A professor’s recipe for reconciliation

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While we are fiercely debating who said what about who and why after the 2023 general election, we must not lose sight of the fact that we have a country to protect. The vestiges of the 2023 elections are still fouling the air and many Nigerians have already relapsed into ethnic cocoons. The rendition of ‘our son is better than your son’ and related posturing have remained part of the problems of post-2023 elections Nigeria, but those expected to help put out the smoulder are also displaying their own posturing namely: the State Security Service.

The SSS said the plot to install an interim government was real and warned those behind it to desist. The simplistic call for restraint by the SSS didn’t sound too good. Most Nigerians expected the Nigerian secret police to put a leash on the plotters of the civilian coup rather than just ask them to desist. There have been uproar against the conduct of the 2023 elections but the solution to the issues raised against the elections is not to create another problem for the country. Thus, if indeed there are people planning to foist something as grave as an illegal government on Nigeria, the relevant agencies should not just warn, they should act beyond verbal caution. That would not just show the seriousness of the matter but that Nigeria is off the shelf from such distractions.

If there must be anything to consider at a time like this in which Nigeria needs healing and cohesion, it should be genuine moves to build a nation. A Catholic priest of the Order of Preachers more popularly known among us as the Dominicans, Reverend Father Anthony Alaba Akinwale OP, took a wholistic look at the issue of Nigeria’s unity and brought a discussion on the issue to a new level. Father Akinwale is a Professor of Theology. He is also the Vice Chancellor of the Dominican University, Ibadan. The cleric must have seen, heard, read and felt a lot to know what Nigeria needs to do in the vexed issue of Nigeria’s unity. Apart from his academic prowess and spiritual gifts, he lives among and handles issues that concern Nigerians and knows how things that have to do with the a Catholic Priest of the Order of Friars Preachers holds that Nigeria has a conceptual crisis.

Father Akinwale says: “We need to begin by resolving a conceptual crisis. What do I mean by conceptual crisis? Quite often when we speak about Nigeria, we collapse the distinction between country, state and nation. We tend to think that the three are the same. We tend to think that the three are synonyms. A country is a territory from the Latin ‘Contra Terra – a land that lies ahead of you’. A country is a territory, it is not necessarily a nation. A nation is an association of peoples and I use that word in the plural deliberately because of diversity. A nation is an association of peoples who identify their shared core values. And of the basis of their shared core values, they give themselves a constitution which would now establish institutions that make up the state. What we have in Nigeria and in most African countries is a confusion where we think the nation is the state. The nation is reduced to the state. We have a country quite alright by the fact that we live within a territory even if that territory is not secure as we all know. But we don’t have a nation, we have institutions that make up the state. We collapse the nation into the state. If you look at our constitution – Section 2 of the current constitution – and you don’t find this in the 2963 constitution – it ascribes sovereignty not to the people but to the state. That is dangerous. That means the state has the last say on any question. That means the state is more powerful than the citizen. That is a recipe for impunity, because as we all know, the state is the Head of State or the Governor or whoever represents them. Whatever they say, we all have to comply whether they are right or wrong.

So, we don’t have a democracy in the true sense of the word. And until we have that, until we build a nation, we can’t even talk of unfinished greatness. And I have to make a critique of the title of Governor Fayemi’s book; it presupposes that there is a project that is unfinished. I’m saying that we have not even started a project and we need to stop deluding ourselves. What are our shared core values? What are the things that bring us together apart from the Super Eagles?

I had this experience in 2013: I was visiting a place called Du in Plateau State. I got to Du the Friday before the Nation’s Cup Final between Nigeria and Burkina Faso and there was tension everywhere. But on Sunday night when Nigeria won the game, the final match, the tension dissipated. Most people forget the fact that a young man from South Eastern Nigeria received the ball from a young man from Pankshin, who had to leave Nigeria because his parents were killed. Victor Moses passed the ball to Sunday Mba and Sunday Mba scored the goal. We didn’t even ask about the local government of origin of the scorer of the goal.

So, what are our shared core values? If you ask the Americans, they talk of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We don’t have one, and it is when we begin to identify our shared core values that we will begin to build a nation. What we have right now is a state held together at gunpoint. When the state begins to oppress the citizen, there will be cries of marginalisation, there will be secessionists and separatist agitation, there will be insecurity. Now, we have set up Nigeria to be a place where the state is more powerful than the citizen and the state is oppressive. We need to retrace our steps. Quite often Nigerians ask, which is the way forward? And I say if you are moving in the wrong direction, you shouldn’t be going forward. You should make a U-turn.”

The various issues raised by the academic cleric are boldly staring us in the face. His points give new insights like scriptural passages. They are real and obvious, yet they appear intangible. What national icon can we attribute to Nigeria which truly represents us? As children, we already knew Paris with Eiffel Tower and New York by the Statue of Liberty. We asked for that of Nigeria back then. It was said to be the National Theatre in Lagos. What is the state of that monument today? It has degenerated like nearly everything Nigerian. The same rot has engulfed the Tafawa Balewa Square. The same rot and inexplicable neglect of serious things we notice everywhere.

We need to begin to roll off the piles of debris so as to begin to build a new nation. Akinwale’s recipe is one that deserves to be promoted. It should be seen as a vehicle towards achieving genuine reconciliation among Nigerians and a very good foundation for nation-building.

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