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May 31, 2017
ANNIVERSARY NOTES: The Nigerian Project – Wither Our Nation?
The issues of ethnicity, shallow minded pursuit of narrow sectional goals and bare- faced corruption which has been part of our nationhood pushed the skeptics towards the quest for a balkanization of the country.
The civil war broke out as a result of this narrow prisms and was fought along those lines with the major ethnic powers taking sides, building alliances along their selfish ethnic motivations in executing the war. The war was not fought along any principle of nationhood but along the need for control of collective resources by certain ethnic powers for the good of their people. This stark reality of our nationhood guided ethnic positions in choosing which side to fight on and the phyric declaration by Yakubu Gowon that we are brothers and that there is no victor no vanquished, only served to smear a very temporary soothing balm on the wounded people on both sides.
So the question is do we forget about the collective Nigerian statehood because of our primordial tendency to look at things from ethnic and tribal leanings. Do we balkanize and forget about the greatness that would come with our continuous unity and break into fractional but very tiny ethnic chiefdoms who would be barely able to defend or feed themselves. The answer is a resounding No because we still are far better together than apart.
One Nigeria has been the mantra despite all the ills of ethnicity and tribalism which has berth the cancer that is corruption. The one Nigeria project remains infallible as it contains in it the seed of greatness as a nation. We have more to gain as one people than as separate contending nations. So how do we blunt these deep crevices, how do we weld the various nationalities that make up this great nation into one united power house? The answer is very simple.
Education. In my view, education is the solution to all our problems in this country. Education blunts narrow thinking, opens up the mind towards greater vision and allows us soar far and above the terrible dislocations that come with ethnicity and tribalism which remain the bane of our nationhood.
The educated man leading us will not see himself as the champion of any ethnic group, he will make appointments based on merit and would jettison the federal character principle which I hear is enshrined in our constitution.
Let me even talk about this federal character principle. To me, this is the official recognition that we have given tribalism and ethnicity. It recognizes the fact that we are different people and as such we must practice what Bode George has called ‘turn by turn’ which in its essence sacrifices merit. This in itself leads to the kind of leadership we have been saddled with since independence.
The civil war broke out as a result of this narrow prisms and was fought along those lines with the major ethnic powers taking sides, building alliances along their selfish ethnic motivations in executing the war. The war was not fought along any principle of nationhood but along the need for control of collective resources by certain ethnic powers for the good of their people. This stark reality of our nationhood guided ethnic positions in choosing which side to fight on and the phyric declaration by Yakubu Gowon that we are brothers and that there is no victor no vanquished, only served to smear a very temporary soothing balm on the wounded people on both sides.
So the question is do we forget about the collective Nigerian statehood because of our primordial tendency to look at things from ethnic and tribal leanings. Do we balkanize and forget about the greatness that would come with our continuous unity and break into fractional but very tiny ethnic chiefdoms who would be barely able to defend or feed themselves. The answer is a resounding No because we still are far better together than apart.
One Nigeria has been the mantra despite all the ills of ethnicity and tribalism which has berth the cancer that is corruption. The one Nigeria project remains infallible as it contains in it the seed of greatness as a nation. We have more to gain as one people than as separate contending nations. So how do we blunt these deep crevices, how do we weld the various nationalities that make up this great nation into one united power house? The answer is very simple.
Education. In my view, education is the solution to all our problems in this country. Education blunts narrow thinking, opens up the mind towards greater vision and allows us soar far and above the terrible dislocations that come with ethnicity and tribalism which remain the bane of our nationhood.
The educated man leading us will not see himself as the champion of any ethnic group, he will make appointments based on merit and would jettison the federal character principle which I hear is enshrined in our constitution.
Let me even talk about this federal character principle. To me, this is the official recognition that we have given tribalism and ethnicity. It recognizes the fact that we are different people and as such we must practice what Bode George has called ‘turn by turn’ which in its essence sacrifices merit. This in itself leads to the kind of leadership we have been saddled with since independence.
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