Not Yet One Nation-State, and May Never Be. August 23, 2022

I'm writing my Nigerian story, the problems, and solutions, without citing or referencing the works or opinions of foreign or local scholars and intellectuals. And I have my reasons: The uniqueness of our predicaments, which these writers do not reckon with or don't know how to integrate into their situation analysis.

Besides insecurity, corruption, and graft, our structural problems are not covered in any business school syllabus. It's only in Nigeria that you have one government at the seat of power at Abuja and a parallel government somewhere in Sokoto.

It's the only developing country I've seen where you have parallel markets for currency conversion, and pricing at different rates. Consequently, the Central Bank is simply doing guesswork regarding monetary policy and economic growth projections. They have no idea of the volume of foreign currencies in circulation in Nigeria.

If a supposedly elite of Nigerian politics, predominantly of Southern extraction, can't fathom the depth of the inequality, lawlessness, and the second colonization that they are subjected to, then, something is inherently wrong somewhere with their touted egalitarian values.

What about, for instance, the legalized fraud embedded in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) - the 30% annual profits of the NNPC Ltd that is set aside perpetually for the search for crude oil in some of the Northern basins?

How can you justify searching for crude oil ad infinitum, with a designated percentage of the NNPC annual profits, and no protest from Nigerian campuses or political action groups, condemning the process?

What type of a nation is that? Take it or leave it, we are being colonized by the Sokoto/Kano Caliphate, and our state of denial has provoked acute timidity in us. My main concern is not about the power-grabbing proclivity, but the absence of managerial wherewithal to make the best use of the accumulated power.

In a true nation-state, the best approach is to devote or channel the 30% net profits to the development of alternative energy as they are doing in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In Nigeria, they don't care. And no one is talking about large-scale alternative energy sources.

And until every element of the entitlement syndrome and false nationalism are tackled, discredited, and abandoned, Nigeria will not know peace, and real economic growth and development will remain a flighty purpose to be pursued and never attained. Sooner or later, I will be vindicated.

The best way out is True Federalism and Decentralization of Power. In 2012, I published a long essay, that focused on the emancipation of the Talakawas, the elimination of the Almajiri culture, and how to bridge the education gaps between the Northern and Southern regions of Nigeria. And I warned of the social upheaval that will erupt if we fail to act. Sad to say, I've been vindicated. The lingering scourge of banditry, killing, and kidnapping for ransom predominantly in the Northern region is more than the social unrest that I anticipated in the essay.

So, I am saying this again, the earlier we embark on the course of True Federalism and Decentralization of Power the safer it's for everyone and the better for our nation-state. And to those who have oil blocs, your investments and interests are secured. They will be more secure under a mutually agreed decentralized process than through a forced or combative disintegration.

You cannot continue to exercise absolute control over the mainstay of our economy and don't know how to educate our children. They want to squander the oil wreath or accumulate as much of it without making provisions or thinking about sustainable development.

11Stephen Imenrion, Cyril Okoh and 9 others