MASSOB; secession stupid end for a right agitation

Drop case against MASSOB, Ohanaeze tells FG” (Sun Newspaper, 5/28/13)

MASSOB; secession stupid end for a right agitation

A treasonous charge against Uwazurike is at best a charade, sham, funfair, judiciary recklessness and hyper activity disorder, and selective discrimination by the supreme courts jurors against Ibos. However  I am not perturbed by this charade by these busybody Supreme Court Jurists because at the end of the day Uwazurike will be acquitted for Exercising his fundamental right to free speech and this may be a blessing in disguise for Uwazurike because an acquittal will mean a license for his none violent political movement.

I personally disagree with MASSOB secessionist movement even though I agree with the premise behind its agitation. I think succession from Nigeria should be last thing any reasonable Ibo man or woman would clamor for. I think Ibos have much at stake and so much to lose if Nigeria disintegrates. I personal will resist any succession that would financially, politically and economically disadvantages or pulls Igbo people back.

Per square area Igbo land is densely populated and not enough to contain the population. So as Ibos spread all over the world they increase their territorial habitation if not permanently at least temporarily. It is counter intuitive that Ibos will withdraw from Nigeria only to seek visa and international passport to travel, do business and or leave in Kano, Lagos etc.

But yes, there is obvious discrimination, Igbo marginalization in Nigeria, but succession is like using a hand grenade, bomb to solve a problem that demands a hole. Discrimination and marginalization in Nigeria can be undone without resorting to succession but with consistent and extensive mass agitation, political movement, legal actions, and political alliances with other geo-political zones, groups that seek the same or different political fairness as do Igbos. And this where you come in honorable Ihedioha.  For example we know that Middle Belt, that is the North Central, the David Mark’s Idoma nation in Benue state in particular are agitating for one or two states in the Middle Belt.

So South East with the help of South South, South West, North Central zones can enter into political alliance and rob each other’s back to secure their political aspirations. For example South South, South West, North Central each has 6 states while South East has 5 and North West has 7 states. I do not see how South West and South South will refuse if South East approaches these zones and ask their support for a 7 state solution for each of the 6 political zones in the country. Such request from South East is not only reasonable, and fair but it will benefits South West, South South, North Central and even North East zones with only 6 states each. The only zone that may oppose this request is North West but these other zones do not need North West to secure their demand. Even in the court South East has a strong case of marginalization in this regard and will prevail under the grounds of none discrimination act and or under equal protection under the law, that is universal.                          

Creation of States and local Governments, congressional representation and federal allocations.

States and local governments should be created base on population of people in an area. However since area population is dynamic and constant state and local government creation is impracticable; congressional districts or representation should be used to balance, compensate and remedy population shifts. As such federal allocation should be apportioned base on congressional districts in a local government or in a state

To achieve a reasonable state, local government creation and congressional district apportionment and federal allocation, a national ID card backed by biometrics is an imperative. Until such a time we secure reliable national ID card, for equity today, each of the existing 6 geo-political zones in the country should have 7 states and equal number of local governments; I am not a fan for the creation of more states or local governments per say, but I also recognize that existing state cannot be scraped for parity among the zones hence a 7 state per zone remedy is what is achievable now for equity and fairness among the 6 zones.

After the credible national ID scheme has be achieved, more local governments may or may not be necessary since federal allocation will then be based on congressional districts (which in turn are based on actual population) in a local government or state. Because population is a dynamic phenomenon, a headcount or census every eight to ten years must be conduct so as to adjust the number of congressional districts per area or per state. The number of congressional districts per states also accords a state its fair share of federal allocation and the number of congressional delegations for the federal house.

Under the current flawed divisionary indigenous acts in most states in Nigeria an Ibo man living in any other part of Nigeria outside Igbo land is counted as citizen or indigene of one of the Igbo states, a stranger to his state of residency. Therefore in states creation and or local governments creation such Ibo man should be assigned to an Igbo states and not to the state where he resides until such a time the regressive indigenous laws in the states are changed. But this was not the case when the present states and local governments were created by the North West military juntas. For instance Kano has more than 40 local governments which took into account none indigenes living in Kano. However these none indigenes are not accorded ‘indigene-ship’ or security. So if there are 3000000 Ibos for example living in Kano and it becomes necessary that these Ibos move back to their states as is the case with Boko Haram attacks in the north, then Kano would lose 30000000 residents but still keeps its 44 local governments while the states where these Ibos relocated to still maintain their twice less the number of local governments of Kano state. This arrangement is not fair and but wrong, with this arrangement Kano state has it both ways and there is sound ground to legally and politically challenge the current geo-political arrangement and partitions in Nigeria     

Who is afraid of National ID scheme backed by biometrics? And what were the bases or criteria for the creation of the existing states and local governments by the military dictatorships? No criteria whatsoever, perhaps I should say that the creation of the existing states and local governments were based on arbitrary war time military strategy, expediency, nepotism, tribalism and or political manipulation.

Does anybody honestly believe that each of the three zones in the north is more populated than the Ibo population in Nigeria? Apart from the North West zone I have lived in the remaining 5 zones and none of these zones have either the population density or spread as present in the South East.

If military dictatorship is an aberration so are the political structures and partitions done by the dictatorships. Once again what were the bases for the creation of the present 36 state structure and 774 local governments?