Nigeria like Hobbesian state of nature is not without its glories. Nigeria is still a country to be because Nigerians are born free. People who have visited other countries understand what I mean. Half of Nigerians who go overseas return as ex-convicts of one offense or the other. In America where the law is stricter, many see themselves behind the bar seconds after arriving at the airport. To live the way Nigerians live at home in the developed nations is to invite constant litigation. Nigerians live in disorder. And orderliness can be frightening for one who is born and bred in disorder.
Lawlessness is another name for boundless freedom. Nigerians are free because they are lawless. We are free to beat up our kids, free to kill, rape, and maim fellow citizens. We freely loot public treasury, freely own fleets of cars, industries, estates without taxes. Security agents are free to beat up and kill extra judicially. Leaders freely and customarily utter provocative and inflammatory remarks, threaten citizens, seize workers’ pay, incarcerate opposition and go with the self-pride of ‘do-your-worst’ and ‘nothing-will-happen.’ Terrorists freely pick up arms against government and freely receive lucrative amnesty at the end. That’s why GLO, the only Nigeria’s mobile Communication network, has as its motto: ‘Rule Your World.’
Law does not hold water in Nigeria; might does. Recently, the ex-militant leader Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo- Asari demonstrated a character of true Nigerian. He spoke freely with his might on Nigeria’s political future-2015. Asari is one of the numerous Nigerians who believe in might. Might has paid him more than law. Even when he was hunted by law in the creeks, amnesty came to the rescue.
The ex-militant was quoted as saying that ‘Jonathan has uninterrupted eight years of two terms to be president according to the Nigerian Constitution. We must have our uninterrupted eight years of two tenures’. While threatening brimstone, he went on to say that Nigeria will burn if Goodluck doesn’t climb that juicy presidential seat again. He did not say it but he implied that people who doubt his capabilities should steal a look from his distant past.
To be sure, Asari’s statement doesn’t deserve reaction. Many of us are outlaws. Making Jonathan’s return a ‘definite be’ doesn’t insult our voting conscience. Our votes have never counted, though it is unfortunate. Asari’s utterance carries more right than wrong. Asari was right when he made allusion to constitution. Indeed, the extant 1999 Nigeria constitution has provisions for second term in office granted that electorates are willing to renew that mandate.
It is also true that Nigeria will burn if Jonathan is not returned because Niger Delta amnesty as we know is a cosmetic time-buying national policy. We know that the militants are relaxing because of ‘Oga at the top’; it pays them more to be calm and return to creeks anytime Oga leaves office. Certainly, Nigeria will burn if Jonathan doesn’t make it, to use our current language. The ex-militants have their eyes on returning to their former trade if power changes hand and the region looses grip to the giddiest office. This is another way of saying ‘we-will-make-the-country-ungovernable. The militants are breathing revenge for the north for what Boko Haram did to their son. Either way, Nigeria will burn.
Asari is not alone in Jonathan’s defence. Not long ago, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku made similar remarks. The president’s aide was reported as saying in Washington DC, United States of America, that the peace being enjoyed in the Niger Delta region will not be guaranteed if Jonathan is not returned in 2015. And when Kuku was asked to clarify himself back home, he explained that he only told the world that “peace in the Niger Delta, the basis on which the Americans and other Western nations want to bring massive investment into Nigeria, rests on a programme and situation driven by a personality, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.” He admitted saying that: “It is in the interest therefore of the world (and, of course, Nigerians) to support his administration and his policies since the peace in the region we are talking about was sealed by his redemptive involvement and his being at the helm.”
In all intents and purposes, Asari’s statement is less unfortunate than the interest it is generating in the National Assembly. The Assembly is making much ado about nothing. Nobody is a newcomer in Nigeria politics. Asari has not said what no Nigerian ever said. Buhari is his godfather. It is baffling that many who never dared the former head of state, Mohammed Buhari for his numerous unguarded utterances on issues of national security are coming forward to crucify Asari.
Buhari is one man whose unguarded utterance on issues of Nigeria’s unity will need an encyclopedia of its own to compile. He doesn’t just; he has always followed them up and nobody has ever dared him. A serial loser in the presidential race, Buhari has never allowed each of his loss to go without mayhem, arson committed in his name by northern fanatics. Never was it said that Buhari was arrested or queried.
Calling on security agencies to arrest Asari as the National Assembly advocates will be opening up wounds of gory memories and old hatreds. In 2011, General Mohammed Buhari (rtd) threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable if a northerner fails to win. And he has made Nigeria so. His statement has not constituted any evidence to hold him liable for the post-elections violence that rocked many states in the north and the bloodshed that followed. It was not enough to indict him in the political pogrom going on in the north in the name of Boko Haram.
Asari has reminded us that no tribe, no individual has the monopoly of issuing threat. No office, status, or ethnic hegemony confers one with sole authority of threatening and killing innocent citizens as north does. Northern politicians act if Nigeria is their private project. Any policy or statement that punctures northern interest is given prominence and celebrated out of proportion. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Implicitly, Asari was replying those power mongers switching alliances left and right to wrestle power from Jonathan by all whims and caprices. The call to quiz him is too much ado about nothing.
