Nigeria now appears to be a country in a permanent state of latent war.

Unitary government is a catalyst for coup anywhere. As at this moment, Nigeria remains a slogan and is synonymous with ”capturing the center to steal the wealth from the regions”.

Cash, Arms And The Songs Of A Coup

By Adeola Aderounmu

On at least two ocassions in 2017 the Nigerian Custom have declared that it seized arms at the Lagos port. This trend is a serious problem. The news are up in the air for a couple of hours and they die as quickly as they come. So who knows how many consignments of arms/weapons that have slipped through the Lagos port undetected over the years?

Who are the importers of the weapons? What manner of intelligence or investigation allows the seizure of arms without grabbing the importers by the wrists?  Who are the warlords and weapon dealers behind the direct importation of arms into Nigeria?

The man or woman who is clearing the weapons should be followed to the point of delivery, not accosted at the port as we have been made to understood. It also appears that the Nigerian Custom are used to playing to the gallery by displaying seized goods without working out the owners or simply hiding the owners. This is bad for the security of Nigeria.

How many tons of arms and ammunitions have slipped into the country from other porous points along the borderline of Nigeria?

There is no question about the influx of arms into both the northern and southern parts of Nigeria. Delivery through the desert of the north and the seaways of the south have been as easy as buying satchet water anywhere in Nigeria. What about the heavy ammunitions in the hands of the militants, separatists and the terrorists. Nigeria now appears to be a country in a permanent state of latent war.

The influx of arms into Nigeria is not a new phenomenon. It appears that it has remain unabated even after the civil war ended in 1970. The contributions of the free flow of arms to the rise in the prevalence of armed robbery operations are not well documented, but they confront daily in our existence. In addition, the role of Nigeria’s do-or-die politics in the rise and easy circulation of arms remains remarkable after the return of civilian rule in 1999.

There are other dangerous signs that are hard to ignore at this turbulent time in the rugged history of Nigeria. Civilian regimes in Nigeria have become notorious with provocative criminal acts. The ways and manners in which raw currencies flew in the air during the regime of Goodluck Jonathan is completely insane. Surprisingly, still, under the APC-Buhari mandate, raw cash continues to spread across Nigeria in huge sums. They are found in abandoned or obscure rooms, exquisite apartments and even at airports!

On a number of occasions, the intelligent services in Nigeria have fallen the hands of the citizens. First they find money, then they start to look for the owners. It’s beggining to look like a film. How hard can it be to let the money be, until you can hold the owners by their wrists? When is the drama or dilemma going to end? Enough is enough, please. Save poor people the pains of displaying orphan monies!

Then comes the political problem itself which is the foundation for all the other problems in Nigeria including the life time sentence of poverty on more than 100 million people.

Right now President Buhari’s status and whereabout remain unknown to the people who reportedly voted him to power in 2015. Is Nigeria a country? Is it a country when the voters and the people do not know where their president is or what is going on with him?

No one can pick holes in all the death hoaxes that have befallen the Nigerian president. They are in order. Some people are making money by attracting internet traffic as a result of the secretive and questionable nature of the Nigerian presidency. So be it, until the truth prevails.

The call for the restructuring of Nigeria is overiped. It is one of the probable antidotes to the songs of seccession and the cry of marginalisation. It is the cure for any useless plan to overthrown the government now headed by professor Yemi Osinbajo. For when and if Nigeria is restructured so that we return to regional government, for example, l don’t see why any Hausa-fulani or Yoruba or Igbo would plan a coup. Why?  To what end?

The foolishness of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when military coups were fashionable will today lead to pandemonium or even war,  only if regional government are in place before the coup. The absence of regional govenrment and the persistent of the useless unitary government in Nigeria is still a catalyst for staging of coups. There will be no surprises if it happens anyway. As at this moment, Nigeria remains a slogan and is synonymous with ”capturing the center to steal the wealth from the regions”.

The surest way forward is for Nigerians to agree on the restructuring and to bring it into effect in the nearest couple of months or years. Nigeria needs a referendum or a series of referendum. Biafra too.

People of every region must choose and define their own fates. This will calm all agitations and help them decide how they want to aggregation and pursue their future. The re-emergence of regional government will bring back healthy competitions for growth, industrialisation and development just the way it was before the coups.

The only gentleman agreement is how to assist less priviledged regions until they become industrious to pick up their resources and agriculture again.

On the other hand, the nonsensical, verbal gentleman’s agreement to rotate the presidency is both undemocratic and evil. It is a passage to anarchy now that president Buhari who was vocal while calling for the impeachement of late Yar Adua seems to have be bedeviled with the same fate as Yar Adua.

This particular gentleman’s agreement is a licence to mediocrity (like the north scheming to have a replacement for Buhari in 2019), to continous turn-by-turn looting of the treasury (most recently the Jonathan army of looters giving way to Buhari soldiers of looters) and a very laughable tragicomedy on how despicably low the intellectual capabilities of Nigerians can be on the political stage.

By the way, where is the Save Nigeria Group and their banners? Or is Nigeria saved already?

A stitch in time saves nine.

aderounmu@gmail.com