BY SOLOMON OKOCHA
Nigeria's economy is not the best in the world today, but still nobody
can expressly label her as a militarily weak state. This is because providence
has bestowed on our country a huge deposit of human and capital resources, with
which we utilise to successfully engage any nation in a full blown warfare.
Nigeria has all that it takes to defend her territorial waters, but what we've
always lacked, has been good leaders with patriotic commitment and untainted
willpower.
The Biafran War Lord, late Ojukwu, can astutely testify to Nigeria's
revered military might. When Ojukwu prematurely declared war on Nigeria at the
age of twenty six, little did he know that he'll be leading the people of
Eastern Nigeria to three years of long and bloody battle with the renowned
'Nigeria Infantry? Great minds like Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe firmly resisted
Ojukwu's declaration of war on Nigeria, stressing that the Nigerian fabric had
become too embedded to disintegrate. Ojukwu didn't listen, he went ahead with a
bad decision, and he was later forced to abandon his Biafran militias and fleed
to a foreign land.
The Biafran war did not only reduce the size of the Igbo Nation, but it
also reduced her political strength in Nigeria. The Igbo's have struggled with
post Biafra trauma for quite a long while, and the scares of war remain visible
in their political, social, and 'economic' reality. Ironically, the war brought
out the best in them, economically speaking.
Meet Ankio Briggs. Like most educated Niger Deltans, Ankio is
passionately on the quest for the implementation of a commensurate resource
control deal for the 'chicken that lays the golden egg. I agree with her 100%
on this. The people of Niger Delta deserve more from Nigeria. Our lands, air,
waters, lives, are all polluted on a daily basis with fumes from oil activities
et al. Oil spillage is a reoccurring decimal in coastal areas of the Delta. We
really need help.
But I don't agree with Ankio Briggs on another point. I couldn't
believe my ears when I heard that Aunty Ankio called for the secession of Niger
Delta from Nigeria, I thought that it was a joke taken too far until I watched
the video. Alas! Somebody is venturing into Ojukwu's path. Isn't it clear that
Nigeria cannot divide? Looking at what happened during the last Presidential
election, I can authoritatively posit that our country's unity has been
extended towards the apex of another century.
What we need now is diplomacy and not chants of war. With Rt. Hon.
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi now at the center, the people of Niger Delta can expect
a good deal from Nigeria.
I advice Madam Ankio Briggs, to please sheath her sword and allow
peaceful negotiations to prevail. Like they say, "it is better to jaw-jaw
than war-war."
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