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			<br>
			<br>
			<em><strong>� you shall not go to Mecca , <br>
			oh Nomad, the road<br>
			you have followed <br>
			leads to Turkistan <br>
			</strong><br>
			</em>(�admonition of the strayed Nomad in an Afghanistan <br>
			village where no compass existed and<br>
			information on the correct track to <br>
			the Holy City was provided <br>
			by only agents and guides <br>
			employed by local lords)<br>
			<br>
			<strong><br>
			By <br>
			His Excellency<br>
			Chimaroke Nnamani<br>
			Governor of Enugu State<br>
			Nigeria<br>
			<br>
			</strong>
			---------------------------------------------------------------<br>
			2006 First edition of annual lecture series of the <br>
			Westerner Newspapers Limited<br>
			Banquet Hall, Premier Hotel,<br>
			Ibadan, Oyo State<br>
			Nigeria<strong><br>
			</strong><br>
			<strong>Thursday, August 31, 2006<br>
			<br>
			</strong><br>
			<br>
			<br>
			<br>
&nbsp;</font><p align="justify"><strong>PROTOCOLS:</strong><br>
			My sound greetings, again, to this famed city, Ibadan . If I am 
			allowed the literary license of giants like our own Wole Soyinka, 
			please permit me to say <em>iba</em>, to the makers of modern 
			Nigeria who sojourned here and moved on; to the foundation elements 
			of Nigerian intellectual tradition, who started and instituted the 
			Ibadan expressive assertiveness from the University College; and to 
			those heady starters and finishers of the mainstream arguments on 
			Nigeria and her tumultuous trip in nation making.<br>
			<br>
			<em><strong>Iba oo.</strong></em><br>
			<br>
			Today, I seize the second opportune time to come to appreciate, 
			first hand, the trends of political thought in Ibadan, and as I said 
			in the 2003 edition of the June 12 lecture, which I had the special 
			privilege of giving here, the blossoming of great minds, either 
			associated with the premier University of Ibadan, or the 
			pre-colonial military as well as the strong traditional political 
			families, have continued to be registered as firm textures of our 
			national political and social interests.<br>
			<br>
			As I stated then, and which I maintain, Ibadan cannot escape us; 
			being then formed as the second largest African city, second, only 
			to Cairo , Egypt . <br>
			<br>
			Although so many Nigerian towns and cities are keenly vying for 
			upper reckoning, I can restate my earlier position that Ibadan 
			remains a curious reminder to us all of the promises of the polyglot 
			agenda conceived at the evolution of Nigeria . Born of outpost 
			military depot; fed of deep traditional heritage and nurtured 
			through thick and thin, it rode the crest of the promises of 
			multi-cultural fermentation and blossomed in its current 
			sub-cultural varieties. <br>
			<br>
			Rising as a very important military and administrative headquarters, 
			long before colonialism, Ibadan possessed great qualities of a 
			junction town, pre-positioned as the checkpoint of that highway, if 
			either of the North or seaward south was to be accessed.<br>
			<br>
			Although this is my second lecture trip to this all-important 
			Nigerian town, I still look forward to the hill point where the 
			legendary John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo set the enchanting prose and 
			poetry of <br>
			<em>an Ibadan <br>
			that was running splash,<br>
			of rust and gold; <br>
			flung and scattered,<br>
			among seven hills;<br>
			like broken china,<br>
			in the sun.</em><br>
			<br>
			Ibadan held out the torchlight, perhaps for us all; just as Kaduna 
			and Enugu did, in approximation or aggregation of varied values, and 
			by its openness, Ibadan gainfully suggested ways for the development 
			of multi-cultural societies, until such uniqueness was nearly blown 
			to smithereens by heady actions of temperamental players in our many 
			vitiated national schemes.<br>
			<br>
			As the legendary Gabriel Okara, I crave the opportunity of ascending 
			the hilltops to sup of the ariel view of that: <br>
			<em>broken china, <br>
			with scattered, <br>
			aged, tin roofs;<br>
			� of yet a disorderly setting,<br>
			in its cohesive stretch. <br>
			</em><br>
			Besides the national apprehension of yet another truncation of 
			programmes of national stability, of which Ibadan is expected to 
			play its own card well, we stand to reckon and indeed hold the city 
			accountable for the gains or otherwise of the ferocity of the South 
			Western literary stamina, which has ridden the tenacity of a 
			stubborn media culture. Can we forget the fact that modern African 
			Literature was born right here, with writers like Clark, Christopher 
			Okigbo, Chinua Achebe and others, who gave our nation the first 
			intellectual teeth? As I also held in my last trip in this good 
			city, the baffling survival, even at the doorsteps of some wishes 
			for terminal accidents, imposes a strong sense of duty on this 
			culture of mind, if only as an assurance for unstoppable future 
			strides. <br>
			<br>
			I must confess to you that I have yet to alter my earlier view that 
			the greater national debate, or the more marketable poise for 
			national conscientisation � for now and perhaps for the future - 
			resides somewhere between Ibadan and Lagos, where it is only certain 
			that the reading public are more duty bound to leave some valves of 
			survival for emerging institutions of the mass media. <br>
			<br>
			In saying this, as I did last time, I am not pretending that the 
			literary culture, the buoyancy of the media and the boldness of 
			social mobilization, are the exclusive preserves of the sons and 
			daughters of Oduduwa. I am not even saying that the sons and 
			daughters of Oduduwa, alone, drive these; much as I cannot even 
			pretend to ignore the reality of the admissibility of the culture of 
			the native people, of others�, and the very accommodating and 
			healthy cosmopolitan tradition of most host communities in the old 
			West of Nigeria. <br>
			<br>
			At the moment, I still maintain that the very difficulties imposed 
			on the Nigerian political society by the inadequacies of programmes 
			of political transition that are fraught with the dangers of 
			inter-ethnic, inter-institution and inter-belief conflicts, posed 
			some damaging challenges in the attempt at cohesion and eventual 
			integration of a multi-ethnic nation which, as ours, is in hunger 
			for unity of purpose and direction.<br>
			<br>
			But aside these, today, I must admit to you that in the course of 
			the seven years and so months we have practiced democracy, 
			rudimentary as some may argue, that there appears on the sharp edge, 
			a dimension far more threatening to the nation than anything else, 
			as it has so deeply eaten into the system.<br>
			<br>
			But even as we contemplated these vital experiences, going by the 
			urge to speak out on something else, it became imperative to seek, 
			once again, the vital links on which our nation state would be 
			anchored and for which onward national drive would ride.<br>
			<br>
			The final decision, for me to be in Ibadan today, was like a running 
			battle between my staff and Mr. Clement Ige, the anchorman for this 
			programme; whom I have since come to associate with large reserves 
			of organizational abilities. We have together tinkered with matters 
			more experiential to us as a nation and such others, which appeared 
			to hamper cohesive national journey from a wholesome realization. 
			But each time, we had to contend with the viability of some topics 
			at a season when it became fanciful to urge that which defined our 
			dissimilarities. And indeed, arising from the conceptual philosophy 
			of <strong>The Westerner newspapers </strong>� <em>to report other 
			cultures to the Yoruba and Yoruba culture to others - </em>we could 
			not help but grab the suggested topic, but with a single modifier �
			<em>challenge</em> � which we know really contains the questions yet 
			to be understood, appreciated and harnessed for craved national 
			trip, in fuller designation and re-designation of our nation state.
			<br>
			<br>
			Of course, we are all witnesses to the order of advent of European 
			colonialism and the subsequent pattern of colonial administration, 
			which imposed on some Nigerian peoples, a tough challenge of 
			appreciating multi-national configuration, against the erstwhile 
			experiences of mono-cultural settings, which prevailed prior to the
			<em>age of Salisbury</em>�s European conquest of Africa . <br>
			<br>
			And in the case of Nigeria, the challenges imposed on us by the 
			simple setting of a national signpost that was devoid of a conscious 
			effort of the reigning order at stimulating a proper national 
			feeling, left in its wake some kind of nostalgia for the overrun 
			empires and kingdoms, princedoms and principalities, which many of 
			us were not told, had, indeed, faced their own problems of scenic 
			implosion as colonialism banged on the doors. <br>
			<br>
			Large, imposing and furious as the Sokoto Empire was, and challenged 
			on its own turf by the intransigent Bornu Kings who insisted that if 
			the purpose of the 19th Jihad was to impose Islam, their areas 
			should be exempted on account of a full realization of the tenets of 
			the practice. In the same vein, those other territories, south of 
			the sub-Sahara and in the Benue Basin , could not understand why it 
			had to be any person�s business how they conducted their 
			relationship with their gods. <br>
			<br>
			In any case, in so many accounts, they had shown that they were 
			prepared to stand their ground and call the bluff of the invading 
			Jihad�s army, which was not prepared to seek their opinion on how 
			their societies would be set and run. <br>
			<br>
			But even as these last stands were being taken, the fabulously rich, 
			powerful and imperial Sokoto, was not contemplating any dialogue 
			with people they knew harboured enough resources to augment the 
			aridity of the region it took off from. As Elizabeth Isichei argues,
			<em>the die was cast, and one thing had to give</em>. It was either 
			the peoples of the Benue Basin or present day Middle Belt accepted 
			the authority of Sokoto or they be crushed by the famed advancing 
			military machine of the Sokoto empire. <br>
			<br>
			As these raised storms; as thick dusts of previous wars were still 
			hanging in the air; the north-to-south western version of the Sokoto 
			annexation programme had been underway and the Yoruba could not help 
			but contend with a <em>mugbamugba </em>war, at which the splintering 
			native generals reversed themselves and ironically confirmed the 
			strength and suzerainty of Emir Abdulsalami in Ilorin, an appointed 
			princely envoy and outpost king in service of the powerful Sokoto 
			regime.<br>
			<br>
			We remember very well that prior to these explosions, empires rose 
			and fell in the Yoruba world. At a time, it was the turn of the 
			massive Oyo whose imperial might had had to battle the spiritual 
			clout of Ife, even as its might was strongly questioned and 
			virtually overturned by the famed Benin Empire. Indeed, while we 
			leave core historians, as the students of our Festus Ade Ajayi, 
			here; to settle which of these two powers was supreme at some time, 
			the impact of Benin came so strongly in European expeditionary 
			documents that it was not known whether it was a case of an Empire 
			over an Empire or one among other empires in one huge, striding, 
			polyglot territories. That is, wherein our latter-day Lagos , 
			although identified as Eko in Benin Empire, in various European 
			explorers� epistles, appeared to sit on the soils of Yoruba land, 
			erstwhile territorial claims, of Oyo Empire. <br>
			<br>
			One conclusion we can reach today is that perhaps, the deciding 
			point that stood stronger and reigned over the others, would not 
			have taken long in coming, if not the interruption of the European 
			conquerors of the <em>age of Salisbury</em>, who arrived, albeit 
			victoriously, on a different military clout and clime. <br>
			<br>
			But even as contentious as the claims, in that region is, the 
			peculiarity of the pattern of incursion into the eastern axis of 
			Benin, towards the occidental banks of the Niger, was such that it 
			was not certain whether this had been by emissarial liaisons or 
			military conquests. But what rules out military conquest was that 
			whereas the clusters of settlement between the Empire and the 
			immediate western bank of the Niger exhibited some elements of Benin 
			political practices, they remained segmented village settings with 
			unmistakable Igbo traditions. Neither strictly annexed to nor 
			accordingly acceding to a centralized, large suzerainty. Rather, 
			they remained patches of minor kingdoms, contending with the 
			republican equivalences of the moderated Igbo consensus settings, 
			east of the Niger . <br>
			<br>
			Of course, in reviewing the poise of the Sokoto military machine, 
			set in the yet undecided battles raging in the Middle Belt region, 
			no clear hint of the Jihadist sweep would have been expected in 
			taking long, in coming, through the thick vegetation of Igbo land, 
			among the other rain forest and mangrove regions of present day 
			South East and Niger Delta. <br>
			<br>
			Nevertheless, it had its own kind of marauding suzerainty headed for 
			eclipsing the entire territories in the early 19th century.<br>
			<br>
			Rising from its nucleus in Aro Chukwu, the<em> Ibinu Ukpabi </em>
			Deity had armed the Aros with some awesome oracular might, such that 
			nearly, every part of Igbo land was being forced to accept this 
			suzerainty or face extinction � usually by a trip to Igwenga - the 
			city of disastrous memory, known then as<em> point of no return,</em> 
			for the beleaguered peoples of that region. Thus, the battle had 
			been set and the peoples torn among themselves in the summons and 
			menacing beckoning of one of <em>Igwekala </em>of Umunnoha, <em>
			Agballa </em>of Awka and Nkwe or <em>Owhe</em> of Isuama, among 
			other emerging deities, which had been devised to contend with the 
			unrelenting menace of the Aro and his <em>Ibinu Ukpabi. </em><br>
			<br>
			Largely, as Nigerians, we easily identify these major pre-colonial 
			theatres of military, cultural and political actions and contests, 
			as our basic entities, nay regions. We also, usually, argue our 
			cases of distinctiveness on the grounds of such tumultuous eras, if 
			only to amplify our desires for centripetal or diffuse values in the 
			administration of our emerging nation state. <br>
			<br>
			Of course, we have ready justifications in the regionalization 
			exercises of the then amalgamated Nigeria , in the births of 
			Northern, Western, Eastern and later Mid-Western regions.<br>
			<br>
			In other words, at once, we had been children of our history as we 
			had been undecided members of newer settings whose eventual 
			structure and configurations we still argue had yet to be decided on 
			our affirmative actions. <br>
			<br>
			And each time we reach for the nostalgia of the old kingdoms and 
			empires, we refuse to acknowledge the reality of those historical 
			junctures when on cession and final annexation in 1859, 1860 and 
			1861, Lagos colony and the adjoining Yoruba countries, came under 
			the forcible suzerainty of the British. It took just another 14 
			years, as pronounced in the Colonial London Gazette of June 5, 1885, 
			for the declaration of the <em>Niger Districts</em>, 
			unapologetically � that is whether you like it or not � as having 
			come under the <em>gracious protection of Her Britannic Majesty. <br>
			</em><br>
			The setting of the series of annexation, pacification, conquest and 
			intimidation of the other territories came in no less violent but 
			firm resolve of the British authorities to insist that its arriving 
			political and military order, would neither tolerate nor invite the 
			opinion of the local people, as typified by the admonition of 
			gladiators like Sir Ralph Moor, who never minced words about the 
			might of the imperial order in his threat never to brook any 
			opinion. By way of sounding out his uncompromising posture, he had 
			roared, November 14, 1901, that <em>the natives must be made to 
			understand that the government is their master and is determined to 
			establish in and control their country. </em><br>
			<br>
			Of course, expectedly, this kind of challenge posed by a supposed 
			visitor who saw no gains in inviting the opinions of bickering 
			natives tended to undermine the initial impression of selves as held 
			by the indigenous peoples and naturally, tests of might had to be 
			conducted. <br>
			<br>
			Now, you can understand the mindsets of those who resisted the Sir 
			Moors of this world. Control our land? Standing tall, huge and 
			sufficiently imposing in physique, the Ezza man in present Ebonyi 
			State , yelled, in 1909.<em> O bu elu, o bu ala,</em> (military 
			supremacy comes only in the order of the sky above and the earth 
			beneath � which are undefeatable) followed by <em>we, the Ezzas</em>, 
			in the order of might in battles. So, <em>we shall not bow to your 
			authority.</em> Of course, they were ruthlessly conquered and many 
			of their able bodied men carted off to the tin mining pits in Jos to 
			permanently replace the natives who had, in their turn, been carried 
			off to serve in various far away sectors of the raging First World 
			War. <br>
			<br>
			In the far North, the kicking, yelling and repeated refrain of <em>
			kasarmu ce</em> � this land is ours - was not enough to dissuade the 
			likes of Moor. <br>
			<br>
			And, if not just amused, having been confident of the toughness of 
			his weapons of conquest, he was neither perturbed nor impressed by 
			such sneers and cries as <em>iro, ili mi ni, </em>no, in my own 
			land; for the individuals in Abeokuta or <em>Eewo, ile wa ni yi!,</em> 
			no, this is our land. His conquering forces took territory after 
			another in the old Yoruba world, and the rest, as they say, is 
			history. <br>
			<br>
			Somehow, if this rugged usurpation, manifested in the arrogant 
			disposition and proclamation of the likes of Moor, were taken into 
			account in our often-recited histories, it then becomes a wonder why 
			the question of attaining a credible pacification and political 
			homogeneity is argued to have failed or been unfinished. Even in 
			application of international law of conquest and cession, the 
			success in forcibly knitting of these scattered territories into one 
			administrative setting, sustained in exercises of integrative 
			regimes, can be enough claims in having fully annexed, possessed and 
			knitted the areas in question. <br>
			<br>
			But in repeated urges for return to the past, albeit in their 
			splintered, undecided boundaries, we, somehow, reduce it all to the 
			national foolery, which Count Haeder Jodl had strongly contemplated. 
			According the famed scholar cosmopolitan cultures, <em>if a people 
			should ignore the reality of their history, hitching for the 
			pretension of a would-have-been compact state, which has yet to shed 
			its pristine bickering and divisiveness, such people would have 
			displayed an unpardonable political laziness of which the new 
			foundation for the evolving state should pass them by.</em><br>
			<br>
			Of course, as Jodl holds this view, he accepted that whereas most of 
			native African and Asiatic settings had effectively established 
			nationhood, with ever expanding, if not perpetually contentious 
			frontiers, the idea of effective states were more than mirages 
			before the brand introduced by colonialism. And in the attempt to 
			flee from euro-centricism of which western scholars had been 
			endlessly accused, he accepted that<em> �in Africa�in particular, 
			the relationship between nation and state, where the later existed; 
			between government and society, and between culture and politics, 
			were entirely different from what they had been in England, France, 
			Germany, etc.</em> He has, therefore, the concluded that whereas the 
			first generation of colonial administrators missed the deeper 
			elements in building unified states, with multiple nations, therein; 
			they had played for the safety of dividing the people to secure safe 
			harbors, where their interests would be least threatened. <br>
			<br>
			Indeed, what Jodl�s analysis realizes is like the setting running on 
			the conclusion of William Crocker, the British anthropologist, who 
			saw no hope of homogeneity for the emerging Nigeria nation, which 
			had been declared by his predecessors who conducted the conquests, 
			and pacification of the decade before he arrived. He said in 1929,
			<em>it would be a long time before there can be any hope of 
			effective nationalism in Africa crown colonies because there is 
			little to build any homogeneity of feeling�upon what Europe or the 
			great Asiatic groups have had, experiences such as the influence 
			extending over centuries of common corpus of beliefs and loyalties.
			</em><br>
			<br>
			To bring his worries to a head, Crocker lamented that<em> if you 
			walk along a straight line merely a hundred miles or so in the then 
			emerging colonies �you traverse peoples and cultures which for all 
			their similarities, scarcely touch on a single point down at bottom.</em> 
			This had obviously run against his experience of Europe where, 
			according to him, <em>you�find, amidst all the diversities, the 
			common stamp of Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity. </em><br>
			<br>
			Elsewhere, when I had to take up some of these issues of national 
			cohesion and simple direction, I contended that Crocker and the 
			pessimistic others, including our national and regional pundits, had 
			missed the hint that while Bornu was yet to settle with Sokoto; 
			peoples of the Middle Belt set in heady battles to stave off the 
			Sultan�s army; Abdulsalami of Ilorin was also still contending with 
			Onikoyi. <br>
			<br>
			About at the same time, the entire Kings and generals in Yoruba land 
			were reaching for the jugular of one another, betraying and 
			subverting one another; just as the <em>Ibinu Ukpabi, Igwekala, 
			Agballa</em> and the other deities, in the South East and Niger 
			Delta, could not settle the supremacy question. Again, it was the 
			same time the Princes in Benin Court contented themselves with 
			celebrated liaisons with the damsels of the Igala Kingdom and West 
			Niger Igbo, some resulting in intense military conflict. <br>
			<br>
			Against this background, I dare ask, are we not indebted to our 
			analytical mind to the effect of realising that there was a massive 
			gap of a <em>Julius, Augustus</em> and<em> Justin, Ceaser;</em> a
			<em>Peter the Great</em>, a <em>Napoleon,</em> a <em>William the 
			Conqueror</em>, etc; before the Europeans came, and so could not 
			have had any such <em>great Asiatic civilization or common stamp of 
			Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity. </em><br>
			<br>
			Quite all right, we should accept that preceding questions of 
			pre-colonial territories and peoples were raised, hotly contested; 
			battles peaked in their ferocity, but were yet not decided as 
			European conquerors swept through.<br>
			<br>
			We must also take into account the fact that as we missed out in the
			<em>romanisation</em> of that era, we did not have the chances of 
			any <em>russification</em>. This, we all know, manifested in the 
			sweeping of Eastern Europe into the Communist regime and values of 
			the recent past. In this, the forebears of the<em> 
			milito-westernising </em>influences of the North Atlantic Treaty 
			Organisation (NATO) and the counterpoise of the eastern bloc in the 
			Warsaw Treaty Organisation (WTO), created their own brands of 
			continental and quasi-global consciousness, values, state networks, 
			a sort of homogeneity, that prevails till date.<br>
			<br>
			Elsewhere again, I did state that indeed, much as it would appear 
			attractive to claim that the absence of these icons or impelling 
			forces in Africa, nay Nigeria, was the tragedy, which brought about 
			the current flight of a feeling of oneness among us, the eventual 
			conquest of the vast territories, running in one British Colonial 
			administration, for decades now, had erected sufficient anchors for 
			the ship of nation state to berth. <br>
			<br>
			Granting that the results still appear debatable, we know that there 
			have been very strong attempts to erect a common feeling, 
			particularly in the areas of Christianity and Islam. Yes, we readily 
			argue that these had failed woefully because of their faulty 
			execution. We readily state that the chances of these religious 
			tendencies got bogged down in ethnic group identifications as each 
			assumed that religions or denominations introduced in their areas 
			had peculiar relevance and appeal to its distinct people and 
			culture. Against that background, the peoples saw the other 
			religions or denominations, in some cases, as incompatible with 
			their values. That is not minding the fact that these religions were 
			all completely alien but had adequate urge to be imbibed as 
			representing the ascribed aspirations of the peoples. <br>
			<br>
			As it was with early Christian evangelisation, in advent of 
			colonialism, Islam, which ought to have taken deep roots in the 
			entirety of the current North West - that is the old Sokoto Empire � 
			as well as North East �the old Kanem- Bornu Empire � arrived no 
			uniformity. The Kanuri, who believed that they were intensely pious 
			in application of Islamic values, could not readily succumb to the 
			claims of greater piety or purifying intentions of the Sokoto 
			Hausa/Fulani, who advanced on a military might fanned by the embers 
			a Jihad.<br>
			<br>
			Even in the Middle Belt, embracing Christianity, which appeared as 
			the refuge of the heavily harassed peoples, was fitful as it took 
			roots alongside colonialism. It could not attain any form of 
			universalism for the region, as it was itself mired in skirmishes of 
			various denominations. The Catholics could not see any oneness with 
			the Anglican, just as the Methodists viewed other denominations with 
			disdain, although they all profess Christianity. But haven�t we now 
			confirmed that in most cases, these denominational battles 
			represented the tussles for supremacy among the European powers � 
			France , Germany , Canada , Italy , etc, with the Catholic version; 
			England with the Anglican version; America with many other splinter 
			interpretations. <br>
			<br>
			Thus, religion, which elsewhere was a cultural binding force - what 
			with the accompanying factors of <em>commerce</em>, claimed 
			civilization and <em>education</em> � with its integrating values, 
			actually fell short of what was required to give the internalisation 
			of national consciousness and dominant ethos. Of course, this is 
			sufficient reason to contend that an unconsciously designed social 
			regime shot down an exercise that would have resulted in national 
			integration, such that would challenge our repeated return to 
			interests in far gone kingdoms and empires.<br>
			<br>
			I take it for granted that my views on harnessing ethnic values are 
			well known, having been previously well stated. I take it for 
			granted too that it is appreciated that I belong to the school of 
			thought which accepts that much as so many mistakes had been made in 
			attempts at erecting a nation state, it is more appropriate to 
			consider that we may have passed the stage of <em>coming from the 
			inside to the outside �</em> unbridled divergence, against the other 
			view, <em>coming from the outside to build the inside</em> � 
			conscious convergence. <br>
			<br>
			In holding this view, I am not unaware that some scholars and 
			politicians firmly hold that this may amount to putting the cart 
			before the horse. But, then, mine rides on factors deriving from the 
			foregoing historical analysis. <br>
			<br>
			Perhaps, in the course of this discourse, I would make myself 
			clearer. It is at this point that I will consider the term 
			regionalism in the terms of word-meaning and political application.
			<br>
			<br>
			According to the <strong>New Webster�s Dictionary of English 
			Language, </strong>a region is<em>�a large part of space, land, sea 
			or air which has certain distinctive characteristics, e.g. boundary, 
			temperature�space surrounding a specified area (�surrounding an 
			organ of the body)</em>. In its political application, we can 
			strongly argue that if we rely on the colonial creations, such areas 
			carved into <em>definitive administration areas,</em> and which 
			possess a history of wholesome inclusion since modern 
			administration, can lay claim to the status of a region.<br>
			<br>
			We can as well push so close to it the argument that our native 
			regions transcended these modern regions as what we have today 
			amounted to balkanizations of erstwhile indigenous regions in favour 
			of modern colonial types. But such position must wait for us to 
			settle the unresolved conflicts predating our own colonialism. Take 
			for instance the unsettled theatres in Ibadan and Oyo; the Benue 
			Basin challenge; contending oracular influences in Igbo land; among 
			others. The Ibadan , Oyo, Eko (Yoruba) theatres ate so much of Benin 
			as the Ilorin front was being lost completely to Sokoto�s outpost 
			King, Abdulsalami. The Deities and the other forces gained so much 
			in the deep forest zones, while they lost massively, first, to the 
			Oyo/Ibadan axis, and later, to Benin . <br>
			<br>
			Further North, it is not certain whether it was Sokoto or Bornu , 
			which lost out, or gained much, in the erection of the vast Northern 
			region of Nigeria . What was clear was that the grandstanding of the 
			peoples in today�s Middle Belt had to be swept into the waiting 
			embrace of Sokoto, as the large modern region was created without 
			their opinion heard out on the matter. <br>
			<br>
			In sustaining the eventual pacifications which mounted the glue for 
			soldering the subsequent colonial creations, Nigeria �s political 
			development has yet to depart so much from the principles arising 
			from earlier exercises, and as such more factors underlining 
			federalism naturally had to follow, to assuage such areas of Nigeria 
			claiming emasculation. <br>
			<br>
			But even as this has been the case, what we initially thought 
			represented erstwhile regional distinctiveness has been assailed by 
			further authentication of claims that these formations neglected 
			erstwhile native settings. Minorities arose from within these 
			regions, leading to the birth of states and clans, and sub-clans 
			have further agitated for distinctive identities, if only to impress 
			pre-colonial dissimilarities with neighbours or sister groupings.
			<br>
			<br>
			There are these groups of cases for our illustration: The Eastern 
			region, which was carved in provinces, ran an expanse of territories 
			from the coast to Igbo heartland in the East and North. There was, 
			at Nigeria inception, a Central province which rode from the 
			Northern and Western-most tips of the Niger Delta areas to as far as 
			such Igbo heartland areas as Udi, Awka and Nsukka. <br>
			<br>
			By the then colonial arrangements, these were initially carved into 
			districts before they became divisions within the provinces. The 
			incorporation of Onitsha and Asaba divisions into the Benin 
			Province, for some scholars, looked like some deliberate attempt at 
			ensuring that in the then emerging Niger Protectorate, the Igbo 
			areas merely constituted peripheral sections (divisions and 
			districts) serving the long standing traditional Benin 
			aristocracies, as well as the emerging cosmopolitan tendencies, of 
			the era. <br>
			<br>
			That way, people from the then Nsukka and Udi divisions, (that is 
			the whole of the present day Enugu State ); Aboh (one third of the 
			present Delta State ); and Awka (over one half of the present 
			Anambra State ), had to appeal to a Warri - based administrative 
			suzerainty. <br>
			<br>
			In the southern Igbo areas, it was argued that colonial chicanery 
			caused Owerri division, (the whole of present Imo State); Umuahia 
			and Aba (the whole of the present Abia State; Abakaliki (the whole 
			of the present Ebonyi) and Diobu (present Rivers State), to be glued 
			to traditional and modern values dictated from Calabar. <br>
			<br>
			It was equally argued that these only went to prove that the people 
			were consciously designed to banish their heritages, even as the 
			colonial masters pretended to apply local institutions in 
			governance. But these areas were reported not alone in their claims 
			of travestied national and regional structuring, of which the 
			emerging Nigeria State could not have heeded, but raised in the 
			consciously to seek autonomy, if not view the entire exercises as 
			suffocating contraption. <br>
			<br>
			In the North, the struggles of the United Middle Belt Congress, UMC, 
			were driven by the perception that this region, which effectively 
			kept the invading Fulani Jihadists at bay, had now been forcibly 
			included in an arrangement where the peoples claimed they were the 
			clear minority and inferior participant.<br>
			<br>
			Even in the West, the political actions of the Osadebey political 
			clan were clearly to effect changes reflecting the West Niger Igbo 
			people�s reunification with their kit across the eastern banks.<br>
			<br>
			But in reality, if the opinion of the old sections were not invited 
			in the creation of colonial regions, the staying skirmishes induced 
			by sub-regions, quasi-ethnic groups and clans/sub-clans state, have 
			so far forced exercises in repeated reordering, thus, becoming 
			impossible to argue for a return to old configurations. <br>
			<br>
			This was eventually to reveal, as we shall see shortly, that such 
			strong factors of <em>occupation, interactions, influences, learning 
			and eventual adaptation, truly produced a classical case of cultural 
			grafting, political knitting and leadership hybridism</em> which, if 
			gainfully explored, assures steady rise in national cohesion; but 
			viewed from the reverse point, appears almost distinctive, short on 
			originality, quasi-cosmopolitan in use and basically clarion-like in 
			the hands of ethnic/regional swift dealers. Surprising as this is 
			treated with levity, it has become our nemesis in reaching cohesive 
			national integrative process, and tended, more to, refreshing 
			pristine political genres in compelling latter-day political 
			compromises, concessions, exchanges and interchanges, other 
			dealings.<br>
			<br>
			However, in holding both positions, we are, indeed, affirming the 
			reality of Nigerian history, replete with efforts at enthroning some 
			sense of national feeling or consummation of effective pacification 
			and unification. What appears an issue is which comes first. <br>
			<br>
			At least, the political experience, though harrowing, of Nnamdi 
			Azikiwe, in his bid to institute a national political struggle under 
			the aegis of the National Council of Nigeria (and Cameroon) 
			Citizens, NCNC, which sought to take control of Western Regional 
			government business; which, tried to erect an egalitarian political 
			following, against well tested aristocratic oligarchy, in the North; 
			and which suffered such fatal blows of divisive colonial 
			confrontation; but good progresses, even though it had to, 
			eventually, be soaked in well-crafted <em>ethnocentric</em> 
			responses, a well-tested style that was the ready tool of the then 
			threatened British colonialists. <br>
			<br>
			Indeed, the erstwhile attempt by Nnamdi Azikiwe, which never 
			operated those ethno-powered obnoxious principles, had yielded an 
			extension of national patriotic instinct on whose platform an Umoru 
			Altine, from deep North Sokoto , was elected the first Mayor of 
			Enugu and a Dr. Balogun as the Mayor of Port Harcourt � two Igbo 
			dominated modern metropolis. <br>
			<br>
			In the same vein, we must admit that such nationalistic flame was 
			not only spotted in Sa�ad Zungur, Abdul Razaq, Adeniran Ogunsanya, 
			Aminu Kano, Solomon Lar, McEwen and many others, but also fully 
			exploited in a latter-day development where the patriotic zeal of 
			Ogunsanya had to come into decisive play in the effort at 
			reintegration of Ndigbo in the immediate post- Nigeria-Biafra war 
			Lagos. <br>
			<br>
			But the success-result in tragically undermining the birth of a 
			truly national political contiguity, as the colonialists did, was 
			only a chance lost which, as we know, brought the good in Nigerians 
			in bringing about and achieving the competitive regional governments 
			that we had just before the disintegration of our entire national 
			system, between 1964 -1966. In fact, riding the crest of distinctive 
			inclusion, in an emerging national order, the regions embarked on 
			programmes, which easily propelled Nigeria into the fast developing 
			club. <br>
			<br>
			As reported, the cocoa plantations of the West, the groundnut 
			pyramids of the North, the palm oil and kernel in the East, emerged 
			as stimulus, for erstwhile docile economies and the stage which was 
			set had promised good results in bountiful political harvests, if 
			only the emerging post-colonial elites had the right idea of how a 
			competitive federal state should run. It was of course the failure 
			to fully build on the competitive gains of this kind of regional 
			structure that deliberate actions in negation emerged on the hints 
			of earlier values of divisive ethnicism. <br>
			<br>
			Remember, as I said earlier, this was consciously induced by the 
			threatened colonial order, just the same way it caused a split among 
			old Indians into India and Pakistan, and later, India, Pakistan and 
			Bangladesh. What were at issue then were not the integrative 
			possibilities of Nigeria but matters and actions steamed by 
			frightened colonial agents, who successfully, though unfortunately, 
			hinged their planned transition on games and tantrums of individual, 
			which, in turn, got celebrated by the elite as regional or ethnic 
			differences. <br>
			<br>
			But if the practices of colonial administrators did so much 
			disservice as this to colonial of their Queen the Majesty, the 
			chicanery of postcolonial expatriate employees was worse. Right 
			before the unsuspecting eyes of our pioneer indigenous leadership, 
			elements in competitive regional development were to be exploited by 
			these desperate expatriates who sought jobs in the various regions.
			<br>
			<br>
			If you remember, the regions ran separate services, as the states of 
			these days, but in the cases of the departing days of colonialism, 
			exercises in Nigerianisation were confronted by the reality of 
			retaining Europeans and Asians in posts that could not be 
			immediately filled by local hands. There was this practice in which 
			regions maintained recruitment outposts in London and these, 
			unfortunately, offered the Europeans the field to fully manipulate 
			Nigerians. A European seeking employment in the Northern Regional 
			service, but got repudiated could get the same employment offered to 
			him in the Western Regional London Recruitment office. On arrival in 
			Nigeria , this European had his mind made up against the North. It 
			could be in a case with the East, or West, or even against the 
			Federal Central Service. So, there was a beehive of European 
			manipulative activities, such that were also manipulative of the era 
			of first military government, and added to the precipitation of the 
			civil war.<br>
			<br>
			Of course, as it were, these foreigners were not competing on 
			matters that could be of benefit to the various areas of Nigeria but 
			merely to <em>pay back</em> to some regions or play to their 
			individual fancies, to suit the personal interests of the white 
			staff. <br>
			<br>
			Ordinarily, the emerging indigenous elite should have filled these 
			gaps posed by this missing link, but as shockingly revealed in our 
			history, the hypocrisy and opportunism, I dare say, exhibited by the 
			elite of that era, simply firmed up the birth and foundation of the 
			obnoxious perception which set to torpedo the gains of competitive 
			regionalism.<br>
			<br>
			The challenge, afterwards, then had to be, the revival, or in the 
			absence of one, the enthronement, of national ethos, on which an 
			integrative foundation would stand for a nation state in the making. 
			This, you may not believe, proved recoverable and affirmable in the 
			various adventures of the military in our national body politic. 
			That is, strictly speaking, in terms of building the sticking glues 
			for a modern nation state, from little, if not from nothing.<br>
			<br>
			I am certain that many of us here would wonder what I thought could 
			be appreciable in dictatorial military regimes, regimes that were 
			clearly violent and uncompromising, in styles. One first hint, with 
			the benefit of hindsight, was that, whereas the opportunity of 
			sowing the seeds of conscionable national feeling was aborted in the 
			artificially created political condition of ruthless ethnic 
			competition, some institutions, whose composition was structured as 
			non-negotiable, happened to be in place to manage, even if 
			not-so-impressively, the craved, though repeatedly aborted, national 
			consciousness.<br>
			<br>
			Of course, we cannot ignore the fact that the higher level of 
			indoctrination, especially in getting Nigerians to turn against 
			selves, was more among the political class. We are aware that the 
			feeling of ethnic pre-eminence, or ethnocentrism, became far more 
			diffused among the civil society, such that the emerging elite � 
			steering media leverages - saw no more than ethnic interpretation in 
			matters, which should have been resolved on objective conditions.
			<br>
			<br>
			It was not, therefore, surprising that whereas the highly 
			sophisticated civil society demanded what were considered elements 
			in equity, they unfortunately wore the garb of ethnic persuasion. 
			Where the elite identified such points that were strong enough to 
			wrest concession from the various federal administrations, 
			especially under the military, what appeared on the horizon was 
			unbridled ethnicism, especially such portrayed in languages 
			typecasting regimes and individuals as representing individual 
			sections of the country. <br>
			<br>
			It is, of course, the response to these that is of much interest to 
			us here. Predictably, the military had dug in on the mantra of 
			federalism, which then had to become the refrain of those who should 
			not be seen to be opposed to the birth of a glued, integrative, 
			Nigeria . <br>
			<br>
			Remember that we come from a background of unsettled national 
			questions before the arrival of colonialism. Remember also that as 
			the colonial order set in motion its perceived regional 
			delineations, it, at the same time, appeared to have injured some 
			sections of the country. And as we set to correct the anomalies 
			perceived in British colonial creations, we are faced by further 
			shouts of <em>blue murder </em>from the sidelines � the 
			ever-emerging clans of minorities. As one of my staff who has this 
			diction of the typical expressive Lagosian saw it,<em> go, no go; 
			tanda, whoside?</em><br>
			<br>
			The question I shall pose in response to this is, should the nation 
			wait, or bicker, or implode? Your answer, <em>onward march</em>, is 
			the same with mine. And this appeared to be what the military 
			pursued in earnest. <br>
			<br>
			We are aware that the much realized, in the Greco-Roman 
			civilization, which appealed so much to Crocker, et al, and the very 
			gains of <em>Russification, NATOnisation, WTOnisation </em>and even 
			the exploits of currently ranging multi-national corporations, which 
			are building nations without frontiers - are hardly based on well 
			rehearsed and fine-tuned agreements in the whole universe.<br>
			<br>
			Certainly, it was on account of these that the military, which 
			assumed uncompromising stance, though done with much of human 
			frailties, easily signposted the icon of<em> federalism</em> as the 
			result of a well integrated polity. <em>Federalism </em>is defined 
			as the <em>principles�of foundation supporting the characteristics 
			of the agreement between states, to unite, foregoing some 
			sovereignty but remaining independent in internal affairs.</em><br>
			<br>
			No doubt, it is easy for us to latch on to the supportive phrases of
			<em>�principles�of agreement and independent�internal affairs</em>. 
			Personally, I have no quarrels with these, either way. Indeed, I 
			stand by the provision that such <em>principles of agreement and 
			independent�internal affairs</em> help in bringing about the 
			knowledge of gainful variety in our polity. More so, I have remained 
			a steadfast fan of Petrarch who sounds it loud and clear that <em>
			sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.</em><br>
			<br>
			But in fully examining the values of Nigerian federalism, especially 
			rising from the experiences in harnessing the values of <em>
			independent�internal affairs,</em> I personally get confused with 
			the possessive and particularistic pattern that the national (or is 
			it regional) elite had considered to be the evolution of the system 
			they operated. As I said, earlier, I have no quarrels with holding 
			strong regional or ethnic views. It is understandable that such 
			protests, which attended the unification constitution (Arthur 
			Richard�s) in 1943, were like responded to in the Oliver Littleton 
			Regionalisation Constitution of 1953. <br>
			<br>
			I have no quarrels, either, with pursuing well-studied regional 
			programmes, especially such that would arm the individual within the 
			group to be better equipped to compete in the global Nigerian arena. 
			Such firmed the foundation on which the healthy competition of the 
			regions in the 1950s and 60s were enacted. <br>
			<br>
			I do not even hold a view against such positions, which insist that 
			if Nigeria had to commence on proper political development, it must 
			begin by acceding to programmes, so far not exclusive interests, of 
			the region. That is good. But that has to sail on the wings of a 
			cultivated federally powered national attitude of which the first 
			strong appeal would be the reposing of confidence in an individual 
			or group in places outside the ethnic origin. <br>
			<br>
			This was where Azikiwe stood as a celebrated pioneer. Ahmadu Bello, 
			Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kanu and others also made their initial 
			forays, with individual successes for their different regions. But 
			this is where the person and stature of a national personage, Chief 
			Olusegun Obasanjo, first as a military ruler and later as a 
			committed democrat, stand in this analysis. <br>
			<br>
			Initially coming on the scene as a well-instructed divisional 
			commander under some superior officers, he emerged on the broader 
			national scene on an image that was not initially appealing to 
			people of his own region of origin. That image, which in a narrower 
			ethnic setting, appeared to have held him constrained for the 
			assignments he set to tackle, were easily swallowed by a national 
			stature which needed no further definition than in the widespread 
			national confidence reposed and sustained in him. <br>
			<br>
			As a military head of state, his programmes in the expansion of the 
			Nigerian airport system, the universities, the highways (express 
			roads), the polytechnics, the petrochemical industries, the 
			iron/steel industries, the sense of equity, equality and fairness 
			and the perpetual strive to be seen to be working for the advantage 
			of the length and breadth of Nigeria all put together, gave birth to 
			a leadership figure capable of inspiring the right kind, as well as 
			level of hope, for the emergence of a federal nation state. <br>
			<br>
			More importantly, these were done in the same decade he played the 
			pivotal role in ending the Nigeria-Biafra war, earning the 
			opprobrium or envy of erstwhile colleagues, who nearly succeeded in 
			causing a perception of his person as a hater of one regional group, 
			especially the leading ethnic group that stood on the other side in 
			the unfortunate war. <br>
			<br>
			In the second coming, Obasanjo has, as usual, exhibited the same 
			high sense of general well being to the entire Federal Nigeria, 
			leaving no one in doubt that the idea of a nation state was not far 
			fetched but would indeed be hinged on having led Nigerians, 
			exhibiting, in the main, an adequate behaviour of trust and interest 
			in equal treatment of the peoples. <br>
			<br>
			Once again, the institutions of higher learning are beginning to 
			wake from slumber of indirection and neglect of decades; just as the 
			airports, which had been previously blacklisted across the world, 
			had resumed their steady handling of major air traffic. Again, the 
			roads he built, which had to wait for 20 years, 1979 � 1999, for his 
			return, to get repaired, are receiving a facelift. Same is the case 
			with other institutions such as the military, police, prisons and 
			even such erstwhile contentious practices as revenue sharing. <br>
			<br>
			Of course, while not contesting that such attributes which propelled 
			an Obasanjo as our beacon for erecting Nigeria as a federally fitted 
			nation state, were borne of his familial pedigree, but what is clear 
			is that his personal development as a professional soldier, grilled 
			to act decisively, trained to keep a straight face and equipped to 
			rein in on others to achieve cohesion and following, must have 
			formed the major foundation for erecting a leadership quality suited 
			for the Nigeria of the on-going era. <br>
			<br>
			This is not saying, by any means, that Nigerian federalism was 
			brought about by the military; and not, of course, by Chief Obasanjo 
			alone. But, here, I stand to be counted as one supporting a position 
			that even as the institution could not master the nuances of 
			managing varieties of moods, especially with the presence of vocal 
			elites, it was traditionally fashioned out to rein in on the system, 
			with the hope of inducing such following on which national cohesion, 
			as in the<em> stamp of common corpus</em>�or national ethos, would 
			stand.<br>
			<br>
			In holding this view, I understand that I strongly risk an 
			interpretation of my position as standing democratic logic on its 
			head. I want to quickly say that I am not. Rather, I hold the view 
			that indeed, for the Nigerian federalism to achieve the results 
			expected of it, the efforts at the centre will have to stand far 
			superior to those at the regions since we know that the regions in 
			themselves are equally conglomerates where distinctive, of course, 
			narrower interests, equally compete. Just as it obtains elsewhere, 
			federalism reigns and reins in on the rest which may be regions or 
			states where minorities, where cultures and where quasi-cultures and 
			clans/sub-clans will continue to rise, especially on the feelings of 
			overtaken, though rigorous and outspoken, elites. <br>
			<br>
			Remember, when we started this discourse, I did state that there are 
			great values in the argument of proceeding from exclusive regional 
			attitude to an all-inclusive federally integrating polity. Such 
			plank is one on which foundation, the conceptual philosophy of <em>
			The Westerner</em> Newspaper, is built. I did accept that such 
			principles on which the agreement for inclusion in the federal 
			polity were strictly stated, that is in the event of seeking the 
			best from each region, for the benefit of the broad national polity, 
			appeals to me. <br>
			<br>
			Yet, I have every reason to contend that the evolution of national 
			political culture, the possibilities of an integrative society 
			capable of holding out for all, providing effective institutions for 
			protection for all, and in growth and development beyond local 
			nuances, as well as in ensuring equity, fair play and balancing of 
			ensuing competing interests, cannot be realized where there is no 
			force of intervention and reining in on possible predatory 
			tendencies of some sections. <br>
			<br>
			Having been in government these seven- years- and- so months, I have 
			come to appreciate the gains of variety induced even in states where 
			supportive programmes of the Federal Government, though not in any 
			way superior in conception and execution than such developed in the 
			state, conferred on the environment the pleasure of seeking 
			alternatives as may be induced by simple perceptions. Take for 
			instance the subtle competition between Federal and State 
			universities in any particular State. Whereas it may be easy for 
			State governments to alter the running of programmes of the State 
			university, the presence of a seeming more independent university of 
			the posture of the Federal university may force better attentions, 
			as such would result in faculties, independent of that State 
			government, embarking on actions that compel conformity with the 
			�standards�.<br>
			<br>
			Consider also the result of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) 
			Scheme, in which regional/State governments now live the pleasant 
			experience of hosting young graduates from states/regions other than 
			theirs. These have brought about such integrative cultural behaviour 
			as inter-ethnic/state/regional marriages, contacts and networks, 
			which, in turn have furthered national evolution. <br>
			<br>
			Sometimes, these may be quite difficult to appreciate or accept, 
			especially coming from our insistent position that we had yet to 
			contribute to the fine points of agreement in our nation making. For 
			me, there is no going back on the position that the pattern of 
			commencement of this nation was well executed. I also argue, for 
			reasons already articulated, that everybody needed not to be there 
			when the agreement was drawn. And that is, while I insist that there 
			are yet rooms for improvement, only dependent on the will of the 
			individual or group, to support a forward thrust, anchored on 
			inclusive principles as against exclusive regional or sectional 
			interests. <br>
			<br>
			Indeed, if you would pardon me, I wish to use this opportunity to 
			sympathise with the individual who is still exclusive in the wake of 
			globalization, which rides on the clear principles of <em>
			stakeholder driven democracy, free enterprise and information 
			technology</em>. My sympathy is that, whereas such individual may 
			waste precious time in digging in for exclusive attention, the fangs 
			of international competition will disenfranchise him/her, if not 
			fully prepared and attuned to a more fluidly competitive globe on 
			rampage.<br>
			<br>
			Initially, and as I stated elsewhere, scholars on the trail of the<em> 
			invisible billionaire � Daniel Ludwig and pal, the unassailable oil 
			king � John D. Rockefeller</em>, had wrongly assumed that these were 
			the kingpins of modern day economic imperialism surging into the 
			world from the United States of America. They had anchored their 
			conclusion on the entry and seizure of the Latin American businesses 
			by these powerful magnates, who neither brooked any form of 
			resistance nor tolerated debates. <br>
			<br>
			The world had then envisaged that as in the futile dream of 
			Alexander the Great who reached the riverbank and was disappointed 
			that there were no more territories to conquer ahead of the 
			Mediterranean; and as the derided Napoleon pleaded to be shown more 
			territories to subdue, these pioneers of big business-across-borders 
			would fail in due course. In that regard, they had seen no 
			possibility in the Wendell Willkie prognosis of <em>one world</em>, 
			which Jacques G. Maisonrouge declared, <em>we are inexorably pushed 
			to.</em><br>
			<br>
			Well, in the last two decades, it has been confirmed that where 
			Napoleon failed to create a world originating from France; where the 
			Czarists failed to build the perpetual eastern empire, and the 
			British rule over the wave crumbled as Communist International and 
			Middle East insurgence fully challenged the principles of <em>pax 
			Americana; vision, dreams </em>and<em> actions </em>of a few 
			individuals have created a globe of entrepreneurial unification. At 
			the last count, these, such as <em>Royal Dutch Shell, Amoco, Texaco, 
			Exxon, Chevron, </em>and<em> General Motors,</em> and the 
			telecommunication giants, among others, which were the personal 
			initiatives of creative and strong individuals, have far outstripped 
			states and nations and have gone ahead to create their own statuses 
			as international (non-state) actors, with �citizens� drawn from all 
			over the regions, states and the entire globe, and for which weighty 
			decisions on <em>water, food, housing, education, roads, 
			electricity, security </em>and such other necessities, are made 
			daily. <br>
			<br>
			Such motivation, which is offered by these giant businesses and 
			their <em>worldview</em>, and which is subsequently extended to 
			partakers, has had to influence the proliferation of<em> global 
			citizens</em> whose fatherland is gradually turning into the 
			conglomerates. These may all go to show that the <em>ethnic or 
			regional man</em>, who has not hastily constructed a profitable 
			nation state, risks the failure of such an infirm nation state, 
			which cannot motivate and reassure. It will be such, which the 
			emerging conglomerates far out-weigh in reach, impact and striking 
			power and which will not evoke some sentiment, let alone any 
			patriotic zeal, anyhow, in the enterprising man.<br>
			<br>
			I am not in any way stating that our emerging <em>nation state</em> 
			should halt its integrative development. Neither am I canvassing the 
			immediate imposition of such high voltage job competitions that go 
			with globalization. What is clear to me, as I maintained in one of 
			my previous lectures, is that in more ways than imagined, the <em>
			traditional loyalty</em> of a people, especially such anchored on 
			shifty territorial grounds, would soon become as flimsy as such 
			preachments which ignored the development of man for actions to have 
			the basic things of life readily on his table.<br>
			<br>
			But then, it is our hope that our great nation state, made of the 
			various groupings, but ready to be fully wielded into the most 
			striking economic force, via the running democracy of our time, 
			would be on the steady rise, and for which we shall say, as in Enugu 
			State: <br>
			<br>
			<em><strong>To God be the Glory.</strong></em><br>
			<br>
			<strong>References:</strong><br>
			1. Coleman, James: <em><strong>Nigeria: Background to Nationalism</strong></em>, 
			University of California Press; Berkeley, California; 1979 
			(edition).<br>
			2. Awolowo, Obafemi: <em><strong>Path to Nigerian Freedom</strong></em>; 
			Faber and Faber, London ; 1947.<br>
			3. Nnoli, Okwudiba: <em><strong>Ethnic Politics in Nigeria</strong></em>; 
			Fourth Dimension Publishers; Enugu , 1978. <br>
			4. Usman, Yusuf Bala: <em><strong>For the Liberation of Nigeria 
			(Essays and Lectures, 1969 � 1978)</strong></em>; New Beacon Books 
			Ltd, London ; 1980.<br>
			5. Bagudu, Nankin (ed.): <em><strong>Linguistic Minorities and 
			Inequality in Nigeria</strong></em>; League for Human Rights, Jos; 
			2003.<br>
			6. Preiswerk, Roy and Perrot, Domiique: <em><strong>Ethnocentrism 
			and History</strong></em>; Nok Publishers Ltd, Lagos ; 1978.<br>
			7. Bagudu, Nankin (editor): <em><strong>The Right to be Different � 
			Perspectives on Minority Rights, the Cultural Middle Belt and 
			Constitutionalism in Nigeria</strong></em> ; League for Human 
			Rights, Jos; 2001.<br>
			8. Ochoche, Sunday (anchorman): <em><strong>Enhancing Peaceful 
			Coexistence in Nigeria</strong></em> <em><strong>(Communiqu� of 
			Middle Belt Zonal Conference, Jos)</strong></em>; Centre for Peace 
			Research &amp; Conflict Resolution, National War College ; 1998. <br>
			9. Bagudu, Nankin (anchor):<em><strong> Minority Rights: Definitive 
			Manual;</strong></em> League for Human Rights, Jos; 2003.<br>
			10. Anifowose, Remi: <em><strong>Violence and Politics in Nigeria 
			�the Tiv and Yoruba Experience;</strong></em> Nok International 
			Publishers, Enugu ; 1982. <br>
			11. Dappa-Biriye, Harold J.R:<em><strong> Minority Politics in 
			Pre-and-Post Independence Nigeria</strong></em>; Choba, University 
			of Port Harcourt Publishing House ; 1995.<br>
			12. Jodl Haeder Count, <em><strong>New Empires (Asiatic &amp; African)</strong></em>, 
			2001 ed.<font size="2"><br>
			<br>
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