Rev. Fr. Smart Nwosu Declares Nigeria’s Unity a "Political Illusion," Calls for Peaceful Breakup [OPINION]

 

A bold and controversial essay by Nigerian Catholic cleric, Rev. Fr. Smart Stanley Nwosu, is causing ripples across the political and intellectual landscape. Titled "Unity-in-Diversity: A Political Fraud", the essay, published on May 15, 2025, takes aim at the long-held national narrative of unity amidst Nigeria’s vast ethnic and cultural heterogeneity.

Fr. Nwosu forcefully argues that Nigeria’s existence as a unified nation is nothing short of a historical fabrication, propped up by foreign powers and sustained by local elites serving external interests. According to him, the country’s diverse ethnic landscape—over 400 ethnic groups—makes the aspiration for true nationhood implausible. “Nigeria is a doomed contraption in an intensive care unit,” he writes, calling the unity-in-diversity slogan an “elitist oxygen tank” that only benefits Western economic hegemony.

The priest draws upon historical and political examples from both Africa and around the world to support his claim that true nationhood can only thrive where cultural and ethnic homogeneity exists. He references the peaceful dissolutions of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, alongside violent breakups like those of Yugoslavia and Sudan, as evidence that multi-ethnic states often fail to survive without fracture or force.

Fr. Nwosu doesn’t stop at critiquing Nigeria. He goes further, taking aim at the larger continental idea of “Africa” as a political identity. To him, the concept is a colonial invention, originally a Roman term for Tunisia and later applied indiscriminately to an entire continent by European mapmakers. He contends that the idea of a politically united Africa is “utopic” and “bogusly fictitious,” rooted not in indigenous realities but in Eurocentric fantasy.

Examples such as Ethiopia and Eritrea are invoked to demonstrate the power of cultural identity in sustaining sovereignty. Ethiopia's resistance to colonialism and Eritrea’s decades-long fight for independence are, to Fr. Nwosu, evidence of identity as the bedrock of true nationhood. He also lauds West African nations like Ghana and Burkina Faso for their strides in reclaiming pre-colonial identities and achieving relative national cohesion.

Of particular focus is the long-standing agitation for Biafran independence. The priest describes Biafra not just as a political project but as a cultural inevitability. He argues that once the cultural alignment of the Igbo people fully crystallizes, a new nation-state will be born—fossilized in identity and driven by shared history and values.

This theme runs consistently through his essay: authentic nationhood cannot be manufactured through imposed boundaries or forced unity. Fr. Nwosu advocates for a reconfiguration of African states based on cultural and ethnic coherence, even if that means breaking up current nations like Nigeria.

His prescription for Nigeria’s looming crisis is stark: allow a peaceful dissolution through referendums, or prepare for a potentially violent disintegration. Citing the South Sudanese and Eritrean examples, he notes that referendums are often only possible after long and painful struggles, and warns that Nigeria must act before it’s too late. “A peaceful breakup through a referendum would be a more dignified and democratic approach,” he asserts, suggesting that Nigeria’s only viable future lies in accepting the unviability of its present structure.

Fr. Nwosu’s remarks are already generating fierce debates across academic, religious, and political circles. While some see his essay as a long-overdue truth-telling exercise, others fear that such narratives could inflame already simmering tensions in a country grappling with insurgency, separatist movements, and deep-seated regional mistrust.

Despite the controversy, one thing is clear: Rev. Fr. Smart Stanley Nwosu has forced a critical conversation about Nigeria’s identity crisis, the myth of African unity, and the future of post-colonial nationhood on the continent. Whether viewed as prophetic or incendiary, his essay raises fundamental questions about who Africans are—and who gets to decide.