Sov'n Nat'l Conf

Sovereign National Conference (With Honesty) 2004-2005

Back in October 2003, at the first post-war International Conference on Biafra held in Maryland, USA, (follow link), the communiqué called for Nigeria to call for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) within 6 months wherein the different ethnic nations fighting and suffering in Nigeria would come to the table to decide on if and how they would associate with one another. Failure to call such a conference, according to that communiqué, would leave Biafra with no choice other than to explore the formation of a Biafra government in exile.

By March 2004, the deadline passed without comment or effort by the Nigerian government. Biafra followed through and exercised the stated option.

At the time of this writing, there is a strong popular initiative (resisted by Obasanjo's government) aimed at convoking SNC by October of 2004. While the effort is commendable, it is compelled by the ever worsening of conditions in Nigeria. It is a last ditch effort to avoid a cataclysmic end for Nigeria.

However, the rumored goal of SNC being proposed still aims to keep Nigeria one. What a shame, because this is the same poison-recipe which is killing--no, has already killed--Nigeria. "Sovereign National Conference (With Honesty) 2004-2005" is a three-part essay presenting what a successful SNC means, and why.

Excerpts...

"...What keeps Nigeria one today, if “one” you can call it, is mutual hatred, fear, suspicion, malice, "demonization", pretense, hypocrisy, arrogance and exploitation, held together by lethal force and the unscrupulous opportunism of a haughty few who can wring wealth and power from this pathologic state of affairs.

In the North, the Muslims want their own Sharia Nation and care nothing about Nigeria or Nigerians, except for the preservation of a structure called one-Nigeria, which guarantees their power to control the politics, the military, the security, the economics, and the human resources of entire Nigeria, but especially, the Oil resources.

The non-Muslim North care nothing about one-Nigeria because such a structure ensures that the Muslim-North subjugate and exploit them and take over their land, forcing Islam on them and forcing them off their own land.

The West only cares about what serves the best interest of the Yoruba race, and they do not mince words about it. They are not interested in what is good for Nigeria, nor in sharing anything theirs with Nigeria.

The East understands that their best interest is served by a sovereign Biafra, but suffer from a “defeated nation complex,” acting like an enslaved nation under occupation by the conqueror, Nigeria; helpless to protect their own people, helpless to protect their own natural resources, denied the opportunity to integrate into Nigeria, forcefully ruled indirectly through persons hand-picked by Nigeria, and are well-loathed and constantly dehumanized by Nigeria. This unbearable condition is guaranteed and sustained only by the structure called one-Nigeria.

We can trace the root-problems of Nigeria to the same root problems of Africa, the result of colonial “Balkanization” maps which have left so-called independent African countries with unworkable, unnatural, dysfunctional forced “unions.” The prize of trying to maintain this colonial error is the dysfunction we know as Nigeria today; and as Africa in general.

The time for hypocrisy and pretense is over. The problem with Nigeria is one-Nigeria—trying to keep Nigeria one. The solution is the assertion and diplomatic recognition of each individual nation’s sovereignty. The sovereign nations, now equal partners, can then, with equity and mutual respect, resolve other issues among them. In truth, the word “Sovereign” in Sovereign National Conference is designed to refer to such individual national sovereignties, not to the sovereignty of the entity called Nigeria..."

"...The root-problem of Nigeria is “one-Nigerianism”—forcing different nations to try to be one country / one people, in an unconscious adoption and defense of over-a-century old colonial Balkanization imperative deliberately intended to benefit the colonialists at the expense of the indigenous peoples. This colonial policy was carried out on the entire African continent. Therefore, the root-problem of Nigeria is the extension and mirror of that original root-problem of Africa. Is it any wonder, then, today that Africa is still roiled in wars and battles, inter (and even intra) ethnic national conflicts, political instability, and other struggles of existential proportions and category?...

What is Balkanization? It is the deliberate and calculated division of a region, country, or continent, with the sole intent of making it extremely difficult for the indigenes to form a cohesive opposition force against the Master(s). In fact, in a clever twist, the division-lines are purposely intended to inspire continuous conflict among the divided; of this conflict, only the Master can throttle it for precise control of the entire region. This implies that those being divided are not represented at the planning table; that natural and defining attributes of the peoples being divided are to be exploited and manipulated in such a way as to cause maximum disunity among the peoples, even among related people. Hence, natural boundaries can be ignored entirely, or blurred, while new ones are forced; originally natural populations are split off into newly created units, and so on. The peoples are thus distracted and blinded by their troubles; the Master masterfully controls the confusion so as not to let it get outrightly out of hand; the region is then first systematically and continuously looted for “raw material” and second, forced to be a paying consumer of “refined goods” from the Master’s own land. This is the full meaning and motivation of Balkanization. And, that’s what Africa has inherited, kept, and has been defending and practicing today. Now, one can understand why Africa is in the state that it finds itself in today..."

"...In mid-1966, still dripping—literally—with the blood of the victims of his revenge-countercoup (history does not forget), Gowon made this statement:

Sadly, the veracity and accuracy of this statement clearly eluded him; nor was he touched by its profundity. Thus, Yakubu Gowon was to act different from this truth, forcing, tinkering, bumbling and bungling, trying to defeat the immutable truth which apparently had “issued out of the mouth of [the proverbial biblical] babe,” thereby pushing Nigeria over yet another precipice in the continuing drop into a bottomless abyss. Almost forty years later, even the benefit of real experience and hindsight cannot convince him of his error, as he still defends “one-Nigerianism.”

Comes now Olusegun Obasanjo—for the third time, no less—a man not unfamiliar with the path and ways of Gowon. Says he, Obasanjo:

And, just as sadly, the profundity of this statement has also completely eluded Obasanjo, who these days prefers to remind the nations and their peoples suffering in Nigeria that he is ready to give his life to keep Nigeria one; all that the peoples really want is a chance to make and see their own life function, and leaders that won’t deliberately and stubbornly blow this chance for a simple, basic human desire enjoyed and taken for granted by the rest of the world—all but Nigeria

If Gowon and Obasanjo cannot grasp the reality of Nigeria—the problem that is one Nigeria—does that then really condemn everyone else to blindness and on-going ignorance?..."

"...SNC: to endorse a malevolent and failed structure called one Nigeria, thus to repeat history; or to ratify the original sovereignties of all nations presently suffering as Nigeria, as such breaking down, finally, the ”Iron Curtain” of Balkanization which hitherto fore had denied the nations and their peoples access to the ingredients of basic human existence, hope and progress...