By Paul Odili
Posted to the Web: Wednesday, December 28, 2005

ATTEMPTS to discredit the Enugu summit have begun. In some ways this should not be a surprise. What should have been a surprise is if they were no such efforts to denounce the success of the Southern leaders meeting. The first major response to what happened in Enugu was the outrage by some Northern Senators, who saw the gathering as a gang up to deny the North their right to have power back in 2007. To these legislators, such talk is capable of derailing the democratic system. Now, the initial knee jerk reactions by Northern Senators have given way to a measured one by the Northern Senators Forum, later last week. 

However, by far the more serious attempt to dismiss the Enugu summit was the syndicated essay, by Chief Duro Onabule, our highly esteemed egbon (senior)  in journalism. Chief Onabule  in his piece poo pooed  the gathering  as having no future, because past examples of such alliances failed and the lessons from it would make the current exercise a futility. Chief Onabule’s reading of history is very correct and this deduction cannot be denied him. He has been around for some time and had been a witness of some of the events  in  question. So, there is a certain authority in what he said. Therefore, he is right to suggest that the Southern political elite have been their worst enemies in the past. They have worked against each other, stabbed themselves in the back, and sold out completely. The records of past southern inter regional  elite relationships have been dismal, and should give no one any feeling of confidence that what is happening will bear fruits.  But, a fixation on the past without appreciating the current political dynamics would  lose sight of  the emerging trend.  

And this is where it would seem Chief Onabule’s reading of current political events is not particularly astute. For instance, since the hanging of Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa, in 1995,  by General Sani Abacha, over his environmental crusade and his demand for greater compensation to Ogoni land, and by extension the South-South, a profound  change has been triggered in that zone. The outrage resulting from the martyrdom of Saro-Wiwa, crystallized  into a greater demand for justice and equity in the Niger Delta. The agitation from that zone led to the recognition of a six zonal structure by the 1995 Abacha Constitutional conference, a structure that has given the zone greater cohesion. Since the beginning of the current dispensation,  the idea of resource control has been a unifying cry from the South-south. The 13 per cent policy of appeasement resulting from their demand for justice has not satisfied them, and it is not a surprise that in addition to economic injustice, they have successfully raised the question of political injustice.

The awakening of the consciousness in the South-south  was not sufficiently understood by the Northern political establishment, which was why the talks between them and the delegates from the Niger Delta failed at the Confab. The manner their talks collapsed was  seen by the Niger Delta delegates as insulting, and it is within  this context that any rapprochement between them has failed to succeed. That  development  eroded the illusion of the  natural friendship between the North and South-south. It must be understood that in politics what is of utmost importance is interest, and not past appeal to friendship. The relationship between the South-south and North has been based on master-servant relationship, and nothing more. Was there justice and equity in  that  alliance? The records are there. In the last  six years, the South-South has come into a lot of money, and money gives power and  alters perspective. That is what is happening in the South-south, and it has found allies in the Southern belt willing and supportive of their agenda.

In the South East, it is  obvious to them that the civil war failure had meant it was downgraded from being one of the tripod of the Nigerian nation to outsiders; hewers of woods and toilet washers. Nothing can  be more humiliating. The Igbo who used to be waited for  at the table are the ones who now wait for others at the table.  Certainly, a lot of question  marks can still be raised about the politics of Ndigbo. Dim Emeka Ojukwu, once noted that Igbo are better merchants than politicians. That assessment is very correct even in the present time. But a few of their political elites have come up and shown hitherto rare political skills not common with them. Two of them have shown outstanding political talents, and they are Governor Chimaroke Nnamani and Chief Pius Anyim. Between these two, there is something to be said for the Igbo. Furthermore, if the lessons of history are the only benchmarks, then the support the Igbo have given President Obasanjo in 1999 and 2003 elections, would have been more of accident than a conscious attempt to forge East-West understanding, or cement the now famous handshake across the Niger. The point is that, that threshold has been crossed.

For the Yoruba, whom Chief Onabule, (himself a Yoruba) distrusts the most, understandably  since he was a Zikist, their strategic interest makes it imperative that they seek new allies beyond what they had gotten out of their love-hate relationship with the North. After several years of fighting to achieve political power, it came through Obasanjo, but it is clear to them that allowing power go back to the  north would reopen old wounds, and the Yoruba have come to distrust the North completely. It would seem to them that working with their allies in the south who speak their language would give them greater influence in politics and protect their interest, than the northerners who in principle see themselves as natural rulers of Nigeria.

They know that after Obasanjo, a Yoruba man cannot possibly seek to become President. But if you are outside power, how do you protect your interest? It is by working with allies who are equally disadvantaged. As they say,  the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Overall,  issues like state creation, census, revenue allocation and others  discussed at the  Enugu summit impinges directly on the health of Nigeria’s federal system, not just the presidency.
Thus, the biggest challenge to the Southern solidarity is not history, but President Obasanjo and this third term ambition. And this is where there is a big dilemma for everyone, because, somehow, Obasanjo, has managed to create a gridlock in the system.

•Mr.  Odili is a staff of Vanguard Newspapers.

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