Nigeria: Learning from South Sudan

By Samuel Oluwole Ogundele

Man is ontologically a historical animal. He is curious about the past and the trajectories of its evolution.  Lessons of history are critical to robust humanity, largely because they enable us to avoid many of the mistakes or failures of the past. Therefore, we have to put history including its applications on the upper rung of the ladder of education, so as to design workable visions for the future of a system.

It is against this background, that the South Sudanese failed experiment in politics gains its relevance. This is in connection with Nigeria particularly, the Southwest. South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July 2011, after a devastating civil war that lasted more than two and a half decades. The old Sudan was a multiplicity of diverse ethnicities and religions. These ethnic groups included the Fur, Nuba, Nubians, Beja, and Fallata. Sudan, located in the Sahara Desert attained its independence from Egypt and Britain on January 1, 1956. It (Sudan) is made up of Muslim/Arabic-speaking populations while South Sudan is predominantly occupied by Christians and believers in indigenous religions.

The latter had always been complaining of marginalisation, victimisation or exclusionary politics by the former, before the bubble burst. After many years of fighting for liberation (between the northern and southern regions), the latter became an independent nation christened South Sudan. But shortly after this, the hopes and aspirations of the people were dashed. Internal strife arising mainly from a gross lack of political sagacity burst the visions of this new African state.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan (formerly, Head of the government of Southern Sudan and First Vice-President of Sudan (2005 to 2011), accused Riek Machar and at least 10 others, of planning to overthrow his government in 2013. Both the government and members of opposition camps were/are playing a dangerous politics of sheer desperation. The result of this immaturity, and to a lesser extent, a natural disaster (famine), is a large-scale humanitarian crisis which shakes the foundations of the South Sudanese politics. This situation is tearing South Sudan into shreds. Juba, the capital and other major settlements are now near-complete ghost towns. More and more South Sudanese are fleeing to such neighbouring countries as Ethiopia and Uganda on a daily basis. Kidnapping, robberies, and sexual violence have now become the social norms.

War is a dreadful monster that human societies should avoid at all costs. Today’s Nigeria is becoming an unliveable country where bandits/terrorists among other reckless daredevils, are killing, maiming, and harassing innocent citizens including state governors without sanctions. Things are falling apart very rapidly and the centre cannot hold, even as the chagrined humanity weeps. This unprecedented insecurity and the obvious absence of political will to deal decisively with this monster, have led to acute food shortages with debilitating effects on community health. Many farmers have been displaced from their villages by cattle herders and their collaborators. Ethnic, political, and economic tensions and strains have now reached an intolerable scale.

The situation has made some ethnicities to be more radicalised than hitherto.  This is with a special emphasis on self-determination. In my opinion, it would be unfair and godless to completely castigate such ethnic groups as the Yoruba and Igbo, for trying to leave Nigeria, where primitivity and managerial incompetence of the rulership, have sent thousands of innocent citizens to their early graves. However, separationism has ill-advisedly become an option in the absence of inclusionism that defines the current administration.  Some Yoruba are now anxious to have the Oduduwa Republic as opposed to the earlier agitation for regional government.

I feel that the Southwest should begin with a simpler experiment called regionalism. The First Republic came to an end when some young Nigerian military officers struck in January 1966, following the gross indiscipline of the political class principally in Yorubaland. Indeed, political in-fighting within parties in the region erupted into large-scale violence with the attendant loss of lives of many Nigerians. The region was christened, the “Wild Wild West” as a result of this barbaric scenario which shook the foundations of the entirety of Nigeria. But the level of thuggery during this period was low to be compared to what obtains today, as politicians sometimes, use choppers for carrying weapons to destroy their rivals during elections. No respect for human dignity let alone human lives. Demons are let loose upon the Nigerian space! Thus, for example, at least two people including a police officer was said to have been mowed down on March 20, by desperate politicians during an election in Omuo, Ekiti-State.

Once the country is restructured, each region especially the Southwest would have to design architecture of civilised politics, devoid of systemic injustices and imbalances that rocked the boat during the First Republic. It is very misleading to give the impression that regionalism is an automatic, magic bullet for sustainable peace and progress. Without disciplined leadership and active followership, regionalism would also fail woefully this time around. The challenges of sub-ethnic politics arising from parochialism dominated the space during the First Republic. It is unhelpful to craft a romanticised picture of the past, thereby risking the danger of repeating the failures of history.

The Southwest needs to be very cautious about secession despite the numerous provocations from the federal government. There is need for regular political education aimed at promoting true pan-Yoruba solidarity and/or patriotism. The age-old serious suspicions and/or distrust among such sub-ethnicities as the Ijebu, Egba, Yewa, Oyo, Ekiti, Ijesa, Igbomina, Akoko, and Ilaje may fully re-surface on a more dangerous, devastating scale under a regional government, if the mind-set of an average Nigerian politician does not change. The situation is most probably going to be much worse in a republic, with many political offices to “contest” for. Who becomes the first president of the Republic of Oduduwa? Where does he come from? From Egbaland or Ekitiland? Are we politically mature enough to respect the sanctity of the ballot box? At the state/province level, who becomes the governor? With maximum thuggery as a social norm, how would fine brains emerge as political actors and actresses?

How would the system ensure that desperadoes have no place to stand? Are we not going to experience a more reckless brand of baboon democracy? In our contemporary Nigeria, almost totally engineered with blocks of sentimentalism, unfettered greed, and a general lack of discipline, a sudden change to a republic has to be looked at, with a certain amount of scepticism. There is need for a systematic political evolution enshrined in profound education including close consultation. Catapulting to a completely separate nation due to provocations, may be tantamount to political suicide. The current governors in the Southwest should be advised to do much more with respect to security, while the struggle for regionalism continues unabated.   It is against this backdrop, that one of the popular Yoruba epistemologies which says that nobody can remove his/her two legs at the same time, from a palm-oil flotation pit, gains its importance.

• Prof. Ogundele writes from University of Ibadan.