UNITY IN DIVERSITY
THE LECTURE I PRESENTED AT THE AREWA MEDIA INTERACTIVE AND DEVELOPMENT FORUM, AREWA HOUSE, KADUNA – NOVEMBER 4TH, 2021
PROTOCOL
Let me thank the leadership and members of the Arewa Media Interactive and Development Forum for having sufficient faith in the Nigeria Project, and sufficient hope in the unity of this great country, to build this bridge of unity at a time the monsters of tribalism and ethnicism are tearing our nation apart.
That you decided to organize this lecture with a theme that centers on our Unity in Diversity attests to your fealty and fidelity to our Nation, and your abiding conviction in its endless possibilities.
In the mood of our current national despair, heightened by insecurity on a level only seen in war time, you have lit a candle of hope, unity, and love. My prayer is that this flame should be fanned into an enchanting blaze of love that would light and soften the dark crevices of our Nation and bring forth a new dawn of hope anchored on unity and brotherhood for our country and our people.
Since 1995, you have painstakingly kept faith with the Nigerian Project. Fired by patriotic fervor, you have interrogated issues of deep and profound importance to our national development and have, to give vent to those beliefs, invited eminent Nigerians to speak on these critical issues.
I am convinced that most of the conclusions presented by the various speakers you had invited in the past, may have found space and corresponding execution by policy makers. I am therefore, honored to have been considered by you to be the Keynote Speaker at this year?s event. The theme of this year?s event, Unity in Diversity is apt, deeply reflective and speaks to the mood of the Nation.
For decades, the drumbeats of our Nation have filled and seared the ears about the fragility of our unity and the elasticity of the tolerance of our diversity. Some have prophesied the imminent demise of our Nation, so many scenarios depicting the coming Armageddon have been pushed, prognosticated and predicted. But in all of these, our Nation still remains intact. Though the contours of our unity may not be straight, though the lines of development may be zigzag, the tone and tenor of our discourse discordant and divergent, but the soul, the spirit and the identity of our Nation remain sacrosanct. And on this, all Nigerians of goodwill have come to a solid agreement.
The great and the revered Premier of the old Northern Region, the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir. Ahmadu Bello, captured this sentiment so eloquently and succinctly when he said, ?Here in Northern Nigeria, we have people of different races, tribes and religions who are knit together to common history, the things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us.?
In his Inaugural/Independence Address on the first day of October 1960, the inimitable Statesman, orator of repute and our first Prime Minister, the late Alhaji Sir. Abubakar Tafewa Balewa, left these words on marble: ?We have acquired our rightful status, and I feel sure that history will show that the building of our nation proceeded at the wisest pace: it has been thorough, and Nigeria now stands well-built upon firm foundations.?
The sentiments expressed by these great Patriots and Statesmen were correct and they came from their hearts. Unfortunately, the very issues they spoke so eloquently about, our Unity in Diversity, have, instead of being our bulwark, become wedge issues, standing in the way to our unity and the definition of our common purpose as a untied, indissoluble Nation, shaped by common aspirations and hopes. They have unfortunately been exploited by the purveyors of divisive narratives, enlarged by the merchants of tribalism, and promoted to a level that has created a chasm of alienation amongst our people.
The foundations which were strong enough, during our struggles for independence, which, eventually helped secure our independence have proven to be too shallow and shaky to hold our Nation together and sustain our democracy without social tensions and fissures. We must rise to this reality and fortify those foundations with the bricks of faith, patriotism and love. We need new foundations to confront the challenges of today. Nigerians are inherently united. We believe in the sanctity of our Nation, but we need a galvanizing force to deepen the cords of unity. A few illustrations will suffice:
In 1996, in faraway Atlanta, United States, we showed the world what we are capable of when we come together as a united entity. No one gave us a chance in the semi-final football match against the mighty Brazilians and tournament favorites. With less than twenty minutes to the end of the match, we trailed Brazil by three goals to one. But because a united Nigeria is an unconquerable force, we stormed back to victory even after missing a penalty.
We went ahead to stun the world in the final and become the first African country to win a global football trophy at the Olympics. That feat was not achieved because of adequate preparation; it was achieved via unity of purpose, in spite of our inadequate and haphazard preparation. Hear what Sunday Oliseh, a defensive midfielder in that team, had to say about that victory, ?Believe me, in my whole career as a soccer player, I think we’ve never had it so difficult to prepare for a tournament. We practically lacked in everything. We lacked in equipment, infrastructure, we lacked even in things as little as medical facilities we lacked in food, we lacked in everything, so we were just like abandoned children.
But because the mind always triumphs over matter, because attitude is more important than altitude, because conditions do not create success but success creates optimum conditions, that united team triumphed. Why did we succeed in Atlanta Another member of that successful team, Victor Ikpeba, explains, Nigeria is a very tribalistic country, we cannot run away from that but when it comes to football, everybody puts aside the tribalism we have back home. Everybody becomes united. When we are united, no foe can withstand us.
It was this same kind of unity that led to the success of our independence struggle. The late Governor Solomon Lar once reminded us that to obtain Nigeria?s independence, ?We worked as patriotic Nigerians without emphasis on our differences to see the mission accomplished? – a sentiment Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe identified in an address to the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) at the Polo Grounds, New York City, July 19, 1959: ?Each of our three Regions is vastly different in many respects, but each has this in common: that, despite the variety of languages and custom or difference in climate, all form part of one country which has existed as a political and social entity for fifty years. That is why we believe that the political union of Nigeria is destined to be perpetual and indestructible.?
Some gloomy theorists of democracy have said diverse groups cannot thrive in a democracy. They have therefore cherry-picked their evidence, citing close-knit societies like Japan, Germany, or even the United States. When they are told that the U.S. is as diverse as they come, they argue that it works in that North American country because it has a dominant Caucasian narrative. They often forget that the greatness of the U.S. derives from the resources of immigration and its black, Hispanic and Native American heritage that have enriched everything from its electoral practice to its human rights history, to its music and even cuisine. They seem to have different world views, different histories and cultural nuances. Yet they interact and enrich themselves in historic symbiosis without parallels anywhere. The point that democracy is an ideology of consensus does not detract from the concept of diversity. Britain dominated the world with its diversity. India is a great economic power despite its diversity.
So, Nigeria is a nation that is diverse, and beautiful as a coat of many colours. What tends to divide us should bring us together. Is it tribe, is it language, or is it food, or is it dance or is it religion? Take, for instance, the consumption of kola nut. Few know that it is grown in the Southwest, used for prayers in the East, and consumed for recreation in the North. It comes to life among the Yoruba, gives life in Igboland and is lively in jaws of the Hausa man. In the same way, a lot of our onions come from the far North; it enriches Ofe Nsalla in the East, Ewedu in the Southwest and Afang soup in my house in Uyo.
We quarrel over religion yet when a big business deal is hatched, no one asks why Ahmed praises Allah and Adewale shouts Hallelujah. Both of them are smiling to the same bank.
It was the same country that built a marvel of a pyramid from groundnut in Kano. Experts came from Malaysia to learn about palm produce in the South-South and South-East regions, respectively. And cocoa underwrote the prosperity of the Western Region. Oil was in the backdrop then. It is the same Nigeria, the same tribes, the same faiths, the same language, the same historical backgrounds, the same geography. So if I may ask, what changed?
We were glad when the late Maitama Sule orated on the floor of the United Nations, as we rejoiced when Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature. If we laugh together, we should also toil together.
In the rougher days of Boko Haram, the militants burned Churches and Mosques, and they slaughtered Muslims and Christians. Who were the soldiers fighting to save the whole of the country? We did not say it is a Northern fight, so no Southern soldier should go there. It was not a Fulani soldier or an Ibibio infantryman. It was the Nigerian soldier. When bullets are fired it does not bear a message on what tribesman it should fall. It hits a human, a Nigerian whatever the name of his God or the tribe or language he confesses.
But we still have more diversity than unity, and that is the problem. What happened to a Nigeria where a Southerner can win an election in Kaduna, or a Fulani man could win an election in Lagos? We have had it in the past. We can have it again. I am sure that a good number of those listening to me now must have heard of Umaru Altine, a Fulani man from Sokoto, who was popularly elected as the first Mayor of Enugu in 1952 and he stayed in office till 1958. The Western Region House of Assembly also had an Igbo man, Emmanuel Ebubedike, from Ozobulu in present day Anambra State, as the Representative of Ajeromi/Ifelodun/ Badagry Constituency. We can point to several other examples.
All of these now seem like a pipe dream as the last few years have seen our country more divided than at any other time in our recent history. What we see nowadays is a country where ethnic champions drive the narrative, and the cacaphony of discordant voices make it difficult for us to hear ourselves. This has been given expression in the numerous calls for restructuring, resource control and even an outright division of the country along ethnic and tribal lines.
Several reasons have been adduced for this state of affairs. Many individuals and groups have taken umbrage at the over-centralization of power at the centre, perceived marginalization of some parts of the country. These are sore points that give fillip to the agitations for balance and equity in the country. We cannot afford to run a country where some parts of our country feel marginalised or left out of the scheme of things as this is a potent threat to the unity of the country. We must ensure that there is equity and justice and that no part of the country is made to feel less of itself as this will definitely not augur well for our union.
Hence many have said we need a more equitable union, where no one feels shortchanged or short-circuited or left behind. A country where everyone seeks livelihood anywhere and anywhere without fear. We need a nation as a melting pot, where the identities remain but the flavours blend, where, as the first Stanza of our former National Anthem so emotionally enjoined though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.
The problem, for most part, is the elite. The Nigerian elite stokes the hate between one part and another. And we are seeing them in the debate over VAT, restructuring, zoning, herdsmen and these are not too difficult issues to resolve. VAT calls for fairness between us. To restructure is for all to feel like the brother’s keeper. It ensures we all eat from the same pot and no one goes home hungry or deprived. Zoning means abiding by a formula that works for all.
It only takes the people to sit at a table and cross-fertilize ideas. You win some, I win some, and all of us become winners. There will be no zero -sum game. The part will become the sum and the sum will be like the part. The equation will be complete. As former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, ?It is better to jaw jaw than to war war. But if one set must take everything, we will always remember our languages, our tribes, the aroma of our mother?s soup. Hate then replaces love, and handshakes will move beyond elbows.
The American democratic experiment that we romanticize today was not perfect, it took the elites, the founding fathers to correct the ills and gave the world a Constitution that is based on true federalism that has been copied and replicated all over the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, at the American independence on July 4th, 1776, the governing or legal instrument that shaped and organized the nascent Republic was based on the Articles of Confederation. As grand and impressively couched as the Articles were, there were, however, structural deficiencies in the instrument, which had hobbled the new nation from fulfilling the vision of her founding fathers.
The Constitutional Conference that took place in Philadelphia from May 25th to September 17th, 1787, finally came up with a new Constitution that established a True Federation.
Because the founding fathers were united by national interest over groupthink or group interest, today, America has subsumed all other passions and center them around what is popularly referred to here, as American Exceptionalism, which puts emphasis on what is in the best interest of America. Thus, from the East Coast to the West, from the Mid-West to the Plains or Rocky Mountains or Bible Belt, the South West and the Deep South, Americans have been conditioned and socialized to believe in the inalienable rights and creed of an exceptionally great nation founded under God to be the bastion of hope and an instrument for the advancement of the human condition.
Why can?t we create our own Nigerian Exceptionalism where emphasis would be placed on talents over geography, where the ethnicity, tribal affiliations, religious differences, all the elements of our diversity or homogeneity are subsumed within and around the ambit of the larger national interest. America has its roots in Protestantism; what is generally known as WASP, (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Today, however, the original defining or schematic representation has given way to a national narrative of one nation under God. There are Muslims today in America, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Confucians, Catholics and they all meld and weld in the tapestry of the American Exceptionalsim. Same can be done here, in our Nation.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, let me crave your kind indulgence to use a pithy but humorous illustration to wind down this lecture. A single parent had a son. Frequently, the boy would go up to him when he was with friends, and say, Daddy, Daddy, I want to pee!? The father found this a little embarrassing and decided to devise a strategy that would be known only to the son and himself. He told the boy, ?Whenever you want to pee, just come and tell me that you want to sing a song, and then you would go and pee.
The son got used to the new arrangement. One day the dad had to travel and asked his brother and the boy?s uncle to come and take care of the child for him. In the night, the boy woke up his uncle and told him, ?Uncle, I want to sing a song.? The uncle replied, ?It is too late for you to sing a song. You will sing in the morning.? The boy went back and tried to sleep but could not. With his bladder almost bursting, he went back and begged his uncle to let him sing his song as he could not hold the song any longer. So? The exasperated uncle reluctantly obliged him and said, ?You know it is late, so sing gently into my ears.? And he sang gently into his ears.
I brought that up because one of the major problems we have in this country is communication. We do not say what we mean, and we do not mean what we say. When many have told our nation that they want to sing songs of unity, they had ended up with groans of war. Agreed, that at some point in our history, we were misled by some of our leaders, like that man misled his son. Agreed that we have devised a register of communication that fails to represent our national intentions and we have ended saying one thing and meaning another thing. But after realizing that our mess has blocked the ears of our nation, must we continue with this ignoble attitude? Can’t we learn to sing a song and mean singing a melodious song of unity and then singing the National Anthem with fervor, patriotism, and a new meaning?
We must sit down and talk to ourselves, rather than talk at ourselves. We must listen to understand, rather than listen to respond. We must build bridges of unity rather than walls of division. We must realise that every part of our country is an equal stakeholder in the Nigerian project and work actively to harness the best of our diversity for the good of our country. There must be a level playing field and equal opportunities for all Nigerians, irrespective of where they come from or what language they speak. Development plans and projects of the government must also be spread evenly across the country so that a sense of fairness and justice will permeate the land. We must take deliberate steps to integrate ourselves and unify the country. One quick step we can take in this direction is a little tweaking of the format of the National Youth Service Corps. This was one of the instruments designed to unify our nation but which hasn?t quite achieved this purpose. I suggest that we make it mandatory for States to retain a certain percentage of youth corpers in its public service every year. This way, we would create employment and state civil services would be more multi-ethnic as unity is a creative process.
Also, the situation where any part of the country is denied commensurate benefits from resources harnessed from that part will only further alienate the people there and weaken our bond as a country. We must work to restore hope and confidence by actively ensuring that there is a sense of belonging and inclusion imbued in our citizens. Far too many of our compatriots identify more with their tribe and ethnic group than with our nation. We don?t need more Ibibios, or Fulanis, or Igbos, or Yorubas, or Ijaws, or Hausas. What we need is more Nigerians!
These are some of the things we must do, and which this Forum should promote and encourage as we seek to further strengthen the cords that join us as a country and as a people.
Let me close this lecture with my favorite Rudyard Kipling poem found in his book, Second Jungle: Now, this is the Law of the Jungle – as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,
But the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk,
The Law runneth forward and back
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,
and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. – Dale Carnegie.
It is in unity that we can defeat our common foes. As the battle of Trafalgar Square was about to start in Britain, Lord Nelson heard that Admiral Collingwood and Captain Rotherham were not on good terms. He brought both of them together, placed their hands together, and pointed at the enemy ships on the horizon. Then he turned to look them in the eyes and said, Look, yonder is the enemy. Disagreement gave way to unity and they won.
Nigerians must be reminded that we do not need to see eye to eye, in order to walk hand in hand. Our enemy is on the horizon and we must hold our hands together and march on until that enemy is defeated. United no foe can defeat us. This is the Nigeria we must work to unveil. This is the narrative we should be weaving. If the elites or the founding fathers of America decided to manage and meld their diversity into what is known today the American Exceptionalism, we too, can weld and meld our diversity and create our own Nigerian Exceptionalism.
We have fought a Civil War once because we couldn’t manage these flaming passions. That is enough. It is now time to be civil with one another and use our diversity as an instrument of good over forces of attrition and division. Let the journey begin today, and let us all offer ourselves to serve and diligently so, in this New Team Nigeria. Permit me to end this piece by reminding us once more, of the very instructive words of our former National Anthem
Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand.
It is my sincere hope that we will all leave this place as harbingers of this message of unity, so we can begin the process of healing and reuniting our country, safe in the knowledge that whatever language we speak, whatever culture we espouse or whatever religion we practice, we are all Nigerians and we should all come together to build a united, peaceful and prosperous nation, so help us God.
I thank you for listening. May God bless us all, and may God bless our dear country Nigeria!
