With the Ibadan security breach, the police and other units of the intelligence community have once more been exposed for their gross incompetence.
Secessionists under the aegis of Ominira Yoruba 22 stormed Ibadan and tried to seize the Oyo State Government Secretariat on 13 April. Their ultimate ambition was the violent takeover of the state's House of Assembly and Government House, Ibadan, sequel to their declaration of the Yoruba Nation as a sovereign entity carved out of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was a reckless and treasonable adventure that was dead ab initio. Through the combined efforts of the South-West regional security outfit - Amotekun, the police and soldiers, these elements were quickly rounded up. The days ahead will be difficult for them given the gravity of their offence and derring-do.
Their choice of Ibadan is symbolic, as it was the seat of power of the defunct Western Region. The rag-tag army engaged Nigeria's security operatives in a shootout. And, among the items recovered from them are an assortment of arms and ammunition, camouflage uniforms, walkie-talkies, machetes, charms and an Oodua nation flag, among others. A Magistrate Court in Ibadan on Wednesday ordered the remand of 29 suspects in custody, a figure more than the 21 persons who were initially arrested and paraded by the state's Commissioner of Police, Hamzat Adebola, shortly after the melodrama.
According to the police boss, investigations are ongoing to unravel their sponsors. But a woman based in the USA, Modupe Onitiri-Abiola, who claims to be a wife of the late winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election, MKO Abiola, has already identified herself. In a video that has gone viral, she vituperates that: "Yoruba today 12 April 2024 begins as a sovereign nation and will operate as a country." The authorities should swiftly apprehend all involved and diligently prosecute them. This will serve as a lesson to these deluded cohorts spreading across many parts of the country.
For most observers, the 13 April Ibadan misadventure was a déjà vu of sorts. The Nigerian federation first experienced this type of toxic security breach in February 1966 when Isaac Adaka Boro declared the Niger Delta area as a sovereign enclave, with his Niger Delta Volunteer Force. He was crushed within days, prosecuted and convicted for treasonable felony. There was equally the short-lived Republic of Biafra, which sprang up from the convolutions of the military coup and counter-coup of 1966. Then the Eastern Region, led by Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, pulled out of Nigeria. Subsequently, the country was embroiled in a civil war that spanned almost three years, from 1967 to 1970, during which millions of lives were avoidably lost.
Given the cost of the Biafran misadventure in both human and material resources, it was presumed that such an audacious gamble would be the last by any individual or group of persons in the country. Unfortunately, this has not been so. The tragedy of collective historical amnesia and the political elite's continual trifling with the very important task of nation-building, have led to different instances of discontent that fostered the emergence of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Oodua People's Congress (OPC), Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and now the Yoruba Nation group, all of which had championed self-determination, at one time or the other. The scourge of Boko Haram and its Islamist Caliphate craving, add to the mix of this escalating feral and centrifugal pull in Nigeria.
Onitiri-Abiola, as is now obvious, is an incarnate of Nnamdi Kalu, and Simon Ekpa, who lives in Finland. The authorities should go after her immediately, and extradite her to Nigeria through diplomatic channels for her to face the law. It will, to some extent, dent the double-standards charge levelled against the Federal Government in respect of its handling of the Kalu case. Giving effect to President Bola Tinubu's avowal last Wednesday that, "Those who think they can threaten the sovereignty of Nigeria will have themselves to blame. They have a price to pay. And we are not going to relent," is critical.
But beyond this veil is a task that must be done: an interrogation of this phenomenon to unravel why it persists despite its grave penal consequences. Section 37 (1) of the Criminal Code of Nigeria prescribes the death sentence for the offence of treasonable felony. If some ethnic irredentists could hide under the refuge of marginalisation to plot secession, extant realities dictate that the Yoruba should insulate themselves from such.
Since 1999, they have had a bite of the cherry more than other ethnic groups. Olusegun Obasanjo's eight years as president (1999-2007); Yemi Osinbajo's as vice president (2015 to 2023), and now Tinubu in the saddle as president, are immutable testaments to this fact. What's more, they currently head the country's main revenue hub, the petroleum ministry, as a mark of privilege, also exemplified in the president's direct supervision of it. Equally, they are in the leadership of the Police, Army, judiciary, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Finance, Customs, Immigrations, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, office of the Accountant General of the Federation, and office of Chief of Staff to the President to boot, among others. This means that there is more to the "Yoruba Nation" agitators' gung-ho drama than anyone could imagine.
It has been argued that the feeling of nationhood is sorely lacking in Nigeria, and where this deficit of patriotism gnaws at the body politic, nation-building suffers. This needs to be understood and resolved. For this reason, making the country work as a true federation has become more crucial than ever. It is a no-brainer that the country is dysfunctional, for which the need for an assembly of its ethnic nationalities to define the challenges and how to ensure harmonious co-existence, can no longer be dismissed. The 2014 National Political Conference and its recommendations offered some form of hope in this regard. Sadly, it was dashed by the Goodluck Jonathan administration's cluelessness over its implementation, despite being the organiser. His successor, Muhammadu Buhari, barely hid his aversion to the proposals in the Conference's report.
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The Tinubu Presidency needs to save this country from the current self-destructive course by organising a national roundtable to deal with the festering sores bedevilling the Nigerian Union. This aligns with the notion behind the late Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of former Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello's retort to Nnamdi Azikiwe's 1959 declaration that, "Let us forget our differences," when he countered: "No, let us understand our differences... by understanding our differences, we can build unity in our country."
With the Ibadan security breach, the police and other units of the intelligence community have once more been exposed for their gross incompetence. How a hint of this embarrassment escaped all of them in this age of telecommunications and the Internet through which the suspects would undoubtedly have had exchanges with Onitiri-Abiola, should not be overlooked. This is why non-state actors such as bandits, kidnappers and killer-herders have easily seized all parts of Nigeria to our collective ruin.
