United State Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, has faulted the 1914 treaty that led to the amalgamation of Nigeria; adding that there would be an imminent implosion, that could result to an “unmitigated disaster” unless proactive steps would be employed to salvage the country from collapsing.
Campbell disclosed this, in an exclusive interview with This Day, stressing that 1914 Amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates, was an idea by the British colonialists for mere administrative convenience, which failed to factor the fault lines into proper account.
He outlined immediate steps; addressing the police and military’s old issue of human rights abuses; adding that the agitation in some quarters for secession could be addressed if the federal government considered the logic improper devolution.
Campbell in specific terms said, ” Right away, it would be these steps that would show Nigerian people that the government is moving to address the issues (that) bedeviling the country. I would start with police reforms; also seeking to address the question of human rights abuses by both the police and the military.”
He further argued the previous as well as the current constitutions used by the Nigerian government were imposed and did not address Nigeria’s genuine political faultiness and aspirations, including its various ethnic nationalities and urges those in power to pursue a course of rewriting the constitution that geniuely takes into consideration current issues and realities.
Campbell explained, “The amalgamation of Nigeria by the British was done for their own administrative convenience without even very much thinking about what the consequences might be of putting together in a single unit of 350 different ethnic groups that had little in common with each other.
“But I would suggest that the approach has continued. Nigeria’s constitutions had been imposed first by the British, later by various millitary regimes, and was never submitted to the Nigerian people for a vote or for ratification,” the US envoy stated.
Campbell maintained that Nigeria’s current constitution mimicked that of the US, but was generally relics of the British colonial rule and military regimes that had superintendend Nigeria.
He said, “Well, implosion of the country would be an unmitigated disaster, whether that occur or not is very largely up to Nigerians themselves and to their political leadership. The issue, the specific issue that I think is most dangerous at present is the deterorioration of security across the country.
“Jihadism on the North, conflict over water and land use in the Middle Belt, conflicts that often assume an ethnic and religious dimension, giving separatism sentiment in the South East, and even in Yoruba land the emergence of new institutions, which are not federal. I am talking in particular of the sort of quasi security force that a number of Yoruba governance have put together “.
Insisting on constitution, that reflects the aspirations of Nigeria and the current realities. Campbell noted that true federalism where the states are less dependence on the central government would serve the nation better.
Ijeoma Njoku reporting, Obinwannem News
