UNITY has been one of the reasons that are believed to be binding the country called Nigeria together as a corporate entity. This unity rears its head in the early 20th century and more importantly in 1914 when the Northern and the Southern Protectorate were amalgamated by the British Government with Lord Lugard playing the leading role.
I cannot agree less with the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo that “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English’, ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French’. The word ‘Nigerian’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not.”
I have not seen a country that is so divided on all fronts like Nigeria. We claim to be a United States of Nigeria comprising of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba states and other minority ethnic groups like Nupe, Tiv, Ijaw, Igbira, Kalabari, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Edo, Angas, Gwari, Efik, and several others. But in reality, we were never united since the time of independence. I always laugh anytime I hear the word ‘unity in diversity’. Even inter-tribal marriages to a large extent have not remove the ethnic prejudices existing in the mind of Nigerians even though it is not uncommon to see a Yoruba man get married to a Hausa girl or an Igbo lady to an Igbira man.
Only in Nigeria will a popularly elected president declared publicly that he won’t favour the regions that did not vote for him in an election. Perhaps, he has forgotten that all Nigerians cannot vote for him. He must have probably also forgotten that a government cannot function well without a viable opposition such as the one we have between the Democrats and the Republicans in the United States of America.
It will be unfair for a president to think that a region that does not support his candidacy should suffer in terms of developmental projects. Or what is the value of an election in which all the electorates voted for a single candidate when there are other candidates so as to be in his ‘good books’? That shows the shallow thinking level of our leaders that still bother themselves with irrelevancies such as the number of regions that supported their candidacy.
The case of the Shiite leader, El Zhazaky and the Federal Government reminds me of how our perceived unity is failing us. El Zhazaky has been in detention for many months now because he and his fellow Shiite Muslims blocked the way of an army Chief who is in all indications a Sunni Muslim.
To digress a little, Shiite and Sunni are the main divisions in Islam, with the Sunnites being the majority worldwide.
Now, many Shiites lost their lives as over 300 members were reportedly killed by men of the Nigerian Army in one clean swoop and have also lost other things including houses which have been destroyed because of this act. But if you ask me, I will say the Shiites were thus punished because they are a minority Muslim group fighting against a majority Sunnite Muslims.
In what sense are we then united when we can’t even tolerate people who have different religious ideologies or even forgive their mistakes? That is united Nigeria for you.
Very few people from the Western or Northern part of Nigeria for that matter will ever want an Ibo president. It is not that they are not capable of ruling (of course we have had a man like Nnamdi Azikwe before) or they are less educated ― I know of many Ibo men and women who are academically sound. But from my view, we all fear that they will actualise the dream of seceding from Nigeria to form the Republic of Biafra which was conceived by the Late Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu.
And if Biafra is successful, that means other ethnic groups like the Niger Deltans and maybe the Yorubas will fight for their own divorce from this failing marriage. By not allowing Ibos to be our president, it means that the rest of us don’t trust them enough.
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I could remember when my sister was ripe and my aunt would warn her not to bring an Igbo or anyhow boy to the house because according to her, Igbo and people from other tribes are “ara ilekile” meaning they are aliens and lack certain characters and cultures. I need no one to tell me she would not want to see a Hausa man being brought to the house either. I know that is the mind of many Yoruba parents too. But the Yoruba parents are not alone in this. Of course, you won’t tell me it won’t be difficult for any Igbo parents to come to term with their child that is engaged to a Hausa man or woman.
I was reading an online news one day and I decided to read the news of a man who has been convicted of corruption. After reading, I scrolled to the comment side. I had to quickly look for a dictionary that I can check what unity really means in English. Instead of Nigerians to condemn his corrupt act, they were busy abusing each others tribe, some even seek to justify his acts because he is from their ‘side’ of the country.
If a person is coming out for a post, the first thing we check is his ethnicity and then his religion and not his character or his ability to deliver as a leader. For example, if a Yoruba (Christian) is vying the post of president, he is expected to pick a Hausa man as his Vice-president or another person that is not a Christian from another region of the country, and if a Hausa (Muslim) man is coming out, he is not expected to pick any Muslim as his vice-president from other parts of the country, then I ask myself, “What kind of a unity is this that we can’t trust two people of the same faith being president and vice-president of our country?” Or since when has religion become a bastion for measuring someone’s character? Is it not these Christians and Muslims that have been looting our treasure since?
A truly united country should not be divided along ethnic and religion lines as ours is. We as people have probably forgotten that we are humans first before being a Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo or even Ijaw or Idoma. Right now, we are not united and since we are not united, our development is at risk.
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We should all go back to the drawing board and look for the meaning of unity and then we will see the need for us to embrace true unity as a basis for true development in Nigeria, not the type of unity that is witnessed when one ethnic group needs the other to win an elective post.
Ogunlade is an undergraduate of University of Ibadan studying Religious Studies.
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