Is Nigeria truly one? The answer to this question is capital No. If we the well- educated Ibos, Hausas, Yorubas and other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria can tell ourselves the gospel truth, the problem of Nigeria would have been eighty percent (80%) solved. What is this problem? The problem is the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate of Nigeria on January 1, 1914 by Sir (Lord) Fredrick Lugard. This is a forced/false marriage and any marriage contract that is forced cannot last. Equally any house built on false foundation cannot stand. My readers may argue that by January 1, 1914, Nigeria had lasted for 100 years. That is true. Nigeria may also last for 200 years or more. The question is how well has she fared as a country? A country whose citizens continually live in fear and suspicion cannot be said to be a country. A citizen of a country must live in any part of that country without discrimination. A citizen of a country must live, contest election, vote and be voted for, own properties and  freedom of movement guaranteed in any part of that country. But it is not so in this country after 100 years of our existence and 53 years of independence.

For instance, how many Yorubas or Hausas own solid houses or mansion in IboLand? If I say none, I may be exaggerating but very few compared to Ibo people, who own numerous luxury or even commercial houses both in YorubaLand and HausaLand, This situation has been like this for the past

100 years of our existence. Before and after the Nigerian civil war the Yorubas and the Hausas find it very difficult to live and settle permanently in Ibo land as the Ibo do in their land. The reason for this is that Nigeria is not one. Nigeria has been described among other things by many people as not a nation but a mere geographical expression. it is an incontrovertible fact of history that Nigeria is of British making and not our making. The British Government amalgamated the Northern and Southern Protectorate of Nigeria for her administrative convenience, economic and selfish gains without considering the effect her action will have on the growing population of Nigeria in the long run. After all what is this “Nigeria”? A name given by Miss Flora Shaw, former correspondent of “The Times” who later became Lord Lugard’s wife. However, the name “Nigeria” does not matter much. What matters is that the citizens of this country cannot proudly say that they are one culturally, linguistically and in terms of religion. These have resulted to lack of adequate development of the people and the nation, inspite of the vast human and material resources in the so called big country.

Right from the period of amalgamation (1914) to January 1966 when the first military revolution occurred in Nigeria, there were evidences that Northern Nigeria did not want to do anything with the South.

For instance, listen to Ahmadu Bello (1962) on the agitation for self Government for Nigeria: “Lord Lugard and his Almalgamation were far from popular amongst us at this time. There were agitations in favour of secession; we should set up our own; we should cease to have anything more to do with the Southern people; we should take our own way. I must say it looked tempting “

Though the January 15, 1966 coup was seen as “an Ibo coup” the original motive of the counter coup in July the same year was the secession of northern region from the federation. This goes to confirm that there had been and will continue to be mutual suspicion and distrust among the major ethnic group that make up this country since amalgamation in 1914.

It pains me a lot that Obasanjo (a Yoruba man) who has been a military head of state and civilian president of this country does not want to see the amalgamation of 1914 as our big problem because he has benefited and still benefiting from it at the expense of the majority of the citizens of this country. In a letter of appeal to president Goodluck Jonathan by Obansanjo, he said and I quote “As Head of Government the buck of the performance and non- performance stops on your table and let nobody tell you anything to the contrary. Most of our friends and development partners are worried and they see what we pretend to cover up. They are worried about issue of security internally and on our coastal waters including heavy oil theft, alias bunkering and piracy. They are worried about corruption and what we are doing or not doing about it. Corruption has reached the level of impunity. It is also necessary to be mindful that corruption and injustice are fertile breeding ground for terrorism and political instability. Obasanjo must be told that corruption, terrorism, oil theft, political instability etc, which he pointed out in his letter to president Jonathan are consequences of amalgamation of 1914 and president Jonathan inherited corruption and other vices from Obasanjo. When Obasanjo was civilian President he could not fight corruption instead he encouraged it. That was why he doubled as the President and minister of Petroleum for eight years in office with nothing to show for it except oil bunkering, piracy etc.

Happily enough, in his few years of governance President Jonathan who is more patriotic than Obasanjo, has found out that the solution to Nigeria’s numerous problems lies on the convening National sovereign conference. As I see it, there is no ulterior motive in convening this national conference. President Jonathan wants to bring to an end this political instability brought about by tribal and religious disturbances, fear, distrust, disunity etc. If I may ask, what does Boko Haram want? Why are they destroying people’s properties and wasting innocent lives? Let them come to the conference and say it.

Nigeria is divided into six geo-political zones. The sooner this is made six confederal states the better for us all. Let us stop deceiving ourselves. We are not one Nigeria.

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