By Rasak Musbau
ONE of the important values accepted by most people and nations in the world today is the equality of all men. The idea presupposes that everyone is born equal and should be treated as such regardless of racial, ethnic, religious and cultural differences. The Nigerian Constitution, the Charters of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Organisation (UNO) all support this value. In fact, equality of persons is one of the very essential principles of democracy. Any government that respects democracy must highlight equality of all humankind.
But, despite constitutional provision for equality in the Nigerian constitution, we are confronted with the dangerous tendency of mutual distrust and manipulation of what divides us by powerful political and religious mongers. In truth, socio-economic cum political inequality is a reality in Nigeria. But in spite of various efforts to eradicate the problem as evidenced in the creation and proliferation of States, ethnic “arithmetic”, ethnic balancing, federal character, NYSC scheme, Unity Colleges, various means for revenue allocation, official and unofficial exhortations for national unity and inter-ethnic tolerance and inter-faith groups, the problem still haunts us.
It is important to understand that governments, leaders, or groups that manipulate the people have a reason for doing so. The reason is simple. Manipulators have something to hide. They want to cover the fact that they exist by exploiting and oppressing the people. So, they pretend to be friends of the people.
They pretend to be protecting the interests of groups to which they belong by race, ethnicity or religion while, in actual fact, they are only taking care of their selfish interests. By this manipulation, such governments and leaders want to break the unity of the entire people. They want to weaken the consciousness and opposition of the entire people to their bad government and bad leadership.
Since independence, various selfish leaders have manipulated our people by placing emphasis on our differences. For example, some have based their political campaigns on ethnicity, regionalism and religion. Today, religion has become a strong weapon used by some selfish leaders to manipulate and divide the people. Their misuse of religion has led to riots and loss of lives and property. But while in office, their performances, ways of life and style of living belied their religious claims as they are more corrupt and perverted than Satan.
This manipulation of our people through ethnic, religious and sectional differences has caused a lot of harm to our nation. It breaks the unity of the people and turns their attention away from the urgent and real matters of public interest. Furthermore, internal disunity caused by manipulation prevents the people from playing a more prominent role in the development of the country.
It is time we recognized that the old saying, “unity is strength” remains valid. It is only in unity that we can win the war for economic development, social progress and political emancipation. It is when we are united that the war against insurgency and what actually prompted it can be successfully fought and won. Trading of blames by various leaders, to further deepen our division, is counter-productive.
Nigerians must know that the poverty, ignorance and disease which oppress the working masses today, do not recognize ethnic, language, religious or regional differences. Hunger does not discern your ethnicity. So, whether you are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Longuda, Birom, Ogoja, Tiv, Gbagyi, Efik, Kanuri, Chip, Annang, Izon, Nupe, etc means nothing to poverty. Likewise, disease does not care about your religious affiliation. Neither does ignorance.
Poverty, disease and ignorance attack primarily the masses. Therefore, the masses need to shun all artificial and counter- productive divisive tendencies. They would lead us to nowhere.
The people should protect national unity and rise up against leaders who want to perpetually manipulate them for selfish gains. This is the time for our people to use religion and ethnic frontiers to promote national development and stability. The people should be educated about the importance of forming and joining popular associations, such as occupational and trade unions and clubs which cut across ethnic, language, religious and regional boundaries, so as to strengthen national identity and unity. We should not allow any exploiter, foreign or indigenous, to break this unity of experience and purpose.
This is the time for individuals and organisations with influence and means to educate the masses on the imperative for national unity, harmony and cohesion. Of what use is a poor Fulani herdsman killing a poor Hausa/Yoruba/Igbo/Tiv farmer? Irrespective of how herculean it is, it is better today for leaders to agree on all areas that need restructuring in our polity before we approach another electioneering year. We have been fooled for too long. Now is the time to ‘shine’ our eyes and refuse to be fooled again.
All in all, irrespective of religion, ethnic and other such parochial divides, what every Nigerian wants is good governance that provides the basic needs of life. We don’t need all these unnecessary agitations over elemental differences that serve only the interests of our oppressors. For us to move forward as a nation, the masses need to realize that the political elite’s chief preoccupation is the advancement of parochial interests.
It is only when such interests are being threatened that they resort to using the masses as canon fodder in their mischievous ploy to corner the commonwealth. The earlier the masses realize and reject this scheme, the better for our nation.
Musbau is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Secretariat, Alausa, Lagos.
—