On Biafra

Soccer is obviously Nigeria's most sacred metaphor.
Members of the group, MASSOB, were arrested somewhat
recently, playing a soccer match "for the liberation of
Biafra." Without much due process or any applicably
modern standards of justice they were and remain
incarcerated. For playing a soccer match. Treasonable.

Biafra failed the first time because of the Midwest.
Our uncle Ejoor and his famous bicycle might in fact
have been what did Biafra in, more than Adekunle and
Obasanjo. In this episode, however, the midwest
is confederate with the east primarily because the
Yorubas do not share common cause with the Mid westerners
whose cousins in the Delta are resource rich. The Yoruba
have nothing to fight for, since they did not fight for
their Aare, and so seem... unfocused and without leadership.
As such, they now will grow at their own pace, since the
old Midwest is allied with the East in this episode.
Sharia in the North indicates a level of autonomy for
the Northern Nigerians. The Igbo Biafrans have every
right to ask for increasing levels of self-determination
if the Federal Government continues to be unable to
do for the Easterners what they claim they can do for
themselves: Provide electricity, water, sanitation and
basic security. If, in fact, it is true--that the Federal
Government cannot provide ANY constituency in the country
these basics, and that these constituencies can do so
for themselves, then we ought to begin discussing, quite
seriously, the concept of power devolution and how it
can be attained without changing, in a major way, the
constituent structure of the nation. My opinion, based
on the finest and most precise analysis I've done, suggests
that the Federal Government of Nigeria, AS CURRENTLY
CONSTITUTED, will NEVER be able to provide these basics
to all its people and probably never "most." Thus,
the agitation will continue into time indefinite unless
the leaders of our nation decide to grant states more
autonomy, and do this without threatening the unity of
the nation by threatening to reduce access to resources
or funds derived from thereof. It would be wiser for
MASSOB to engage the international human rights community
than to believe that force can work. But, more importantly,
the conversation is now between Biafra and Nigeria, and that
conversation ought to end not in disunity, but with more
control available to Biafrans, and thus all Nigerias, as
regards what the Federal Government CONTINUES to be unable
to do. It's job.