The Middle-Belt Progressive Movement held its monthly General Meeting on Saturday, 16th September, 2023. The main focus of the meeting was a Review of Nigeria as a Nation after 100 years of political independence. At the end of the meeting, the following verdicts were returned, which formed a Communiqué of the meeting.
*That Nigeria as a nation was created on the basis of the mercantile interests of colonial Britain as nudged by the duo of Lord Frederick Lugard and Lord Lewis Harcourt of the Royal Niger Company.
*That no attempt or effort was made to ascertain the preference of the people as to whether or not the 1914 amalgamation and, subsequent adjustment of boundaries in 1918, were the wishes of the people.
*That as a result of the forced merger of the Southern and Northern Protectorates and the fraudulent boundary adjustment that followed, a permanent enmity was thus created by the colonial masters between those who were favoured and those cheated in both exercises.
*That throughout the period between 1914 and 1960, the British colonial administrators applied open discrimination against those they perceived as enemies of their mercenary administration and others they regarded as ‘pagans.’ In reverse, they protected and promoted the interests and values of those who in their own eyes were blind and uninformed and, therefore, harmless to their economic objectives.
*With this in-built antagonism from the onset, Nigeria was not meant to be a nation by her human creators. For anyone to claim that Nigeria is now one nation is to discover the greatest pretender of the 21st Century.
*In the 40 years of independence, Nigeria was saddled at the centre with inept leadership blinded primordial and religious jaundice. In our view, the failure of Nigeria is the failure of leadership. In a land where the blind man is the king, the destination of the people is the womb of the bottomless pit.
*That blame must be apportioned according to the length of misrule of past leaders and, using this as a yardstick, those whose ethnic groups ruled the longest is the destroyer and undertaker of Nigeria.
*After all, only 6 Nigerians signed the Amalgamation Document in 1914, namely:
1) HRH Maiturare Sarkin Mussulumi and Sultan of Sokoto.
2) Usuman Dan Majo, who later became Emir of Kano.
3) Sir Kitoyi Ajasa, a lawyer.
4) HRH Oladugbolu Alaafin of Oyo.
5) HRH R. Henshaw (Obong of Calabar).
6) Abubakar Shehu of Borno.
These were never the representatives of the over 400 ethnic nationalities.
The location of the signing of the Amalgamation Document was Zungeru, in the present-day Niger State; that was the capital of the British Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, from 1902 to until 1916. There were 6 Nigerian people only and the rest of the 22 were British.
*That the Edict expired in 2014. The Document stated that, “After 100 years, each party can reevaluate and determine, if they want to continue together or go their separate ways.” Why did we refuse to honour the agreement? Nigeria technically expired in 2014. So, we can at least renegotiate the terms of continuing as a single Nation or Federation, Confederation or total separation.
*That the immediate Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria Conference be held for them to decide for themselves, through dialogue, what they want.
Signed by:
D.I.G. Potter L. Dabup (rtd), CFR, NPF, mni