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BURNING POT BY PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON
Nigeria The Searching For Identity--Divorce Before Marriage
'A man that cannot cry, and cannot laugh, will find it difficult to find empathy'
If there is any time to address the ethnic question in Nigeria again, it is now, as the year comes to an end. The entire nation has been held hostage to events of tragic nature, while we forced to face these tragic though preventable events. At the front burner repeatedly : who are we, where do you belong, where do you come from , what do you represent or what does Nigeria mean to you, do we want to remain one, and how...are some of the few questions.
Our ethnic conundrum remains a major obstacle to the existence of a Nigerian state with the transition from colonial to neo-colonial dependence and the novel PDP brand democracy. The conflict spiral generated by ethnicity can be seen at all the critical phases in Nigeria, its democracy, the party system, the electoral process and the sharing of the national cake via offices and resources.
The truth is that as much as some form of true federalism or on the extreme confederacy, resource control and largely self determination is desirable, however the salience of ethnicity in Nigeria can only be properly understood in the context of power struggle among various factions of the ruling class, especially within the context of the lower class’ ignorance through manipulation. The empirical fact being that ethnicity cannot be deconstructed because we have a faulty form of state and a morally bankrupt crop of class in power.
The issue of ethnic politics has been on the fore rather than the politicization of ethnic identities, this has generated hot bad blood. We keep running from the ethnic autonomy question, revenue allocation formula, resource control et al.
With each passing phase, our ethnicity has been constantly shifting because of a fluid and dynamic nature of changing interests. Earlier in the year it was zoning of the presidency by the ruling party.
The resurgence of ethnic identity only smacks of the total disillusions which the present ‘regime’ has brought about, the insecurity and uncertainty that pervade the air. This renewed ethnic agitation surely has an implication both positively and otherwise, however with a deaf and near-sighted government like the present one their solution is to wish the real issues away.
I have repeatedly insisted that the major issue in ethnic struggle is the phenomenon of politicized ethnicity. As Claude Ake once put it, “conflicts arising from the construction of ethnicity to conceal exploitation by building solidarity across class lines, conflicts arise from appeals to ethnic support in the face of varnishing legitimacy, and from the manipulation of ethnicity for obvious political gains which are not ethnic problems, but problems of particular dynamics which are pinned on ethnicity”. This is the Nigerian situation.
The tension of ethnicity in our so-called democracy is underscored by the contradictory tendencies associated between two factors; ethnicity and democracy, while the interests and values pushed for by ethnicity are narrow and exclusive those of democracy are universal and have inclusive appeal.
In real democratic level it is possible for democracy to become a solution to the problems of deeply ethnically divided societies like ours. Thus a good leadership can use it as a tool for political engineering, to be tailored to suit the particular circumstance of the plural society. This however is not our case.
Deep ethnic fears generated by in-built structures that promote unequal access to power and resources is being exploited. The Yoruba man don do im own...Katsina don do, so why Ijaw man no go do, and after na another person turn...Na we turn, na we dey produce de oyel. Wetin…kai you I dey craze we get am for agreement, na kano get am now. No amadioha forbid, give us now, it's our turn or … So if it is your turn you put any Mungo Park.
Settlers, landlords, landowners, migrants, indigenes and natives are words which have become familiar in our national discuss for no good reason, no clear-cut or precise meaning. Despite our religious intolerance of the recent past, a major player in our crisis ridden drive towards attaining nationhood has been centred on the ethno-related disgust we harbour for each other.
Our ethnic idiosyncrasies have simply graduated into a self-psychological mind frame with some sort of superiority or inferiority complex. We all deduce an all-important cleavage to our immediate ethnic.
An American quips, "I am an American, I live in Chicago, and I am of Scottish decent". A Nigerian proudly mouths "I am Ibira, from Okenne in Kogi State in Nigeria. The truth is that every nation has its own peculiar ethnic issue but how have we as Nigerians made an effort to manage our diversity. The term unity in diversity has remained a political coinage.
Every time we fill a form we are constantly reminded of our local government area, we are simply told that we are not really wanted. It is most disheartening the concept of a Nigerian remains vague and only in illusion not structure and systems with a people. A case of different templates for different groups, it may be good for Chike, but bad for Bayo, nice for Gyang but not Adamu.
That we have to redefine our ethno-understanding is an understatement. We have been robbed of meritocracy, excellence and unity, we are still battling favouritism, federal quota, catchments areas and such nonsense in a world that is consistently getting smaller through globalization and the need to fight a collective course (despite the hypocrisy and interests).
The Nigerian leadership is yet to produce a system of governance that can exploit our differences only leaders who have simply made long speeches to the point of confusing themselves and almost everyone.
Everybody accuses the other of marginalisation to the point the word 'Marginalisation' has been marginalised. The task at hand of nation-building is of null importance, the suitability of the persona is very, very secondary. He has to be from the right zone and for spice belong to the 'right' religion.
The intellectual ignorance we still exhibit at this point of our national lives is agonizing; the 'southerner' basks in the ignorance of his all-knowing nothingness while so divided is the Yorubas, Ibos and minorities. His ‘northern’ counterpart is left battling a slow and steady disintegration of a once famed unity amongst its subject and collapsing structure.
Contrary to many other assumptions, our diverse ethnic identity cannot deter national and political integration. The role and strength of our ethnic identities depends on the same factors that determine the salience of political identities in particular political arenas. In other words and final analysis we have a situation whereby our ethnic identity in a politically misbalanced system, disorganized structure, and with a today-tomorrow constitution, we can ourselves promote compromise and accommodation as well as confrontation. |