Arewa politicians are to blame for riots in Nigeria - OPC's chief speaks out in Germany

An organisation that has been blamed for some of the ethnic conflicts is the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), a 'socio-cultural' group, which claims to represent the Yoruba people of south-western Nigeria. The organisation claims to be fighting for a review of the country's political structure to "ensure justice to all its constituent ethnic nationalities". The African Courier's Editor/Publisher and Contributing Editor, Femi Awoniyi and Chris Ogwu respectively, spoke on Saturday, January 27 at length with the OPC's secretary general, Kayode Ogundamisi, in Berlin, Germany, on his organisation, democracy in Nigeria and
its recipe for stability in Africa. Excerpts:

The African Courier: You have been accused of travelling around the world by the Arewa People's Front to procure arms? Is your organisation planning an armed action?
OPC: Oh, it is the usual strategy of discrediting our struggle for true democracy in Nigeria. The OPC does not believe in violence and has always called for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in our country through a Sovereign National Conference. We don't have any military men among us. The Arewa Peoples' Congress, which came into being to counteract us, is led by a retired army officer, Brig-General Sagir Muhammed. Can you imagine a retired officer of the country's armed forces openly leading an ethnic organisation?

The African Courier: What is the purpose of your visit to Europe and Germany?
OPC: I left the country in October to attend international environment conferences. As an environment activist, I have been invited to the Tobacco Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, and the International Convention on Climatic Changes in The Hague, The Netherlands, a special session to deliberate on the refusal of some nations to sign the Kyoto Agreement. I delivered papers at both forums.

The African Courier: What are you doing in Germany?
OPC: My wife, who is a European Union citizen, and my daughter are resident in Germany. I have come to spend time with them. Although my visit here is essentially private, I also use the opportunity to meet Nigerian democracy groups and exchange ideas on how we can move our country forward. I have also been to Austria and France in this regard.

The African Courier: The OPC has been blamed for ethnic disturbances in Nigeria. How much blame does your organisation truly bear?
OPC: It is ridiculous to attribute these disturbances to the OPC. The organisation was formed only in 1994, but the history of ethnic and religious conflicts goes much further. There was the massacre of hundreds of thousands of innocent Igbo children, women and men in northern Nigeria, in 1966. Was the OPC responsible? In the 1980s, there were the Maitasine and Musa Makaniki riots in Kano and, Yola and Maiduguri respectively, when Muslim extremists launched terror attacks on other citizens. Were we responsible? The Southern Zaira conflicts in the 1990s, were we responsible too? You see, the traditional power elite in the far north are masters of deception, and are responsible for this campaign of disinformation.

The African Courier: But, since the return of democratic rule, some of the ethnic unrests are said to have been caused by the OPC.
OPC: In fact, we can say the far-north politicians are responsible for the violent ethnic and religious clashes which have taken place since President Olusegun Obasanjo came into office. Immediately the president retired all military officers who have held political office upon assuming office, they started crying marginalisation. This heated the polity up. Their media started whipping up an anti-Yoruba and anti-Christian sentiment. When you read some of the articles published in their newspapers, you will feel sickened with the campaign of calumny that is being specifically waged against Obasanjo and Yorubas. The riot in Sagamu, Ketu and Agege/Apapa and Kaduna can be understood in this context.

The African Courier: But your organisation was specifically blamed by President Obasanjo for the riot in Lagos last October?

OPC: You know because of the ineptitude of the police and the general feeling of insecurity, a lot of vigilante groups have sprung up in many parts of the country. The recent riot in Lagos was caused by the apprehension of a thief of far northern origin. Because emotion is already inflamed by the anti-Yoruba rhetoric of far northern politicians and their media, their people over reacted. If Yorubas are caught and are accordingly dealt with by these vigilantes, nobody will raise an eye brow. However, because of the multiethnic nature of the Lagos population, if an Ibo or Hausa is caught and dealt with, their communities might feel a sympathy for the criminal. In the eastern states, suspected criminals are publicly executed by vigilante groups and nobody raises an eye brow because there is not a significant number of non-Igbos resident in the region. Instead of looking into the direct and remote causes of these riots, they just heap the blame on us. Nobody cares to hear our side of the story. The far north politicians could even be accused of causing the Lagos riot. Former heads of state of northern origin boycotted the 40th anniversary in Abuja last year, claiming they were insulted by a statement made by Chief Abraham Adesanya, the leader of Afenifere. The old man said at a conference in Ibadan last September that Yorubas would not vote without the national identity card which, is in his own opinion, is an effective weapon against vote rigging or inflation. He then said "we do not want goats and cows to be counted". This is an anecdotal Yoruba way of saying we don not want vote inflation. They interpreted it to mean that he described northerners as goats and cows. It is indeed laughable. Yet, Buhari and Shagari convinced the other heads of state to boycott the historic ceremony. About two weeks later, a team of prominent Fulanis, led by Buhari and, including Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, former president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Brigadier Marwa, former military governor of Lagos State, went to Alhaji Lamidi Adesina, the Oyo State governor to intimidate him over the problem in Iseyin (Oyo State) between Fulani cattle-rearers and Yoruba farmers. Everywhere we have nomadic cattle-rearers, there are always problems between them and farmers because of their competing interests. Just about two weeks ago, a Fulani cattle-rearer stabbed a Kanuri farmer to death near Maiduguri and the local people there retaliated by killing three Fulanis. Nobody raised an eye brow. So the political temperature was high leading to inflamed opinion of Yorubas in the Hausa community in Lagos. This is the logical explanation for the flaring of temper that led to the regrettable riot. The northern politicians are also not interested in avoiding these clashes because they instrumentalise them for political purposes hence their repeated call for the prosecution of Dr Fredric Fasheun, our leader, who was in no way connected to the conflict. They have repeatedly warned that they would retaliate in the north against Yorubas which amounts to an open call to genocide. That was how they provoked their people to massacre Ibos in the far north in 1966.

The African Courier: What of the attempt by your organisation to install a Yoruba Oba in Ilorin last October?
OPC: Who did we want to install as Oba? It is all a campaign to discredit us. The people were said to have wanted to stage a public rally on the injustice of the natural rulership system in the city. Ilorin is a town whose historiography has been massively revised by the Fulanis to support their claim to it. That we have an Emir there is a historical error and all attempts to find a peaceful solution to the problem, that has been lingering for more than a hundred years, have been frustrated by the Fulani political establishment. In northern Nigeria, emirates and chiefdoms are regularly created to accommodate various interests for the sake of peace. For example, all the emirates in Kebbi State apart from that of Gwandu, were created in the last twenty-five years. Within the last 18 months, new emirates have been created in Kaduna state. How then can a city whose indigenous population is 90 percent Yoruba, whose name is Yoruba, whose language is Yoruba, whose traditional mores are Yoruba be ruled by a Fulani? The colonialists came at a time the crisis there was just breaking out and because the Northern Emirs were a reliable partner of the British in the colonial administration, they were favoured. Since independence, there have been peaceful agitation, but in Nigeria it seems such a method of advocacy is deemed as cowardice. In the far north, there would have been riots like they have taken place many times in Kaduna for example, which eventually led to the creation of many chiefdoms there. There was a judicial panel in 1978, commissioned by the then government in the state to look into the crisis, and it was recommended that an Oba be installed in the city. Of course, the report was rejected because of the influence of the Fulani political elite. Many Nigerians are shocked when they fully appreciate the problem in the city. I remember speaking in Jos on this issue some years ago, and all the participants in the forum, who are Northerners, agreed that it was an absurdity and an injustice that is not sustainable. Professor Edwin Madunagu, the famous Igbo political scientist and newspaper comentator, aptly calls it internal colonialism, which it actually is.

The African Courier: Do you mention your organisation's struggle for constitutional reform in Nigeria in international forums?
OPC: Yes, I do, emphasising the need for a peaceful resolution of the problems in Nigeria. It is important that we appear in such forums because there is this feeling that Africa is jinxed. Today, there is war in Congo, tomorrow in Sierra Leone, the day after tomorrow, it is Rwanda. Africans don't love to fight, there must be something much more fundamental that is responsible for it.

The African Courier: But the international community has the impression that Nigeria is now a democracy. Wouldn't it be difficult for listeners to understand what you mean by the "problems in Nigeria"?
OPC: Yes, but I always try to explain that the 1999 transition was hurried and the constitution an imposed one, hence the fundamental problems confronting us are yet to be resolved. Nigeria has not returned to democratic rule in the strictest sense of it. The major state institutions are yet to become democratic. Take for an example, the security forces; many young members of our organisation are still languishing in police detention after the disturbances in Lagos last October; without being charged to, or convicted by, a court.

The African Courier: Since democracy is a process, won't it amount to impatience to expect democratic institutions to be established within 18 months? Aren't you in a hurry?
OPC: Of course, we know that democracy is a process and our struggle is to move the democratisation of the country forward. I would want our call for a far-reaching constitutional reform to be understood in this context.

The African Courier: What should a Sovereign National Conference do?
OPC: It should provide a forum for all the different ethnic groups and other legitimate interest groups to confer with one another to find a lasting solution to this seemingly perpetual problem of instability. Forty years after independence as a political nation, 30 years after a civil war which claimed more that a million lives, we are still as divided as ever. So, the problem is very fundamental. It was British colonialism which gave Nigeria its name and its territorial definition. We aren't a nation. We are diverse peoples lumped together in a forced political union.

The African Courier: What is the OPC's understanding of true federalism, after all Nigeria is officially a federal state?
OPC: Our ideal form of federalism in Nigeria would be a system, where ethnic groups exist as separate polities with an overarching central authority, a combination of self-rule and shared rule.

The African Courier: In essence, you advocate ethnic federalism.
OPC: Yes.

The African Courier: Is ethnic federalism practicable in Nigeria, given the complex nature of ethnic identity in some regions of the country, where groups are neither territorially concentrated nor capable of 'escaping each other'?
OPC: We know for sure that political borders cannot coincide with those of ethnicity in Nigeria. But we have the six zonal system and, for a start, they could be the units for a truly federal structure. But these are outcomes that should be determined by a conference.

The African Courier: What is in the way of this conference?
OPC: The problem is this Fulani traditional power establishment in the far north which is responsible for the resistance to a constitutional conference. The traditional power structure they built through conquest nearly two hundred years ago is unjust. The present status quo suits them because it enables them to extend their subjugation of that area to the whole of Nigeria. And they have been very clever to construct this identity around religion in the far north, which helps them to arrogate the representation of the whole region to themselves.
If you are conversant with the on-goings in Nigeria, you must have heard of the efforts of President Obasanjo to bring the major organisations, representing the different ethnic groups in the country together. The northern Arewa Consultative Forum said they were not interested. This has been their attitude since independence, they would like the status quo to be maintained, but it is not sustainable. They are masters of divide-and-rule. You must have noticed their forays into Abia State, where they are trying to use the governor, Dr Kalu, to weaken the unity of Igbo people. That is classic Fulani political strategy.
In fact the popular support for Shari'a in the region, shows that our position is shared by all Nigerians. Although we oppose it, but their people say they want it.

The African Courier: Why is your organisation against the Shari'a, after all many Yorubas are also Muslims?
OPC: The introduction of Shari'a was a political response to the perceived marginalisation of that part of the country. It is a classical case of the politicisation of religion, in fact a denigration of religion. Yorubas are against this, either Muslims or Christians. In fact, the Northern politicians have tried to divide us using religion, but they failed woefully, because we are a sophisticated people. We have a history of peaceful co-existence of these two great religions.

The African Courier: Why are you against the Shari'a code?
OPC: When religion becomes the chief tool of legitimate and mass political mobilisation, you are close to disaster. A corrupt political class introducing Shari'a! That is why we warned them that don't denigrate religion by using it for political ends, it is a sin.
There is also the danger of providing fertile ground for the growth of Islamic extremism and hence of religious intolerance. A development that will spell doom for the country. Early January, rampaging youths burnt down more than 40 hotels in Maiduguri because of the appearance of lunar eclipse. The youths are said to have blamed sins committed by patrons of hotels and bars for this universally known natural phenomenon. Is that the kind of society we want to build? Can you imagine that this could have happened in twenty-first century? Attributing lunar eclipse to sins?
We are surprised the president is not acting on the danger posed by Shari'a, thinking it is a hot wind which will lose steam. But, he is mistaken. The Kaduna riots showed that the problem will not just go away.

The African Courier: But these states have repeatedly stated that the Shari'a would apply only to Muslims?
OPC: You believe that? Haven't you heard of Livinus Obi, an Igbo Christian man, who was recently arraigned before a Kano Shari'a court and publicly flogged on its orders for selling alcohol? This shows that the people behind the Shari'a tactic do not appreciate the enormity of their actions. Livinus Obi's fate is a foretaste of the coming conflict in that region.
Everywhere in the world, the politicisation of religion always lead to disaster because it will get out of hand. That is why, they don't have the Shari'a code in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, for example. Or closer home, in, Niger, Mali or Chad, although these countries are predominantly Muslim. Take a look at Sudan. When General Jafar El-Nimeiri, introduced
Shari'a to shore up his political fortunes in the early 1980s, he didn't reckon with the possibility that it was going to become the stumbling block to progress in the country. Take a look at Algeria. I was at an exhibition in Paris where photographs of this terrible war were displayed. The so-called Muslim extremists would invade a village, behead children, including infants and hang their heads on posts at the village square. They will kidnap young women and hold them as sex slaves. When their captives become pregnant, they are murdered to dispose them off. Ah! It is unimaginable. These are terrible images. Yet, they are supposed to be fighting to install an Islamic order. The politicians who used Islam at the beginning of the Algerian crisis for political ends are no longer relevant today. The field has been left to
murderous lunatics.

The African Courier: Your vision of Nigeria?
OPC: You know that the colonialists did not ask us if we wanted to come together to form political nations in Africa, they imposed them on us. The lack of peaceful adjustment of the structure of political union in many African countries is the main cause of ethnic conflict on the continent. Yet there can not be social and economic development without peace and stability hence we are caught up in a vicious circle. I believe Nigeria should lead the way by conveying a conference, where the different ethnic groups would sit down and design a union acceptable to every one of us in a democratic fashion. We can also learn from Indonesia which is presently experimenting with far-reaching constitutional reforms to bring its perennial secretarian conflicts to an end.
With a heated-up polity, with an absence of credible democratic institutions as stabilisers, the time is ripe for major constitutional reforms in Nigeria.

The African Courier: We thank you for talking to us.
 

The African Courier is a bimonthly newspaper published in Germany.

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