THURSDAY COLUMN BY SAFIYA ADAMU
Time to reflect on our relations and feelings for the entity called Nigeria. Each time one thinks of Nigeria and Nigerians, the question that comes to mind is, for me, heart breaking. I keep thinking and wondering how did we get it wrong? What happened?
I want to understand all the rage threatening the polity, creating crevices that keep deepening and widening. The rage engulfing the nation, that rage creating barriers to any attempts at bridging these crevices and communicating in order to build a nation at peace with itself. No, no! no! Something has definitely gone wrong and we need to know what it is. I am sure quite a number of other fellow Nigerians have their minds and hearts set on having a nation called their own with dignity and much pride. We want to understand ethnic relations from historical perspectives; yes, I want to understand what drives this rage. I do not believe or do not want to believe that it stems from ethnic differences or even religious differences. Do not get me wrong, I’m not saying or trying to even imply that these two factors do not matter, they do and very much so too. The big question is why can’t we live together in acceptance of our obvious common destiny? May be I’m not putting this out properly? I really do not understand. These factors have always been present like forever.
At independence, our founding fathers did not quite exactly agree and after some back and forth they finally agreed on way forward. Then the first military coup happened; it was a tragic development, a horrible twist in an already very fragile set up. But they were ready to make it work so they agreed on parliamentary system of government, regional, well, a kind of semi-autonomous units federating or relating with a much less powerful center. What I find fascinating however even in this relatively balanced contraption were the less than honest perception and trust amongst them. It was not really destructive per se because every region chose to do what each leadership felt was good for its people. But the 1966 or Nzeogu coup changed all of that. It was an event that threw away hopes of economic, social, and political development and growth. That train never got back on track after that unfortunate derailment.
Today decades on we are embroiled in a not so different landscape; one that is much more toxic than anything before. It is now much more dangerous because of the easy availability of weapons of destruction that range from social media to actual arsenals of weapons – bullets and guns are all over the streets, acidic tongues of elders and statesmen who should know better. Distortions of history and facts abound and are bandied about freely with the aid of social media tools all of which have resulted in ethnic profiling and senseless killing sprees across the nation. This is a tragedy that in my view is totally uncalled for. But in Africa violence, senseless violence it would seem is always lurking around the corner just waiting to be unleashed. And when it is finally unleashed, it produces an orgy of extreme proportion; barbaric and inhuman, very beastly and more. Check out what happened in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Serbia, Central Africa Republic, and not so long ago xenophobia in South Africa. Examples abound all throughout history. Do we really want to go through all of that? Do we want to be part of the refugee population? Second class citizens and forever referred to as immigrants? A lot of these violence or tragedies are born out of some people’s delusions and ideals. Sure no one should be begrudged their right to self determination or independence; what is totally unacceptable is when that right is seen as an entitlement that must be realized through violence, harassment, threats and cheap black mail. At this level of our civilization we should be able to demand for dialogue without resort to all of that hatred and demonization of one other.
I believe that we all need to be realistic enough to not just reign in the rhetoric, but to seek to understand why we act or feel the way we do. Why do we lack this sense of commitment to the entity called Nigeria? This entity called Nigeria has so much potential, yet, so little commitment from its owners? We own this country lock stock and barrel, it is our responsibility to ensure it works but not at the expense of any form of bloodshed. May be if we endeavor to understand our ethnic and religious relations, we could begin to change our attitudes, change our perceptions of one another, begin to contemplate the fact that even though we have differences, we can live and work together. The world itself is today a global village and disintegration is not really a solution.
