Akamadu: Laughable quest for nationhood Monday, 02 September 2013 00:00 By Chuks Akamadu Opinion - Columnists E-mail Print User Rating: / 0 PoorBest “Nigeria is what it is because its leaders are not what they should be.”– Chinua Achebe IT is commonplace to see some of our leaders, past and present, sermonize on the imperative of national unity. Curiously, they would rather keep Nigeria together than promote unity amongst the diverse peoples of Nigeria. It is necessary for all true patriots to appreciate that keeping Nigeria together does not and will never equate promoting peace among its peoples. For some odd reasons, many Nigerians do not see the difference; hence the consistent century-long failure in our approach to confronting the issues that contend with true nation building. The inadequate passion, glaring indifference and cunning self-interest that characterise our efforts in this regard are a different kettle of fish entirely. What we have had is a recurring dissipation of energy, white papers, investigative panels, conferences of all types, and the now diversified outrage that treat the symptoms of our union. I see that our leaders, for instance, speak about ‘being together’ without seeking to do justice to the factors that tend to keep us divided. Needless to add that the result is the cycle of feeble attempts at becoming one nation in the true sense! With particular reference to our leaders, past and present, I appreciate their concern as people who have made individual sacrifices to preserve the territorial integrity of Nigeria, no doubt; but they put forward their arguments in a manner that suggests that they probably see in themselves divinely appointed custodians of the land. Even more vexatious is the wishful tenor of their position. There is no denying the fact that some of them have, at some point, put their lives at risk to amply demonstrate their unshakable faith in Nigeria. Some had even gone to war for the survival of Nigeria whilst others have lost fortunes, worthwhile friendships, sprawling goodwill and what have you. For them also, what they have lost is neither quantifiable nor replaceable. In their subconscious, therefore, the only meaningful recompense they can get is to see that Nigeria does not disintegrate before their eyes. There is another group of leaders whose faith in an eternal Nigeria rests largely on the comparative politico-economic advantage a united Nigeria confers on them as against a dismembered country. This class of patriots is also often busy with preachments on national unity. At the other extreme is an arguably knowledgeable school of thought that favours our continued existence as a country based on its conviction that our teething problems have to do with individual Nigerians, not with the tribes or tongues that differ, least of all religions that constitute Nigeria. What we have as a result is a medley of patriots and patriots. These three groups, nevertheless, do not by any means represent an exhaustive list of Nigerian patriots and/or patriots. A scrupulous interrogation of the position of national unity proponents as well as the observable divergence in their camp would necessarily throw up the obvious question of why the United Nigeria advocacy? The answer to this question is even more obtrusive: we are neither united nor on the path of national consensus on unity! It is the absence of unity that necessitates the frenzied quest for it by our leaders, in view of the fact that it is a desideratum for the attainment of nationhood. That was why in a Thisday report of December 19, 2012 captioned: President Jonathan Tasks Armed Forces on National Unity, President Jonathan had this to say: “Whatever may be our differences; religious, ethnic or personal, Nigeria is more important. We must be united in rising above our differences and promoting values that bind us together.” Whilst I agree with Mr. President that Nigeria is important, I however disagree that she is more important than our differences which he impliedly acknowledged. For, it is those differences of ours that define us as “Nigerians”; and we in turn make up Nigeria. There is no Nigeria without us. In my view, Nigerians and Nigeria are as mutually-reinforcing as they are mutually-inclusive. It can thus be seen how Nigeria has perpetually been a victim of our leaders’ mindset which imagines that our unity can be fixed by means of decree. It also explains, in part, why the Nigeria unity choir can only render very disharmonious hymns. Staccato, more or less! The misfortune of the Nigerian state is that we have not had leaders that sincerely sought evolution of a united nation. At every turn, they had relied on blackmail, brute force, horse-trading, primitive wheeling and dealing or a convenient combination of these. I cannot see the wisdom in denying who we are? We are in certain respects different. Call it differences, call it variations, they exist; and we should not apologise for the existence thereof. A thirty-year-old man from Umuahia who has lived all his life in the South East would naturally be stunned to see a Yorubaman pouncing on his amala and ewedu or a Hausaman relishing his tuwo. It is called culture shock and obtains in all parts of humanity. If it is a natural phenomenon, why then do our leaders insist we renounce our being? Even when Britain, on the eve of their departure (1960), tried setting the tone for our gradual march to nationhood by giving us a realistic National Anthem, our leaders were quick to replace it with something wishful. Whilst line three of the first stanza of the old Anthem (Though tribe and tongue may differ) honestly acknowledged our differences, which should truly be our take-off point as an aspiring nation, the first line of the first stanza of the new Anthem, in self-conceit, seeks to rally “compatriots” to obey a national call. Which compatriots? Which national call? On what basis? When did we ‘come’ together to agree to be ‘patriots’? For what agreed objective? Did the forced return of Biafra to the Nigeria homestead mean that all had become well eight years afterwards - 1970-1978? What about the numerous times other sections of Nigeria have voiced out a desire to go their own way but had a change of mind for whatever reason(s)? Come to think of it, is it not sufficiently self-explanatory why we all stand like statues each time our National Anthem is being rendered at public functions? What greater demonstration of lack of faith in it could there be? If our leaders who gave us the humorous 1978 Anthem do not believe in it, how then can any reasonable person expect us to take it seriously? In fact, what does the current National Anthem inspire Nigerians to think of their country? What does it inspire Nigerians to do for their country? Its presumptuousness is reflected in the people’s prevarication on what the country means to them, what they expect of their leaders and where they locate themselves in the building of a true nation? Are we surprised then, that the same people that mouth this ‘anthem’ would step out of the venue of such false-allegiance and obey a conflicting command to maim and kill their compatriots without remorse, sure that the compatriots who joined them in the rampage do not love the country enough to point them out to compatriot security agents! The security agents, on their part, are not too sure of what is in it for them and for the country, should they do a thoroughly good job of exposing the culprits. Worse still, the leaders of the country would not even cater for such personnel while they are in training school or equip the agencies well enough to do a damn tidy job. As it is with this issue, so it is with several other issues of national import! And the rigmarole beat goes on. • Akamadu is a Member, FG Centenary Celebrations Planning Committee.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:04:51 +0000
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