The House Built On Schizophrenia

akolshoremi@yahoo.com

“The North and South are like Oil and Water, they will never mix” -Lord Lugard (The Governor Of both Northern and Southern Nigeria, 1912)

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder involving failures of perception and withdrawal from reality. It is an illness one is said to be suffering from when one failed to consider facts by living in illusion.

Few months ago, I wrote an Ode for Nigeria. As usual, I was confronted by those who look but cant see. They could feel all the troubles around and the dangers too, but they couldn’t see the inevitable. They couldn’t see what few of us could see. They couldn’t see that our home never had a cemented foundation. Suffice to say they were not there when the foundation was layed, so how would they know?

Sometimes in 1914, Sir Fredrick Lugard was probably ordered to amalgamate two different worlds; the Northern Nigeria and the Southern Nigeria. Out of fears of what the future will hold, Lugard cried out relating the two worlds as oil and water which no mixture technique (be it peace, unity, or freedom) can ever merge together.

A brief look at the word ‘nation’ in a lexicon revealed it to be “people of mainly common descent (ancestral) and history usually inhabitating a particular country under one government.” Unfortunately, Nigeria being the largest black country in the world have over a hundred and fifty million citizens who are not from common ancestral backgrounds. Of course, Nigeria’s three major tribes are Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, but there are more other ethnic groups demanding attention for national recognition.

Whatever the British intention was still remains a mystery to many but facts revolve around that just like every other British colonized nations, Nigeria wasn’t created to stand the test of time. The reason of this intent as claimed by some people is no other than to enable the nation remain inferior to the powers of the Great Britain, and to ensure a continuity in the exploitation of Africa by the western world. This obviously have been achieved over the years as Nigeria, ranked the 8th most populated country in the world, is still a land of mediocre governance. After-all, like China and the United States of America, the strength of the powerful nations in the world often remains their size and population. These two, Nigeria isn’t lacking in.

Many years prior to my birth, history claimed Nigeria was at a crossroad, decades after, we still haven’t left the interchange. It is either our leaders are irresponsible and clueless on how to move forward, or my people (the followers) are indolent. Our present leaders may be irresponsible, but we cant deny the fact that our founding fathers, so aware of the amalgamation lapses, not only criticize it, but also resorted into making the oil and water mix. Though deep within, some of them favoured their tribes through one or other means. The orientation of the followers cropped out of our founding fathers’ followers have today derailed, as among them are the egocentric leaders presently doing the nation harm.

A critical research into the status of most colonized countries within the past three decades, revealed many have splited. Fifteen countries were noted to have emerged from the USSR dissolution in 1991 notably among are Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia. Also, in early 1990, six independent countries also emerged from Yugoslavia.

Other countries that have also gained independence from old ties are as follows; Nambia became independent of South Africa on March 21,1990; The ‘Marshall Islands’ gained independence from the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands on September 17, 1991; Micronesia formerly known as the Caroline Islands gained independence from the United States on September 17, 1991; The Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent nations owing to the disintegration of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993; Eritrea also gained independence from Ethopia on May 25, 1993; Palau gained independence from the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands administered by the United States on October 1st, 1994; East Timor (Timor-Leste) gained independence from Indonesia in 2002; Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008; and lastly, South Sudan peacefully emerged from Sudan on July 9, 2011.

Other places likened to break up are New Caledonia from France, while Greenland may secede from Denmark, and Northern Island may soon break away from the United Kingdom. And glaringly, Nigeria wont be left out of the breakdown too as the chances of survival are very slim.
Each time I pronounce the envisaged breakdown of Nigeria, I often got criticized on the doubt of my patriotism. But it is not enough to say that patriotism is about keeping a country together to further harm it, but by ensuring the country is served what is needed to promote the welfare of its people. Nigeria is one of the very few nations loosing grip of togetherness assumed by the British experiment, and maybe it is not going to break on its size or population, but the numerous number of tribes coerced together.As the threat of a new country called Biafra still hunts us, likewise the seeming demand of a Sharia nation by the Northern oppressors, the South-West dominated by the Yorubas and few other regions have became isolated. What more is needed to awaken us from the illusion of a united Nigeria?

We must address this issue of Schizophrenia before it gets out of hand, lest we are caught unaware and possibly destroyed beyond individual repairs. . .