I wrote that the US, the UK and the EU made a very big mistake when they brought Western democracy to Africa, without the PROCESS to democracy. I posited that a component of that Process is having a transparent, free and fair election, and where they’re unable to deliver such, their unalloyed preaching of democracy in Africa is weakened, before citizens. I cited the case of Gabon where people seem to have given up on democracy as they jubilated when the military took over. So, besides the message of democracy, the Process to democracy must be strengthened. Read it here – https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7102782338484314113/
Then, this comment dropped: “Your bias is obvious and still pained that your candidate lost the last election in Nigeria. Your preferred candidate won in Abia state and you adjudged that a good election. You only know in part even though you have a brilliant academic record. If the last election in Nigeria is conducted again in a free and fair environment, Tinubu will still win. And for a military coup to happen in Nigeria is akin to what we have experienced in the past. Peace is invaluable and let us keep praying and working towards a peaceful Nigeria.”
That piece did not mention Nigeria and Tinubu. My case study was Gabon. But, unfortunately, someone cannot just get away from our fault lines in Nigeria. Last year, 90% of my “negative” comments came from the Northern part of our nation; today, the Southwestern part has taken over.
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When I write that our currency is losing value (a fact), someone will comment that I hate Tinubu. But the same person used to agree with me in the past (I reminded him by sharing a previous comment). What has changed? A new tribe now controls Aso Rock and allegiance to Tribe becomes supreme over everything. That is the Nigerian way!
A few days ago, Arewa forum put out a press release, lamenting that its members have been cut-off from sweet power and Southwest was taking everything. I had noted that a few years ago, when I went to Aso Rock when Jonathan was the president, it was like an Ijaw and Igbo club!
And at one point in that regime, no Southwesterner was closer to power; in other words, the Southwest was cut-out. Buhari came, cut-out the Igbos. During Jonathan, the Igbos held great positions but the people did nothing in the Igbo Nation, but everyone was happy!
Where am I going? Nigeria has a major fault line: we hate corruption, cheating, etc only when it is not our tribe that benefits. But once it benefits us, it is fine. That is the reason people rationalize everything.
A few years ago, my state gave me an award as Abian of the Year, Abia Ambassador, etc. The next day, I wrote an article on the challenges in Aba. Someone called me from the Government House to express his disapproval. He made a point that my village did not vote for the government despite him appointing one of my kinsmen. Simply, the expectations were to play along because yours is in power.
I believe in ONE Nigeria and I have proposed a Nigeria Union which is structured around six nations. Think of how Europe handles many European nations with a population smaller than Oshodi Lagos (Iceland population is less than 400k). With that, Europe removes the demons of identity so that Ade can read Kemi, Kanu can read Eze, Usman can read Adamu, etc, and then harmonizes all at the continental level. Magic.
If Southeast/SS/SW… is a nation within Nigeria Union, and is autonomous, and only connected to the Nigeria Union, under a (Nigeria Union) rotational presidency which is largely ceremonial, that my post would not have been viewed as being “biased”. But because it is written by “Ndubuisi”, it must be against Southwest. That mindset is our weakest point and a Nigeria Union as I have explained will solve it. We’re irredeemable on our national fault lines because we’re the same.
That mindset is our weakest point and a Nigeria Union as I have explained will solve it. We’re irredeemable on our national fault lines because we’re the same.
(As you read, think that Ndubuisi Adamu Abiola wrote this, and not Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Does that help?)
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Keep writing about things the way you see them, because writing brings liberation.
Our weaknesses are well known, there is no point pretending about them, even those who claim to be non tribal, wait for them to make choices and the positions they take on critical matters, you will be left with no doubt as to where the person belongs.
For me, I try to question things from the standpoint of virtues and capabilities, because it’s difficult to counter such qualities without looking stupid. How do you make a case for dishonesty or poor job without looking out of sort? Some things are self-evident, and they don’t care about anyone’s feelings or warped mindset.
There is no belief in One Nigeria, we maximize every opportunity to gloat over others predicaments, because it’s all about winning or losing here, so if your tribe is not the winning side politically, you are definitely the losing side. There can never be any meaningful progress where a people see themselves in such light.
The concept of solidarity and subsidiarity is alien to us, the very things that form the foundations of humanity and its progress. We were badly formed, and we have consistently reinforced failures, probably because we do not know any better.
I won’t claim to be your regular reader but i always find you interesting. But i mudt say i am suprised at this comment that ” the US, the UK and the EU made a very big mistake when they brought Western democracy to Africa, without the PROCESS to democracy. I posited that a component of that Process is having a transparent, free and fair election, and where they’re unable to deliver such, their unalloyed preaching of democracy in Africa is weakened, before citizens.”
Are you saying that since they brought Democracy with or without the process or its components ( whatever you mean ), and we have tried what they brought and it is not working out for us, we should sit back and wait for them to go back and bring what will work or bring us the missing component? Like we have are not capable of working out what works for us with all the A class human resources we have worldwide?
TRIBALISM IS THE ANSWER.
By Remi Oyeyemi
“In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.”
– Erik Erikson, German-American Psychologist/Psychoanalyst and the originator of the theory of “Identity Crisis.”
“Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is NOT to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow”
– Shawn Corey Carter a.k.a. Jay Z, African American Musician and Businessman
Without TRIBALISM, in its finest nature, Nigeria will not make it.
It is the all important proverbial corner stone that those who seek to build Nigeria are rejecting and without it, Nigeria would never be successfully built.
TRIBALISM, my kind of TRIBALISM, is the most important variable needed so Nigeria can survive.
My kind of TRIBALISM would seek to allow every ethnic group to marinate in its own uniqueness.
As a Yoruba man, I want my language, culture and traditions to be allowed to thrive.
I want the Yorùbá philosophical world view to guide our sociological functional relationship with our cosmological interpretations for our existence.
I want to control my own DESTINY.
I want to determine the kind of education my children have.
I want to be in charge of my own security.
I want to control my own economy internally and in relation to my neighbours.
I and my people want to determine who we relate to as a people internationally.
I want to control my resources and only give what I can to “outsiders” with whom I have found myself in the same country, at least for now.
I want to have my own police and armed forces even if we have a common pool in which I have equal control and equal stake.
I want to give priority to my people before “outsiders” can make any claim or demand.
I don’t want people distant from my land making decisions whether my child or my people could get admissions to universities or not, regardless of their brilliance.
I want “foreigners” who come to my land to respect the wishes, the culture, the traditions and the desire of my people and not begin to use amorphous, ambiguous, duplicitous constitution, to which my people were never signatories, as the basis to laim claim to my land, my resources and my space.
I am a TRIBALIST. An enlightened one, who wishes for other ethnic nationalities what I wish for my Yoruba Nation – for each and everyone of them to SELF- DETERMINE ITS OWN DESTINY.
Until we are TRIBALISTIC enough:
1. to want to invest and defend our uniqueness as individual ethnic nationalities,
2. respect and appreciate our differences,
3. then come together to give and take according to agreed to modalities;
believe me, Nigeria will continue to fester in injustice, foster unfairness and anger, self destruct until it becomes history like others of its type.
As far as I am concerned, I am not willing to give up my beautiful Yoruba language to speak Igbo or Hausa or Tiv or Fulfude or any other. I also expect any self respecting Igbo, Hausa, Tiv, Ogoni, Mumuye, Igala, Bini, Nupe and any other to feel the same way.
TRIBALISM is the rejected stone by the proverbial builders that would eventually become the CORNERSTONE in the construction of Nigeria or the main foundation of other Nations waiting in the wings to take control after the demise of the incubator of the succubus that is inflicting the land.
We should not and must not run away from our shadows. No matter how much we try, we could never and we would never be able to run away from our shadows. It is impossible to severe ourselves from our realities.
No matter how much we embrace the fantasy or if you like, the Utopia of a Nigeria, it would remain what it is, a mirage, an apparition.
If we all want true happiness; if we all desire true progress; if we all sincerely aspire for peace; if we truly thirst for genuine security, we must edify the authenticity of our existence, our ethnic nationality.
In such edification, we would recognize, accept and respect our differences. In so doing, our differences would form the basis on which we would come together, if that is our desire.
No one could force away the uniqueness of a race. No one could force an aberrant identify on a race. It is impossible to negate my Yorùbáness because of the desire for an amorphous, amoebic, nebulous, shapeless, characterless country, called Nigeria.
“If you really have your own identity, you’ll keep on doing what you think is really right for you, and you’ll also understand the next step you want to take,” so admonished by Helmut Lang, the Austrian born artist and fashion designer.
Yes, TRIBALISM, is the answer to the survival of Nigeria. The rejection and demonization of TRIBALISM is an active ploy for the imminent demise of Nigeria.
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”
– John F. Kennedy in his Inaugural Address
January 20, 1961
©Remi Oyeyemi.