‘Nigeria Overdosed On Prolonged Military Rule’

Speaking on Monday on ‘The Platform’, Chairman of ThisDay editorial board, Segun Adeniyi has said Nigeria is still engulfed with “excessive hangovers of prolonged military rule”.

Adeniyi decried the situation where the Federal Government seizes every single opportunity to use military force to address what he described as “elementary civil unrest”.

The seasoned journalist was reacting to the recent deployment of military to Umuahia, Abia State, against the agitation for secession by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

“The rights of citizenship are still shackled by boundaries of state of origin and ethnicity. The excessive hangovers of prolonged military rule are still with us in the form of impulsive arbitrariness. Our government still finds it easy to call in military force to quell elementary civil unrest.

“We are yet to teach our citizens from infancy the values of group living and how to compete as individuals without resorting to primordial hate when we cannot prevail.

“Our task, therefore, is to make Nigeria a land of equal opportunity for all, a nation whose unity is not decreed as non-negotiable but is guaranteed by the practical incentives it offers for all to want to stay in and perfect the union.

“We should see ourselves as allies in a struggle for a better country that is bigger than any, and yet needs all of us working together. We should not continue to listen to the naysayers in our midst who do not mean well for our country.

Speaking further, Adeniyi regretted that South East leaders ignored Nnamdi Kanu at a point they ought to have weighed in on the IPOB leader’s agitations.

“Even when he (Nnamdi Kanu) was presented a golden opportunity to champion the genuine grievances of his people with civility, following an ill-advised treason trial that catapulted him into national limelight and prominence, Kanu could not rise beyond the mediocrity of the adulation of some street urchins.

“However, while I do not know why Kanu believes spreading hate and violence would help his cause, the Arewa youth counter-response was also very much unfortunate because the inference was that because Kanu is Igbo, all Igbo people must suffer the consequences of his action.

“Unfortunately, the message that was lost on the authorities in Abuja is that you cannot build an inclusive society when you react to national security threats in a manner that suggests some people are above the law; although many people across the country also felt let down that some otherwise respected senior citizens from the south-east who ought to have called Kanu to order were practically genuflecting before someone young enough to be their grandson!”