Season of ethnic baiting
When all is said and done, Nigeria remains no more than an amalgamation of ethnic groups. That seems to be the way many significant persons in prime political positions in the country prefer it. Forget loud declarations of loyalty to “one Nigeria”. More often than not, there is neither root nor sincerity in that phrase. It is all drama.
It does not take long or much effort, to come to terms with the reality that there are far more tribesmen and women in high places in Nigeria, than statesmen and citizens. In recent months really, being tribal has acquired a new panache. It is now a case of my ethnic group is on top, or our ethnic group is better than your own. To hell with Nigeria! Well, until further notice.
Sixty-four years after Nigeria gained what has proved to be a tethered sovereignty, from Britain, it is arguable that the country has not shifted, significantly, beyond symbolisms, in forging a nation-state. It takes little or no prompting for the constituent groups in the tenuous union, to quickly run into their ethnic cocoons. The common space on which shared values and traction for nationhood ought to be nurtured, remains nothing but volatile playground for recalcitrant tribesmen and women, masters of cant and limited vision, pulling furiously towards their ethnic corners. It is a game even unwilling citizens have been forced to play. The last nine years have been the worst, in this wise.
Poor Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. He dared to dream wrongly. His dream and spirited attempt to forge a nation from the disparate tendencies out of which Nigeria was formed, have clearly not borne the desired fruit. He must have been dragging unwilling horses to the stream. As a matter of fact, only recently, the early effort by Zik to forge a nation out of the distinct peoples of Nigeria, was derided in some quarters.
In what may be one of the most audacious celebrations of the triumph of the ethnic spirit, over whatever Zik thought he was pursuing, the nationalist and first president of independent Nigeria, was pilloried in some pathetic articles, for attempting to convince others to subscribe to his national agenda. That, it was said, in the article, was a ploy by Dr. Azikiwe, to favour his ethnic group. There was no elucidation to that theory, but that does not matter. What often matters most in ethnic grandstanding in Nigeria, is not to talk sense, but to be seen, in desired circles, to be an ethnic champion.
The uproar late last week, over the threat by a lady, Amaka Precious Sonnberger, identified to be a Canadian citizen, with Igbo ancestry, was, to all intents and purposes, one more episode in the game tribesmen and women play with Nigeria. Within the context of the season of ethnic baiting, which has reached its climax in the last fifteen months or so, the drama about Ms Sonnberger, whoever she may be, was, when properly situated, “all sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
As distasteful as what the lady said may be, any fair examination of her threat, in context, would have found it not worth the unnecessary hoopla thrown around it, including the precipitate internationalization of the issue.
Let it noted, that the whole present rabid ethnic antagonism between the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic groups, came about with the launching of the presidential ambition and eventual ascendance of Bola Tinubu to the presidency. Properly situated, the current scotching ethnic baiting, primarily features, in the main, the Tinubu-section of the Yoruba ethnic group, versus all others. The Igbo is the major object of their hate. Essentially, it started as a strategy for political survival. Sadly, it has gone rogue and out of control, with many hitherto unconcerned people being sucked into the ‘we versus them’ ethnic grandstanding. There are many among prominent and ordinary Yoruba and Igbo who are still wondering what is at stake.
Is there any ground on which the threat from Ms. Sonnberger to the Yoruba can be justifiable? None, it can be said. As one writer noted last weekend, the Igbo, may presently be at the butt of gratuitous belligerence from triumphant Tinubu section of the Yoruba ethnic group, but Ms Sonnberger, showed did not reflect the Igbo way. She betrayed a disposition that is not the way the Igbo talk. Or fight.
Yet, even for all the repudiations of the disagreeable comments of Ms Sonnberger, her disposition can easily find antecedent in matching intemperate and unbecoming ethnic baiting utterances from individuals from the Tinubu-section of the Yoruba, even those in lofty heights and with name recognition.
Last week, Interestingly, a video clip re-surfaced, of Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in a public glare, threatening to undo the Igbo and inherit their property. It is always about the property and estate of the Igbo.There is no record that anyone among those who took umbrage at Ms Sonnberger’s well-nigh inexecutable threat, found anything wrong with Mrs. Tinubu’s indiscretion. But the internet never forgets.
Mrs Tinubu had served as senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, besides being the consort of her politician husband, who is now president. She had been the first lady of a state, not a rustic one, but one that lays claim to being the most cosmopolitan. Such is the damage that ethnic chauvinism continues to wreak on Nigeria. For the records, Mrs. Tinubu was not the first public figure to throw caution to the winds and adorn ethnic baiting as a garb. There was the case of Rilwanu Akiolu, Oba of Lagos, who loudly threatened the Igbo as a people.
Oba Akiolu, though a traditional ruler on a revered stool, is, alas, also of the Tinubu-wing. His ethnic sabre rattling was, of course, glossed over, by the very people who will want the world to believe that Ms Sonnberger has done what no other sane Nigerian has done. The internet is replete with all manner of similar ethnic chauvinism that became common in the months leading to the 2023 elections and thereafter.
Expanding the fault lines of ethnic differences in Nigeria as a strategy to gain political foothold in enclaves, may work over time, but it is a very costly tactics. It sets a very dangerous precedence and definitely is not sustainable. It is a technique that offers short-term advantage. That, unfortunately, seems to be all that the political class in Nigeria often ask for. Not surprisingly, the country has remained caught in ethnic webs, ever in conflict with themselves, while the politicians clean out.
The political class is not the only guilty party in what appears to be a policy to ensure that Nigerians remain behind their ethnic lines. The media is as guilty. Every time, news platforms, supposedly with editors, report that “five Fulani men did this or that…., or “Five Igbo boys did this or that…” or “Five Yoruba women did this or that….”, they are reinforcing the ethnic lines that now appear unsurmountable for Nigeria.
By the same token, any time government officials, sustained by public fund, ignore ethnic profiling of certain citizens, but get excited over some others, they accentuate rather than ameliorate an existing divide. That is the problem with such mid day sensitivity as has been shown by government officials, even legislators, to Ms. Sonnberger’s banger. Chasing her down is a solution to nothing.
