Opinion: Unity or secession, which is the best option for Nigeria? By Stanley Nwanekezie

Stanley Nwanekezie

The importance of unity for the rapid growth and development of any group, organization or body cannot be overemphasized any day or at any time.

It is almost a scientific fact that unity fosters progress as it ensures that there's a concoction of skills and talents that are readily available to solve arduous problems.

However, when all attempts at truly uniting any group of people fails, the prolonged holding together of such an entity is tantamount to a hostage situation.

Nigeria, as it stands, boasts of one of the most multicultural territories and this accounts for the rich cultural heritage of the people. Also, it has seen to the quick advancement of her arts and crafts industry and how it has come to be appreciated on the world stage.

On the other paw, this multiculturalism has been d bane of our collective progress or to be blunt enough to speak the bitter truth, the reason for our backwardness. On the news, it is no longer stupefying to hear stories of victimization of and hostility towards individuals, at worst leading to their deaths, because of issue within the perimeter of ethnicity.

It then begs the question of why one's tongue or system of belief should be determinant of a person's acceptance into his birth country.

The spate of killings over the last few years bordering on this very issue should cause concerns to even the coldest of hearts.

I have spent the last few years of my life grappling with theorems and proofs that v been affirmed by scholars to be esoteric and comprehended them well but what I cannot, till this very moment, bring myself to understand is why parents (respectively children) have to be brutally taken away from their young children (respectively parents) because they communicate best with their kith and kin through a varied system of words and signs.

During the last elections, I was enveloped in awe as I watched people fume whenever a debate was sparked on which part of the country should produce who would be at the helm of the activities of the federal government while merit was wholesomely relegated to the background.

It was so appalling and distasteful it left bile in my mouth. It's been over a century since amalgamation and during d course of delivering his speech just four days ago at the Biafra conference organized by the Musa Yaradua foundation here in Abuja, Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said and I quote "At Independence, we had 3 nations in one, that problem was never resolved till today (end of quote)."

Who better to put under the spotlight the gapping divides in a country that is supposedly united but the man who occupied the seat of power for 8 long years? I hate to be the one to jolt you to this sad reality but the Nigeria we have all grown to know as our dear country was merely an object of experimentation at creation.

Unfortunately for all of us, the hypothesis of the Westerners that we would learn to live with each other in peace and harmony after a while has been catastrophically wrong. If a century hasn't been enough time, your guess is as good as mine that a millennium would not be.

The South-East and South-South are rumbling with agitation from those who v been marginalized by a government that is supposed to be representative of all and sundry. Besides the ultimate prizes of lives that have been claimed, economic prizes v also been paid. Foreign investors do not feel any confident to put the security of themselves and their investments in our hands due to tensions arising on a daily basis from all corners of the country due to ethnic issues.

Gentlemen and Ladies, it is on the few aforementioned points that I base my argument that secession is the best thing that can happen to Nigeria in these difficult times.