Buhari and non-negotiability of Nigeria’s unity

In recent years, the wobbly unity of Nigeria’s corporate existence had come under some stress and scrutiny.
It was during the ‘Gowonic era’ when he faced a trying civil war on his hands between 1967- 1970, as the secessionists led by Col. EmekaOdumegwuOjukwu led his people, majorly the ethnic Igbos East of the Niger along with a few minority groups- Efiks, Ibibios, Izons, Kalabaris, Ikwerres, Ogonis et cetera, were being heralded into a brand new Republic of Biafra out of Nigeria.
And during those hectic fratricidal wars Gowon came with the quotable quote for all times ‘TO KEEP NIGERIA ONE IS A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE’
Since General Yakubu Gowon led the war to a conclusive conclusion, where he pronounced another quotable quote- ‘There is no winner or a vanquished’ which over the years had proved to be untenable.
A war in which the secessionists surrendered in the killing fields of Ulli-Ihialla, after the Biafran leader fled into voluntary exile in Ivory Coast hosted by President Boigny.
Colonel Phillip Effiong signed the surrender papers to Brigadier General Olusegun Obasanjo, thus bringing the civil war to an end of sorts.
Since that historic surrender, members of the Nigerian military had always agreed to continue to keep Nigeria as one entity.
I think it benefits those most to have it that way as some 2 million lives died on both sides of the great divide.
Fortuitously, soldiers had always found themselves in power since the end of the civil war and whether they were out of power in uniform as soldiers, or heads of government by some other means through routine mini- coups of sorts, or sponsorship of civilian participatory democratic regimes.
For example, Gen. Obasanjo was bankrolled by top echelons of the retired military corps to become a civilian President in 1999.
Any attempt at dismemberment of the country by any section had always been opposed by former rulers- Gowon, IBB, OBJ and now Buhari.
If you ask, there is a common tread binding them together and they feel it will take another catastrophic civil war to actualise the breaking down of the walls of Nigeria so that each group can go its separate ways.
When former rulers proclaim from the roof tops- “One Nigeria” and non- negotiability of the country, they had seen what it took them to unite the country- blood and tears.
Many groups and even important public figures had been seen or heard to be calling for re-negotiating the unity of Nigeria.
The most recent call was from Professor Wole Soyinka, who is seen in many circles a conscience of the country had found himself being victimised by some former military rulers like Gowon during the civil war years as he was slammed behind the prison walls for trying to hobnob with Col. EmekaOdumegwuOjukwu in the East.
The Nobel Laureate, a poet, playwright and public commentator, recently threw the bombshell that Nigeria’s Sovereignty was negotiable. His comment stirred and   ruffled some dangerous feathers and true to type, President Buhari came out forcefully to restate what all former military rulers had kept on saying and reminding Nigerians they fought a war to keep the country together. And perhaps, suggesting, they might lace their military boots, even from their luxurious and cozy retirements, to go to war to keep the nation together one more time.
All former generals seem so persuaded and it seemed their entire life depended on their ‘Keeping Nigeria One’.
Patriotic feeling, I guess or a lot at stake?
Hence, when President Buhari echoed the binding ties that bound all the Generals together at the Sallah breaking of Fast, he was not just mouthing a familiar line. A quick response to the Wole Soyinkan call which is being echoed in the mangrove creeks of the oil producing wetland  by the ‘Avengers’  whose blowing up of oil and gas pipelines  seemed to have come to stay for better or for worse.
One of the ironies is  that  the colonial power- UK that forcibly  amalgamated Nigeria’s Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, is seen poised to be disintegrating piecemeal since it exited from the European Union(EU) (through a successful referendum – 56% and 48% voted for the exit) , it appears, the United Kingdom might be facing  total separation jinx .
Scotland is also headed for another referendum to exit the UK and soon, even the Northern Ireland might be urging its people to join the Republic Ireland.
Many politicians and historians feel after 100 years of amalgamation   since 1914, Nigerians could feel free to go their separate ways and each group answering their fathers’ names.
Is Nigeria negotiable or let the patch- work by Lord Lugard of the NIGER AREA stick for good?Time, the healer of wounds and pains, can only tell.
For the Soyinkas’ of this country and the new militants – AVENGERS of the Niger Delta argued that let each group find his own space and country with their resources as there is no fiscal federalism in Nigeria, their area that produces the Black Gold be allowed to create a little country of theirs along with the huge resources that had kept Nigeria afloat, while their areas remain permanently scarred through oil and gas exploration and gas flaring, day and night.
The bombing of oil facilities had taken some three months or so and apparently, there is no end in sight.
In this seemingly endless blowing up of oil facilities, The British Shell and US Chevron seem hardest hit by these acts of violence in the creeks.
With the sun setting on the ‘Great Britain’ of yester-years, that was the imperial power ruling the waves and the oceans as a former colonial master of  Nigeria, what role can it play? For the US, Chevron does not seem to have an answer to the bombings and how to create new cities and towns out of the many years of exploitation of oil and gas resources in the Niger Delta. It is a challenge for the two big industrial powers and it is not beyond them to rebuild the shanties and modern roads and hospitals for the communities in the Niger Delta.
Recently, the US agreed to supply 12 helicopters to the Federal government to deal with insurgencies   and general spread of terrorism across Nigeria.
In the place of supplying these war machines, the US must go beyond life threatening agendas in Nigeria and be creative in making the environments of their crude imports to be conducive for their oil workers and the indigenes who have suffered many years of neglect and deprivation.