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OF PATRIOTS AND TRIBALISTS
By Remi Oyeyemi
"This New Nation called Nigeria, should be an estate of our great grand father, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We will use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South, as conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future"- Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Region) The Parrot of October 12, 1960
“A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability. - John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
“The usual, easy route is to advocate putting up with the charade, not rocking the boat. …But Nigeria today is beyond such simplistic postulation.” - Guardian Editorial, April 19, 2007
“What the patriots are missing here in my judgment is that for Nigeria to matter, its components have to matter. For Nigeria’s components to matter, the peoples who make up these components in their ethnic groupings have to matter. By implication it means tribalism has to matter.”
I have been calling for the break up of Nigeria for more than obvious reasons. Some reacted by calling me a “tribalist,” “separatist,” or “ethnicist.” Others genuinely tried to contend my views by expressing their disagreement. Others have been more banal calling me all the negative names they could muster with their diction. I believe that those calling me negative names are doing so, out of desperation and denial about the reality of the break up facing Nigeria today.
This tendency among such group of "Nigerians" to want to project themselves as "patriots," is becoming irrational and paranoiac. Among this group, there are those who sincerely believe that in size and diversity truly lies the future of Nigeria. There are also those whose main concern is to continue to protect the misery that the status quo represents as means of meal ticket. But common to both groups of these "Nigerian" patriots is the alacrity with which they are always quick to “stigmatise” those who do not share their dream of "Nigeria" as “tribalists,” “separatists” “ethnic mongers” or what have you. This is not withstanding the situation prevailing in the country today, which suggests that they (the "patriots") are still nurturing a failed dream. This is because the struggle today is not against colonialists but against what Kwameh Nkrumah rightly termed "neo-colonialists." And by the way, I personally do not worry about such ad hominem attacks. I consider my self a tribalist, even in those days when I still believed and hoped in Nigeria.
The underlying factor here is that Nigeria as an idea has expired. As a reality it is fast dissolving into nothingness. But to actually salvage it, the most important VARIABLE needed to do that is what the patriots are throwing to the curb because of their denial and desperation. To the patriots, any talk of the ethnic groups is unhelpful. It is tribalism. It is against the interest of Nigeria. As far as they are concerned, we all have to be loyal to Nigeria and not our ethnic groups. What the patriots are missing here in my judgment is that for Nigeria to matter, its components have to matter. For Nigeria’s components to matter, the peoples who make up these components in their ethnic groupings have to matter. By implication it means tribalism has to matter.
It is my judgment that without tribalism, there is no way Nigeria can survive, if it stands any chance at survival at all. Those advocating that being tribalistic is unhelpful to Nigeria are behaving like ostriches. They are asking the peoples of Nigeria to shed that which is the most authentic about them (their ethnic identities) and embrace vacuous or at best, amorphous identity as represented by the Nigerian state. It is like the builder of a house who starts by installing the roof without laying a foundation, and setting the bricks.
What the evidence suggests is that the Nigerian peoples do not have the same aspiration and the same dreams. Hence it is my belief that "Nigerians" could never be persecuted enough to elicit any momentous social, economic and political change that could be NATIONAL in PERSPECTIVE and engender its POTENTIAL SURVIVAL as a COUNTRY. I do not need to go into details of such persecutions any longer.
Thus to reform Nigeria and maintain its unity, therefore avoiding its break up and prove wrong the tribalists or separatists like me, the patriots are expecting ordinary Nigerians to "decide to do something about" the "fumbling characters and ruling dynasties that have seized the center" (apology to Kennedy Emetulu). But the question the patriots must answer is - has the poor man in Akure the same notion of Nigeria as the poor man in Bauchi to sufficiently bring them together and fight along side each other for the overthrow of this rapacious elites found in every ethnic group? What exactly do they have in common to give them the sense of camaraderie needed in a struggle for social, economic and political emancipation? Added to this monumental obstacle, is that those who are profiting from the status quo, even as second class citizens being used to undermine their people will, would ensure that no change cometh.
While the poor man in Bauchi would readily chant "rankadede" to get crumbs from the rich man in his town to get his daily bread, the poor man in Akure would get lost into the world to find his own means. While the poor man in Kano would readily go to war for official armed robbers like Mohammed Abacha believing that his connivance with his expired father to loot our treasury was the handiwork of Allah (?), the poor man from Item or Ikot-Abasi would ask why Allah or God could not do “miracle” in his own life too? If the poor Fulaniman in Kebbi, the poor Hausaman in Kano, the poor Kanuriman in Maiduguri, the poor Igboman in Abakiliki, the poor Itsekiriman in Warri, the poor Edoman in Benin, the poor Yorubaman in Itire were to fight for the liberation of "Nigeria," they must do so in the hope that their respective expectations would be met. They must believe in the same Nigeria with the same rule and the same constitution. This is not the case here. It is why Nigeria will break up.
Nigeria has failed and would not make it because the foundation to make meaningful adjustments are not their. The foundation to make amendments are not there. The capacity to allow for restructuring and renegotiation is not there. The foundation is not there and would not be there because the so-called patriots and nationalists are throwing away the blocks needed to set the walls that would build Nigeria. They are campaigning against the essence of our peoples. They are asking for the jettisoning of our identities without any genuine and authentic replacement. They are calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. They are demonizing “tribalism” and “ethnicity” in the hope of making it unworthy and non-desirable. They would not succeed.
They would not succeed because they themselves are not willing to deny their own roots. They are not willing to say that they are Kataf when they are Nupe. They are not willing to say they are Ijaw when they are Mumuye. They are not willing to say that they are Yoruba when they are Igbo. They are not willing to say they are Hausa when they are Edo. Even when they say this under pretext, it is for immediate economic gains set for prompt appropriation back to their village where they always feel safer. Even when they try to claim to be what they are not, they are not better than impostors. No one can run from him or herself. You can not run from your self (apology to Bob Marley). You can not deny who you are no matter how much you try. If Nigeria was to make it, we all have to RECOGNIZE our differences. Apples and oranges are not the same. Oranges and tangerines are not the same. If we recognize our differences, we can begin to examine how to work together through negotiation. But this is not going to be possible because Nigeria is not structured in a manner to allow such reasonability. It is why I am convinced that Nigeria would fail. It is Nigeria’s destiny to fail. And fail it will be so that the various peoples of the country could be free from the machinations of Ahmadu Bello and his descendants.
I challenge all of those shouting “one Nigeria,” and “Nigerian unity,” to come out and tell the world if every time they visited the so-called Nigeria with their children, they never took them to their own villages. Those who live within Nigeria but outside their ethnic enclave should come out and tell us if they never took their children home for festivities such as marriages, Christmas or whatever? If they do, could any one of them come out and explain why they do that? Is it not because of their sense of self-worth? Is it not because that particular village(s) is their origin? Is it not because of their primordial attachment to that village and by extension to the ethnic group? How come an Igboman, would not take his children to Kebbi in Kebbi State because of his “patriotism” and belief in Nigeria? How come a Tivman would not take his children to Warri because of his patriotism and belief in Nigeria? How come a Kanuriman would not take them to Aba as a result of his patriotism and belief in Nigeria?
The fact of the situation is that all of us are tribalists. The patriots are just pretenders who engage in “holier than thou” postures. The least we can all do is to be honest with ourselves, recognize TRIBALISM as part of our human essence, acknowledge our mutual suspicions and RENEGOTIATE Nigeria. But I am of the view that NEGOTIATION is possibly impossible within the present structure. The only thing NEGOTIABLE as at present is how to break up Nigeria. The earlier we face this reality the better. And we should do it NOW!
The usual mantra of the patriots goes like this: "We have nurtured this idea of Nigeria long enough to know that the problem is not between individual Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Birom or Igbo man or woman. Left to themselves they get along fine, as our history of pre-colonial trade, intermarriages and cultural and social interaction shows." But the patriots always forget to add that in the pre-colonial times, there was peaceful inter ethnic trades, but there was no political control of one by the other. Every ethnic group was the master of its own destiny and developed at its own pace and related with another group the way it wanted. They practiced their religions the way they saw fit without antagonism to each other. This is not the case in the present circumstance. Apart form the realities of the lives of the peoples of Nigeria, look at the vision espoused by Ahmadu Bello in the quote above.
The so-called patriots are also fond of pointing to the United States as example of peoples living together in peace and prosperity. But they always tell the half story. They fail to tell the whole truth that the Jews have their own communities in New York. They fail to report that the Irish have their own separate communities in Baltimore. They fail to inform that the Germans have their own communities in Philadelphia. They fail to disclose that the African Americans have their own separate communities in Chicago. They fail to acknowledge that if and when the Caucasians sense that there are too many “blacks” buying properties in their developments, they sell such properties and move away to “whiter” areas.
Ethnicism or tribalism is what we are. It is essential to our beings. It describes us. It underscores who we are. It is the insignia of our identities. It is the plank of our philosophical existence. It is the fountain of our world view. I am not ashamed to call myself a TRIBALIST. I am very proud to be a Yoruba. I once believed in Nigeria. I am no longer able to sustain that belief. Nigeria has betrayed me and is sacrificing me. I reject that option. Nigeria is not in position to guarantee my aspirations to self determine. It should expire. It should break up.
Nigeria is a dilapidated building. Its walls are about to collapse outside. We should let it collapse in that manner. This way we will be able to preserve the lives of the people within. If we prop it from outside with wooden pillars, when the whirlwind comes, the walls will collapse inwards and kill everyone. Nigeria can not survive. It will break up. This Nigeria’s destiny. We should all work together to hasten this destiny in our mutual interests. Now!
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Posted by Robot| 21.04.2007 07:13