PERHAPS for the first time ever, the people of Nigeria’s Far South, better known as the South-South, have held a comprehensive political summit. It took place in the sleepy holiday resort city of Calabar, which once contested with Lagos and lost by a slim margin, for the enviable post of capital of Nigeria.
After all, there is nothing Lagos had that Calabar hadn’t. Who knows what would have been the story of Nigeria today if her former capital had been in the East rather than West? Surely, the equations - economic, political and demographic - would be different from what we have? What if the capital of Nigeria had been in a southern city owned by a minority ethnic group? Would the struggle for power among the three major ethnic groups - the Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba - have taken a different shape? Would that translate to a stronger political presence for the minorities at the federal level?
These questions are material within the context of the historic summit that ended on Tuesday, November 8, 2004. The tripodal political spheres of influence created by the colonialists as encapsulated in the three regional structure, caused the smaller ethnic groups in the north and south of Nigeria to lose their identities and voices. What voice they had was usually already discoloured by the overwhelming presence of their "overseer" majority groups. Thus, everybody in the north was first of all "Hausa" to the rest of Nigeria until they told you otherwise, usually to your surprise. Everybody from the East was "Ibo". In fact, to the rest of the country, all groups in the South that are not Yoruba are easily mistaken for and treated as "Ibo", until they go into the usually laborious routine of explaining in detail how they aren’t anything of the sort.
As a result of the minority revolt in the East against the regime of the Igbo-dominated defunct National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in the 1950’s, there was a general opinion shift towards "Awoism", and his Action Group, a school of thought that stood in explosive rivalry to the NCNC. This also meant a shift of political loyalty from the Igbo towards the Yoruba. In the former West, even though the minorities had been granted their own region (the Mid West), the presence of the Awoist Action Group ideology in the minds of the peoples remained strong and appeared to grow as that of the Igbo NCNC paled into history as a result of its loss of power through the events of 1966 to 1970. And so, as the Igbo leg in the tripod was broken and rendered almost impertinent after the civil war, the minorities of the South had only two political tendencies to choose from: the Awoist one, which was popular among the educated, pro-welfarist class, and the northern one, which was popular among power seekers in the political class.
AWOISM remained strong in the former Mid West, whose peoples’ political thinking was "very Yoruba". This phenomenon was linked to two major factors. Number one, of course, was the fact that during the period when the area was under the old Western Region, Awoism was the ruling model of political and economic thought and action. But more important was the incidence of Lagos as the
ever-growing capital and economic melting pot of Nigeria. For most Mid Westerners, the first port of call outside their home was Lagos. It had all the infrastructural facilities that other cities hadn’t. These facilities supported the growth of industry, mega markets, helped provide jobs and also offered the gateway to the world. Even though people from the rest of the country started migrating in large droves to Lagos and presently constitute a large chunk of its population, the Yoruba-Awoist socio-political essence of the metropolis remains emphatic. The minorities of the former Mid West living in Lagos, therefore, impulsively devised a survival strategy of playing to Yoruba interests in order to "belong".
EVEN though recent events have been diluting this phenomenon, but it is still clear that a typical Edo/Delta person living in Lagos would impulsively speak Yoruba, dress Yoruba, think and talk like a Yoruba politically and doesn’t mind being buried in a Lagos cemetery when he or she dies. The phenomenon has started wearing off due mainly to two factors. Number one is that the Awoist sensation seems on its way out even among the Yorubas. Obasanjo seems to have conquered it without giving the people anything else but confusion to hold on to.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) experiment of 1999 to 2003 appeared to warn every non- Yoruba supporter of the Awoists in their moments of travails that there is nothing for them when the struggle yields some political goodies. Most of the non-Yoruba supporters of the Awoists in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) in the fight for Abiola’s mandate felt left out by the AD dispensation in the South West.
The second reason is that the minorities are beginning to find their own voices. This is the good news, and we shall explain shortly. The Niger Delta struggle is the chief culprit for this. The people of Nigeria’s minority South found their voices when they gradually took over the media industry from the Yoruba in the 1980’s. Most of the Lagos-based newspapers, magazines, radio and television seen as credible national media are owned or controlled by the former Bendel wing of the present South South zone. The Igbo had been in control of the media, especially through the Zik Chain before the war. In fact, many of the captains of the media of today who hail from the minority areas of the South were brought up under the Zik Chain and Daily Times. It was only natural that with time these media would increasingly reflect the sentiments of the Niger Delta struggle.
The General Sani Abacha regime’s creation of the South South on October 1, 1996 as a separate political zone is both a beneficiary and facilitator of the new voice from the Far South of Nigeria. This new voice is neither Hausa nor Igbo nor Yoruba. Attempts had been made earlier on by some larger groups in the area to submerge the South South aspirations under those of their tribes. These groups were positioning themselves as the new "majorities" of the new zone, who should be given the rights that the old majorities in the former regions were enjoying.
For instance, the Ijaw make no bones about their intention to become the new majority of the South South. They often equate the Niger Delta to Ijaw. In Delta State, the Urhobo have positioned themselves as the "new majority" of the state, which should have the automatic right to "play the Hausa-Fulani" there. The problem with this tendency is that it simply creates new problems for smaller groups in the "newly liberated" states and the new zone as a whole. A "new majority" in the South South can then go to the centre under the control of a reigning national majority to negotiate for the South South.
HOWEVER, the creation of a South South Consultative Assembly (SSCA) as an umbrella of the entire minority groups in Southern Nigeria, stands a chance of being a very welcome development. The SSCA model is not like the South South People’s Congress (SSOPEC) chiefly promoted by self-confessed Ijaw nationalist, Chief E. K. Clark. The SSCA we saw in action last week had prominent Nigerians from tiny ethnic groups, such as former Senate President, Dr. Joseph Wayas and proprietor of Daar Communications, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, playing prominent roles. A Nigerian president of South South extraction does not have to be an Ijaw man, or from any of the Igbo groups in Rivers and Delta, or Urhobo or a Bini man or Ibibio, simply because they are among the largest groups in the zone.
The good thing about this development is that the minorities can no longer be used as political fodder either at the national level or within the new zone and states, if the initiative is sustained. The South Southern voice will reflect the indigenous ideas, aspirations, conditions, needs and opinions of the zone.
When there is a national conference or Nigerians sit around the table over Nigerian affairs, the minorities of the north and south will bring their own agenda, rather than merely being the sounding board of a manipulative majority overlord. This will expand the power base, ensure the balance of power and foster political stability.
The question, however, is this: can it be sustained? Or is somebody merely using the SSCA as a springboard for a selfish political pursuit, such as the infamous tussle for Vice President come 2007? Let’s watch and see.
