ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS: Where exactly are you from?
Few Nigerians in
daily conversation with compatriots escape the rather aggressive and
abrasive question as to their origins. Why would any Nigerian wish to
know “exactly” where people come from in the same land? What difference
does it really make?
Of course we are
all from somewhere, but belong to a larger entity called Nigeria. The
citizens of a nation state are the products of an ever-evolving change
process of internal migration and settlement, modulated by economy,
ecology and politics. Their true identity should be defined by the
country they belong to, and practicalized by its politics.
Broadly, a citizen
of Nigeria is from the state and city in which he or she lives in,
works and pays taxes. It could change. I was from Lagos before I came
to Abuja. That is, however, not a satisfactory status in Nigeria.
After 50 years and
a civil war that nearly split the country, we are still preoccupied
with primitive tribalism in a globalized world. The creation of 36
states and the expensive construction of a centralized capital at Abuja
were actually designed to foster national unity and cohesion of the
differing tribes and tongues.
Today, the
political party that rules Nigeria has introduced a clandestine form of
tribalism, couched and camouflaged in the terminology of “geopolitics”
and “zoning,” designed to drive a wedge between coordinating cultural,
social, economic and political units. The ultimate is to promote the
barbarism of unfair advantage and naked kleptocracy.
Ethnic profiling
and categorization, whether over drinks in a pub, or at a job
interview, makes nonsense of individual achievement, brilliance and
quality, the quintessential elements of the much sought after
privatization and free-market economy.
The fool who likes me be careful with the fool who likes you because of where you come from.
That soul is likely to hate and kill somebody for the same reason.
Foreigners living
and working in Nigeria are increasingly zoning the hiring of staff,
from cooks and drivers in their homes to the executive cadre on the
floors of the business glass house. In a way, you cannot blame them for
copying guidelines laid down by the People’s Democratic Party.
Europeans and
Americans in Nigeria will readily tell you which ethnic groups in the
country they prefer for security at the gate, to cook in the kitchen,
as driver, financial controller, manager and marketing executive. This
is regrettable recourse to the colonial strategy of “divide and rule.”
Perhaps the PDP will eventually propose that we go to South Africa,
exhume the long-buried policy of apartheid (separate development),
piece the bones together into a skeleton that will haunt the memories
of Nigerians all the days of our lives, and finally result in the
break-up of the federation.
Anybody interested
in the study of social geography will be convinced to conclude that
nobody comes “exactly” from somewhere or anywhere, as far as origins
go. In actual fact, the further back we descend in natural history, the
more unified we are as humans.
And where exactly
does that “Nigerian” come from – born in Lagos to Igbo parents, primary
and secondary school education in Lagos, University at Zaria, now
resident in Houston, Texas, USA as professor or athlete? Some of
Nigeria’s footballers are not just foreign-based, but citizens of the
United Kingdom first, and then Nigerian just for soccer purposes. Where
exactly are they from?
“Do you know I did not know you were Ibo? You’re so different!” a
Nigerian colleague confided in me, after two years. And in the UK? “I
hardly knew you were Nigerian.” Silly, agonizing and patronizing
compliments!
