Warfare Among Tribes By Oguchi

Have you run across this recipe for Tribes facing the
dissolution of the treaty that binds them together?
Here it is:
Pass a referendum bill…referendum campaigns
conducted in a constructive manner…the need for a
robust yet respectful debate…arguments “passionate”
and “at times heated”, but informed and constructive…
debate should be free from intimidation, jeering and
sneering…politicians must not “go to war” over whether
or not tribes should leave the political union…the sides
on this question are not enemies…conduct this debate
without losing the friendships and the positive
relationships we have…whatever the result we will want
to come together and whatever the people have decided
we will want to act upon…mustn’t create a legacy of
bitterness and hatred…a civilised debate rather than
warfare between tribes…
“A CIVILIZED DEBATE RATHER THAT WARFARE
BETWEEN TWO TRIBES…”
On November 15 2013, BBC News Scotland reported:
“Scottish independence: MSPs pass referendum bill”.
But it was Tom Peterkin reporting in the Scottish THE
SCOTSMAN who gave us the insight and advice pouring
from the hearts and minds of the Scottish leadership in
“Scottish independence referendum bill
passed” ( http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-
stories/scottish-independence-... ). In there, Mr.
Malcom Chisolm is reported to have stated the guiding
and enduring agenda:
“What we need to have is a civilised debate rather than
warfare between two tribes.”
By now, it is no longer news that Scotland is engaged in
the exercise of her rights of Self Determination,
pursuing steps to forge ahead and craft her own
political and sovereign destiny outside of the United
Kingdom, leaving a union resulting from a 300-year-old
treaty. The UK government and the rest of UK have not
tried to quash, subdue, suppress, intimidate or
criminalize the process, nor threatened Scottish leaders
and their people with the charge of Treason. UK has not
bandied around the term, “indivisible” to mock and
frustrate Scottish moves; UK has not made any claims
of a special Divine dispensation guaranteeing her unity
or stamping unity on her Seal. Rather, UK respects the
right of her citizens and her tribal groupings to decide
what is good for them and where they [want to] belong
politically; and UK is determined, as a matter of
principle and course, to abide by, facilitate and carry
out such decisions. The rest of the world accepts the
process, too. One does not read anywhere that such and
such a country, superpower or not, is invested in the
unity of UK; or that a “united UK” is supreme, and as
such, Scotland is vilified and discouraged in her bid to
leave, because “to keep UK one” is now an imperative to
be achieved at all costs.
There are lessons here for Nigeria, most of them
obvious, some not so obvious. For example, Scottish
leader, Mr. Chisolm, sees the situation as an issue
between “Tribes”. Wow! That word, Tribe, is a dirty
word for Nigeria, a derogatory term retained from the
regime of those who bequeathed their language to
Nigeria and first used that word as an insult against
Nigerians. No one in Nigeria can admit his or her tribe
—not if he or she does not want to be thoroughly
disparaged and condemned as a “Tribalist.” But to
those who own the word and the language whence it
derives, Tribe is a mark of natural identity which
neither a three-century-old Union-treaty nor
globalization can erase or take away. There in UK, it is
still the “Queen of England”, not the Queen of UK;
“the Prince of Wales”, not the Prince of UK, where
England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are the major
tribal groupings of UK. They know and understand that
the Tribe is the most natural and logical unit and basis
for sovereignty and sovereign pursuits. They do not
forget or deny their collective natural identity which is
defined by Tribe.
Another lesson for Nigeria is this: why is it acceptable
for other tribes in the world to exercise their Self
Determination rights, but the same world frowns upon
and discourages African Tribes from seeking the same
basic collective human rights? Isn’t it ironic and
patronizing that the same UK government which allows
its own citizens to purse a referendum for separation is
yet the most ardent opposer of Nigerian Tribes seeking
the same relief and disposition? Why does the US make
[reported] statements implying that the continued
forced unity of Nigeria is in the best interest (of the
US?) and must remain so, even though the Nigerian
Tribes want to do what the Scottish did not have to
seek others’ permission to do, what the Scottish Tribe is
allowed to do in UK? Nigerians, indeed, Africans, must
be lesser human beings, not human enough to partake
of natural liberties taken for granted by the rest
humanity on this planet? Why do the tribes in Nigerian,
in Africa, allow themselves to be deprived of these
liberties, either by other countries and or their
expectations, or by their own self?
In any case, Nigeria should learn and understand that
the desire and pursuit of leaving a union by a Tribe as
such does not constitute declaring or waging war
against the union. In 1707 the Scottish Tribe signed a
Treaty with Britain to form a political union. In 2014,
the Scots are going to decide either to continue to
honor the treaty or to pull out: that’s all there is to
that. They don’t even have to have an adverse reason to
do so; it’s their right. The act is not confrontational.
Obviously, there are plenty of reasons why Nigeria’s
1904 political “Amalgamation” “Treaty” cannot stand;
any Tribe opting to leave has plenty of justification. To
read such a move as a hostile act against Nigeria is not
called for; such characterization is neither logical nor
justifiable. In other words, it cannot and should not
constitute or be regarded as a threat to Nigeria or to
Nigerians (or to the world) that any Tribe or Tribes
want to leave Nigeria.
As Nigeria prepares to engage in what is now looking
like a “been there, seen that, done that” exercise (in
futility), otherwise known as a Sovereign National
Conference, wherein the outcome of continued non-
consenting, unequal and forced union of Tribes is
already a fixed endpoint, it is crucial that Tribes and
peoples living and suffering in Nigeria wake up and take
notice. Paraphrasing Albert Einstein, one cannot
continue to do the same thing the same way over and
over again and expect a different result. The Scottish
Tribe of UK has handed you a recipe which fits Nigeria’s
situation where Tribes desire to leave the (unworkable)
union. Use it wisely; use it. Ignore it at your own
continued peril. Here are the essential steps the Scots
are taking:
- Craft and approve a Tribe Self Determination
Referendum Bill
- Debate the Referendum
- Specify Procedural details
- Focus on what Independence really means
- Vote on the Referendum
- Resolve to carry out the Tribes’ wishes
- No hard feelings—preserve goodwill.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD.
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen