Nollywood actor, Chidi Mokeme, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s nationwide address on the
unity of Nigeria made on Monday.
The 45-year-old thespian said in a letter he addressed to the
President that he was mostly worried about the dictatorial tone with
which the address was delivered to Nigerians.
He also faulted President Buhari’s comment that Nigeria’s unity was
not negotiable, saying that under the present realities Nigerians must
discuss how they want to live.
Mokeme’s letter to Buhari reads:
“MR PRESIDENT YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT
THE UNITY OF NIGERIA BUT……. My major concern about Mr President’s speech
is the dictatorial tone applied, negating your fatherly factor and the
concerns of dissenting voices in a democracy, especially as it relates
to the restructuring of Nigeria.
“These dissenting voices in my estimation does not include IPOB. Mr
President I agree with you that it is good to keep Nigeria united. But
to say that the type of unity we currently have is nonnegotiable smacks
of dictatorship.
“In case you have forgotten the so called unity was actually
discussed by our fathers and the terms of unity Nigerians wanted was
agreed upon. But the military boys came in with violent disorder and
destroyed what was negotiated prior to independence and in 1963, and
gave us what you now describe as nonnegotiable, called 1999
constitution.“What the military led by one man gave us is unanimity and not unity.
They took away the content of what was negotiated that was supposed to
be nonnegotiable and gave us inequality, stifled systems that undermine
Nigeria’s progress, development and prosperity. Indeed our fathers had a
detailed discussion and negotiation with the British in the 50’s about
the kind of union that was acceptable us.
“They all agreed on real federalism whereby each zone maintained its
own economy, peculiar political structure and institutions. These
included resource control, regional/state police and prisons and many
other creative structures that made Nigeria progressive pre-independence
to 1967.
“Any document decided by Adulsalam Abubakar and his junta called the
199 constitution is without our general contribution ant it is largely
not acceptable. And the change required cannot be made by only a council
of state populated by retired generals from one region or national
assembly without equal representation from across the states and zones.
“There maybe need for input from other well meaning Nigerians if we
are serious about carrying zone along. A unity based on inequality and
military imposition must be negotiable.”