Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

[Bisola F]

Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

August 18, 2015 : Charles Abah

Notable historian, Prof. Toyin Falola, has warned that Nigeria will not develop fully with the continued sentiment its citizens attach ethnicity.

According to Falola, ethnicity has become “a well-entrenched bias” expressed by many Nigerians.

Falola, who teaches History at the University of Texas, United States, stated this while delivering the 50th anniversary lecture of the History department of the University of Lagos.

In a paper entitled “Ethnicity: Its Organ and Intestine”, the academic noted that ethnicity had become embedded in the psyches of Nigerians that it would be difficult to wipe it out from their consciousness.

An average Nigerian, according to him, sees himself more as first belonging to his ethnic cleavage before being a Nigerian.

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The historian, who said that the development was affecting the nation’s development negatively, noted that it had also affected its resource distribution and power equation.

He added, “In Nigeria, contestation for power by political gladiators in the nation’s political space has further accentuated the problem associated with ethnicity. The choice made by voters is mainly driven by the concern for how a given political party will serve the interest of a given ethnic nationality rather than the collective good of Nigeria. This trend presupposes that the electorate will most likely form, organise and identify with any political platform that tends to accentuate and perpetuate their quest to dominate others.”

The Head of the department, Prof. Olufunke Adeboye, who spoke to journalists on the sidelines of the lecture, noted that the department had, in the last 50 years, adapted to the reality of global trends in carrying out its mandate.

She said, “You don’t expect that we have to be where we were 50 years ago today. We have adapted to the reality of global trends in the way we carry out our mandate. For instance, we had to change the name of the department from being Department of History to Department of History and Strategic Studies to cope with global trends which emphasis the need to bring a diverse focus to the study of history.

“Owing to the improvement in the course module for the areas of studies that we have had to focus on, the calibre of students that come to study here range from security agents to policy makers who have fund the courses very attractive thus enriching the pool of our alumni base.”

Copyright PUNCH.

[olaka...@aol.com]

Bisola:

I couldn't agree more with Prof. Falola

The unfortunate reality is that this bane (the primitive tribalistic tendencies)
to our national development would probably remain
so until the generation of Nigerians over 50 (including myself)
live out gloriously into our old age and die off as we must.

The younger generations of Nigerians must take the gauntlet and redirect
the trajectory of Nigeria into a more progressive path. We live in a global village,
in which national boundaries are disappearing in favor of the formation of trade zones
and economic unions such as the EU etc, yet some Nigerians remain obsessed
with the idea erecting ethnic walls between her peoples.

If this trajectory does not change  the nation that we know as Federal Republic of Nigeria
is doomed!

The only worse scenario is that the component ethnic groups
that make up Nigeria are in an even greater predicament as none, including
the large and small ethnicities can stand alone, regardless of the rhetoric
in this regard by the secessionists!

Bye,

Ola

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

[kenneth harrow]

do people marry across ethnic lines in nigeria? that's one way to overcome the differences

-- 
kenneth w. harrow 
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
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east lansing, mi 48824
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har...@msu.edu

[ibdu...@gmail.com]

They sure do--what a question?--but that cannot even begin to neutralize ethnicity/ethnic consciousness. There are many Hutu/Tutsi couples just as there are many White and Black couples with the US.

Racism and ethnicity have less to do with sexual partnership. It's about power and how resources and privileges are doled and accessed.

--

Sent from my iPhone

[Ayo Obe]

Lol, I am even wondering if Nigerians marry within ethnic lines!

Ayo

I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama

[olaka...@aol.com]

OJ:

To be candid, I have no clues about how to solve
the problem of tribalism which is so ingrained in
our cultural upbringing, except my suggestion
about the hope that things might start improving
in this regard when the over 50s amongst Nigerians
die off.

This suggestion might have had it subconscious origins
from my being a pathologist by profession. We pathologists are the diagnosticians
in the medical field. We let our clinical colleagues do the healing
part, even though we end up telling them the TRUTH when all
is over and done with.

More realistically, I believe each and every adult Nigerian could do his or her own
bit by following some of the following steps:

a) discountenance all old prejudices about all other ethnic or sub ethnic groups.

b) deal with each Nigerian as an individual and not necessarily as a representative
of his or her ethnic group as all ethnic groups have good and bad citizens among
their peoples.

c) avoid speaking badly about other ethnic groups at the dinner tables in the presence
of our children as this is the way tribal prejudices are passed one from generation
to the other. In fact shut your mouth if you have nothing good to say about a stranger.

d) let the children know that tribalism, just like racism has its roots in the irrational
fear and ignorance about those whose ways and cultural practices do not know very well,

e) stress the similarities between all Nigerian ethnic groups and those that ee share with
all other human beings

f) promote (do not oppose) inter ethnic marriages between young adults; the more they mix up
the gene pool the less their children feel obligated to feel that they are superior to other ethnic groups

g) government leaders should define and promote those positive things that bind Nigerians.
they should walk the talk in this regard

h) promote the teaching of non native languages in different regions of Nigerians in addition to English,
French and the local languages

i) Etc. etc. etc.

Bye,

Ola

-----Original Message-----
From: John Ebohon <ebo...@dmu.ac.uk>
To: olakassimmd <olaka...@aol.com>; usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 18, 2015 12:24 pm
Subject: RE: Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

Ola,

 

We know the problem and its effects, but what is the solution?

OJ

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

they do. in spite of the challenges that might be faced at times.

toyin

[Tade Aina]

They have been since the 1920s and more so recently, particularly in the Coastal and other regions of Calabar, Warri, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Onitsha, Owerri,  Aba,  Escravos, Sapele, Opobo areas such as Kano, Kaduna, Jos , Bauchi, Kontagora, Ogoja,Ikom, Obubra, Makurdi,   Abakaliki, Lagos etc. Also the railways termini of Lagos, Lokoja, Enugu, Kano, etc. The Missionary posts of the Anglican and other Protestant Churches and in more recent times, the different National Youth Service Corps posting locations. The Colonial history of unified services in the railways, posts and telecommunications, the teaching service, agricultural extension, the medical services, police, prisons, immigration, customs,military and related forces produced generations of detribalized Nigerians before the politicization of ethnicity based on electoral politics , the perverted military regimes and the Colonialist contrived transitions in Nigeria.

Yours truly is a product of this important kind of inter-ethnic union and a current beneficiary of it. So, I often wonder at the noise that emanates from some who have not or did not experience this third or fourth generation Nigerian phenomenon.

-taa.

Sent from my iPad

[Dhikru Yagboyaju]

Disturbingly,even among the supposed intellectuals,ethnicity and religious considerations,are sometimes negatively applied

[John Mbaku]

If you are really interested in understanding ethnicity and how to deal with it, begin by reading this book: Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Ethnic Diversity, Liberty and the State: The African Dilemma (Edward Elgar, 1998). The late Professor Kimenyi has undertaken significant research on how to deal with the conflict created within African countries by ethnic competition for scarce goods and services, as well as how to promote peaceful coexistence of population groups within a country. This book is only 126 pages and provides an excellent overview of the relevant issues. 

JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
1337 Edvalson Street, Dept. 3807
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7442 Phone
(801) 626-7423 Fax

[kenneth harrow]

i imagine after a point that the children start to change the world; children of mixed races, mixed ethnicities might not be as hung up on racial or ethnic purity as others, and, speaking as a grandparent, they can certainly change the world for us.
right now children in the u.s. are changing the racial and ethnic climate, i believe. quite a bit...
maybe it is different when it is a wife who converts, and is absorbed into the new group of her husband. but that isn't the only possible configuration.
there was a good movie on that theme years ago from cote d'ivoire called Djeli. the young couple met in the university. when they went home, their parents hit the roof, but home was in the village, and the new elite, like in No Longer at Ease, had to be formed eventually based on education and class.

ken

[kenneth harrow]

so it is reasonable to ask, since mixing is not new in nigeria, whether ethnic cards have not been played by politicians, leaders, reviving and firing up ethnic hatreds for their own reasons?
it is something we have seen in the u.s. where arabs were not even really noticed  before 9/11, and all of a sudden have become the great hated enemies of all americans--according to many politicians, anyway, who play on the anti-muslim cards for their own advancement.
many others do the same for latinos, most significantly trump with his despicable words about them being rapists and the like.
after world war two, such approaches were regarded as fascist, and not openly expressed. the civil rights era was embodied by mlk who had us singing, black and white together, we shall overcome some day.
but that day has not come yet. we are waiting still, while ferguson and all the police killings of black go on.
is this too easy an explanation, blaming it on the leaders, and not looking for other factors?
i know nigeria is not the u.s.
the pattern of ethnic fighting is not unique to african states.
maybe we should ask, where has it been overcome, for starters.
ken

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

Ethnicity is a complex subject to explore. The competition that it generates tends to have its roots in delusion, economics, fear, ignorance, perception, religion and most of all politics among others. Nigeria’s communities lived together and intermingled in marriage and trade among others for many centuries.  Neighboring communities had their differences but they generally got along well for the most part.

Ethnicity has become a burden that bears down heavily on the country and also on many Nigerians who neither profit nor expect to profit from it. It seems to me that competitive politics in colonial Nigeria is more responsible than any other factor for the burden of ethnicity. Ethnicity-driven prejudice perhaps more than corruption has been responsible for Nigeria’s failure to make the progress that was universally expected of her at independence from Great Britain in 1960,  and which she remains quite capable of. Corruption continues to feed on it. The justice system feeds on it. The electoral system feeds on it. The patronage system feeds on it. It has helped to ensure that a proper merit-based system does not take root.

The divide in this forum created by the shameful threats during the last elections by the Oba of Lagos (a lawyer and former senior police officer) to the lives of fellow Nigerians who in his mind, are not his ethnic kith and kin, is eloquent evidence of this. The present divide on which past administrations Buhari should probe is another. There seems to be some for example who cannot see the injustice in not treating equals as equals for the same crimes under the law. They invent the lame arguments of practicality, distraction, and waste of time. They do not see the difficulties that bad precedent creates.   

Ethnicity has become the greatest challenge to Nigeria’s wholeness and progress. It casts a forbidding shadow on nearly everything. Corruption for example, is not unusually viewed through an ethnic prism. Appointments to offices of state and in the public service, are colored by ethnicity. Many Nigerians believe that even the selection of a national soccer team has not spared.

It seems to me that until the correct/true history of Nigeria is written and taught in Nigeria, even future generations will be poisoned as their predecessors have been. Nigeria’s “founding fathers” putrefied Nigeria’s public affairs’ landscape by selfishly resorting to the manipulation of ethnic (in some cases religious) differences to advance their political careers. They benefitted from them, and deeply implanted them in the general consciousness of their natural constituents. They made ethnicity, rather than citizenship and merit, conferrers of advantage. They should all be called out on the ethnicity question. It is time they are.

It is important that all Nigerians acknowledge that the country did not start on good feet. As has been said, if one does not know where they are coming from, they may not know where they are going to.

 

oa

[Mbogoni, Lawrence]

Could anyone or Prof. Falola himself please post the paper he delivered on the 50^th anniversary of the History Dept. at Lagos University?

[Adeshina Afolayan]

It is actually a worthy issue to consider what likely effect our present knowledge/technology-enabled society can have on the young one below, say, 30 years. Is it possible to still have ethnicity at its most virulent in twenty or so years time when, as Oga Ola Kassim predicts, all those over 50 would have gone to the great beyond?

This bears looking into. Today's young people seem to care less and less about ethnicity and more and more about some other relationship issues like money (this is of course an empirical claim but i cannot support with statistics now, just my gut reaction to what i have observed). It would be good to have a recent statistical data about the rate of inter-ethnic and inter-religious relationships across Nigeria. I have heard statements like "What does it matter whether s/he is Igbo or Hausa or Yoruba? I love him or her/S/he has money/We are compatible/etc. This is of course not to gloss over the already ingrained ethnic bias which may be difficult to shake off but which most are fighting in their own private battles. I vividly remember that before he died, my "enlightened" father called me one day and took me to task about the choice of a "good" wife to marry. He specifically mentioned Hausa/Igbo/Ijebu/Calabar women as "very bad choices" for me to pursue. And he had one or two instances of encounters with these women to back his claim. Well, as it happened, i eventually married a beautiful woman from the Oke-Ogun part of the Southwest, and ethnicity was far from my mind when i did that. I was sold on love and companionship. And i am under 50 too!

So, what has technology and globalization's fragmentation of identity got to do with ethnicity?

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD

Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

[Rex Marinus]

Until 1939, Enugu was the Capital of Southern Nigeria, before the creation of the three regions following Arthur Richard's constitution in 1946. You'd still see street named after Yoruba, Efik, Hausa, Edo and other people in the Igbo heartland. etc. who lived and worked in that city. Indeed in key cities in the East, you will see streets and structures named after Yoruba public figures. In a place like Umuahia, for instance, you have Awolowo street, one of the longest urban streets in that town named after Awo, just as you'll see Adelabu street, Macaulay street, etc, all in the years after independence.  The University of Nigeria Nsukka, built by the East, named key buildings, roads, and schools in a pan African way, and you have Awolowo Hall, Akintola Hall, Balewa Hall, Bello Hall, etc. These were supposedly political opponents of the founder of that university, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Yet he honored them graciously. These symbolic acts enact the degree of acceptance and openness, and the idea of a common heritage and common values, and thus proclaims the value of the other person in the Igbo public mind. There is no other part of Nigeria where these gestures were made for the Igbo - where symbolic public acts were made to tell people that the Igbo life matters. Rather, in very well -recorded public statements, public leaders of the other ethnicities encouraged the fear of the Igbo and the hatred of the Igbo in the public mind: the Igbo have come to take over all our things. Give them a yard they seek a mile. They plan to dominate us. They must be driven out; denied property rights and employment; massacred.

 In 1966, one of the reasons circulated for the murder of General Ironsi was that he was carrying out an "Igbo project" of domination, because he had "unified" the services, and dismantled the "federation." The subsequent war that followed the sustained massacre of the Igbo nation-wide was carried out with such pagan frenzy, that the Igbo, who once were the greatest advocates of nation, and national unity, gave up on Nigeria. I have stopped mealy-mouthing on this subject, but the Igbo growing up in Nigeria in the 1970s and '80s, where it had to be drilled into them that they came from the wrong side of the river, in terms of access to equal opportunities in Nigeria  had to do a slow but radical reassessment of their relationship with Nigeria. In actual fact, the mood of the Igbo is captured in the poem, "My Fatherland" among the poems of the Nigerian poet and scholar, MJC Echeruo, published in 1975 in his collection, Distanced:

Where is the new argument

to this tale?

Is the roundtable ceremony

still bereft of meat and salt

-- and valour?

Are the big-beaked scavengers

still hurrying to sundown?

Is the King still king

among the fluting masquerades?

Is this my fatherland?

 My generation of the Igbo came to ask the same question, and to understand that for Nigeria to forge a new nation free of the kind of deadly heritage that we have inherited, Nigerians must be told the truth, and they must decide to follow either of two paths:  the Awo/Sarduana path that has defined postcolonial Nigeria, or the path of the Zikists: Azikiwe, Adegoke Adelabu, Ojike, Orizu, Aminu Kano, Said Zungur, Osadebe, H. O Davies, and all those who fought for a truly nationalist Nigeria, but whose efforts were subverted by the tendencies that dismantled the dream of a coherent nation with a lot of outside help. WE do not hav any more options. The rise of the ethnic forces today is certainly because there is not a single Zik against whom we once threw all our vegetable offerings; and those who modeled a pan Nigerian value and sensibility like him were destroyed in the triumphalist mood that marked three critical events in Nigeria in 1947, 1951,  1966, and 1970. And until Nigeria as a nation finds some means to settle the bitter spirit of the Igbo, there will be no nation - because for some ironic reason, given their location and experience in Nigeria, the Igbo model both the Nigerian possibility and its greatest antinomy. We pussy-foot around this subject in vain.

Obi Nwakanma

---

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:29:14 +0300
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Rex Marinus]

Of course, one caveat: I understand that I have just stated what is generally an "Igbo position" on this subject, and I also acknowledge that it can only be one view, and that there are other perspectives. And because the Igbo themselves are not generally speaking, saints, there has to be dimensions to this issue which my deliberately linear position has not taken into consideration. So, let me make this statement too in the interest of fairness: I do not in articulating the positions below, suggest that the Igbo have no part in the Nigerian situation, or that the problem of ethnicity is specific to any particular group in Nigeria. I think that the political and economic interests that have benefited from the Nigerian crisis, are linked. Still, it may be worthwhile to honestly ask, as we once did in a Nigerian newspaper's Editorial Conference: "Does Nigeria have an Igbo problem?" Would there be greater coherence if we removed the Igbo from the Nigerian equation? If not, how should e begin to construct a new Nigeria? These are questions that we must begin to seriously ask if we must deal with the problem of ethnicity in the current nation called Nigeria.

Obi Nwakanma

---

From: rexma...@hotmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; umua...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 01:47:12 +0000

[olaka...@aol.com]

Obi:

Thanks for the clarification.
I started writing a rejoinder to your initial piece in which I
which addressed the issue of bias as your opinion is generally an
"Igbo" or more specifically a position that is shared by most
Igbo but not necessarily all Igbo.

History is written from the perspectives of those who witnessed or
were actual participants in the events. These perspectives reflect
the biases of the writers, whether subconscious or subconscious,
deliberate or not.

i abandoned the rejoinder because I felt it would take us in the wrong direction
which we must not take on this issue. The discussions would most like become circuitous
as one ethnic group tries to justify its own differing stand on the same events if we take this route..

It is time we focus less on history and more on the future.

What makes a man or a woman or any society is greater than the advantages
gained by his or her ethnicity.

There are probably almost a million or more Igbo in Lagos who were born in the city but have
never visited the SE and have no intention of doing so, either due to lack of resources or lack of
connection with relatives in their ancestral homelands. To these Igbo and many other Nigerians
whose ancestors migrated to the Lagos environment from elsewhere within Nigeria,
 what happens or does not happen in Lagos on a daily basis
impacts their lives much more than what goes on daily in Enugu, Owerri, Aba, Onitsha or any other locations in
Igbo land.

"Home" to most of these 3rd and 4th generation Lagosians of Igbo origin is Lagos regardless of where in the
SE their ancestors originated from. In essence--their real home is where their jobs and taxes are and
where they chose to raise their children and make a living. For example it is quite possible that some of
these folks might have more interest
in promoting the funding for a Light Transit Rail System in Lagos than they would support the building
of the 2nd Niger bridge, if given the choice.

The tribal age is over; the rest of the world is now moving past the age of nationalism and are gradually
embracing the post-national global era!

bye,

ola

[Segun Ogungbemi]

Obi,

Please give the source of your claim that before 1939 Enugu was the capital of southern Nigeria. Naming streets and buildings after political leaders from different parts of the country does not necessarily translate to a nationalist spirit. What counts, in my view, is the character and attitude of the players of deceptive coloration of their political leaders. 

The first political leader in Nigeria that sang the song of tribalism and lived by it was Nnamdi Azikiwe. The British divided the country along the line of ethnicity including its languages, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. Each Regional government was dominated according to each of the languages spoken by the majority of its ethnic groupings. The federal system of governance allowed each region to develop and grow according to its natural resources. In this case the Southwest took the lead even till today. Unitary system has done more damages to our development and the early it is thrown out the better. Federal system of governance is the best for this nation and we must return to it. 

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

[Rex Marinus]

About Enugu, I think it is public information that can be verified from Nigeria's political and administrative history. Historians here also can confirm this. And actually, naming is an act of affirmation; and naming places, buildings, and monuments after political leaders from different parts of Nigeria carries both political and symbolic weight.

As for your cryptic statement about deception and Azikiwe, perhaps, you might clarify this. What is both publicly and historically true is that Azikiwe lived his life publicly modelling the equality, validity, and centrality of every part of Nigeria in the Nigerian project. He sought to publicly live as an embodiment of a Nigerian ideal, and his work in that direction speaks for him, unless you have more concrete argument to the contrary. Azikiwe was about inclusion. To demonstrate his ideals, he gave his children Yoruba names, and no gesture could be more powerful, an acknowledgment of his ideals and individual value with regards to other parts of Nigeria. Azikiwe pushed for a Fulani, Mallam Altine to be the first Mayor of Enugu, the capital of the region which he governed. As Premier of the East, Azikiwe took Adisa K. Disu as his Principal Secretary to the Premier, basically, his Chief of Staff - the most powerful figure in the office of the Premier of the East. As President, he also took Disu as his Principal Secretary. If all the political leaders from other parts of Nigeria had met Azikiwe, even half way, Nigeria would be a different place. There are numerous examples that I could give here to counter your claim, and I think you have an obligation to yourself to rise beyond some of your frankly uninformed ideas about Nigeria.  I mean, you do not even know, if you permit me a little example, that Ibadan was governed from Enugu until 1939!

Meanwhile, Nigeria is a federal state. Has been a federal state since, with clearly more reserve power to its center, since 1966. But a unitary system is not a bad system. A system that circulates, through common services, the movement of Nigerians across ethnic divides is a powerful means of nation-building. We have, over the years, fallen into this false premise that a "unitary system" is bad for Nigeria. It is the argument that "each region develop at its own pace," that underscores the very Nigerian condition: in my mind, it is the obligation of a central government, where it is able, to make certain that a child in Kaura Namoda is not subsumed by poverty simply because s/he lives in a region where "developing at its own pace" means that children, especially girl children, cannot go to school because there is no funding, or because the political leadership in the region think education of a particular kind evil and unsuitable. Azikiwe's view was fundamentally different: if you live in the same country, it is the obligation of a central government, particularly at the stage of our nation-building, to intervene and provide equal social services that would empower generations in all parts. The etymology of "unitary" actually is "unity" and that is not a terrible idea; and all this fetish about federalism is informed from the false premise that "Nigerians are not the same." It is part of a left-handed gesture. Federalism has not solved Nigeria's political problems either. It requires a conditioning of the mind that affirms the equality of citizenship, and the validity of all life in nation. Perhaps we should in fact dump federalism, and try the unitary system for a change.

And Dr Kassim: I do agree that we must look to the future. But we must also understand this past, and why we have the present, so that the future does not ear a gnarled face. I salute you.

Obi Nwakanma

---

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

From: segun...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 10:00:10 +0100
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Michael Afolayan]

I agree absolutely that Nigeria will NEVER develop as long as ethnicity is the basis for apportioning rights. Nothing could be deadlier than basing any form of development of a people on the so-called "national character," whatever that means. When Buhari made ten or so appointments a short while ago and people cried "foul" because the bulk of his appointments came from the north, my question was "so what?" My own concern would always be whether or not those appointees would be able to move our nation from the slums to the mountaintop. When people accused the governor of my state of Osun (Aregbesola) of bringing the bulk of his commissioners from Lagos and not directly from the different sub-groups within the home base, I asked, "so what? Would they be able to take our state from where it is to where it ought to be?" My concern would be when a leader blindly appoints personnel or apportions access to developments based purely on ethnicy. It is then that the notion of equality unjustfiably overrides equity and the society is bond to wallow in ignorance and under-development. Ola's eight-point proposal sounds so appealing to me, and I hope we can all latch on to the proposal because as long as ethnicity constitutes our M.O., we sit on the edge of a bottomless chasm as a people. I hope this not the case for us.

Michael O. Afolayan

From the Land of Lincoln

On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 7:11 AM, Vin Otuonye <vincent...@msn.com> wrote:

Afis:
 
Why do you like to lie? Azikiwe sacrificed a lot for Nigeria. How can you say he fucked Nigeria? If Azikiwe wanted, he could easily have been the Prime Minister. He could have teemed up with Awolowo to form the government. But Azikiwe wanted to get the North in. Afis, truth is good for you soul, you know. Azikiwe is still respected and worshipped more than any politician in Nigeria. If there's any true Nigerian, anyone we can call the father of modern Nigeria, Azikiwe is. That's why public buildings and monuments are named after him.
 
Vin Cool Breeze Otuonye

---

Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 04:17:16 -0700
From: africanw...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [africanworldforum] RE: Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola
To: africanw...@googlegroups.com; africanw...@googlegroups.com; ebo...@dmu.ac.uk; omo...@yahoogroups.com
CC: okonkwo...@googlegroups.com

Azikwe fucked Nigeria up! I before others, IBO. No brainer! Afis Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Aug 18, 2015, 8:22:34 PM, Vin Otuonye wrote: Ola: But it wasn't like this before. Say for example in the 40s, 50s and maybe early 60s. If it was not like this before, the question is what went wrong, when did things go wrong and what caused things to go wrong? This may be the starting point. Vin Cool Breeze Otuonye Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 12:54:04 -0400 From: africanw...@googlegroups.com To: ebo...@dmu.ac.uk; usaafric...@googlegroups.com CC: okonkwo...@googlegroups.com; africanw...@googlegroups.com Subject: [africanworldforum] Re: Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

Bye, Ola

-----Original Message----- From: John Ebohon To: olakassimmd ; usaafricadialogue Sent: Tue, Aug 18, 2015 12:24 pm Subject: RE: Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

Ola, We know the problem and its effects, but what is the solution? OJ

From: okonkwo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:okonkwo...@googlegroups.com]

Sent: 18 August 2015 16:58 To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com Cc: okonkwo...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Ethnicity, bane of Nigeria’s development –Falola

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[kenneth harrow]

according to geschiere, after SAPs came along, and the cameroonian state was weakened, it moved to support regional units, including ethnic identitarian groups, village communities, at the expense of affiliation to and prioritizing the national state or nationalist ties.
it makes sense that a weakened state will seek allies in local entities when it can no longer override them by financial power.
my impression in reading him was that this was a widespread pattern throughout africa under saps.
all the explanations given for ethnic divisions in nigeria have tended to be located in the british or in the biafran war, as though babangida and abacha and the 80s and 90s had no impact on the situation.
since many of you lived through those years, you would have a strong opinion on this period--which i would love to hear.
ken

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[Segun Ogungbemi]

Obi,

I asked you the source of your information only to be given a vague answer. It is least expected of you. I am not a professional historian but that does not mean I am oblivious of some aspects of the history of Nigeria. I am aware that Professor Falola in his book entitled Ibadan made a reference to Enugu as the capital of Southern Protectorate. My ancestors belonged to Northern Protectorate. 

Bearing Yoruba names is a matter of choice and for some specific reasons. In Nigeria, people bear Christian names and Muslim names  yet the Jews discriminate against them so also the Arabs. 

In the US, most African-Americans bear European and Christian names yet the whites discriminate against them. 

In Kaduna, we have Lagos Street, Arochuku Road etc and it means nothing to the inhabitants of the city. Let me reiterate once again, what matters is human attitude or character towards such names. You said,  "that Azikiwe lived his life publicly modelling the equality, validity, and centrality of every part of Nigeria in the Nigerian project."

You sound like a praise singer of Zik. From what I know about Zik, he contributed to the disunity of Nigeria in some of his writings and pronouncements. 

Don't forget that the Igbos were given positions in Yorubaland so also in the North until such a time they started insulting the sensibilities of the Northerners. 

The US runs a federal system and it  has made the country one of the most powerful nations in the world. The federal system of governance cater to the needs and aspirations of the public. 

Unitary system of governance will retard our progress. All forms of corruption are perpetrated under the unitary system in Nigeria. We as a country carry the burden of Unitary and its weight is shrinking our neck. We should do away with it and re-enthrone true Federalism. It is imperative for Nigeria go back to true federalism. 

You seem not to understand that true federalism takes care of education of everyone of school age. In the concurrent lists in the first republic, each region was allowed, for instance,to have the kind of education policy that suited it. That was why Awo introduced free education in his region even children from other parts of the country where such could not be sustained but who lived in the defunct Western Region benefited from it. Let me tell you that many Igbo children living in the defunct Western Region went to school free. That is empowerment. 

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

[kenneth harrow]

dear segun
there are two parts of your posting that appear to be slurs. i suppose, if they are slurs, they should be left unchallenged, but i am not sure why we would pass over them.
you state below:

"In Nigeria, people bear Christian names and Muslim names  yet the Jews discriminate against them so also the Arabs."

let me simply say this is a mystery to me what you mean.

secondly, even a novice at nigerian history would have trouble with the following statement. i know i should butt out, but it appears really egregious to me:  "Don't forget that the Igbos were given positions in Yorubaland so also in the North until such a time they started insulting the sensibilities of the Northerners."

this appears, ultimately, to be an excuse for blaming the victims. my simplistic notion of nigerian history is that before 1966 igbos, like others, migrated to other parts of the country and successfully set up businesses. no one "gave them positions," as if it were an act of generosity to accept them, outsiders, into the territories.
that attitude toward allothones has been replicated throughout the world, always with horrific results.
people are people, segun. they have the right to move around, try to make a living, try to give a life to their children. why blame them for this?
i'll leave it to you to explain what you mean by "insulting the sensibilities of the Northerners." i hope that doesn't mean establishing churches, because if it does, it is another excuse for intolerance everywhere on earth.
perhaps you meant something else?
ken

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[Biko Agozino]

Contrary to the commonsensical assumption that ethnicity and religious identity are the greatest problems hindering the development of any country, Professor Eskor Toyo once gave a talk to the Directorate for Literacy (an NGO that ran free literacy workshops for workers in Calabar in the 1980s) in which he argued that class oppression is the gravest problem facing Nigeria, not sectarianism nor tribalism (serious as these may be). A few weeks later, workers in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, invited him to come and address them on a similar theme but he could not go and he sent me to go and represent him for I was the Director of Administration at the Directorate for Literacy.

When I got there, the workers did not waste time challenging me to explain what Eskor meant when he said that ethnicity was less important than class identity in Nigeria. I started sweating because I had not reflected clearly on the Toyo thesis. Then I answered by using the problem-posing learning style of Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed: I asked the workers if they were all of the Ibibio ethnic identity. They nodded. I asked them if they were all Christians and most of them nodded. Then I asked if they shared their religious and ethnic identities with the Obong of Uyo or chief of the city and again they affirmed. So I asked them if the Obong has ever invited them to dinner at his palace and they said, never. Well, I concluded, Moshood Abiola identified with the Yoruba ethnicity and with the Muslim religion but the Obong of Uyo who was Ibibibio and Christian invited Abiola as a class ally, feted him at the palace, gave him free land allocation and gave him a traditional chieftaincy title - Ada Idaha ke Brutu (or one of those outstanding in the land). The workers roared with laughter and told me that the people called that title by a different name - Ana Inaha ke Brutu. When I failed to laugh along, they translated that it roughly means, those who sleep around on the land!

I will  need to read Mwalimu Falola's thesis on ethnicity as a bane before commenting. But, for the time being, I wonder what he really means by the 'organs and intestines of ethnicity' if not what politicians call 'stomach infrastructures'. My guess is that he was echoing Okwudiba Nnoli's classic work on ethnicity as a tool for elite power struggles. But to say that ethnicity is the bane goes beyond what Nnoli argued, given that ethnicity would always be there as is the case in industrialized countries with hybrid ethnic identities intact - the very argument of Azikiwe in his misunderstood publication on tribalism as a tool for national development.

I may add that almost every country has numerous ethnicities and that those countries that tried to wipe out multiple ethnicity or hybridity by forcibly crushing minorities tended to suffer immensely for their hysteria: Nazi Germany, Japan, Zionism, Somalia, Rwanda, Ukraine). Toni Morrison concurred in her Nobel Lecture when she stated that there was a good reason why God planted different tongues among the builders to frustrate their insane plan to build a tower to heaven lest they continued and got roasted by the sun. Diversity is good for all if managed properly by recognizing individual merit while uplifting the poor no matter their ethnic backgrounds. In a democracy, if you ignore the education of a section of the country simply because they do not share your ethnicity, then one day an illiterate person from there would be elected president over you or the impoverished people from there would erupt in violence and your ethnic group will not be immune.

Similarly, if you are biased against fellow citizens simply because they have a different ethnicity or religious affiliation and you burn their businesses and massacre them in their millions perhaps because they appear more affluent due to success in business and a higher literacy rate, then you are simply retarding the development of your community in which the hated group could have built industries to employ your people, built mansions for workers to rent, built hospitals to treat the sick and built schools to educate the young irrespective of differences in tongues and religion! Such xenophobia may be what Mwalimu Falola is warning against and if so, he should go a step further and ask for the government to pay reparations to those victimized by government-sponsored ethnic phobia in the country.

Biko