I just read Ms Nwaubani piece: “Nigerian Tribalism: A Personal Love Story”. She writes in the piece: “There really isn’t much hope for my father’s generation in terms of relinquishing tribal sentiments. Our only hope is our youth”. In view of the background of the recent contentions on the unending, and often fractious, disputation on the national question in Nigeria, I wrote this response to her: “Many Nigerians, born into degradation shared your sentiment. I do not with many esoteric minded youth of my generation. We may also have been born into degradation but hold opinions or beliefs that are ideas preserved or understood by a small group of those specially initiated (educated), or of rare opportunity to have been to ‘oko baba e lo mi ri’ and have come to the realization that ‘oko baba wa ko lo to bi ju’. In Canada for instance, the people do not wish to relinquish the tribal sentiments between the French speaking Canadians and the English speaking Canadians but instead, have preserved these sentiments by dividing the country into two ethnic regions –One for the English side and the other for the French side. Even with separate governments, schools, hospital, public services and economy, the French speaking side has always agitated for a separate country. Also the British has never attempted to relinquish its tribal sentiments among its four major ethnic groups but instead has preserved same by devolving political powers to its various tribes of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, the Scottish still desires to break away from the Union next year. Belgium is another example. This country preserved its tribal sentiments between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons by dividing the country into two separate regions. The Northern Region for the Flemish and the Southern Region for the Walloons. Even at that, the Flemish people have always spoken out in support of a separate identity from the Walloons. They are likely to be a separate country within the next 5 years. Spain is yet another example of countries that do not wish to relinquish their tribal sentiments but have worked and preserve them. The Catatonia in Spain is one of the many ethnic regions in that country. Its government, schools, hospitals, public services and economy is separated from other ethnic regions in Spain; yet, it has been at the forefront demanding for a separate country of its own. Anyone taking a cursory look at the continents of Europe, America, Asia, South-East Asia, would have noticed that the people are working assiduously to preserve their tribal sentiments and in fact many countries have broken up just to further safeguard their ethnic configurations. It is shocking however that only the continent of Africa has refused to preserved its ethnic identities but instead have always worked to suppressed same. Sudan fought civil war for 21 years before it was eventually divided by America. Ethiopia the same before Eritrea broke away. There is ongoing civil war in Ivory Coast, Congo, and Nigeria. Attempt to relinquish our tribal sentiments is one of the fundamental reasons we are poor, under-developed and prone to ethnically motivated violence and killings. It would be better for Nigeria to preserve its tribal identities by dividing the country along ethnic regions or even divided”.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 14:49:10 +0000
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