Anselem Eyo, a lawyer, a one time student union president of the University of Calabar and a 1994/95 member of the National Constitutional Conference, speaks to INEMESIT AKPAN-NSOH in Uyo on the futile search for unity in the country: Excerpts.AT 52, is it right for Nigeria to still be searching for unity'My understanding is that, talking about searching for unity, practically speaking, it means the unity is not there, that is why you are looking for it; so if the unity is not there and you are looking for it, it is a misnomer to say there is unity. It is either unity is there or it is not there or it is not here that is why you are looking for it.Now, if you move from this premise, the question would be, why is there no unity in spite of all these efforts' You find out that unity which would have existed has been compromised in the sense that, a fewopportunistic individuals have cornered these ingredients that could have made us to have unity.For instance, the issue of revenue that sustains the economy of any nation; the revenue that was sustaining this country for many years was agriculture-based. But since oil was discovered, the tripod that used to appreciate the groundnut pyramids in the North, the cocoa in the West and the palm oil in the East diminished. During that time, we used to recognize and give prominence to those people who were the producers of these commodities. They were highly respected in the society; but since oil came, it came with what you would call exploitation. Where the oilis found is exploited to the extent that the exploiter becomes better off while those exploited being worst off.There is a dividing line between the exploiters and the exploited.Are you saying that the discovery of oil brought disunity'I would want to say not only disunity but distrust, because it came with it laws which were unjust and imbalanced. For instance, if you are talking about exploratory laws, which have been made to sustain the exploration of minerals, they only favour the exploiters. Since we operate the rule of law and it is law that makes it possible for such exploitation, those who are exploited cannot therefore trust the exploiters because the exploitation is not to the advantage of those exploited, but only to the advantage of the exploiters. But we are living in a fools' paradise to say that we are living under the rule of law. Those so exploited cannot seek their rights becauseof the nature of the law; unless, they can do away with such exploitative laws, it would be difficult for us to have unitybecause there is distrust between the leaders and those who are exploited.When would that convergence come so that we stop searching for unity and become united'What I am saying is that if you find distrust, it is strange bedfellows for you to expect unity between exploiters and the exploited except you go back to natural laws and allow somebody to reap from hisbackyard. Some of the exploitative laws are the Land Use Act and the Oil Mineral Exploratory Act. These are what they are using to oppress the minorities. If you don't make it possible for people to own land, you cannot trust such government and so, where you cannot find unity you'll find distrust.So the only way to stop searching for unity is when we allow the natural status quo to prevail. That is, you are where you are by accident of birth or, wherever you find yourself you are from that place and you have all the rights and privileges to enjoy what is there; you pay what they ask you to pay for people of your category. This would make people to appreciate the fact that a person is poor is not because he or she comes from a poor area or vice versa but because, he or she has not worked hard enough. Once there is this understanding, then you find unity, but the moment you find misunderstanding and people are perpetuating illegality with impunity, of course, you can never have unity. Once we begin to play down on oppression and inequitable distribution of wealth that is when we'll begin the journey to unity.
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