditions that led to the demand for the creation of a separate region for ethnic nationalities within the Middle Belt Region at the Willinks Commission in 1948 are still with us, and only surpassed by an urgency borne out of desperation, making the severing of the Lugardian umbilical cord binding Nigerians imperative as the recent declassification of British colonial documents have revealed that the Northern Regional Government, the Northern Peoples’ Congress and British colonial officers played conspiratorial roles in subjugating the rights of ethnic nationalities in the Middle Belt to serve the interest of Fulani oligarchy.”

For obvious reasons, the voices of separationists within the Nigerian nation have been loud and clear. The commitment of the separationists to their goals is felt in their words.

The audacity of the agitators is gripping. It seems like a finished project. No responsible government can afford to ignore the campaigners.

From across the country, tension pervades the atmosphere occasioned by violent utterances. Also, there is much tension across the six-geopolitical zones. Intelligence reports by the Nigeria security agencies have consistently referred to these voices as attempts to break up Nigeria. And they are also saying that the national security is being threatened by the utterances of the agitators, which the government has often times described as provocations.

PANDEF is another self-determination group that cannot be ignored. At the heart of its agitation is resource control (13 per cent derivation) and development and infrastructure deficit in the region. PANDEF started with calls for global attention to the degradation of the oil-producing communities and the growing frustration faced by the people of Niger Delta area arising from devastation of their land and loss of control of their natural resources. In a nutshell, they want 13 per cent derivation funds to be paid to the oil-producing communities in the region in order to improve their direct welfare and infrastructural needs, occasioned by devastation as fall-out of oil explorations in the region.

In its famous 16-point agenda, the forum tasked the Federal Government to show commitment to true federalism. On their own part, the people under PANDEF have relentlessly defended their region.

Also in the Niger Delta region, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) as well as the militant groups have added their voices to the issue of sovereignty for ethnic nationalities.

On Friday, April 16, the Niger Delta militants threatened to resume their decade-long armed agitation over 13 per cent derivation. The militants under a coalition known as Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, (RNDA) said they were resuming armed agitation, because “there is serious deliberate neglect of the region,” while the people are left to suffer.

This time the hostilities in the creeks “will be bloody,” according to RNDA, if their demands are not met.

The region has enjoyed relative peace since August 16, 2016, following a ceasefire agreement the militants entered into with the Federal Government.

Unfortunately, many of the agitations stem from avoidable issues if Nigeria governments had taken urgent steps to address the yearnings of Nigerians.

But the current agitations are being fuelled by constitutional grievances, inalienable rights to self-determination abuse, repressive agenda of governments, injustice, political marginalisation, lopsided federal appointments, and a host of other troubling issues.

Unfortunately, in one single period many of the ethnic nationalities have found themselves at the receiving end of a most vicious ethnic-cleansing unleashed by heavily-armed invading Fulani militia. This development has reinforced fears that the worse is yet to come, with perceived government’s inaction.

There is fear across the country over what has been described as a deliberate ethnic profiling as the killings, abductions and clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers keep rising.

The alleged conspiracy of government has also caused the rise of ethnic lords promoting self-determination and divisiveness and created general unease across the length and breadth of Nigeria. From available data, Nigeria boasts of 330 ethnic nationalities identifiable with their different languages.

Nothing explains why, despite warnings by security agencies and reiterating commitment to the unity of Nigeria, more groups are suddenly becoming so agitated as to adopt desperate and hard line attitude towards the country’s dissolution.

It has become a common response any time the agitators raise their voices: Nigerian unity is non-negotiable.

While the violence in Benue, Ebonyi, Owerri, Ibadan, Ondo, Ekiti and abductions in Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, Borno, Oyo, Plateau and Kaduna are blamed on bandits and Boko Haram, how do you explain the sudden self-determination campaign in Southern Kaduna and Middle Belt.

The pertinent question is: With what Nigeria is facing, is the country dissolved?

With increasing separatist campaigns, violence attacks, and killings, the buildup to 2023 is not looking healthy at all.

Another valid question is: Will Nigerian unity still remain non-negotiable before and beyond 2023 general elections?

Barring last minute changes, the presidential election will hold on February 18, 2023, going by the election time table set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Amidst the current state of insecurity in the country, and general fear that it might get worse before the next general elections, many people are also becoming increasingly worried about the possibility of achieving a violence-free, fair and credible election in 2023.

The recurring agitations by the self-determination nationalities have grave implications for the country’s political and even economic progress.

It could be very difficult to postulate that Nigeria is moving into the next general elections as one united country without any suspicion that one region is going to dominate the rest of Nigerians. So the hatred among nationalities exacerbates.

But while all of us continue to act as if everything is fine, the adverse consequences of silence in the face of trouble, inevitably awaits us ahead.

However, with growing numbers of aggrieved nationalities, it must not be ruled out the possibility of a new Nigeria emerging eventually at the end of the unfolding offensive, for better or worse.

•Nwokocha is Managing Editor, Nations Capital, of New Express.