Posted by By Emma Emeozor, Lagos, LUCKY NWANKWERE and JAMES OJO, Abuja on
The United States has dissociated itself from the controversial National Intelligence Council report, "Mapping Sub-Sahara Africa's Future," which predicted the break up of Nigeria in the next 15 years.
The United States has dissociated itself from the controversial National Intelligence Council report, "Mapping Sub-Sahara Africa's Future," which predicted the break up of Nigeria in the next 15 years.
The United States Consul General, Lagos Tuesday, said, in a statement, that "the analysis and conclusions presented in the National Intelligence Council report do not represent the views of the United States government," explaining that the report emanated from a one-day January 15, 2005 conference of academic and non-governmental experts on Africa convened by the council to discuss likely trends in Sub-Sahara Africa over the next 15 years.
It would be recalled that since the release of the report, it has generated a lot of controversies across the nation, with many Nigerians condemning it. President Olusegun Obasanjo described the council as "prophet of doom" and Nigeria's "detractors."
In a letter, entitled "Report of the US Intelligence Council," sent to the President of the Senate, Obasanjo complained that the report was based on hollow knowledge of the continent and therefore wide off the mark.
"I am sending this to you not because I am alarmed by the report but because if we know what others think of us and about us, we can prevent what they project for us," the President said.
Continuing, the President wrote off the authors of the report as "living in the past and incapable of noticing and appreciating the positive strides Nigeria is making on all fronts and the determination of the country to join hands to consolidate democracy and promote sustainable growth and development.
"Because they are stuck to old ideas and dreams as well as stereotypes about us and our capabilities, they cannot see the new Nigeria that we are building collectively as we move beyond the past but allowing the past and present to strengthen and sustain our future," he said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Tuesday called on the Federal Government to take immediate steps to redress all contentious issues that have the potentiality of threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.
It also, directed Nigerian intelligence agencies to investigate the veracity or the potency of the report, while mandating the joint Committee on National Intelligence and Foreign Affairs to collate the motives of the report and recommend the way forward.
In a motion on the report, moved by Hon John Halims Agoda on behalf of 15 others, most members agreed that the issues raised were germane, as they were realities on ground.
For instance, Hon Ibn Na'Allah, from Kebbi State, urged members to take a dispassionate look at the report, adding that the indices on which the report was based were the problems created by past regimes in the country. He noted however, that there was the need to correct them.
Hon. Sharon Olufumilayo Aondona Daboh, from Benue State, said the report was based on the level of poverty and injustice that, according to her, are visible all over the country.
On the issue of break up as projected by the intelligence report, Hon. Abdul Oroh, from Edo State, was of the view that except anybody who wants to deceive himself everybody knows that separatist groups like OPC, MASSOB, Egbesu, and Arewa Youths have been drumming war of balkanizing the country, adding, "I would say the report should be seen as a warning and we should do something about it. We all know what happened to Ethiopia, Yugoslavia. The report should not be condemned totally," he told members.
Hon Uche Anyagocha, All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) member from Imo State, said some actions of the Federal Government under President Obasanjo pointed to the fact that the nation was on the path of disintegration.
"It is an act of disintegration that a Supreme Court ruling would be disobeyed by the President. It is only in this country that a sitting governor would be kidnapped and up till now nothing happened to the kidnappers. It is only in this nation that youths formed groups for self-determination and are being arrested and charged to court on flimsy excuse. It only here that a whooping N300 billion was spent on NEPA without result. All these point to the fact that the country is capable of breaking up," he submitted.
In his own contribution, Hon Usman Bugaje said Nigeria does not need the US intelligence report to know the situation on ground because the nation had got a government that does not allow democracy to grow internally.
Movers of the motion had argued that the report was intended to scare away foreign investors as it predicted that all investment would collapse within the next 15 years.
House leader, Hon Abdul Ningi, said the report came at a time Nigeria was aiming for international positions, adding that the report portrayed the country as a nation that has no future.
In a related development, former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar has said that there is nothing to worry about the United States Intelligence Council's report.
The military leader, who is the chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Awareness of the Reforms of the United Nations (UN), contended that the report would not work against Nigeria's quest for a deserved seat at the United Nations Security Council.
Gen. Abubakar told State House correspondents Tuesday, after a meeting of his committee in Abuja, that he was not perturbed by such a report, adding that Nigeria would not be intimidated into bowing out of its ambition.
"That will not deter us from doing what we think is best for our country. They have got the right to think about any other country or on the way they want to feel about it. But we know very well that some parts of the report were exaggerated," he added.