A southern strategic conclusion
By Kio Amachree
I have a Yoruba mother from Shagamu.
My father is from Buguma, in Kalabari land.
I have Yoruba cousins.
I have Igbo cousins.
I have Kalabari cousins.
I am a Nigerian.
And I am proud to be one.
I am a Christian.
I am liberal-conservative.
I am educated, well spoken, internationally exposed.
I have lived abroad for decades.
I understand nations, identity, culture, and human behavior.
And today, after years of denying reality, I have reached a conclusion that many Southerners are afraid to say out loud.
Nigeria is not one people.
Nigeria has never been one people.
From the Atlantic coast of the South-South, to the forests of the East, to the inner heartland of Yoruba land, we share something powerful.
We look alike.
We mix easily abroad.
We speak English.
We intermarry.
We share similar values.
We communicate naturally.
We understand each other’s worldview.
Whether you are Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Kalabari, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Efik, Ibibio, Edo, or any other southern group, you can travel across the South and still feel at home.
Yes, we have differences.
But we are culturally compatible.
That is what makes a nation.
But when I go to the North, I do not feel Nigerian.
I feel like an outsider.
The tone is different.
The culture is different.
The structure is different.
The values are different.
The language is different.
Most of them do not speak English fluently.
Their social code is not the Nigerian code I grew up with.
Their worldview is shaped by a different civilization entirely.
They are closer in culture to Chad, Niger, and parts of the Arab world than they are to the Southern Nigerian identity.
And we must stop lying to ourselves about it.
For too long, Southerners have pretended.
We have repeated slogans.
We have used emotional propaganda.
We have forced ourselves to believe the fantasy of “One Nigeria.”
But this union was never natural.
It was engineered.
It was designed by the British.
It was forced together by colonial strategy.
And it has been catastrophic.
The South funds Nigeria.
The South drives Nigeria.
The South produces Nigeria’s wealth.
The South builds Nigeria’s international reputation.
Yet the South is treated with contempt.
Insulted.
Threatened.
Bullied.
And constantly blamed.
We are expected to carry the burden of a region that refuses to modernize, refuses to integrate, refuses to adapt, and refuses to respect those who feed the federation.
And then we are told we must remain silent for “unity.”
What kind of unity is that?
This is not unity.
This is exploitation.
The North has deep internal problems.
Security problems.
Extremism problems.
Banditry problems.
Educational problems.
Economic problems.
But instead of solving them, the political culture has become one of entitlement.
A belief that Nigeria belongs to them.
A belief that power is their birthright.
And I am tired of it.
I do not believe the North respects the South.
I do not believe the North will ever be a benefit to the South.
And I do not believe this forced marriage can survive forever.
Let us be honest.
I cannot marry their daughters.
Their culture is not mine.
Their religious structure is not mine.
Their values are not mine.
So why should we keep pretending?
This is not racism.
This is realism.
This is not hatred.
This is survival.
It is common sense.
The South must begin to openly revisit the Nigerian union.
Not with violence.
Not with insults.
But with seriousness.
With strategy.
With cold, professional political logic.
Let the North go its way.
Let it practice its religion freely.
Let it speak its language.
Let it develop its own resources.
Let it drill its own oil.
Let it solve its own security issues.
And let the South finally breathe.
Let the South smile again.
Because the insults, threats, backwardness, and endless political blackmail from the North has drained the spirit of the Southern Nigerian identity.
Mistakes were made in 1960.
Southern independence leaders capitulated to British colonial pressure.
They accepted a union that should have been renegotiated from the beginning.
That decision has cost generations of Southerners their peace, their security, their wealth, and their dignity.
We must correct that mistake.
As a political scientist, and as a patriot, I have reached my final conclusion:
Nigeria cannot continue like this.
The South must make a strategic decision.
A peaceful decision.
A historic decision.
The North should go its own way.
And the South should finally build the prosperous, modern, educated, globally respected nation it was always meant to be.
Amachree,a Patriot and
Political Scientist sent this piece from
Stockholm, Sweden
