Revisiting Orkar's map of Nigeria

Revisiting Orkar’s map of Nigeria
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May 2, 2011
People & Politics
By Ochereome Nnanna
ON Sunday, April 22, 1990, martial music floated into the
Nigerian airwaves. A group of middle-level military officers had
commenced a military rebellion against the regime of General
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
Prominent among them were Major Saliba Mukoro, Major Tony
Nyiam and a civilian financier, Chief Great Ogboru. Yes, the same
Ogboru, who on three consecutive occasions, flew the flag of the
Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) in attempts to upstage Governor
Emmanuel Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but
lost narrowly.
The most notable figure among the lot was Major Gideon Gwaza
Orkar, who led the operations at the Dodan Barracks in Ikoyi, the
then seat of power, and made a broadcast that, some said,
helped the rebellion to fail. He announced the excision of the
people of Nigeria’s Muslim North from the country until they
purged themselves of what he termed “their dominative
tendencies”.
The coup failed for a number of reasons. Number one was that
the people he referred to were still very much in power. This
they proved by overcoming the rebellion and successfully
annulling a presidential election three years later.
Secondly, it would have precipitated another civil war. Thirdly,
among the section of the country he wanted excised were
decent Nigerians who were committed to a true nationhood and
did not share the narrow-minded ethnic conquest mentality of
some of their people. Rather than trying to solve the problem of
domination through bloody means, the political mechanisms of
democracy were seen as a better way of addressing it. This
informed the unbending resolve of activists for the end of
military rule.
The North tried to assuage the feelings of Nigerians, especially
the South West by ceding the presidency to them in 1999, when
it became clear that the country could be lost altogether if they
insisted on producing the president. The zoning formula was
adopted by the ruling PDP as a means of addressing regional
domination. After the South West had it for eight years it was
returned to the North.
However, the beneficiary, Alhaji Umaru Yar’ Adua, died two and
half years into office. It became imperative that the constitution
of the country be followed in transferring power to then Vice
President Goodluck Jonathan, who later cashed in on his
constitutional right to contest for president.
His ambition was tackled every inch of the way by some hawkish
elements of the Northern political class, who insisted that the
President should step down for one of them to“complete” the
turn left halfway by Yar’Adua.
However, the generality of Nigerian people, including a large
portion of Northern Nigerians, believed that this was the right
time for undue regional extremism to give way to a truly
Nigerian president. Igbo political leaders made the boldest
sacrifice in this direction.
They opted out of the presidential and vice presidential race and
later on gave President Jonathan the level of electoral support
unprecedented in the history of their voting behaviour.
Also, the entire people of the South-South sank their ethnic
differences and threw their total weight behind Jonathan. To a
much lesser extent, the South West followed suit, though they
provided two presidential running mates for the Congress for
Progressive Change, CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.
The North Central (with the exception of pro-Caliphate Niger
State) also threw in their weight.
The whole North West voted for Muhammadu Buhari but the
vote was split in the North East where Adamawa and Taraba
States joined the nationalist train. In Kaduna State, the Christian
South voted for the Jonathan/Sambo ticket, while the North
opted for Buhari.
Many newspapers drew maps depicting these voting patterns in
the presidential race, and what they came up with was the
Gideon Orkar map of Nigeria!
This, in itself would not have troubled many people if not for the
fact that having failed to assert what some of them have claimed
is their“majority” clout and their “right” to the presidency,
murderous gangs, which had apparently been put on the
standby, were unleashed on those who were believed to have
voted against Buhari in the Muslim North, especially Kaduna,
Kano, Bauchi, Borno and other areas.
Churches and businesses belonging to Christians and
Southerners were torched. In particular, Youth Corps members
posted to serve their nation in the North were targeted and
many were murdered. There were reprisals in Southern Kaduna
against Muslims and their interests.
In the South, Northern Muslims fled to military facilities to avoid
being attacked in reprisal. The nation was placed on the brink
once again after a presidential election praised by both local and
international observers for its free, fair and credible outcome.
Ethnic vanguards, such as the Odua People’s Congress, the ex-
militants of the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Actualisation
of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and groups from the
Middle Belt issued“enough-is-enough” warnings in the
newspapers through advertorials.
Northern leaders need to come to terms with the fact that the
country has changed. The evil contraption the British colonialists
left behind has expired.
Political realignments have taken place. Regional domination is a
thing of the past. In today’s Nigeria you have to work hard
across the divides for your votes. Gone are the days when the
North decided and the rest of the country followed. This was the
mentality that helped to see to the defeat of Atiku and Buhari by
Jonathan.
The resort to violence and killing of non-Muslim Nigerians and
destruction of the property of Northerners who align with the
nationalist aspirations of the rest of the country will only
gradually isolate the North and solidify“Orkar’s Map” in the
minds of Nigerians.
If this happens, the cry of “marginalisation” will shift base. We
don’t want that. We want to eliminate marginalisation from the
body politic and march as one body to achieve the Nigeria of our
collective dreams.