The April 14th and 21st elections have finally confirmed that Nigeria ’s future is indeed ebbed in quicksand. Chief Obafemi Awolowo foresaw the paradox in the Nigerian contraption when he described it as a “mere geographical expression.” The unsettling political terrain and the inter-ethnic struggle for power and domination is a necessary consequence of our deep ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, and our quasi primitive and uncivilized disposition which has made the convening of an all encompassing sovereign national conference to fashion out a mutually acceptable and beneficial structure of peaceful co-habitation impossible.

In the absence of a negotiated and mutually beneficial union, the least requirement to maintain some level of stability among the disparate and unhappy ethnic nations forced together in an unjust, un-equal and oppressive union in the interim, would have been free and fair elections, that would allow the people to elect their representatives at the local and national levels. But even that ideal has been dashed by the totally repressive and unprogressive recycled cabal that has held the nation by the jugular since 1966.

Like most African nations torn apart by low and high intensity conflicts, long years of instability, and the risk of violent collapse under the weight of her own absurdities now stares Nigeria in the face as she enters the most critical era in her tortuous history.

The Europeans and the British who created Nigeria and most of the strife torn African countries must be clinking their glasses of champagne, as they celebrate the poverty, strife and chaos which their premeditated deliberate lumping of deeply diverse ethnic nationalities has achieved. Europe comes from a background and history of wars fought for centuries in defence of their national identities, yet when they choose to create African nations, they created potential time bombs and theatres of genocide, which has since manifested in Nigeria , Rwanda , and presently Sudan in direct contradiction of their own chequered history and experience.

No doubt, the pseudo-nations carved out by the Europeans was a master stroke of political engineering designed to nurture and sustain the exploitation of Africa’s abundant agricultural and mineral resources in the aftermath of the slave trade. This has to date remained the reality and predicament of African nations, whose internal contradictions, competition for power, competition for political, diplomatic and military support from European nations and ethno-religious strife has left little time for meaningful technological, infrastructural and economic development thereby ensuring that Europeans maintain an unfettered access to the abundant mineral resources.

Nigeria’s conduct of the last monumentally fraudulent elections (the worst in her history) is a direct function of the colonialist arrangement designed to be perpetually in conflict, stillborn and ultimately to fail. True to type, the internal contradictions, and conflicting ethno-religious interests has hobbled Nigeria both politically and economically as we have just witnessed in the 419 elections, every inch of the way since independence and kept her in a permanent state of anomie.

For many who had hoped, that the first uninterrupted democratic dispensation and first civilian to civilian handover of power would herald true representative democracy and new beginnings, Nigeria has finally been unravelled. Rather than advance into a genuine democratic culture, we have witnessed a decline and regression into a quasi military democracy of selections in place of elections.

As the decline progresses, it is predictable that the road to conflict has finally been opened, as a revolutionary military coup becomes increasingly possible, and  militant groups representing different shades of ethnic and religious interests whose right to free democratic expression has been muzzled under a cloak of rigged elections, would find expression through the barrel of a gun. The road to Baghdad might finally be closer than we think.

Comrade Lawrence Chinedu  Nwobu

Email:lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle2344=encodeURIComponent(The Final U...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 20.05.2007 17:57

pappilo  Villager

# 2 Even with all these predictions many people are not taking the necessary measures to safeguard their lives and properties. This is usually for one or many reasons e.g blind loyalty to Nigeria, financial limitations. What people do not understand is that when 'gbege burst' all these thieves in power, thier families and friends have solid fallback plans i.e looted funds in foreign accounts and mansions in the west but the average loyal Nigerian gets stuck in a country torn apart. The people stuck in Liberia,Iraq,DRC e.t.c are living proof that listening to psycophants like paul adujie who tell you all is well yet live far away from where the action is isnt a wise choice. Posted by pappilo| 21.05.2007 10:18