The formation of Nigerian nation in 1914 by the British colonial government lacked the most important political element in any true or genuine nation building. This missing element is known politically as the national referendum, national constitutional conference or sovereign national conference. All the ethnic and the religious groups that formed this new nation that was named as Nigeria despite the fact that they were politically, historically, economically, religiously and socially autonomous and independent for centuries from one another were never allowed by the British colonial authority to have any political inputs and to decide their agreed upon new terms of engagements in the new Nigerian political project that started almost 100 years ago.
The defect in the political structure under which Nigeria was founded in 1914 by the British colonial masters has been the main culprit that has troubled Nigeria since its inception to date. This missing political element that is the foundation for any meaningful nation building must be revisited again and peacefully in this 21st century human universe by the 160 million Nigerians that represent all the ethnic nationalities and the many religious groups that make up Nigeria today, if this nation that is known as Nigeria in 2013 would ever have any meaningful future in our lifetime.
This political conference is inevitable in the nearest future in Nigeria based on the present realities and the state of things on the ground in Nigeria today. Nigeria continues to show more and more signs as well as the main symptoms of a failing state year in and year out. If following events that are listed below in this write-up are left unabated in Nigeria, but are allowed to continue to magnify and to enlarge unchecked, then they will surely lead Nigeria to a total failure or a final collapse of that nation.
The following are the events that will force the hands of Nigerians to hold this inevitable national sovereign conference in Nigeria:(i) Declining oil reserves coupled with the uncontrollable population explosion. (ii) Unabated rise in poverty amongst ordinary Nigerians. Poverty rate has increased from 20% in the 1980s to over 80% today. (iii) The massive official culture of corruption that is coupled with huge mismanagement of the Nigeria's resources by her leaders in which these resources do not benefit the ordinary Nigerians. (iv) The rising unemployment rate amongst our youths that is now at 23% without any hope for a better future.
(v) The national infrastructures, social services, educational systems and the health care facilities that are now inadequate, over stressed, outdated and collapsing. (vi) The inability of the federal government of Nigeria to guarantee the safety of life and the properties of all Nigerian citizens or residents as well as the many unsolvable cases of political killings, kidnappings for ransons, hostage takings, ritual killings, paid or hired killings, public lynchings of petty thieves and armed robberies that the Nigeria's security apparatus cannot addressed or solved.
(vii) The continuous terrorism and the genocidal actions of the Boko Haram in the Northern Nigeria against the Northern Nigerian Christian minority groups as well as the regular sectarian violences (ethnic lynchings) amongst the different ethnic nationalities in Northern Nigeria. (viii) The militant groups that are fighting for the autonomy and for the resource control in the Niger-Delta region. (ix) The various ethnic political pressure groups, such as the Odu'a group, The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and many other tribal groups that are all fighting for their own self autonomous or determination on behalf of their various ethnic nationalities.
These things that I listed above that are now happening in Nigeria today have forced many other nations in the past to hold a forced sovereign national conference to resolve their internal crises. These conferences at the end of the day either succeeded in addressing those crises via the new constitutions or the new political terms of engagements for better nations or they led those nations to their final break ups into many smaller nations. Nigeria as a nation today and with her current deep domestic crises cannot defile these historical trends in her nearest future in my own personal judgement. As Nigeria continues to face this bleak and unpredictable future, time alone will surely tell her future.
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