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Nigeria, an otherwise giant of Africa has been reduced to a dwarf state of socio-economic dislocation by retrogressive forces of ethnic irredentism and religious bigotry. Nearly sixty three years after political independence, Nigeria is yet to attain nationhood but has remained a country splintered along ethno-geographic and religious fault lines of over 500 micro ethnic nationalities whose sectional interests are often in conflict with national interest.
The configuration of the geo-political structure of the Nigerian state by delineating its federating units along primitive ethno-geographic and religious fault lines has enabled the emergence of Nigeria as a country of many ethnic nationalities to which a united nationhood remains elusive. The primitive configuration of the Nigerian federation has far reaching consequences that not only mitigates the integrated socio-economic development of Nigeria but poses an existential threat to its stability, cohesion and national security.
A constitutional representative democracy such as Nigeria with a structure of state that is configured along primitive ethno-geographic as well as religious fault lines has inevitably resulted into a culture of identity politics because the process of political leadership recruitment is primarily hinged on primordial sentiments of ethnicity and creed. Whilst there is nothing wrong with democracy as a system of government as the very nature and form of mankind is inherently democratic, Nigeria has practiced a form of democracy that is devoid of democratic values of equality of citizenship, social justice and accountability. The intricate consistency between democracy and the nature of mankind is evidenced in unquantifiable cherish of freedom by all of human race. While there are valid arguments on all sides as to the inability of the drivers of democratic rule to satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of the people, it is important to understand that all issues militating against democratic good governance are symptomatic of some deep seated issues at the very base of the foundation of the Nigerian state.
There has to be a Nigerian nation before democracy can work for it. There is the urgency of the need for Nigeria to evolve from a geographic expression of micro and conflicting ethno-geographic nationalities into a united egalitarian nation state as the condition preceding democratic good governance. In the current socio-political configuration of Nigeria has given democracy the new meaning of a government elected, dominated and coveted by ethno-geographic groupings with numerical superiority. This system of democracy has further deepened the existing fault lines with the people now elevating their indigene status of their respective ethno-geographic groupings over their citizenship of Nigeria. A democracy that is premised on a political process that is heavily dependent on ethno-geographic and religious sentiments is not likely to result into sustainable socio-economic development such as the kind desired by Nigerians as the reward for identity politics is corruption wrapped in cloak of patronage. Democracy thrives better in a united egalitarian nation where there is an existence of a clearly defined national consensus around the ideals of good governance. No such consensus exists in Nigeria today as all ethno-geographic groupings are in conflict of sectional interests to the detriment of national interest.
The entrenched narrative of modern Nigeria being a forced amalgam of diverse ethno-geographic entities without anything in common before 1914 is a false alibi used by interest groups to perpetuate the helplessness and hopelessness of the Nigerian situation for their selfish ends. In the contemporary world where united egalitarian nation states are in fierce competition for global resources, Nigeria must outgrow its current state of deep divisions along ethno-geographic fault lines that has pitched the various groupings against one another in mortal combat over its meagre oil mineral resources. However, the evolution of Nigeria into a truly united nation can neither be decreed by military fiat nor legislated by an act of parliament. It can only be achieved by a widespread self-enlightenment among the people about the need and benefits of a united Nigeria were citizenship is supreme over the existing micro ethno-geographic nationalism.
The people of Nigeria must realize that a mono racial Black African country like Nigeria hardly qualifies as a diverse country any more than Mono racial Mongoloid China and mono racial Caucasoid United Kingdom. Contrary to entrenched but false narrative, Nigerians from the four cardinal points have more in common socio-culturally as a result of several centuries of interactions predating 1914, through trade, diplomacy, intermarriages and even warfare. Like Nigeria, China’s broad Mongoloid racial classification is further broken into about 51 ethnic groups. These include the majority Han and minority Uygur, Hui, Buyei, Manchu etc. Similarly the mono racial Caucasoid majority that populate the British Isle are classified into different ethnic identifications. For example, Sir Winston Churchill British Prime Minister [1940-1945] was of Huguenot [French protestant] origin while Sir Philip Green, British business mogul is of Jewish ancestry. Queen Elizabeth II of England as a great granddaughter of Prince Albert of Germany, consort of Queen Victoria, is of Germanic ethnicity. The current Queen consort is Prince Philip of Greece classifying her heir designate and future King of England Prince Charles as an ethnic Greek.
Discernably, the difference between the British and Chinese nation on one hand and the Nigerian country on the other hand is the ability to discountenance their minor differences of ethnicity and appreciate their oneness under a broad mono racial identity. The British and Chinese have been able to elevate the citizenship of their geographical realities over their indigenous status of micro-ethno geographic origin and evolve a national consensus about good governance structure in their respective nations. This realization of the oneness of Nigerians is essential to an organic evolution towards a united egalitarian nation state wherein the ideals of democracy can translate into a good governance structure that will usher in a period of peace, prosperity and progress.
