In the grand theatre of Nigerian politics, where the script is rewritten with each administration and the stage is perpetually set for tragedy masquerading as diplomacy, a recent performance demands our most earnest critical attention. The delegation of Northern Christian leaders, shepherded by the venerable General T. Y. Danjuma, a man whose biography reads like a compendium of this nation's most turbulent chapters, to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ignited a conflagration of commentary that illuminates, with uncomfortable clarity, the persistent fault lines beneath our national edifice.
The question that must anchor our inquiry is deceptively simple: *Cui bono?* Who benefits?
*The Architecture of Division*
To understand the present, we must first excavate the past, not to assign blame, but to comprehend the structural foundations upon which our contemporary discontents rest. The creation of states, those administrative demarcations that were ostensibly designed to bring governance closer to the governed, has become the very mechanism through which proximity has been weaponized into competition. General Murtala's 1976 initiative, General Babangida's exercises in 1987 and 1991, and General Abacha's 1996 expansion were, we are told, exercises in equitable development. Yet the fundamental question, the economic viability of these entities within a federal republic, was left unanswered, a lacuna that has since metastasized into the tribal and religious conflicts that stain our national conscience.
The Quota System and the State Indigene policy, those twin decrees promulgated with the noble intention of addressing historical imbalances, became instruments of mediocrity when their scope remained undefined and their implementation, to put it charitably, was conducted with the precision of a drunken archer. Merit was sacrificed at the altar of federal character; competence was subordinated to the exigencies of representation. The result? A nation where tribal and religious bigotry has become institutionalized, where the educated elite- that class to which we all ostensibly belong manipulate these divisions for personal aggrandizement while the masses bear the consequences of their machinations.
*The Danjuma Delegation: A Study in Miscalculation*
It is within this context that we must examine the recent visit of the Middle Belt delegation to President Tinubu. General Danjuma, a man of considerable stature and influence, a figure whose contributions to this nation's history cannot be dismissed, chose to lead a delegation composed exclusively of Northern Christians. This decision, whether his own or one imposed upon him by circumstance, represents a profound miscalculation, one that threatens to compound the very problems it purports to address.
Let us be clear: the right to association is fundamental. Communities facing common challenges must deliberate and strategize. But in a region as culturally and religiously diverse as the Middle Belt, a region that has historically been a crucible of coexistence, to exclude Muslims from a delegation ostensibly addressing regional concerns is to pour accelerant upon flames that already threaten to consume us all.
If President Tinubu requested this meeting, he erred grievously by prioritizing electoral calculus over national cohesion. If General Danjuma initiated it on behalf of the Middle Belt Forum, he erred equally by constructing a delegation that could only appear exclusionary. In either case, the optics, and more importantly, the substance, betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the unity required to address the challenges confronting Northern Nigeria.
*The Statist and the Statesman*
General Danjuma occupies a unique position in our national consciousness. He possesses the resources, the voice, and the respect to address the pressing issues of injustice, marginalization, persecution, and discrimination that afflict our communities. But to do so effectively, he must transcend the partisan, the political, and the purely religious. The moment he aligns himself with a particular group or creed, his capacity to serve as a unifying figure diminishes proportionally.
The statesman must rise above the politician. The elder must transcend the advocate. General Danjuma has earned his place in our history; the question is whether he will use it to build bridges or to fortify walls.
*The Lessons Before Us*
The criticisms that followed this delegation are not merely expressions of displeasure; they are diagnostic indicators of our collective anxiety about the direction of our nation. They demonstrate that Nigerians are not oblivious to the dangers of division, that we understand, perhaps more acutely than our leaders, that no one benefits from religious intolerance and ethnic chauvinism.
We are all losers if we refuse to solve our problems. This is not mere rhetoric; it is an existential truth. The crises that ravage our nation- insecurity, poverty, corruption, unemployment- do not discriminate between Muslim and Christian, between Northerner and Southerner, between the Middle Belt and the Core North. They consume us all.
*The Unanswered Question*
So we return to our opening inquiry: *Who does it benefit to divide Northern Nigeria?*
The cynical answer, of course, is that it benefits those who profit from chaos, the political entrepreneurs who trade in the currency of division, the religious leaders who build empires on the foundation of fear, the educated elite who manipulate ethnic and religious sentiments to distract from their own failures. But their benefit is ephemeral, built on sand, destined for the same dust to which all unjust enterprises must return.
The honest answer is that division benefits no one. Not the Muslim, not the Christian, not the Northerner, not the Southerner, not the politician, and certainly not the people. We are bound together by geography, by history, and by the inescapable reality that our destinies are intertwined.
General Danjuma's delegation, whatever its intentions, has provided us with an opportunity, an opportunity to confront uncomfortable questions, to examine our assumptions, and to demand better from our leaders and from ourselves. The question is whether we will seize it.
The alternative is to continue our descent into the abyss of mutual suspicion and recrimination. And that, my fellow Nigerians, is a destination at which we are all eventual losers.
Let us hope we have learned our lessons. Let us pray we have the wisdom to act on them.
Abuja Network News
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