"THE THREE HUMAN FORCES THAT KEPT NIGERIANS TOGETHER FOR 99 YEARS"

Is Nigeria a supernatural divine creation of God that can never fail or collapse as a human nation? What is the secret that has kept Nigeria's 386 ethnic nationalities and her major religious groups together despite the decades of her deep national crises including a brutal Biafran genocidal war? The forces that have kept Nigeria together to date are all humans and not God. (i). These human forces are the British colonial masters that used the divide and the rule political system from 1914 to 1960 to keep Nigeria intact. (ii). The military dictators also succeeded in keeping Nigeria together through their draconian decrees that were backed up with the use of the brutal military force and oil money for 30 years. (iii). The heavily corrupt politicians are keeping Nigerians together today through their politics of election rigging, politics of ethnicity, politics of religious division, the massive sharing of the nation's oil wealth and the political offices amongst themselves across the Nigeria's major ethnic groups, geopolitical zones and her religious faiths for a total of 23 years combined together in the different democratic dispensations in Nigeria from 1960 to date. 

Nigeria was never a divine supernatural creation of God in all ramifications. The British colonial authority realized in the late 1800s that it was not economically viable, economical sustainable and financially profitable to run the Northern protectorate as an independent colony with her history of yearly budget deficit. The Southern protectorate enjoyed a yearly budget surplus, with a free access to the Atlantic ocean that promoted her exporting and importing businesses thereby making her to be economically viable to the then United Africa Company (UAC) that was in charge of the Southern protectorate.

Britain in 1914 through their Governor General Lord Lugard who was in charge of the Northern protectorate was directed from England to officially amalgamate both the Northern and the Southern protectorates together for the economic interests of the then British empire. This political amalgamation or marriage gave birth to a new nation that was named as Nigeria without any single political input, referendum or contributions from the new nation's 386 ethnic nationalities, many religious faiths and cultural groups who were all politically autonomous, historically distinct, culturally different and socially diverse from one another for many centuries as caliphates, kingdoms and empires. The British was able to keep this highly diverse nation intact from 1914-1960 by using the political system of divide and rule. 

Nigeria became an independent sovereign nation on October 1, 1960 and she has been ruled at the various times in her 53 years as a nation by the military dictators and the democrat governments. The military dictators have ruled Nigeria for about 30 years out of her 52 years as an independent nation and the democratic governments have also ruled Nigeria for 23 years to date. The heavily corrupt and the lawlessness military dictators kept all the Nigeria's 386 ethnic nationalities, religious faiths and cultural groups together for 30 years by using brutal military force of intimidation and suppressions that were both backed by their draconian decrees and the oil money. 

The politicians have also kept Nigerians together today despite the major differences amongst the Nigeria's ethnic nationalities and religious groups through the use of the mechanism of electoral frauds to win elections and the massive unabated official culture of corruption of sharing of our oil wealth, political offices and those highly inflated contracts amongst themselves across all the 6 geopolitical regions of Nigeria. This political marriage of 1914 has never truly worked for the full benefits of all these 386 ethnic nationalities and the religious groups in Nigerian nation for the last 99 years of our nationhood. Practically speaking, there are only two viable political options left to address the Nigerian project that has failed to work for 99 years and one deadly end is also on the table for now.

The first political solution to the failing Nigerian nation is to establish a confederal system of government through an independent Sovereign National Conference of all the ethnic nationalities, religious faiths and pressure groups in Nigeria that will officially determine the new political terms of our national engagement as a nation. The second political solution to this huge issue is the legal secession or the official breaking up of Nigeria through a Sovereign National Conference or a referendum that will be supervised by the United Nations which could be very similar to the one that was done successfully in Sudan that divided the former troubled African nation of Sudan recently into two independent nations of Sudan and South Sudan respectively that are now living peaceful and side by side in 2013. If one political options are not put in place, Nigerian nation will continue to fail and a civil war may be inevitable which may end up is assisting the breaking up of Nigeria into smaller independent nations. Time will surely tell.