THE CONCEPT OF POLITICAL CESSATION: WHY IT SUCCEEDED IN OTHER COUNTRIES & WHY IT CANNOT WORK IN NIGERIA.

Political cessation is a really crazy concept if we think of it clearly.

Oh, if you don't know what it means, this is when a larger state breaks into smaller fragments or a section of a whole nation state decided to leave the larger system.

​Now cessation occurs due to many reasons, at times it may be due to a clash of larger powers within the smaller states and when the boat gets too heavy for two captains, one must go overboard. A good instance is the Soviet Union (now known as Russia) which fragmented from one state into 15 different states due to power grabs and violence.

​Then we also have the cultural, ethnic and religious differences in various territories driven by cultural, ethnic and religious differences. Another good example is in Pakistan where Bangladesh seceded due to deep cultural and linguistic divides. I mean we have the whole Sudan issue where it became North & South Sudan and many more since around 2011 due to political issues and other countries like Mali and Burkina Faso whose military yanked power out of the hands of the democrats, but that's a story for another day.

​Cessation is something which is not foreign particularly, they have been several attempts within Nigeria as all three major tribes have at one point or the other threat to walk out but circumstances were always against them.

​When the Yorubas tried to walk out before independence, the other parliamentarians from other tribes were not having it, the Hausas tried to do the same, but their dogmatism and poor planning made it nearly impossible. Most famous, the Igbos couldn't secede because at the time they were considered the gold mine of the nation, and the other tribes fought tooth and nail during and after the war to keep them tied to Nigeria.

​Some reasons why it cannot work in Nigeria include inter-marriage; yes, people are married from other tribes and states, cessation would result in disaster and tearing families apart. What happened in the Alex Agyiri's Unexpected Joy At Dawn, the pain and trauma of losing loved ones to the past is really painful.

​Secondly, natural resources would be unevenly divided, everyone would depend on foreign bodies and countries for survival—indulge a reinvented form of colonialism, but this is on opportunities and natural resources.

​Further and finally insecurity, political and religious rifts and insurgencies would be the order of the day; it's better we are all united through the storm than we break up, because like Dave said, we're all alone in this together