Nigeria’s 37th State: Whose Call? -By Gbenga Oloniniran

For the umpteenth time, I have closely observed the location of Benin Republic on the map of Africa.The country’s close proximity with Nigeria is, indeed, not up for arguments, very visible to the blind. It is one of the countries bounding Nigeria on the sides, after Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroun.

What i have not observed throughout my living and from history is if living in harmony among people is a question of geographical proximities. It brings us to the question, who really wants to be part of Nigeria, the people of Benin Republic or their government?

Patrice Talon, President of Benin Republic

Nigeria used to have fierce issues with the people of Ghana, dating from the popular period of “Ghana must go”. Today, we cannot say the harmony is now strong. Of recent, there were attempts to send Nigerian business owners packing from some regions in Ghana, under the guise of lack of permits. Some were reportedly spared, these were Nigerians whose businesses were worth from a million dollar and above. We can tell why the million dollar business owners were spared – they are contributing largely to the Ghanaian economy. The scenario, however, confirmed an economic racism on the struggling Nigerians in Ghana who were probably seen as ‘hijackers of Ghanaian jobs’. The xenophobic attack on Nigerians in South Africa is not different from such economic sentiments as well. These are economic issues degenerating into racist crises among African nations irrespective of their ‘unity’ under the umbrella of Ecowas or the African Union.

Let us focus our lens on Nigeria and her age-long socio-cultural, economic and political crises before concluding on what prompts the readiness of Benin Republic to wanting to become Nigeria’s 37th State. The elementary geography of Nigeria revealed to us that the Nigerian thirty-six states and the F.C.T as we have today began first as Northern and Southern protectorates, to regions of the West, North and East, then progressed through 12 states, 19 states , 21 states and finally graduated into 36 states and the FCT.

The progression in the number of states in the above paragraph were neither born out of celebrations of independence of Nigeria nor the beauty of our ethnic diversities. The states were created out of socio-economic and cultural agitations, plights of marginalizations and social unrests. These agitations have not ceased as we still have secessionist agitations coming from different regions – Oduduwa Republic, Arewa and Biafra.

The agitations have been more political than organic. The fact that parts of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria are more political than geographical, strikes a cord too. The North-Central is housing Ilorin with the many Yorubas and despite close proximity of the zone to Southwest. Southeast and South-south are almost indivisible on the map but politically separated. What then motivates division and unity? I can bet it is not merely a lip confession of readiness. One is then promted to investigate the motivations behind the ‘readiness’ of Benin Republic to become a part of Nigeria, as championed by government of the republic.

We are in a Nigeria with crises of its own. The crises are as pronounced as the largeness of the country on the map of Africa, and are compounded occasionally by the Nigerian nature of governance. We then wonder, again, what is driving the willingness of Benin Republic? Neither of the democracy of the two countries can be said to be superb and the Nigerian currency is almost of insignificant difference from that of Benin Republic. One Naira is about 0.70 CFA. That the country is a little above one percent of Nigeria by land mass does not necessarily rationalize the willingness to merge them. Of course, unity in the diversity is welcome. The Benin Republic people have always closely related with Nigerians especially with the Ogun people that share border with them. It is however too ordinary should the border proximity be the factor for becoming 37th state of Nigeria. We are in a Nigeria where the Ekiti indigenes have about fifty different and isolated towns separated by ethnical backgrounds. That is a tip of the iceberg of the tribal sentiments almost tearing the country itself apart, fueled by bigots and political scavengers.

The factors fueling divisions or unity among people are more economical than tribal across the world. Not even racism is isolated, the hatred for other races is not without its sounding economic undertone. If the mass of people of Benin Republic are eager to be a part of Nigeria as a result of willingness to share economic and intellectual resources, it is beautiful. In fact, by virtue of natural freedom of humans to coexist, it should not be of huge debate. Many Nigerians are actually fans of prominent artistes of Benin Republic, but one can be sure that not many Benin Republic citizens want to ride along with us in the reign of severe human right violations, unemployment, poor education standard, skyrocketed cost of survival, etc. Our fear should be who is really advocating the merging, the Benin republic government or the people themselves? If it is merely the government of Benin Republic, we should be suspicious, of what benefit is it to them and to the Nigerian government?

In Africa, governance has been centered more on the government officials than on the people. The huge benefits have been enjoyed by a few caucus. It is the reason for xenophobic attacks and unnecessary intolerance among African people of different national identities. To be concise, without a clear background of the origin of the quest to have Benin Republic as a 37th Nigerian state, and without having a working Nigeria for Nigerians, we may be compounding the growing tensions of tribal waves, insecurities, economic hardships that are already growing. The conditions may worsen.

I think what is important and first, is for the both governments to fix the challenges confronting the mass of people directly in their countries. It is when parties are comfortable as citizens in their regions that a healthy and peaceful coexistence can be developed between or among countries and whether they are planning to merge or not. When a government wakes up to just announce readiness to merge with another country, it reminds us of how the Britons invaded us and abruptly drew lines around areas of Africa and began naming them as countries without the people’s will.

Gbenga Oloniniran.
Ibadan, Nigeria.
gbengaoloniniran@gmail.com